Just as predicted these copycat lawsuits are gonna be everywhere. 😖
Anyone else seeing these?
VESTAPLUS
My thanks again to VestaPlus for sponsoring last month’s Vendor Alley! Following the success of THEMLSPRO®, in 2018, The MLS™ unveiled its next-generation software, VESTAPLUS™, an innovative and versatile suite of MLS software solutions founded on the idea of working with real estate professionals to develop technology solutions that are powerful yet easy to use. VESTAPLUS™ has become a leading technology vendor and winner of the 2020 HousingWire Tech100.
For more information please visit their website.
My prediction #sitzerburnett
With the risk of letting one more tiger in to the ring I’m going to make a prediction. I first have to thank Andrea Brambila of Inman News for her live updates. Also Austin Alanzo from Real Estate News.
While it would have been ideal to be in the courtroom and see the reactions of the jurors to testimony I’m going to make my prediction based upon a couple precepts.
- The issue is more complicated than it seems.
- The vote must be unanimous.
So, what’s my prediction? Drumroll please……
NAR wins.
Now, I’m unsure if the jury votes on the corporate defendants separately (KW and BHHS) and I don’t know if the jury’s instruction includes a “per se” messaging (you’ll have to listen to the last few episodes of Industry Relations to understand what that means).
But based upon what I’m hearing from people inside the courtroom and the summaries I’m reading this wasn’t a “slam dunk”. So if there is any hint of uncertainty, that means an unanimous vote is unlikely.
Now I believe this is a pretty bold prediction. You’ve got a home town lawyer (Ketchmark) who apparently was close to tears in his closing arguments (tears? really? really?) and the cliche of the “greedy real estate agent”. But did they prove an industry-wide conspiracy? I don’t think so.
VestaPlus
My thanks again to VestaPlus for sponsoring this month’s Vendor Alley. The team at VestaPlus has put together a great website that highlights the benefits of VestaPlus. The website is also a good resource to learn about the other products/features offered by VestaPlus such as Neighborhood Snapshot(tm), ShowingsPlus(tm), and Checkmate(tm) (which was recently adopted by CWMLS).
6%? Hold My Beer
In this first week of the Sitzer Burnett trial is all about the plaintiff presenting their case. And it seems that the plaintiffs are all about showing training materials, and slides from previous conferences that use the 6% as proof that the “fix is in”!
The poor consumer has been tricked in to thinking that this percentage was never negotiable. Hell, the whole reason for scripts in the first place was that CONSUMERS WERE ALWAYS TRYING TO NEGOTIATE. Has anyone brought that point up?
Also, this….
Less software?
Next week Lone Wolf Technologies will reveal its new platform at the T3 Technology Summit, and I’m super excited about it. Why? Let me tell you a story.
At W+R Studios we were bootstrapped, so we needed to grow organically. Our product strategy centered around making core features of an MLS system better.
CMAs on MLS systems suck? Let’s make a better one. Enter Cloud CMA.
MLS system’s client portals and listing alert emails are ugly. Let’s make them pretty (and easier to use). Voilà , Cloud Streams.
Searching on MLS systems too complicated? Let’s make something simple. Boom, Cloud MLX!
The problem was two fold. In order to grow we needed to add new products (more software) and at the end of the day is that we had 3 different software apps, each of them great in their own right, but they didn’t really work together. Also if you wanted all three you had to buy each one separately, and have 3 separate logins, and 3 separate onboarding scenarios, 3 different times you entered a credit card number, and 3 separate…you get the point.
We solved most of this by creating the “Cloud Agent Suite“, but really only scratched the surface of what was possible, then we were acquired in December 2020.
So this problem of “simplifying real estate” has been on the minds of our (W+R) design team for a very long time. How do we bring all of this together to create an end to end solution that makes sense, and still grow? Can “less software” be the answer?
Turns that the problem was about to get bigger. Starting in 2020 Lone Wolf acquired 5 companies in 9 months (including W+R); HomeSpotter, LionDesk, Terradatum and Propertybase. Now you had 9 (at least) separate logins, 9 separate… you get the point.
When I left Lone Wolf I was starting to see the green shoots of this work. Most of it on the backend led by Sean Wheeler, Lone Wolf’s CTO. One login, one credit card, one database of contacts for all products, etc. Jimmy Kelly, Lone Wolf’s CEO, talked about their effort and the concept of “less software” on a post on Inman News titled “Real Estate Doesn’t Need More Software“. I was also privy to see some of the earlier mock ups from the design group, which were super impressive.
But, like any good meal it all comes down to ingredients. Lone Wolf from my estimation has the best ingredients in the market. The products they acquired (and the teams behind them) are not only best of class but have high adoption rates and great partnerships. Now it comes down to presentation and taste. And I have full confidence in the design chops of the team behind this. I had a chance to interview, Damien Huze, who was W+R’s Chief Design Officer and now a principal designer at Lone Wolf on my Listing Bits podcast which should drop this week.
Am I biased? Absolutely. Am I still a fan of simple focused software applications? You betcha. But I’m a bigger fan of people. So I look forward to seeing how this particular group of talented people proves less software is better.
Burnett v. NAR: The Lawsuit That Could Upend the Housing Market
What if we told you that a high-stakes trial in the real estate and technology industry is about to unfold, with potential implications for consumers and the future of the housing market? Today, Rob and Greg are joined by Ed Zorn, Vice President and General Counsel at CRMLS, and they dive into the details of the ongoing Burnett v. NAR trial, exploring the various legal aspects and arguments that could lead to a major disruption for home sales.
Join us as we discuss the application of the “per se” standard, the challenges faced by the Burnett, and the pivotal role of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in this episode of our podcast. Don’t miss this heated discussion as Rob and Greg once again do their best to save the real estate industry.
Watch us on YouTube!
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This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2023.
Inman News’ Andrea Brambila is “live on the scene” for the Sitzer | Burnett case
I don’t think they allow phones or recording devices in the courtroom for the Sitzer | Burnett lawsuit but Inman News has sent Andrea to cover the courtroom case and they have posted a website, for “live updates”. I don’t think anyone has as much understanding of the issues more than Andrea so I’m glad they sent her!
You can check the Live Updates site here.
Wall Street Clueless
A few choice quotes from this weekend’s WSJ article on “Realtors Face an Antitrust Reckoning”
“The Realtors require this offer if a seller wants the home listed on an affiliated multiple-listing service, which is a database of homes for sale that serves the same purpose as a stock exchange. While innovation and competition have slashed stockbroker commissions, the commission on home sales has stayed basically flat for decades at 6%, split evenly between the buyer and seller agents.”
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Buying a home is not like buying an airline ticket, movie ticket, toilet paper or a stock. It’s a decision that doesn’t happen often, emotional and can be the largest financial decision in their lives. For those reasons it makes sense for someone to hire a trusted advisor.
“The Realtors also claim their rules benefit consumers by giving them “access to the largest database of properties available” and reducing out-of-pocket costs. But commissions get baked into home prices. If not for the Realtors’ rule, many buyers wouldn’t use brokers or would negotiate lower commissions. Home prices would likely fall.”
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Many buyers wouldn’t use brokers”? See above comment.
I could go on and on, but WTAF?
Listing Bits Episode 84: Enabling Collaboration in the Home Buying Experience – with Tom MacLeod of ZenList
In preparation for a move, Tom MacLeod and his wife were looking at properties in the Bay Area. Tom was on Redfin. His wife was on Zillow. And they were receiving listings via email from their agent.
But none of the applications talked to each other. So, Tom was making a spreadsheet when he thought, “There’s got to be a better way.”
Tom is Cofounder of Zenlist, an agent-to-client home search that enables efficient collaboration by putting everyone in the same space.
On this episode of Listing Bits, Tom describes how @properties helped him develop Zenlist and what differentiates his app from Homespotter, RealScout and other competitors in the space.
Tom shares Zenlist’s initial growth strategy, explaining why it didn’t include targeting MLS customers and how that’s changed.
Listen in to understand how Tom’s team gets consumers to download an app and learn how Zenlist is facilitating collaboration in the homebuying experience.
What’s Discussed:
How Tom’s experience with moving inspired him to build Zenlist
Why Tom made the decision to bootstrap Zenlist over taking venture money
How Zenlist facilitates collaboration in the homebuying experience
Tom’s experience of developing Zenlist with the help of @properties
Zenlist’s initial growth strategy and why it didn’t include targeting MLS customers
What differentiates Zenlist from Homespotter, RealScout and other competitors in the space
Tom’s ambition to serve both real estate agents and consumers
Zenlist’s mobile capabilities and how it was called into action during the Rapattoni outage
How Zenlist is overcoming the challenge of getting consumers to download an app
How consumers benefit from using Zenlist vs. Zillow or Redfin
Connect with Tom MacLeod:
Email tom@zenlist.com
Resources:
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