Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Paragon Connect [Sponsor]

My thanks to Paragon Connect for sponsoring Vendor Alley this month. 

Continuing this is their list of the top 10 topics to review when making the decision on an MLS platform for your members:

How to choose the right MLS platform for you  

The top 10 “must-haves” when considering a front end for your members 

Last week you learned how fast CMAs, simple client collaboration and effective property watches can help you find the right MLS for your members, now onto the next three topics.

  1. Advanced mapping 

Helping guide buyers to their future neighborhood is key to a successful real estate transaction. The best MLS has advanced mapping tools that provide a visual representation of property listings on a map interface. This visual aid helps users understand the location of properties in relation to amenities, schools, transportation, and other important landmarks – because when buyers can see the possibilities, everything feels more real for them. Armed with MLS and public records data, agents can make more informed decisions when marketing or searching for properties.  

  1. Speech-to-text  

Real estate agents are busy, and the last thing they have time for is manual data entry. Look for a MLS platform that has speech-to-text fields enabled for your most common tasks to save you time and effort every day. If your mobile MLS doesn’t allow this functionality, you’re missing out. 

  1. Power sharing  

Get your homes in front of buyers, so you can get buyers into homes. Gain exposure for your listings with power sharing, so your properties can show up on as many channels as possible. The right MLS promotes sharing listings the way your client prefers via email, text message, and social media.

See you next week for more top “must-haves” as we count down to number one.

If you’re looking for an MLS that offers these capabilities and much more, discover Paragon Connect.

Troy Rech leaves MoxiWorks. Joins Black Knight as VP of Sales

Troy “Don’t call it a comeback” Rech

I pinged Troy for a comment. Here’s what he said.

“I’m excited for the opportunities ahead with Black Knight. I’ve admired their leadership and can-do culture for many years. And I look forward to continuing on with this role in the MLS Industry; an industry which has meant so much to me for the last two+ decades”.

Black Knight has been teasing a reboot of their MLS system. Things could get interesting. Welcome back Troy!

Black Knight invests in Percy (Buyside)

Black Knight Announces Strategic Alliance With Percy To Provide An Advanced Client Engagement Solution For Real Estate Professionals And Mortgage Lenders

“The alliance will allow Black Knight to offer clients a new, advanced consumer engagement solution fueled by billions of behavioral datapoints that helps real estate professionals and lenders cultivate deeper customer relationships. Using proprietary machine learning to monitor homeowner behavior “signals” through custom landing pages with engaging content (e.g., property valuations, local buyer demand and market activity, monthly email reports, listing activity on client websites, etc.), Percy helps identify the precise timing that a homeowner is likely to transact.”

Congrats to Chuck and everyone at Percy. The funny thing is when I first Googled “Black Knight and Percy” I got this page.

“Sir Percy of Scandia, also known as the original Black Knight, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was a medieval knight created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Joe Maneely.”

Stan Lee called it.

ICE agrees to purchase Black Knight for $13.1 Billion

ICE to Buy Black Knight for $13.1 Billion

The deal values Black Knight at $85 a share. Black Knight shares were up 8% to $68.49 prior to a trading halt.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023.

Everybody is for sale.

CoreLogic rejects takeover bid

CoreLogic rejects takeover bid, calls it an “opportunistic proposal”

“In a statement, Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic today said its board of directors has “unanimously concluded that the unsolicited proposal significantly undervalues the company, raises serious regulatory concerns, and is not in the best interests of its shareholders.”
Chairman Folino said that his company is open to “all viable paths to increasing shareholder value,” and is willing to meet with Cannae and Senator. However, given what he described as CoreLogic’s “strong momentum, increasing margins and accelerating growth,” the company could deliver more value on its own.

He also noted that the proposal failed to address “the serious regulatory concerns” raised by significant overlaps between CoreLogic and the network of companies associated with Cannae’s chairman, including Black Knight and Fidelity National. Cannae is led by Bill Foley, the chairman of Black Knight, a data and analytics company that directly competes with CoreLogic.”

Looks like its gonna be a fight.

An investor group led by Bill Foley set to acquire CoreLogic

Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group Submit Proposal to Acquire CoreLogic

“We have followed the Company closely and have spent the last nine months performing extensive “outside-in” due diligence. Despite its strong market position as a provider of data and analytics for the real estate and mortgage industries, we believe the Company will not achieve its full potential under its current strategic plan. We therefore believe the proposed transaction is in the best interests of all the Company’s stakeholders.
Cannae and its affiliates in the proposed transaction are led by William P. Foley II (Bill Foley), a preeminent operator and investor with an established track record of successful acquisitions and value creation. Under Bill Foley’s leadership, we would seek to reignite growth at CoreLogic, increase operating efficiency, and improve overall allocation of scarce capital resources. Bill Foley has extensive experience transforming similar businesses and is uniquely positioned to strengthen the Company’s customer, financial, and employee relationships.

Holy Shit!

Of course, you know Bill Foley is also the chairman of Black Knight too. So in this scenario Matrix and Paragon would be under one roof.

And the deal is likely to happen…

“Please understand, however, as demonstrated by our sizable investment in the Company, that we are committed to this transaction. Senator has conducted a thorough study of the Company’s governance documents and the remedies available to all shareholders and is prepared to exercise our rights, including by calling a special meeting and soliciting proxies, for the benefit of the Company’s shareholders should that be necessary.”

Many people (and by people, I mean investors) believe that the current COVID crisis will accelerate rapid transformation in real estate. Bill Foley is a Grandmaster in chess at seizing crisis and making opportunity.

Beyond the COVID crisis itself, this is the biggest news in the MLS business this year (so far).

Bill Andrews leaves Remine Annette Sheffler leaves SentriLock, both headed for Black Knight

Bill Andrews, and maybe at this point I should clarify, Bill Andrews Sr. since he has made this industry a family affair. His son Bill Andrews is National Sales Manager- MLS relations at RateMyAgent and his other son, Ryan Andrews is Director of MLS relations at LionDesk. ????

Bill Sr. has joined Black Knight, this is after joining Remine back is October 2019. Bill has worked for several companies in the industry, I think it goes something like this. Rapattoni, Tarasoft, CoreLogic, Zillow, Remine, a little consulting, and now Black Knight.

Also, fellow DeVry grad, Annette Sheffler, has left SentriLock and joined Black Knight as a product consultant.

I’m also hearing rumors about one or two others that could be making moves. Don’t know who or where yet, seems like the powers to be haven’t taken their finger off the chess piece yet.

Great to see that Black Knight is not sitting still during this crazy time and making investments in what matters most, good people.

Black Knight integrates Homebot in to Paragon MLS

BLACK KNIGHT INTEGRATES HOMEBOT INTO ITS PARAGON MLS SYSTEM Provides Brokers and Agents With Cutting-Edge Client Engagement Solution

The Homebot integration represents another example of Black Knight’s continual enhancement of Paragon’s Collaboration Center, which provides brokers and agents with advanced features, collaborative tools and capabilities to help them serve the needs of prospective home buyers and sellers. Paragon’s Collaboration Center also enables agents to provide their clients with one common, mobile-optimized portal throughout the entire real estate life cycle.

This is pretty cool. I’m not too familiar with Homebot but what I found interesting is the integration with Paragon MLS. Forget the fact that Homebot uses Black Knight’s data, since Homebot is a mobile-optimized collaborative tool they are integrating it as part of their Paragon MLS Collaboration Center.

While there is an additional charge to agents/brokers for using Homebot they are giving them (Homebot) a huge opportunity by placing the app in an area of the Paragon MLS where agents are already looking to collaborate with their clients. Putting apps (or call it an ad) in places that mirror what the agent is already doing should boost signups, compared to placement on a random dashboard.

CoreLogic partners with Homes.com to offer MLS providers public-facing websites

CORELOGIC TO OFFER CONSUMER SEARCH SITES POWERED BY HOMES.COM

“Under the agreement, CoreLogic will begin offering the Homes.com Fusion Portal product, a public website platform for multiple listing organizations to CoreLogic clients. Consumer-facing websites follow fair display guidelines, clearly identifying the listing broker and agent on properties for sale.”

Make sense on a lot of levels. First Real Estate Digital (red) left this market awhile back, so there’s no clear leader. Second, Homes.com is one of the best at MLS data aggregation. Third, it gives the CoreLogic’s sales teams a quality product to sell back in to its channel. Plus Homes.com is a good partner. They’ve been powering RE/MAX national website since 2006. Andy Woolley and his team are second to none in integrity and have always been champions of the MLS industry.

A couple of observations. To me this puts CoreLogic in direct competition with BPP and Homesnap. Will MLS providers who signed up for Homesnap also purchase a public facing website? Doesn’t that go against what the BPP “partnership” is all about? Also, the marks the third time (by my count) the industry has used the “fusion” moniker. Please everyone, stop trying to make “fusion” happen. ????

[UPDATE: Turns out Black Knight is Real Estate Digital’s reseller, so they haven’t exited as I first thought. Sorry for the confusion. Plus we know that with FBS acquisition of Solid Earth they also have a dog in this fight.]

There and back again

Premier Provider of Software and Data and Analytics Solutions Rebrands as Black Knight

” Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (BKFS) announced today that, effective upon the completion of the previously announced distribution by Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) of its equity interest in Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., it will be rebranding as Black Knight, clarifying its position as a leading provider of software, data and analytics to the nation’s top financial institutions.”

I love the fact that they don’t mention FNF in the title of this press release. Foley is relentless.

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