Holy shit, things just got real. If you haven’t heard the news Errol Samuelson, former President of REALTOR.com and chief strategy officer for MOVE, Inc. just announced he left to join Zillow as their Chief Industry Development Officer. Details are sketchy but here’s what I’ve been able to dig up.
1. It was a total blindside. Not even Errol’s closest friends knew.
2. This represents a tectonic shift in the industry. Unlike like the other poaching that Zillow and Trulia have been doing this represents a whole other level. Brilliant move by Zillow.
3. I don’t think it was just about money. But I’ll save that analysis for another post.
From a larger sense I think that Zillow was losing ground to Trulia. To me Trulia was winning the “industry friendly” game. Zillow didn’t seem to care, hell I don’t think I know anyone that thinks Bemis got a fair shot. That has cost them. Seems that industry relations does matter and Zillow is coming back around to understand that.
But the more interesting narrative I think is this, what does Errol know, that we don’t know? This kind of move doesn’t happen without something else lurking out there. And that’s the real story.
Developing….
UPDATE:
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Hmm…. Puts a little strain on the ListHub arrangement…don’t you think?
No non-compete? At THAT level?
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*Yawn* Like all the others before him, Errol will probably be chewed up and spit out. The Zillows of the world can hire as many “industry veterans” as they want, it still doesn’t change that the model is based on deception, its revenues are generated by a small fraction of the total REALTOR community and hated by the rest. Top that off with the fact that Zillow still loses major coin each year and has a fake 3 billion dollar market value that is only being propped up by the financial institutions that brought them into the public space. This House of Cards is not sustainable (but the institutions keep feeding it). Individuals don’t buy Zillow stock anymore, they just sell it. (i.e. insiders like Spencer, Schwartz et al).
Maybe its just a closer commute, make more soccer games.
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