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

[VIP] Realogy, Q1/2021: Tastes Great, Less Filling

Here in Q1 of 2021, I’m beginning to detect a certain pattern when it comes to trying to analyze earnings calls to see where the industry is. There’s a lot of repetition, as if the things I’ve noted years ago haven’t changed at all. And yet, Q1 was a sizzling hot market, with unprecedented activity … Read more

Brokerage Valuation: Focus on Company Dollar

There must be something in the water. I got three separate emails recently regarding publicly-traded brokerages. Two were on EXPI because they hosted an analyst day, and one was on Compass. Plus, there’s a lot of noise out there debating whether Compass is a tech company or a brokerage or whatever. Since I’ve been covering … Read more

[VIP] Realogy, Q4 and Full Year 2020: Pivot Cometh?

A year ago, I wrote these words while analyzing Realogy’s 2019 results: But I can’t ignore the fact that 2019 was not a good year, nor can I pretend that Q4 was particularly strong because of the optimism coming from Schneider. There are real problems at Realogy, and real reasons for concern. At the top … Read more

Q3/2020, Redfin, Realogy, eXp: Tide is High

Q3 was by all measures a bangin’ quarter, as my wife Sunny might say, for most of the companies in residential real estate. I already wrote about Zillow’s amazing Q3 results, and I thought I would tackle the three major brokerage companies (sorry, Fathom, I’ll get to you as well eventually) that are publicly traded. … Read more

Redfin vs. Realogy: The Key Trend Beneath Different Results Q2/2020

I’ve decided to change up how I go about analyzing the quarterly earnings reports from the five public companies in residential real estate. Part of it is that I’ve started a new investor-focused set of products and services (contact me if you want more information) but the other part is that the old way of … Read more

[VIP] Realogy, Q1/2020: Excitement! And COVID!

Realogy was one of the first public companies in residential real estate to report Q1 earnings… and it was more or less what was expected: Q1 came in strong, even with the crash towards the end of the quarter with COVID. This was always going to be the case for Realogy and everybody else in … Read more

[VIP] Realogy, Q4 and Full Year 2019: Darkest Before the Dawn?

I realize this is almost two weeks after Realogy reported, but… between international travel and my computer giving up the ghost, it’s been a bit of a challenge to write this. It likely would have been a challenge anyhow, because of how much I like Realogy (I have written often about my biases). Q4 was … Read more

[VIP] What Shutting Down Climb Says About Realogy, Part 2: My Take on Things

If you managed to make it all the way through the massive post that was Part 1, let me thank you first of all and congratulate you on your powers of focus and concentration. I must warn you that this Part 2 is quite likely to be very, very long as well. We might start … Read more