Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

CoStar to purchase Realtor.com?

News Corp in Talks to Sell Real Estate Site For $3 Billion

“Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is in talks to sell its Move Inc. online real estate business to CoStar Group Inc.

Move is the parent of Realtor.com and other real estate-related websites. The deal is worth about $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The sale could be announced within days, one of the people said.”

After CoStar announced at a recent earnings call they had raised $750M for future acquistions Rob and I on our Industry Relations podcast tried to guess what they would scoop up. I thought we had a pretty good guess with Matterport. Matterport had recently bought VHT Studios. So we thought it would give them some killer IP and a network of photographers. Turns out Zillow took the bait and purchased VRX, and CoStar had bigger fish in mind. Although $3 billion isn’t that much money for CoStar, remember they bid $7 billion for CoreLogic.

Brings up a few questions. Will NAR approve? Or do they even have the say? If NAR was cool with handing the reins to Rupert Murdoch, then Andy Florance seems like a Boy Scout.

What about Homes.com? I’ve been wondering when the new website would be launched, and they recently had a big round of layofffs. Maybe Andy realized that it would take a hell of lot more money to get Homes.com (a distant #3) to compete with Zillow than it would take #2, realtor.com. And the whole “your listing, your lead” actually might play better under the realtor.com umbrella.

Your move Nestfully.

Did Zillow just launch the new Homes.com?

Well it certainly looking that way…

Check out today’s press release from Zillow:

New service from ShowingTime+ enables agents to deliver beautiful, dynamic listings with less hassle

“We want to help agents effortlessly deliver standout listings that wow their sellers and help win over potential buyers,” said Cynthia Taylor, vice president of product for ShowingTime+. “Listing Media Services cuts down on the time agents spend preparing a listing so they can focus on the high-touch, high-value work they do as a trusted adviser for their clients.”

Also, check out the Listing Showcase site:

Here’s copy from the Listing Showcase site:

… select agents will receive the keys to a new best-in-class listing display — Listing Showcase.

Until now, online listings all conformed to the same structure. Listing Showcase is a NEW style of listing display that truly differentiates top-tier agents in their market.

Aren’t these two things; better content and new ways to highlight listings, exactly what CoStar was promising with their brand-new Homes.com?

Looks like Zillow just hijacked CoStar’s business model.

Zillow acquires VRX media, includes a national pro photographers network

Zillow Group acquires VRX Media to create national photographer network, elevate listing media through ShowingTime+ brand

“Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) today announced it has closed on the acquisition of VRX Media. This real estate media marketing and services leader is known for its aerial drone photography, virtual staging, 3D tours, high-definition photography and fast-media delivery to clients, which is made possible through the company’s national professional photographer network. Zillow Group will continue to offer VRX Media’s services through the ShowingTime+ software suite.”

Smart, and obviously a move to help Zillow compete against CoStar’s yet-to-be-announced launch of the new Homes.com which is said to offer “listing enhancement” packages.

I had made a prediction on the Industry Relations podcast that CoStar might buy Matterport because Matterport had recently bought VHT Studios which also had a nationwide professional photographers network. I guess Zillow thought it was a good idea too.

CoStar announces re-shuffle and layoffs of 100 employees of HomeSnap/Homes.com

CoStar Group Integrates Homesnap Operations With Homes.Com

“Today, CoStar Group took steps to combine and streamline the operations and functionality of Homes.com and Homesnap. David Mele, who led Homes.com for 7 years prior to its acquisition by CoStar Group in 2021, has been named President of the combined Homes.com and Homesnap organization. The company believes that the combined entity is now better positioned to efficiently achieve its goal of becoming the leading residential real estate portal.”

David Mele (who I hear is well-liked) has mostly been behind the scenes since the acquisition. Well, he is about to get a lot of attention focused on him now.

“Over the course of the next 12 months, CoStar Group expects to increase the net number of employees building Homes.com by 700 after today’s reorganization and headcount reduction of approximately 100 duplicative roles.”

Damn. 100 people. Well, I guess John Mellencamp doesn’t come cheap…

CoStar’s big bet against MLS

Lots of chatter about Andy Florance’s interview with Brad Inman last week at Inman Connect.  Andy has certainly gotten better at his storytelling since his last interview with Brad.  According to Mr. Florance Zillow is “hijacking” listings by placing other agents around the listing.  But what Mr. Florance fails to mention is that any broker or agent that has an IDX website is also “hijacking” listings.

What’s at stake here is at the very core of the principles behind the MLS, “cooperation and compensation”.  Basically, you help me sell my listing, I’ll help you sell yours.

In a perfect “CoStar world” cooperative compensation goes away, and agents must directly pay to advertise listings.  “The Australian model”, some have dubbed it.   In this case, CoStar’s acquisition of Homes.com serves as their listing portal and Homesnap for their agent toolbox.  Sidenote: I find it kind of funny that Mr. Florance has beaten Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp to the “Australian model” of real estate.  Since realtor.com is so very entrenched in Opcity’s broker referral model.

Now, this is a completely sound business strategy.  Break up the MLS-Broker model and go directly to agents and consumers. CoStar, Homes.com, and Homesnap have made a bet, in my opinion against the MLS. Okay, you do you.

But, I personally don’t agree with this solution.  I think having a strong MLS, makes the market work. And I think as we evolve policy in regard to transparency in commissions and listing attribution we can make things better for everyone.

And let’s be honest. The Seller doesn’t give a shit about any of this. They just want their house sold. Zillow and other IDX sites do a great job of giving listings the greatest exposure in the market. All the broker needs to do is, put it on the MLS.

I also don’t agree with the fear-based message Mr. Florance is sending out.  It seems that Mr. Florance’s whole value proposition is that they are “not Zillow”.  Zillow is the “mafia”.  Zillow is “hijacking” your listings.  He even readily admits that CoStar is not coming out with any innovations in regard to the “UI or UX” of its software.  It seems their entire go-to-market strategy is just tapping into all the Zillow haters. Granted, Zillow has done a lot of stupid things to make it easy to pick on them but I wish Mr. Florance would tell us why his site and tools are better than everyone else’s instead of just bashing competitors.

Next week CoStar/Homes.com/Homesnap is shutting down part of the Gaslight District in San Diego and throwing a huge party and concert with Country Music Star, Keith Urban.  And I’m sure a lot of wining and dining will happen.

But, I’m not a big fan of Country Music, especially Australian Country Music.

CoStar completes the purchase of Homes.com and goes back to the future

Company plans to combine Homes.com and Homesnap to offer the best online home buying experience possible by frictionlessly connecting agents, buyers, and sellers

“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.

CoStar buys Homes.com

CoStar Group to Acquire Residential Listing Site Homes.com

“Unfortunately,” continued Florance, “current residential listing sites do not serve the interests of homeowners or their agents as they focus on selling advertisements on top of agent listings and increasingly offer competing brokerage services. These sites generate a portion of their revenue from directing potential homebuyers away from the listing agents to unrelated buyer agents that are advertising on top of listing agent listings. This is a practice we plan to no longer continue. Our plan in bringing Homesnap and Homes.com together is to help agents market their listings in support of the ‘your listing, your lead’ philosophy – which stands in contrast to most players in the industry.”

$156M seems pretty cheap when you compare to the ShowingTime deal at $500M and Homesnap deal at $250M. I guess I thought they were bigger than they were.

I still don’t know how CoStar makes any money selling only to listing agents, without IDX going away, which is problematic think this “your listing, your lead” rhetoric is still problematic towards MLS and organized real estate. There might be an interesting culture clash with many in the company.

What some may not realize is that Homes.com (due to them previously being remax.com’s MLS data supplier) has one of the largest, if not the largest MLS data aggregation platforms in the space, and now all that data is controlled by CoStar.

Homes.com : Always

Always: Your Listing. Your Lead. Your Commission.

“At Homes.com, we are committed to being a friend and ally to the real estate industry. Our purpose is to connect consumers and real estate pros through a simply smarter home search experience. 

Period.“

I don’t think Homes.com gets enough credit in the industry for not only talking the talk but walking the walk. Other portals are going deeper into agent’s pockets with new business models that really attack the heart of a real estate practice. Listing portals now want to take ownership of the customer, charge referral fees, and then convert them to their own mortgage house. Basically making agents Uber drivers.

Not Homes.com. While they may not have the most traffic their site does get a lot of engagement. And there’s this:

“And we promise to always send a copy of every consumer inquiry on a property to the listing agent. None of the other big real estate search sites can say this.”

What remarkable about that simple statement, is that it’s remarkable.

Nicole Aguilar of CRMLS joins Andy Woolley’s Secrets of a Smarter MLS Podcast

13 – Hotsheet Episode | Nicole Aguilar, Director of Marketing & Communications, California Regional MLS

“As the communications director for the largest MLS organization, Nicole discusses with Andy how she delivers consistent messaging to over 100,000 members of CRMLS, along with the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the content being delivered and the engagement of CRMLS members.”

Great conversation with Nicole Aguilar, Director of Marketing & Communications, of CRMLS on how MLS providers are communicating with their members during the pandemic.

Andy has been getting some great guests like, Rene Galvan of Houston Association of REALTORS, Deborah Boza-Valledor, COO and CMO of Miami REALTORS, Casey Hickman, Chief Operating Officer, UtahRealEstate.com, John Ryan, Chief Marketing Officer, Georgia MLS and Denee Evans, CEO of Council of MLS (CMLS).

If you haven’t added Andy’s podcast to your podcast stream yet you are missing out.

Secrets of a Smarter MLS Episode 2: Karen Kage, Realcomp CEO | Battles won, Battles Lost

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Andy Woolley of Homes.com :

Karen Kage entered into the MLS industry looking for a job, not a career, answering a job wanted ad for a statistical typist at the local real estate association. That was before MLS books, in the late 1970’s, and today she is one of the most well respected CEO’s in the industry. How’s that for a career path?

Her dream job is to coach the Detroit Lions, current head coach Matt Patricia better watch out. Karen would lead the Lions sidelines with the same no nonsense, honest, and caring approach she leads Realcomp’s team of 31 employees, serving 16,400 customers.

In this episode, we explore Karen’s path to becoming CEO, her leadership style, her experience battling the FTC and a protracted class-action lawsuit, and her advice for today’s emerging MLS leaders. 

Listen on the web at Homes.com Secrets of a Smarter MLS

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