Lots going on in Organized Real Estate. MLS Owned, retirements, CoStar. Let’s do this!
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Lots going on in Organized Real Estate. MLS Owned, retirements, CoStar. Let’s do this!
Join me on Clubhouse on your mobile phone by clicking the link below.
MLS Aligned Acquires Agent Inbox to Create the Future of the MLS Showing Experience
“With this acquisition, MLS Aligned will build upon the Agent Inbox tools to bring messaging and showings together in a straightforward place for agents and brokers. The system will bring tremendous benefits to consumers due to the platform’s speed and enhanced showing system capabilities.
To better facilitate the showing process, MLS Aligned will integrate the showings and messaging systems within the platforms of their members to provide for seamless agent-to-agent and agent-to-client communications.”
Nature abhors a vacuum. While it seems that new showing software solutions are popping up everywhere, they still represented a problem to many MLS organizations. Mainly, “acquisition anxiety”.
That’s why an “MLS Owned” could have some legs. Many MLS members and their board of directors have given MLS staff the mandate to get off of Zillow’s ShowingTime. But many MLS organizations struggled as they faced the “devil you know is better than the devil you don’t” syndrome and good adoption.
This is somewhat of a travesty since I feel (and the vast majority of MLS execs I talk to) that ShowingTime has been unfairly treated. But some MLS execs find themselves in a bind because of angry member feedback or their MLS policies state that participants can’t be vendors.
Still, not all MLS organizations are suited for this type of acquisition. Just because you run an MLS, doesn’t mean you can run a software company. But many MLS Aligned members have deep experience in creating and supporting software solutions.
These MLS organizations represent about 100,000 agents, but the press release clearly states, “MLS Aligned will be making this software available to organizations that are not MLS Aligned members in the near future.”
I think this is a big story and “MLS Owned” represents a new type of disruption in the industry. I gotta give a lot of credit to the stakeholders at MLS Aligned. This is really a bold move. Now they have to match that with good execution.
“Rather than building a business model based on creating friction to syphon off agent commissions, we plan to provide a next generation marketplace that connects listing and buyer agents to sellers and buyers without taking a cut of their commissions.” – Andy Florance, CEO of CoStar Group
Mr. Florance is a master at fear-based marketing. But I see three big problems with this strategy. The first problem is that early results show that many consumers like the one-stop and iBuying experience. The second is total available market (TAM). We all know of the 80/20 rule. In real estate it might be 90/10. If you are only going to sell to agents with listings then you are severely limiting your market. The third problem they have? Zillow.
“Homesnap is the leading real estate productivity and marketing app and hundreds of thousands of the most productive real estate agents in the country rely on it to manage their businesses. CoStar Group intends to fully integrate Homesnap and Homes.com, with Homesnap at one end as the agent’s professional tool and Homes.com on the other side as the home buyer’s portal. Once integrated, agents will have instant access to manage their listings on Homes.com, view and respond to inquiries, collaborate with clients, and provision and monitor sophisticated digital marketing campaigns. We believe this direct connection between agents and a consumer portal is unique in the industry.”
Isn’t this exactly Homesnap’s existing business model? Collaborate! Your listing your lead! Automate your social media marketing!
“Homes.com has one of the largest real estate portal sales forces and CoStar Group intends to leverage that sales force to sell the Homesnap product with the goal of expanding Homesnap’s reach to hundreds of thousands of additional real estate agents.”
Oh, I guess they didn’t have a big enough sales force to properly monetize this strategy. Release the hounds!
Also, no mention of the Broker Public Portal.
I hope there is more to this than what I’m reading. I was really excited to hear something innovative coming from these guys. All I see is a company stoking fear and increasing their sales staff.