Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Celeste Starchild pens letter outlining ListHub/Zillow offer and term sheet.

Wow. I fucking love this.

ListHub Releases Details, Terms of Listing Deal Proposed to Zillow.

“Following the announcement, we knew it was important to directly speak with a number of our partners and customers to make sure we had the benefit of your views on the situation. One of the most common requests we received during these discussions was for the terms that were encapsulated in our term sheet with Zillow. In the spirit of transparency, we have included a summary of those terms here: http://www.listhub.com/zillow-agreement-proposed-terms/.

Kudos to Celeste and ListHub for being open about what went down. The letter is well written too. Here’s a couple of tidbits.

– Price wasn’t a factor, since the term sheet didn’t include anything about price.

– Zillow didn’t even bother to counter the term sheet. That’s straight gansta.

– In fact Zillow didn’t bother to respond at all. The first response ListHub heard was when Zillow publicly announced their Data Dashboard product.

More evidence that Spencer Rascoff is really Frank Underwood.

MRIS will provide direct feed to Zillow.

This is the big announcement I was alluding to yesterday. Guess they couldn’t wait to announce the news.

One of the Nation’s Largest Multiple Listing Services, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc., Votes to Establish Direct Listings Feed to Zillow.

“”MRIS’s market is very hot right now,” said Curt Beardsley, Zillow vice president of industry development. “Inventory is incredibly tight in this region so ensuring listings are up-to-date is a top priority for us. Having high quality listing data helps guarantee consumers have the best experience possible. A new direct data feed helps us not only maintain that great consumer experience, but allows for us to better serve the customers of MRIS.”

While every market is different this is a huge win for Zillow. Having one of the largest MLS providers opting to provide direct listings will definitely influence other MLS providers. Curt has been busy.

Chip McAvoy Joins Black Knight’s MLS Division

I tweeted about this awhile back.

But now its official!

Chip McAvoy Joins Black Knight’s MLS Division as Vice President of Emerging Products and Technology

“During his career, McAvoy has held positions in both development and management for real estate software firms, where he has been instrumental in delivering solutions for agents, brokers and other real estate professionals. He has product experience with MLS Platforms, agent and broker websites, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, data sharing, document and transaction management, and more.”

Nice get for Black Knight. You have to wonder whether Ben Graboske has his eyes on anyone else?

I had also heard that John Koch, who did a lot of CoreLogic’s RETS and data work has left the company. Not to a competitor, but to open a Brewery in Montana. Sounds like it was a tough decision. ; )

Congrats to Chip on his new gig!

Mark Allen joins realtor.com

thumb.phpGlad to hear Mark Allen has found a new gig! He along with Don Flynn were recently hired to join realtor.com’s industry relations team. Below is an excerpt from Russ Cofano’s Open letter to state and local real estate associations.

Move Announces New Executive Roles to Strengthen Association Relationships (Vis RISMedia)

“Don and Mark will work collaboratively across both the association and MLS industries with our MLS industry relations team, which includes vice presidents Rhett Damon, Shelley Fowler and Bob Greenspan and directors Susan Young and Kathleen Wayson. The entire team plans to attend the 2015 Joint AE Institute in March in Vancouver and we can’t wait to see you at that great event.”

“Industry Relations” seems to be the job title du jour. Realtor.com’s take is especially interesting. Lots of cooks in the kitchen. This focus on state and local associations and working “collaboratively” with MLS industry relations seems kind of odd. Not even sure what it means or how it will work – “Hey MLS CEO, the AE thinks you should be doing your job this way.”

Realtor.com is a listings portal right? They need listings. That means focusing on MLS providers and brokers. It’s not too complicated, or maybe I’m not smart enough to understand all this “strategery”.

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