I’m still traveling around the country, but wanted to jot something down real quick from a random hotel room in Houston. Based on this story in Business Insider about Project Ketchup, I’m expecting fantastic things from Opendoor’s earnings call. [Note: I own OPEN in my personal portfolio.] All of the jubilation from the industry about … Read more
Ben Thompson at Stratechery, the man responsible for setting Zillow on its path into iBuying, has published a newsletter discussing Zillow’s exit from iBuying. He’s very generous to Rich Barton and to Zillow, and eats a bit of crow. I rarely find anything in Thompson’s writings and opinions to disagree with, because he is one … Read more
I was in mid-air when the Zillow Q3 earnings release happened. By the time I had landed, there were dozens of texts, emails, and of course, social media postings. There were and are a lot of hot takes. I’m reasonably convinced that all or most are wrong in some significant way. Many are laughably shallow. … Read more
I’ve now been asked by more than a few people on my take on the acquisition of Remine, the MLS technology provider, by MLS Technology Holdings, LLC., a new company formed by four major MLSs: ACTRIS (Austin), Heartland (Kansas City), FMLS (Atlanta) and Miami (er… Miami). Disclosure: I have personal relationships with three of the … Read more
Back in July, I wrote about the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) unexpectedly pulling out of the settlement agreement it had reached with NAR and said: The withdrawal, then, combined with the above (voluntary dismissal plus broader investigations) clearly signals that the DOJ will be pursuing other antitrust claims relating to NAR’s rules. Under a stipulation … Read more
One of the lawsuits going on right now, which I’ve discussed in podcasts and such, is REX v. Zillow. I didn’t really write on it before for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is that I regarded the lawsuit as an unfortunate waste of time for everybody involved. Another reason is that I … Read more
In a few years, we’ll look back on 2Q/2021 and think that it was an important turning point for Zillow and the industry. Or it might be yet another step forward in the slow march towards the transformation of housing into e-commerce. But either way, looking at 2Q/2021 performance and the investor’s reaction to it, … Read more
It’s Friday afternoon, and posting has been very light as I’ve been non-stop traveling. But I wanted to get this out because it came up in conversation earlier today with an MLS executive, and thought that many of you probably were wondering the same thing. In light of yet another intervention in a private lawsuit … Read more
I’m busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest… but I wanted to get this post up as the folks over at BrightMLS (Thank you, Rene! Thank you, Elliot!) were kind enough to chat with me on Friday. It will necessarily be short… well… short for me. In case you missed it, BrightMLS recently … Read more