CoStar Not Acquiring Realtor.com: Speculating on Why Not

I’ve been 100% heads-down on a project. But thought I’d take a moment to comment on the news that CoStar and News Corp are no longer in talks about Realtor.com. This is not a Q4 review; that still remains to be done, probably after all the reports as there have been very few worthy of … Read more

CoStar + Realtor.com = ???

I apologize for the lengthy silence. I’ve been heads down on final prep for launching a new project I’ve been working on for over a year now. You’ll hear about it soon enough, I promise. And I hope it’ll interest all of you. In fact, I know it will interest some of you. I know, … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2023: The Grime Edition

Welcome to yet another edition of the Seven Predictions, sure to be wrong or your money back. (Does not apply to VIP Subscriptions.) This is one of my favorite annual traditions around this time of year. For those keeping track at home, I just published my results from last year’s predictions, and my lifetime average … Read more

[VIP] 3Q22 CoStar Group: The House of the Rising Sun

Last year I published a special Red Dot on CoStar after its entry into residential real estate. I subtitled it, “The Rising Sun” for a few reasons. One of them was that CoStar was the most serious entrant into residential real estate in recent memory… perhaps ever. Even Sears or Merrill Lynch (who had entered … Read more

BPP 2.0: Seven Questions

From RISMedia, we get some high-level concepts on what BPP 2.0 (Broker Public Portal) will look like. Or at least try to look like. According to the story, BPP 2.0 will be built on three pillars: National consumer platform created through technology reciprocity National dataset created through MLS reciprocity National display ruleset Read the whole … Read more

No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy: Thoughts on CoStar and BPP’s Breakup

Writing has been thin as I’ve been on the road constantly, and very busy with projects. But news came across today that fairly requires some commentary. General “Mad Dog” Mattis, a storied military commander and Secretary of Defense under Trump, is said to have once told a group of Iraqi tribal leaders, “I come in … Read more

Connecting Dots: Zillow, CoStar, Realogy and the Battle for Brenda

I’m not at Inman New York for a variety of reasons, and apart from a hot karaoke night, I’m not feeling the FOMO yet. However, there is one interesting thing to come out of the event based on reporting on Inman. To make it interesting, I have to connect the dots from three separate articles. … Read more

JP Morgan on CoStar’s Residential Strategy

A reader sent along a short note that JP Morgan wrote after a meeting with CoStar “where management outlined the strategy for residential real estate and provided a couple demos/screenshots from its solutions.” It’s an interesting set of observations by Wall Street and I thought I’d tag along and see what I thought about their … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2022: Fresh Sounds of Jamaica Edition

Welcome to yet another edition of the Seven Predictions, sure to be wrong or your money back. This is one of my favorite annual traditions around this time of year, and whatever the changes in focus to the blog, I’ll have to keep this one up. For those keeping track at home, I just published … Read more