Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Laurie Janik retires

Nice article by Andrea Brambila of Inman News

End of an era: NAR’s legal champion to retire.

“NAR hired her when she was in her early 20s. Since that time, she’s seen at least two notable changes in the industry, she said: Agency representation has shifted from a focus on the seller to serving both parties in a transaction. And real estate listings have moved to the Internet.”

I echo was many have said, she was great at taking complex issues and breaking them down to something anyone could understand. She was a class act. Big loss for NAR, and the industry as a whole. Safe travels Laurie!

You are witnessing a rebirth….

Listings Bit Logo Large

I recently started a new blog, Listing Bits. It was pretty hard for me to delineate what to write on Listing Bits, versus what I write post on Vendor Alley. Consequently I was not writing much. So I switched Listing Bits to a Tumblr blog format, which makes it easier to share pics, videos, links and other stuff. So far I’m liking it. If you are interested in check it out please visit, http://ListingBits.com or follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/listingbits

New York Times interviews Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin

Be Yourself, Redfin’s Glenn Kelman Says, Even if You’re a Little Goofy

Short but good interview. Redfin is one of true disruptors in the industry. My favorite line from Glenn.

“If I haven’t found evidence that someone’s ever done anything hard in their lives, then I just don’t believe they’re suddenly going to be able to jump into a phone booth, come out wearing a cape and learn how to be tough on this job”

So true.

Tom Ferry event draws close to 4,000 agents.

I’m at the Tom Ferry “Success Summit” today. It’s being held at the Anaheim Convention Center. This is the second year I’ve exhibited the event. I was amazed at the number of agents he had last year. They have gone even bigger this year, drawing close to 4,000 agents. It really isn’t too hard to believe. Tom is a dynamic speaker with a deep bench of coaches and speakers, and the content is geared to top end agents.

I’m told the average ticket price is around 199.95. You do the math.

LPS inks deal with Sandicor.

Well it looks like the rumors were true. LPS and Sandicor made it official on Friday and inked a 4 year deal for their Paragon MLS system.

This is a huge win for LPS and a validation for their Paragon MLS system with large MLS providers. I’m also hearing some interesting things about the selection process I’m hoping to share in a later post.

Congrats to Rich Lull and his team!

Zillow acquires StreetEasy for 50 Million in cash.

Zillow to Acquire StreetEasy, New York’s Leading Real Estate Website

“StreetEasy attracts nearly 1.2 million1 monthly unique users, primarily home shoppers in the New York region. This acquisition gives StreetEasy the resources to further invest in product development and grow its audience, while offering Zillow® clear market leadership in the country’s largest and most important real estate market.”

Earlier this year we had heard the Zillow wasn’t planning any acquisitions in 2013, I guessed they changed their minds. With the recent stock run up, who can blame them. No mention of any significant revenue’s from StreetEasy.

And speaking of Zillow stock, they are offering 5 million Class A shares. Looks like 2.5 Million of them are coming from Zillow’s CEO Spencer Rascoff, Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink. Nice payday.

Dave Liniger’s letter about RE/MAX IPO

Here’s the special announcement Dave Liniger (RE/MAX Chairman and Co-Founder) sent out today about RE/MAX’s impending IPO.

CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Homes.com launches tv campaign.

[VIDEO]: Homes.com Launches National TV Campaign to Drive More Traffic to You!

“The campaign will provide your brand and listings exposure to over 260 million consumers daily that watch HGTV, TLC and the DIY Network!”

The ad is decent, not great, but I see a few smart things Homes.com has done here.

1. Instead of a high concept ad like Zillow, which are hard to pull off, they went with their strongest asset, the URL. Nobody can argue that homes.com is the best url out there.

2. Morale. I think this type of exposure is huge for the company itself. Homes.com is competing with the likes of Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. I’m sure the employees must be sick of seeing Zillow’s name all over the place. I think it’s great when you sit down in front of the television and a commercial for your company comes up and you say to your kids, “that’s the company Daddy works for.”

3. Sales. When you are running a sales team you need something for them to rally behind. It’s huge to add to your sales pitch that the company is launching a national television campaign.

Realty One CEO faces charges of sexual harassment.


Vile Complaint Against Realty CEO

” The 14-page lawsuit contains a litany of accusations against Jewgieniew, including that he “threw her on her desk, ripped her pants off, abused and raped her while holding her down, hurting her, and bruising her arm”.”


Just horrible if these accusations are true. Locally here in Orange County Realty One has been having a lot of success. The whole article just left me stunned.

Zillow, the White House, NAR and what this means for HouseLogic.com.

Screen Shot 2013-08-06 at 4.36.21 PMIn case you haven’t heard President Barack Obama and Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff this Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 p.m. ET) are going to have a conversation about the current housing market. The virtual event will be streamed on zillow.com/whitehouse and Whitehouse.gov.

So you might ask yourself, why did the President of the United States choose Zillow instead, hmmmmm, let me think a minute, is there an organization that represents national real estate? Their name is right on the tip of my tongue….let me think a minute! Bingo! I got it! NAR, the National Association of REALTORS! So again, I ask, why did the President of the United States choose Zillow instead of the National Associaiton of REALTORS to get his message about housing? Well I dunno, but it looks like a lot of NAR members are asking the same question since NAR had to issue a “Special Report” email to respond.

The email is, putting it mildly, embarrassing. I started to write this post by highlighting sections of it and picking it apart. But I think there is a larger issue:

HouseLogic.com

Here’s the mission statement of HouseLogic from their website:

“Our Mission. You care about your home. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® cares about homeownership. To help you become the best, most responsible homeowner you aspire to be, we want to provide you with free information and tools you can use to make smart and timely decisions about your home.
From time to time, we may reach out to you to help us support legislation and/or policies that may have an impact on you, the homeowner. You can choose to join our cause. Or you can choose not to…

Houselogic is supposed to be the site where NAR engages with consumers about legislation issues. Can you imagine the coup it would have been if The President of The United States hosted a live streaming event on HouseLogic.com? NAR would be beating its chest until they gave themselves a heart attack. But no, POTUS choose Zillow instead.

I would say that HouseLogic also competes with Realtor.com, but that’s giving Houselogic too much credit. What HouseLogic.com does do is cost a lot of money. Millions to operate each year.

It’s time for NAR to face reality. HouseLogic is a turd. And it’s time for NAR to flush that turd.

And to Spencer and his crew at Zillow. Well played sir, well played.

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