CoStar Group Reiterates Strategic Initiatives to Prioritize Profitable Growth and Increase Long-term Stockholder Value
“Third Point appears intent on spinning a yarn of Board complacency and “quixotic” investment. Their story is completely detached from reality. Following a review process that Third Point and D.E. Shaw suggested with participation from their Board nominees, the Board unanimously recommended a plan involving accelerated profitability for Homes.com, additional investments in our core platforms, incremental capital return, stockholder-aligned executive compensation, and greater investor transparency. Unhappy with the conclusions of the independent Board they helped pick, Third Point, like a child with a board game, wants to throw the pieces off the board.”
I did some digging based on a tip. What I found was Third Point invested in Rocket last year which changes the optics for me a bit. Could there be a bit of game play here? Maybe. Maybe not. But, as I said in my last post, I still wouldn’t bet against Andy Florance.
But in my last episode of Industry Relations, recorded before the CoStar news broke, I asked Jack Miller his thoughts on CoStar and he had a brilliant take.
From Jack’s perspective it’s still about product market fit. In my 2026 predictions I said that we were going to see a shift in the strategies of non-Zillow portals. So far Realtor.com has announced their Realtor + app, and I think Homes.com is going to have to think of something that answers Jack’s take.
“The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will serve as a collaborative strategic and operational leader, working in close partnership with the Board of Directors and staff to advance the organization’s mission. Together with the board and team, the CEO will lead initiatives to streamline operations, strengthen internal and external communication, elevate community and industry engagement, and position the organization as a visible, respected, and forward-thinking force in the region.”
“Who’s No. 1? For the first time since T3 Sixty began its rankings, there is a new player in the top spot: Bright MLS, with 101,000 members. Bright has moved into the position formerly occupied by California Regional MLS, which drops to No. 2 with 99,000 members, followed by Central Florida-based Stellar MLS with 81,453.
The shift at the top aligns with the bigger picture nationally, where every part of the country saw a drop in the total number of MLS subscribers — except the South Atlantic region (up 0.4%). That area is covered in part by Bright MLS and has seen ongoing population growth.”
The difference in subscriber count is just 2,100. I’ve said this before, but what Clint Skutchan does with T3 Sixty is an incredible asset to the industry. The RE Almanac sits on my desk and serves as an important reference every week.
“The Organized Real Estate Associate Consultant will assist the SVP of the business unit in servicing company clients (MLSs and Associations) and will help drive efficiency and profitability. This includes but is not limited to assisting in coordination and logistics of all Organized Real Estate consulting projects and sales activities.”
“The T3 Tech Summit is where innovation converges with opportunity, creating a dynamic ecosystem for marketing and technology leaders. Our commitment to fostering meaningful connections and providing valuable insights ensures that attendees leave equipped to shape the future of our industry,” said Michael Phelan, senior vice president of technology consulting at T3 Sixty.”
T3 Sixty
Dates are Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2024, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans. Early bird pricing is super reasonable. This event seems to get better and better every year.
The industry owes the folks at T3 Sixty a lot of gratitude for putting this information together. Whether you are a vendor, MLS organization or Association this data is gold when it comes to planning.
It’s that time of year again! T3 Sixty has published their SP200 list for 2024. Each year I like to parse out the list and see how our brothers and sisters made out in the MLS community.
The Mt. Rushmore of MLS Execs (as I previously coined them last year) has not changed but each of their respective positions have slightly improved. Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS, Brian Donnellan, CEO of Bright MLS and Bob Hale, CEO of HAR.
Art and Brian both jumped 7 spots, Bob broke in to the twenties.
Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of Stellar MLS leaps 32 spots to #52 to the fourth highest ranking MLS exec on the list beating Teresa King Kinney of Miami AOR who dropped 5 spots to # 60. Jeremy Crawford of FMLS catapults 48 spots up this year to #54.
John DiMichele of TREBB (the only MLS on this list that doesn’t offer Cloud CMA to its members) falls to #66. ( you know I love you Jon. 😆)
Dionna Hall, CEO of Beaches MLS, glides up to #96 on the list. Rebecca Jensen, CEO of MRED lands at # 99 while Matt Consalvo, CEO of ARMLS, climbs up 10 spots to #100. Gene Millman, CEO of REColorado.com soars to #102 on the list (that’s a leap of 65!) Emily Chenevert, CEO of Austin Board of REALTORS jumps 18 spots up from last year to #124
AnneMarie DeCatsye, CEO of Canopy MLS climbs to #174. Brad Bjelke CEO of UtahRealEstate.com landed at #175.
Stuart White, CEO of Realtracs rockets 56 spots to land at #120. Plus “the mad scientist” Tim Dain was listed at #130 ( a jump of 58 spots)
Erm Grasso, CEO of MLS PIN, and Richard Haggerty , CEO OneKey MLS, debuts on the list at #195 and #198 respectively.
Congratulations everyone!
***Please forgive me if I missed someone or got something wrong. Just DM me and I’ll make the correction.***
I have to say that the Real Estate Almanac is one of the most used tools I have. I was asked to pass along this announcement and hope everyone will consider supporting T3 Sixty’s efforts.
“Each year since 2018, T3 Sixty in collaboration with RESO have produced the Organized Real Estate rankings section on RealEstateAlmanac.com. The ranking include the MLS subscriber counts and organizational types for each of the 521 MLSs across the United States along with REALTOR® association membership counts. To ensure they have the most accurate information possible, T3 is again asking MLS Executives to share their current MLS subscriber counts for publication of the 2024 version of the list which will be published electronically and shared with the industry in February of 2024.
Building on their success with last year’s intial research, MLS executives will also be given the option to take part in T3’s confidential MLS Executive compensation and benefits study. This year, based on feedback, the independent research firm has added the option to complete an MLS COO and CTO study. It is important to note that the individual results of these studies will not be made public, but each MLS survey participant will be provided with a complimentary synopsis report of the research results.
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.
Sean Wheeler, CTO Lone Wolf
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.
Jimmy Kelly, CEO Lone Wolf
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.
Damien Huze, Principal Designer Lone Wolf
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.
