February 16, 2021 - Vendor Alley

Not so fast! CoStar ups the bid for CoreLogic

February 16th, 2021

Costar Group (CSGP) Offers to Acquire CoreLogic (CLGX) for $95.76 Per Share

“Today, CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) delivered a letter to the Board of Directors of CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) setting forth the terms of a superior proposal by CoStar Group to acquire 100% of the equity interests of CoreLogic. Under the terms of the proposal, CoreLogic shareholders would receive 0.1019 shares of CoStar Group common stock in exchange for each share of CoreLogic common stock, representing a value of approximately $95.76 per share based on CoStar Group’s closing share price on February 12, 2021.”

Seems a little more complicated than Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners all cash deal. Real estate is hot hot hot!

The MLS Miracle

February 16th, 2021

NORCAL MLS Alliance Launches One-Stop Access to Property Listing Data for Northern California Real Estate Professionals

“Northern California real estate brokers, agents, and appraisers now have one-stop single-login access to thousands of listings throughout 22 counties* spanning from the Greater Bay Area and Silicon Valley, reaching as far south as Monterey County, and up through the Central Valley to Sacramento and Nevada”

For almost as long as I’ve been in real estate there have been several initiatives to organize a way for MLS providers in Northern California to properly share MLS data. MLS Alliance, Mercado, just to name a couple. They have all failed in one way or another. But here we are. This is a truly remarkable achievement. Hats off to these MLS providers and their leadership.

•   BAREIS MLS
•   Bay East Association of REALTORS®
•   bridgeMLS
•   Contra Costa Association of REALTORS®
•   MetroList®
•   MLSListings
•   San Francisco Association of REALTORS

One thing I find myself saying a lot is something akin to “we can do anything you want technology-wise, its the politics that get in the way.” But in this case the tech was a bit of a bear as well. This “cross pollination” strategy wasn’t easy.

“The NORCAL MLS Alliance unites four separate MLS operating systems and databases—Rapattoni, Black Knight’s Paragon, dynaConnections’ connectMLS System, and CoreLogic’s Matrix systems—in which each respective MLS maintains its existing platforms and protocols. While the transition will be a complex technical feat, NORCAL MLS Alliance staff have spent months testing, planning, and preparing for a smooth and successful launch on January 20, 2021”

They say the pandemic hasn’t started new trends, just accelerated existing ones. I’m hoping to have a podcast episode with some of the players to really do a proper deep dive. Also hoping to see these same players speaking at upcoming conferences telling their stories about making this achievement happen.

Listing Bits Episode: Making Video Marketing Profitable – with Christian Sterner of WellcomeMat

February 16th, 2021

Video marketing is a powerful way for agents, brokers and real estate companies to reach consumers. But how do we get the most mileage out of our videos? How do we maximize the marketing value of the content we create?

Christian Sterner is the Cofounder and CEO of WellcomeMat, the premier platform for managing your real estate video. Christian’s team facilitates successful video marketing campaigns for agents, brokers and companies who are committed to video as a long-term marketing strategy, helping clients leverage video content to generate traffic and engagement on their domain. Christian has been playing in the technology and marketing space since 2000, and he has led WellcomeMat since its inception in 2006.

On this episode of Listing Bits, Christian explains how WellcomeMat maximizes reach for every video in a user’s library and helps them make educated decisions about what videos to create. He offers insight around what kind of content really moves the needle for real estate professionals, sharing his take on the pros and cons of producing humorous or provocative video content. Listen in to understand how WellcomeMat is working to facilitate visual search for the real estate industry and learn how drone automation can be used to create killer listing videos and accelerate the adoption of video marketing among brokers and agents.

What’s Discussed: 

WellcomeMat’s mission to make video the most valuable thing agents and brokers can do to market themselves and their properties

What makes WellcomeMat the best way to maximize reach for every video in your library

How WellcomeMat accepts content from any service (and allows users to switch providers at will)

What WellcomeMat does to help users make educated decisions about what videos to create

How WellcomeMat increases site visits by an order of magnitude over using YouTube alone

Why listing videos are best for pushing top line revenue

The value in producing evergreen content like neighborhood tours, agent profiles, etc.

WellcomeMat’s referral database of 5,000 video production companies

Christian’s take on producing provocative and/or humorous video content

The MLS rules around branded and unbranded content + how WellcomeMat offers tools to remove branding for MLS compliance

WellcomeMat’s work to facilitate visual search for the real estate industry

How drone automation facilitates the production of quality video at scale for the real estate space

Connect with Christian:

WellcomeMat

Christian on Twitter

christian [at] wellcomemat [dot] com

Resources:

Tim Smith Group on YouTube

Smith Group’s ‘Teach Me How to Duffy’ Marketing Video

Gracenote

Shazam

Cole’s Drone Video

Amazon’s Ring Always Home Cam

Skydio

eWebinar