Rob and I were supposed to be in Wilmington, NC today to present some new sessions at the State REALTOR Conference, Xchange. We watched as Hurricane Florence gained strength across the Atlantic with estimated landfall near Wilmington, and quickly realized that the event would be cancelled. In an email from the NC REALTORS staff today, … Read more
So a couple of weeks ago, we got news that Move (the parent of Realtor.com) agreed to acquire Opcity for $210 million. Since that means Realtor.com will be taking a percentage of the agent’s commission as referral payments, I figured it’s just a matter of time before Zillow walks through the doors that Move has … Read more
On August 26, Rob Hahn, Founder of the blog, Notorious R.O.B, asked for some answers to his post “Some Questions About KWRI’s Virtual Brokerage.” I’m happy to oblige. As a Market Center owner (Operating Principal) and one of the many architects of Keller Williams (KW) Expansion, I am committed to ensuring KWRI’s virtual brokerages are … Read more
Just thought I’d drop a brief (well, for me) note here about Opendoor’s acquisition of Open Listings, in between preparing for hurricane Florence…. Inman News has the story: Flush with hundreds of millions in venture funding, the fast-growing home-buying and selling startup Opendoor is making its first acquisition: Open Listings, a discount brokerage with a team of salaried in-house … Read more
Reader Ben Thompson asked me in a recent comment if I would opine on the topic of the impact of (and to, I would think) various companies in a buyer’s market: Sorry to trend off topic, but Rob kindly please consider writing a blog post on the impact of companies like Redfin in a buyers … Read more
I’m neck-deep in getting the September Red Dot on the Real Estate Platform out the door, but had to pause and poke my nose in to give an award for a minute. Inman reported on the 16 startups at the new Innovation, Opportunity & Investment Summit conference that NAR is putting on as I write … Read more
Two things. First, I’ve been busy with my September Red Dot, so I missed this news when it was announced: KW to launch virtual brokerages for expansion business owners. According to Inman News: During last week’s Keller Williams Mega Camp, a company retreat for select Keller Williams leaders, Keller Williams CEO John Davis said the … Read more
In the August Red Dot, The Truth About iBuyers, I made the point that the real estate industry fundamentally misunderstands what the iBuyer movement is all about: Perhaps because the pioneer of iBuyer was Opendoor, which focused on the selling experience at launch, the real estate industry has perceived iBuyers to be something like technology-powered … Read more
I’m still in recovery mode from thyroid surgery on Friday (it went great, thank you to all who have messaged me) but wanted to throw out a quick reaction to the news coming out of Zillow in its Q2 earnings report. Rest assured, I’ll be covering this in some depth at some point, probably. For … Read more