Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

XOME is what you were afraid Zillow would become

I had a short time to poke around the new XOME website before it started to force me to register. Here’a few short thoughts I had about the site, I might have more if and when and can get back on the site (apparently its still in beta).

1. This seems to be exactly what people feared Zillow would become. Or as Brad Inman calls it:

“… largest “paper brokerage” site ever.”

Good thing? Bad thing? I dunno.

2. Speaking of Zillow it looks like XOME took a lot of…how should I say..”inspirado” from Zillow. Check out the screen shots below of the listing results pages of both Zillow and XOME.

Zillow and Xome  550

3. XOME is just a terrible name. Think about it…

YOU: Have you looked at homes on XOME.com yet?
YOUR BUDDY: Zome? No. Z-O-M-E?
YOU: No, X-O-M-E. Like home but with an X instead of of an H.
YOUR BUDDY: What were we talking about?

4. Will the dogs eat it?

Do people want to search for home and are they ready to complete the buy/sell process entirely online? That’s the big bet Nationstar is making. My feeling is that they might get some traction in the investor community but (for now) real estate is still a “people business”. A room full of Realtors and the line of vendors standing in the back of the room will be tough to break.

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