I debated on writing this, since it kind of felt like a waste of time and energy to debate with someone who is so ill-informed as to what has been happening in the industry over the past few years. But at the start of Notorious ROB back in 2009, I did have a lively engagement … Read more
I’m writing this on Sunday night, because there was something tickling the back of my head all week as I was thinking about Zillow’s announcements. That itch got scratched in part because of my friend Phillip Cantrell’s post on LinkedIn (which I have reposted with permission here) which answered one piece of the puzzle. Another … Read more
[Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Phillip Cantrell’s LinkedIn page. If you don’t know Phillip, and you have an interest in real estate, you should. I am reposting with his permission but you probably should at least follow the man on LinkedIn. His bio is below. The post has been very lightly edited for … Read more
By now, you have probably heard the news that Zillow launched a “residential brokerage”, will join the MLS, and use the MLS IDX feed to power its dominant website. Just at random, here’s one news story from The Real Deal covering the announcement: For years, Zillow denied it had plans to become a brokerage. But … Read more
Over at Inman, there’s a great writeup of a truly inside baseball topic: the confusion and controversy around Days On Market. Andrea Brambila wrote the report on a panel discussion between Sam Debord of RESO, Rene Galicia of NAR, and Katie Smithson of W+R Studios. All three are people I count as friends, and they … Read more
Although I just published a lengthy VIP post about the Opendoor/IPOB investor call, there was something in that presentation that didn’t really fit that post. It’s also of wider interest, so I thought I would write about that here. It’s about how the incumbents in real estate, according to Eric Wu and Opendoor, are highly … Read more
So with the news that the rumors of a “merger” between Opendoor and Social Capital (IPOB) were in fact true, I thought a quick followup might be helpful, if not to you, then to me as I think through things by writing about them. It would be worthwhile for you to watch the presentation, especially … Read more
Just found out from a VIP reader (thank you!) that Opendoor is supposedly in merger talks (and by merger, it’s really an acquisition) with a specialized investment vehicle named Social Capital. The story from Business Insider: Opendoor, a property technology company, is in advanced talks to go public via a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia … Read more
There is a persistent narrative in the real estate industry. It is persistent because at its core, there is a lot of truth to it. Yet, it’s a narrative that has overextended that truth and is now threatening to become a blinder. Therefore, it somehow falls on me, the voice in the wilderness, to warn … Read more