Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

What everyone (including me) is missing about Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime

I was talking with a tall and smart MLS exec (he made me write that) about the negative response from agents and brokers about Zillow buying ShowingTime, and why it’s not going away anytime soon.  He said, that the underlining issue is not about the privacy of data, but more related to Zillow now being a broker in nearly every MLS market in the country.

“Greg, what agents and brokers are really pissed off about is their money contributing to the bottom line of a competitor.  Their MLS, which they pay dues to, is now pro-actively funding another broker’s business.”

Now, you could argue if Zillow is really competing with the average agent, but when you shift to “Zillow is now a broker”, it cuts both ways.

Capitalism

Well it seems Zillow’s recent move to acquire ShowingTime has motivated other vendors in to the space.

Trusted Real Estate Partner SentriLock Delivers SentriKey Showing ServiceTM, the Industry’s First Real Estate Experience Management Platform

More than a year ago, SentriLock and its volunteer board of directors, chaired by Bob Goldberg NAR CEO, observed the consolidation occurring in the showing service space. “Our board directed us to develop a solution to address the growing lack of choice in this technology sector, given the natural fit with our current lockbox business,” said Scott Fisher, Founder and CEO of SentriLock. “With recent industry acquisitions, this validates the decision that a trusted partner is needed more than ever to ensure REALTORS® have a choice in showing service solutions. We did this with great success in the lockbox space 18 years ago and look forward to extending this approach into showing services.”

This is a playbook SentriLock knows well. The “Trusted Real Estate Partner” vibe is a bit much though. I think we can all read between the lines.

And speaking of reading between the lines.

Homesnap Announces Development of Showing Management Tool

“Yesterday, news broke that Zillow has entered into an agreement to acquire ShowingTime. Real estate professionals use showing management tools every single day, and they trust that software with information about their clients.

First off, “Announces Development”? At least they are being honest it’s vaporware.

And then there’s this…

“At Homesnap, we believe that agents should have tools that protect that information and their client relationships. That is only possible when an independent vendor is providing that software — not a market participant like Zillow who is their competitor.”

An “independent vendor” owned by a public company worth over 35 Billion? Gimme a break. It seems apparent that HomeSnap vis-à-vis CoStar has gone all-in on using fear as their main marketing tactic. You do you do CoStar, you do you.

All this fear mongering reminds me of something I over heard.

“Agents raging on Facebook about the Zillow acquisition of ShowingTime are giving QAnon conspiracies theorists a run for their money.”

Then Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmaster’s chimes in with, Build a showing time competitor? How hard can it be?

Pretty fucking hard Morgan. What Scott and Mike built isn’t easy, almost impossible.

Now I’m just waiting for Remine to issue their press release about some showings vaporware they are working on and the industry can collectively yell, “Bingo!”

Listen, I get it. During periods like this there is a ton of opportunity. That opportunity is going to turn in to competition, and that will yield better products. That’s capitalism. I love it.

But can we drop all the fronting? If you have done a better job solving the problem of handling real estate showings, let’s see it. Otherwise, shut up and get back to work.

Zillow acquires ShowingTime

Zillow Group will pay $500M to acquire home touring tech company ShowingTime

“ShowingTime has a network of nearly one million agents across North America and facilitated more than 50 million showings last year. Its software is used by 370 Multiple Listing Services. The 225-person company also produces market reports.

Zillow will take advantage of ShowingTime’s technology for its Premier Agent business. The Seattle company said it plans to keep ShowingTime as an “open platform” available to anyone, much like it has with previous acquisitions including Dotloop and Bridge Interactive.”

It’s great to hear about good things happening to good people. Scott and Mike are two of my favorite people in the industry. Good on them!

This is a huge move. Zillow didn’t just buy a software application they bought an entire category. An entire operating system if you will. ShowingTime is the defacto standard in how organized real estate does showings, period.

There’s a lot to unpack here, I’m going to have to fill my “thinking glass”.

Looking for a new gig?

Technical Solutions Consultant and Enterprise Sales Exec. – Dotloop (Zillow Group)

Technical Solutions Consultant

“This is an important role within dotloop due to the proven impact dotloop Connect partners have on revenue, generating leads and customer retention! As a Solutions Consultant, you will be responsible for driving engagement and usage while working cross-functionally with sales, Partner Success and Partner Experience to influence revenue and lead generation.”

Enterprise Sales Exec.

“The role of the Enterprise Sales Executive is to introduce, educate, and engage potential large real estate brokerage or franchise clients with dotloop. You will be responsible for obtaining new business through prospecting, building relationships and consultative selling that includes meeting with clients at the client’s site, communicating with clients via phone, email, and virtual meetings. You will build proposals, presentations, pricing, contracts and strategic business and technical plans that fit their needs.”

To find out about these jobs, and others or to post a position you are looking to fill please visit the Vendor Alley Job Board.

About that Zillow SNL skit

I’m sure if you are like me you got this video forwarded to you a hundred times. The skit is funny and like all good satire, spot on. Even down to the real estate agent (do you think RE/MAX paid for that placement?)

But what got me thinking was the daunting task CoStar and others have to supplant Zillow. Zillow had already crossed over and became a verb (the word “zillow” is googled more than “real estate”) And now the pandemic has made Zillow part of our culture.

Jeff Goldbum is not going to save you.

Datafiniti receives cease and desist from Zillow to stop scraping their data.

Zillow orders data company to stop scraping its content

“Zillow sent a cease-and-desist letter this week to a data startup that, the letter argues, was improperly “harvesting” data from the online real estate giant.
The letter went out Monday to a company called Datafiniti. The Texas-based company offers “instant access to every data point on the web,” and claims to have data sets that include millions of people, products and businesses.”

Yowza! It appears that Zillow isn’t Datafiniti’s only target. Inman was able to find photos from Redfin, CRMLS, and CPAR (Central Panhandle). I did some poking around too and found photos from Trulia as well. So what did Datafiniti say when they were questioned about this?

Shion Deysarkar

“In a phone conversation Tuesday, Datafiniti founder and CEO Shion Deysarkar characterized the situation as a misunderstanding. He said that his company is crawling the web the way Google does as it compiles and creates search results.

“Instead of consumer search we’re providing more structured search,” Deysarkar said.”

A “more structured search” ????

Tell it to the judge, Shion. Tell it to the judge.

Hats off to Eric Stegemann of Tribus for connecting the dots on this story.

CoStar CEO calls Zillow “unethical”.

Great scoop from Brad Inman interviewing CoStar CEO, Andy Florance

CoStar CEO to Zillow: Here we come

“He talked about Zillow founder Rich Barton’s roots disintermediating travel agents (during his time at Expedia). The inference, for the real estate industry, is not new.

“I thought up the Zillow business model years before Zillow did, but thought about it for a couple of days and realized it was unethical.”

How humble of you Andy.

CoStar saying Zillow is “unethical” is like Charles Manson pointing to Jeffery Dahmer and saying, “Well at least I’m not going to eat them!”

Who put Zillow in charge of polling?

I’ll be here all night. Don’t forget to tip your bartenders and waitresses.

Industry Relations Episode 51: We Don’t Know What to Call Zillow Anymore!

Zillow started out as a listing portal or syndication site. But the company has evolved to become… Well, we’re actually not sure what to call it anymore. Perhaps ‘the Amazon of real estate’ is most appropriate. And on September 23, 2020, the company announced that it’s hiring employee-agents to streamline the iBuyer process. So, if Zillow is a brokerage now, what does that mean for the industry?

On this episode of the podcast, Rob and Greg are discussing Zillow’s decision to take its iBuyer operations in-house and how that move will impact other aspects of organized real estate. Our hosts explore how MLSs might respond to having Zillow as members and describe how access to MLS data could change the consumer experience on the Zillow site.

Rob and Greg go on to consider the impact of Zillow being part of NAR and state and local associations, weighing in on how their participation can be seen as a win for the industry. Listen in for insight on how Zillow’s announcement demonstrates their commitment to becoming an iBuyer-brokerage and learn how Zillow entering the system might lead to an improvement for everyone—or a ‘horror show.’

What’s Discussed: 

The evolution of listing portals into brokerage and iBuyer hybrid models

How Rob and Greg define brokerages differently

Zillow’s decision to use employee-agents to bring its iBuyer operations in-house

How MLSs are likely to respond to having Zillow as members

Rob’s theory on how Zillow might reposition its Industry Relations team

The potential impact of Zillow being part of NAR as well as state and local associations

How access to MLS IDX data and VOW rules could transform the consumer experience on Zillow

The leverage Zillow has in getting information from smaller MLSs

What makes Zillow’s shift a WIN for humans (and organized real estate)

Connect with Rob and Greg:

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

Resources:

Opendoor vs. Zillow on Industry Relations EP050

Greg’s Blog Post on BPP

Rob’s Blog Post on Zillow

Stop Zillow Campaign

Greg on Twitter

CLAW’s Delay to Syndication Feeds

REALTOR Political Action Committee

NAR’s Rules on Virtual Office Website

The 2008 DOJ-NAR Settlement Agreement

‘It’s a Good Life’ Episode of Twilight Zone

‘A Trifecta! NAR Sued Again Over Buyer-Broker Commissions’ in The Real Deal

Thomas Jefferson’s Quote on Change in Laws and Institutions

Collateral Analytics

Greg’s Blog Post on Zillow

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Opendoor announces merger, first step in going public

Opendoor announces merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. in bid to go public

“iBuying platform Opendoor said it will merge with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II. to become a public company using the special purchase acquisition company in a deal that values Opendoor at $4.8 billion and provides it with up to $1 billion in cash proceeds. 
The transaction announced on Tuesday is also supported by a $600 million so-called private investment in public equity, or PIPE, at $10 per share, with $200 million from entities affiliated with Social Capital, including $100 million from Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Equity, $58 million from Hedosophia, and the remainder from existing Opendoor shareholders, Access Industries and Lennar, along with Opendoor management, the release said.
The company said the transaction will allow Opendoor to continue to invest in growth, market expansion and new products to accelerate its overall plan to become a digital one-stop-shop for homeowners.”

If you get a chance listen to their investor presentation, which really gives you a good perspective of how Opendoor perceives the market.

Now that Opendoor is going to have access to capital from the public markets this battle between Zillow and Opendoor is going to have massive (and disruptive) benefits.

We are going to see a lot of innovation take place due to their competition and that is going to be great for consumers and I think real estate as a whole.

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