Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Listing Bits Episode 91: Tether RE, keeping Agents Safe

What do Willie Nelson and keeping real estate agents safe have in common?  You will have to listen to this great conversation with Tether RE founder Scott Martin to find out.

Did you know that in 2020 60,000 real estate agents reported being victims of assault, sexual abuse, robbery or were murdered in the US?  In 2023 over 75,000 real estate agents reported being victim of a crime.  And there are a ton of more incidents that go unreported.

In this wide ranging conversation with Scott Martin, a serial entrepreneur, we talk about where the idea came from, and the journey that got Scott here.  It’s a wild ride!

Join us for fun and entertaining conversation.

Find out more about the Tether RE 

https://tetherre.com

Reach Out:

Connect with Scott

Our Sponsor:

Trackxi – Real Estate’s #1 Deal Tracker

Production and editing services by:

Sunbound Studios

Why CoStar bought Matterport

With Matterport buy, CoStar makes it a ground game

“For example, I believe CoStar can move quickly to democratize the digital twin by allocating future blocks of Homes.com’s $1 billion ad campaign to influence consumers to think a fully immersive 3D tour is the only way to get the most value for a home. It can then advance Matterport’s mobile capabilities to make it easier than ever to publish its experience to the homebuying public.”

Craig Rowe, Inman News

The above quote is just a tidbit of Craig’s great insight and analysis on the Matterport deal. One small quibble I would ended the article with a different quote;

“Begun, the Clone Wars Have!” – Yoda

Trackxi chosen for NAR REACH program

Second Century Ventures Announces 8 Companies for 2024 REACH Scale-Up Program

“Companies accepted to the 2024 REACH program are as follows:

  • Chirpyest(link is external): a social commerce marketplace that empowers real estate professionals to earn cash back when they shop and share their curated finds.    
  • Final Offer(link is external): a consumer-facing, agent-driven negotiation platform for residential real estate, delivering clear, real-time offer alerts to all interested parties.
  • Kukun(link is external): a real estate data, analytics and applications platform for homeowners and the industries that serve them.
  • Notable(link is external): simple pay-at-close financing for everything a client needs to prep their home for sale and get the most out of it.
  • Purlin(link is external): AI tools that convert client conversations into transactions by simplifying business dealings among real estate agents and settlement service providers.
  • Scout(link is external): helping agents find and engage homeowners with AI-driven automated personalized email outreach. 
  • Trackxi(link is external): a collaborative deal and task tracker for real estate agents, teams, clients and consumers.
  • Unlock(link is external): helping consumers unlock the power of home equity without interest charges or monthly payments.”
NAR REACH

No small feat. Out of 1000+ companies considered, 100+ applications, Trackxi is among the final 8 companies chosen for this great opportunity. Congrats to Vijay and his team! Good things ahead!

CubiCasa hits 15% milestone of US floor plans

CubiCasa Surpasses Key Milestone with Floor Plans Included on 15% of New Listings in the US

“More than 15% of new listings in the U.S. now include a CubiCasa floor plan, a mark that is more than 700% higher than the 2% mark they recorded just two years ago when the company’s mission was in its infancy. Additionally, the number of CubiCasa scans performed for U.S. real estate customers in 2024 is nearly triple the rate it was during the same period a year ago.”

CubiCasa

700% higher in two years is amazing! I’ve been writing about CubiCasa and floor plans for years now. I think floor plans are the next aerial photos/maps. As Jeff Allen said in the press release.

“Floor plans are the single-best digital asset on a real estate listing because they provide consumers with a clear understanding of whether the home is the right fit for them,”

Jeff Allen, President of Cubicasa

If you add CubiCasa’s success to the Zillow and other portals efforts to “showcase” listings you can see a tipping point coming soon. Congrats to Jeff and his team.

This is a teenager

You gotta check this site out. Just start scrolling when you get to the site. Love this blending of storytelling, data analysis. I would love to see this type of data visualization be used when we talk about housing.

Mythbusters: Bright MLS Edition

Dispelling Myths 
 About Real Estate 
 Commissions 
and the MLS

“There are many assertions being made about the homebuying process in the wake of the draft settlement agreement. For instance, some assert that real estate agents “steer” buyers away from properties with low offers of buyer-agent compensation and that high commissions drive up home prices. Bright MLS researchers conducted an analysis of more than one million home sales transactions that took place in the Bright MLS service area1 to analyze some of the claims about the residential real estate industry. We ultimately found many statements being made in the media and by others are simply not supported by market data.”

Lisa Sturtevant, PhD, Chief Economist, Bright MLS

Blown away by the analysis here and can’t pretend to understand the math behind the research. It’s amazing how, based on this data, the DOJ narrative on steering and price are pretty laughable. From the report on regarding commissions and home prices:

“The correlation between compensation percent and list price is negative, indicating that higher offers of buyer compensation are actually associated with lower list prices for similar homes.”

Lisa Sturtevant, PhD, Chief Economist, Bright MLS

🎤 ⬇️ Great job Bright MLS.

Racial bias case in Baltimore gets settled

Lawsuit Alleging Racial Bias in Home Appraisals Is Settled

“A year earlier, the couple had opened their home to Mr. Lanham, who is white, for an appraisal, and he put the value of their four-bedroom house in Baltimore’s Homeland neighborhood at $472,000. After the couple stripped their home of family photographs and had a white colleague pose as the homeowner, an action known as “whitewashing,” a second appraiser offered a value of $750,000. The couple said that the difference in value — nearly $300,000 higher — came because the second appraiser believed that the home’s owners were white.”

Debra Kamin, New York Times

I remember reading about this a couple years ago. It just makes your blood boil. I hope they took these companies to the cleaners.

Property Panorama partners with Local Logic

Local Logic and Property Panorama Forge Innovative Partnership to Enrich Virtual Tours with Advanced Location Insights

“This collaboration is set to equip Property Panorama’s vast network of agents and brokers with a one-click solution to Local Logic’s advanced insights directly within their virtual tours and digital marketing solutions, offering an unparalleled understanding of locations across the United States and Canada.”

Local Logic

Property Panorama also made some recents upgrades to their dashboard to include:

  • Account activity feed to track your news and subscriptions
  • Drag and drop photo management
  • Full Support for transparent and PNG images and logos
  • Fully Optimized for Mobile and Desktop
  • Streamlined Navigation 
  • Re-imagined page layouts to better organize your tools and data
  • Priority access to all Property Panorama Products


Check out their recent blog post to learn more: Property Panorama Launches New Dashboard for Agents

Webinar: The Truth about the NAR Settlement

Rob Hahn, my partner in crime at the Industry Relations podcast is hosting a webinar Tuesday, March 26 from 9 – 10:30am PT, this is “must see tv” in my book. So, fire up the flat screen in your conference room and gather round your senior execs. From his announcement:

“It’s been quite a few days. I’ve been getting absolutely hammered with questions from some of you, plus the media, plus investors, plus plus plus. While I’m happy to answer them, and have as much as I could, I thought it time to just hold a webinar and see if I can do it all in one place and one time.

I’ll go over:

  • What the Settlement Agreement actually says.
  • What it requires of brokers, agents, MLS and Associations.
  • What it likely means for you and the industry.
  • Possible unexpected consequences.

I’ve done webinars like this a couple of times in the past, and thought they were useful.”

The Notorious ROB

Click this link to register = > The Truth About the NAR Settlement

It’s $399, but $200 cheaper if you are a Notorious VIP subscriber. As Rob says, “If you are not a VIP Subscriber, well… you can do the math.”

Support independent creators in our space. Sign up today!

Did the NAR settlement just kill ShowingTime Plus?

I’m still going through the documents but one thing jumped out at me and in my opinion could be major for sites like Zillow and Redfin offering one click showing appointments.

“MLS participants acting for buyers would be required to enter into written
agreements with their buyers before touring a home. These agreements can
help consumers understand exactly what services and value will be provided, and for how much.”

nar-qanda-competiton-2024-03-15

Now reconcile that with this on Zillow’s website.

I don’t think this can be done with a simple check box on a terms of service modal. The rule says, “written agreement”. Overall the rule is a bit crazy, as one Realtor I know quipped,

“Hi. You don’t know me or my work still or level of hustle. If you want me to show you this house, you need to agree right now to pay me 3%.”

Will Zillow add NAR to its list of industry organizations they are suing?

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