Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Did you hear?

I’ve been super busy and there has been a lot of news to catch up on. Here’s a few links to stories I think are worth checking out…

Bob Gottesman has been selected as RESOs new Executive Director, effective May 2013. Check out Matt Cohen’s Live Blog transcript to see this and all the RESO Spring Meeting news.

Todd Carpenter’s new site Realty Nex.us is fast becoming one of my favorite industy sites. He recently published a “Special Report” – “Why online consumers love Zillow and Trulia more than you.” It’s free and worth the read. I’ve also added the link to the my “Read This Now!” header.

Speaking of special reports Rob Hahn’s (aka The Notorious R.O.B.) has another report, “[PREMIUM] Move, Trulia, Zillow: Q1/2013 Report – The Narratives Take Shape”. You need to be a premium subscriber to access the content. I haven’t had a chance to read this one yet (you know you need to carve out a big of time for Rob), but his first two Premium reports were excellent.

And if you really need to get caught up on the MLS public facing website debate look further than Inman News for great content and discussion.

Ever heard of the Dymaxion House? How about a conveyor belt linen closet? Now you have.


[via SWISS-MISS]

Trulia and Market Leader analysis…

Good analysis from Brian Boero at 1000watt Consulting. Go read it, it’s really smart. I agree with him on most points. But just one quibble.

Brian Boero:

Thoughts on the Trulia/Market Leader deal

“Interesting energy

This is admittedly fuzzy, but both of these companies have suffered from something I will simply call “bad vibes” in the industry (yeah, I know, incisive analysis!).

I’ve been in this business since 1997. And you hear things. Opinions. Rumors. Rants. And I’ve heard more of these types of things about Market Leader over the years than just about any other company. I’m not certain it was ever justified, but it was in the air.

Trulia has been dogged by this too. Some in the industry fear Zillow. Some resent Realtor.com. But a lot of people I know always felt suspicious of Trulia. I think part of this was taken care of pre-IPO, and it seems to be getting better, but, again, it’s there.

Of course, a few bad vibes didn’t stop either of these companies from getting where they are today, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

I’m not exactly sure what Brian is talking about here. If people have been suspicious of Trulia I think its because they’ve kept things closer to the chest, whereas Zillow has pounded its chest like a gorilla. In regards to Market Leader, maybe the “bad vibes” that Brian speaks of is due to the multiple pivots Market Leader has made over the years. Nobody likes changes, but good leaders like Ian Morris and his team deserve kudos for keeping their company relevant.

Bad vibes indeed.

Zillow as Craigslist

Zillow: The most comprehensive list of real estate for sale in America.

“In addition, we all know that every house is for sale. As a consumer, what better place is there to research homes that are not on the market? It doesn’t matter if the data is perfect. As a consumer, it’s the *best* I can find. Go ahead and tell me the data sucks. I don’t care. My bet is, neither do many of your customers.”

Spot on analysis from Todd. Looks like he doesn’t care to “find it first“. Also, I wonder why he used Zillow in his analysis instead of Trulia?

Alon Chaver, iHomefinder CEO, joins Trulia as VP of Industry Services

Alon Chaver
The talent wars at Zillow and Trulia are heating up. Trulia scored a HUGE win with the addition of Alon Chaver to its team.

TRULIA EXPANDS MANAGEMENT TEAM, HIRES INDUSTRY VETERAN ALON CHAVER AS NEW VP OF INDUSTRY SERVICES

“As Vice President of Industry Services, Alon is responsible for the strategy and direction of Trulia’s Broker, MLS and Data teams. In this role he will lead Trulia’s efforts to build new industry services for Brokers and MLSs, expand data quality initiatives, and strengthen industry partnerships.”

Alon will be leaving iHomefinder but will remain a major shareholder and a member of the iHomefinder Board of Directors. Alon is super super smart, well connected and has experience of working with the MLS industry from building a well respected IDX company. I have to say this addition really has me re-thinking Trulia. As I’ve said, as recently as my last post, its all about the team and Trulia scored a big with Alon.

Google Ventures launches HomeLight

HomeLight aims to change the real estate business with Google funding.

Jolie O’Dell at Via VentureBeat:

Google Ventures’ latest portfolio company to launch is HomeLight, a startup that’s all about buying and selling real estate.
More specifically, it helps you find the real estate agent — the best one for your price point and neighborhood and experience level — and agents only pay for the service if they end up with a new client out of the process.

“Finding the Right Agent” sites have been around forever, but I like the simple way HomeLight walks you through defining your needs. Showing the history of each agents number of transactions is also very helpful.

It isn’t clear how they are making money. When I came to this agents profile it has a button to “Contact Jody”. So I’m guessing some sort of lead selling is happening now, or in the future.

Worth checking out.

Homes.com attracts a crowd at NARlando

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Walking the floor last week at NAR I was super impressed by Homes.com. They always had the largest crowd from any of the major exhibitors. The impressive part of this was Homes.com also covered one of the largest booth spaces.

This isn’t by accident. With the bright orange signage and shirts the booth was hard to miss. Plus it seemed like every hour a new speaker was on, or a big prize was being given away. That sense of excitement really paid off. Planning all of this is not easy, but implementation is also key, so it was also good to see a bit of hustle from the sales reps working the booth.

Well done!

Reading between the lines of Trulia’s latest broker communication.

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Plans within plans, within plans. This entire communication from Trulia is like a word dance.

One thing is clear, ListHub has both Trulia and Zillow by the short hairs. In Trulia’s latest communication they ever so subtlety suggest to their broker clients that instead of using Listhub they can send feed directly to them instead. You don’t ask, you don’t get, I guess.

They also imply that ListHub data won’t appear on their consumer mobile apps (which recently recieved an A- rating on Clareity’s Review of Real Estate Mobile Application for the Consumer). Not true! They resrict data on their agent mobile product. I’m not sure if this is a typo or some sort of Jedi Mind Trick they are trying to pull.

One quibble, while I certainly understand the restriction, it is a clear case of repurposing data, ListHub/Realtor.com has to be careful here. They don’t want to appear they are trying to stifle competition betweeen any competing Realtor.com apps.

Another thing that jumped out at me was that agents were allowed to update listings on Trulia. Does anyone else think that was crazy?

Is Sutton West Coast Realty run by scumbags?

The evidence indicates yes. As reported over at GeekWire Sutton West Coast Realty was a partner with Estately. I written a lot about Estately and how I believe its at the top, design-wise, of the best real estate search portals on the web. Seems Sutton West Coast Realty thought so too. When they ended their partnership with Estately they just copied the whole Estately site design for themselves.

What does it say for traditional brokerages if one of Canada’s largest brokerages’ idea of innovation is copying a small startup?

I really hope someone at Sutton West Realty wakes up and does the right thing.

Sami Inkinen steps down at Trulia

Trulia Blog: It’s always day one for me.

He’s leaving his current position and joining Trulia’s board of directors.

“But before all of that, I will need to rest and recover a bit. In my case that means I will be mountain biking with my wife to the base camp of Mt. Everest in April.”

You can’t make this shit up.

Making a Move (Inc.)

If I had to pick the biggest story in U.S. real estate this year (aside from the ongoing housing crisis) I would have to say Zillow’s IPO. But looking back I’ve been really impressed at what an incredible year Move, Inc. has put together. Yes, that’s right I said Move.

When you take a look everything Move announced in 2011 you have to say that these guys have been hard at work. Not convinced? Take a look at some of the bigger stories.

January 13. Move, Inc. powers AOL. One of the untold stories about this deal is it was actually a “take away” from LPS. So they not only signed AOL, but took the business away from a competitor. – Well played.

February 11. Realtor.com Android App was showcased a the 2011 Mobile World Conference. In the world of mobile this is a huge deal.

April 21. Move, Inc. signs listing syndication deal with Zillow. Crazy? Like a fox.

April 26. Realtor.com launches iPad App. By far the best real estate app on the iPad.

July 18. Move acquires Social Bios. I’m looking forward to see the implementation points Realtor.com does with this technology.

August 17. AOL Real Estate Launches New Search Experience Powered by Move, Inc. The fruits of their agreement begin to bear fruit.

November 1. Release first real estate CRM app to be powered by HTML5. Super cool update to their Top Producer application.

November 3. Realtor.com goes global. Oh yeah, they launched an international site, just for kicks.

November 21. Reverse Stock Split takes effect. I think this is more a mental thing than anything else.

Plus their Find app has been launched in several MLS markets around the country.

And that’s not including another biggie: “Connections” which allows Realtors to generate leads from listings within a specifc zip code (even if those listings are not their own). While I think Realtor.com lost the “high ground” with this service I do think by displaying all photos within that sponsored zip code is a clever way of placating most agents.

And then they launched a Facebook app dubbed “Social Connections“, with Ernie Graham (founder of recently acquired Social Bios).

Whew, no wonder Audie is so damn busy!

Just half of those initiatives would be a huge undertaking. There are some potential game changers on this list. But, as a wise man once said, “ideas are just multipliers of execution”. 2012 needs to be Move’s year of executing the vision (generating revenue) of what the 2011 bumper crop products and services.

So, what do I take away from this? If Zillow, Truila or anyone else wants to play in this sandbox Berkowitz, Samuelson, Beardsley and the the rest of the Move team is ready for a fight.

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