Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Will Xome be rebranded?

Nice detective work from Ben Lane of HousingWire.com. In his article “Is Nationstar about to completely rebrand itself?” he finds this little tidbit on Nationstar’s job board.

“The look into Nationstar’s plans is actually found on a job posting on the company’s job board. The job? Content writer. And the posting provides a glimpse into Nationstar’s future.

Not exactly the traditional place to disclose company-shaping plans, right? But there it is, in black and white.

According the job posting, the successful candidate will join Nationstar’s marketing team and be a “key player in the company’s transformation from a large but little-known mortgage servicer to a highly visible full lifecycle real estate brand.”

But that’s not all. Nationstar apparently intends to transform itself into the mortgage industry’s first “go to” brand and potentially completely rebrand the entire company and all of its brands.”

Rebranding a stupid name is the least of Nationstar’s problems. It’s been a bumpy ride in 2015. The stock has tanked. The launch of XOME has been less than spectacular, to say the least, as MLS providers raised many questions on XOME’s use of IDX data. It appears that former wrecking ball CEO, Kal Raman, did so much damage he “resigned” after serving only a year.

As many of you know Nationstar bought Real Estate Digital (RED) back in late 2014. A lot of good people over there and they deserve better leadership. Let’s hope 2016 fares better for everyone involved.

2015 “Brass Balls” list

Lists, lists, and more lists. I’ve read a lot of lists in the past couple weeks. So, in honor of our site mascot, a picture of Alec Baldwin playing “Blake” in the film Glengarry Glen Ross holding two brass balls, I thought I’d kick off 2016 with a list of my own. These go individuals who made the news last year that have displayed that they have a pair, for better or worse.

Art Carter – California Statewide MLS
The day CRMLS launched the itsmybusiness.me site it showed that Art wasn’t afraid to stir things up.

David Charron and Tom PhillipsMLS Evolved
The narrative has always been that the egos of MLS executives would mean consolidation at any meaningful level would be impossible. David and Tom proved them all wrong by changing the game.

Chris Crocker The Zillow “Whistleblower” letter
You can argue about his motives but the guy knew the possibility his identity would be revealed.

Dale Stinton and Dale Ross – Upstream and AMP
The relationship between NAR and MLS providers has never been great (or even good.) The launch of RPR (Realtor Property Resource) only served to increase the acrimony. But when NAR announced that RPR would be funding Upstream and AMP (both initiatives aimed directly to disrupt MLS providers) it took the more than brass, but maybe titanium balls to say “our members told us to do it”.

Kevin Tomlinson and “The Jills”
South Florida. Those two words can cause a involuntary eye roll in most. I don’t know which took more balls, “The Jills” who appear to have knowingly manipulated MLS data to protect their “1 percent” clients, or Kevin Tomlinson who looks to be caught on recording “blackmailing” both of them, (and subsequently being forcible arrested by the cops) and later declaring its all a “misunderstanding”.

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