My last post on Opendoor resulted in more than a few emails and messages, and I’d like to thank those who emailed and messaged. I wish more of you would just comment on the posts, but seeing the domains from which your emails come from, I completely understand why you emailed me directly. One of … Read more
As most of you know, I used to do in-depth updates for each of the publicly traded companies in the residential real estate sector. Since I’m not an investment analyst, my interest was always on what the public information these companies had to disclose signifies for the real estate industry as a whole. I still … Read more
Opendoor reported its Q4 and full year 2021 earnings last Thursday, and I needed to take some time to think through things. Long story short, Opendoor blew the doors wide open with its performance. It has replaced Redfin as the most important company in residential real estate, and it’s on the heels of Zillow to … Read more
As readers, listeners of Notorious POD, and people who have heard me present live know, I’m on the record as suggesting that we do not have a housing bubble. What we have is dollar devaluation caused by massive Fed money printing since the start of the pandemic. Accordingly, I believe that the “seller’s market” will … Read more
[Editor’s Note: PadSplit’s Atticus LeBlanc was the guest on Episode 4 of The Blueprint Sessions. This is the accompanying essay, originally published as a members-only article for members of the GEM.] Co-opting Inventory Housing is simply not affordable for most Americans, whether they are renting or trying to buy. We’ve known this for many years. … Read more
In my last analysis of Redfin, I wrote that Redfin has to decide who it wanted to be. It was stuck in a “larval stage between one model and another” as per Glenn Kelman’s wording: I agree that Redfin is in some larval stage between one model and the other. The one model is/was one … Read more
[Editor’s Note: Module’s Brian Gaudio was the guest on Episode 2 of The Blueprint Sessions. This is the accompanying essay, originally published as a members-only article for members of the GEM.] How will home design and construction processes change in the coming decade or two when car ownership isn’t a thing, grocery stores are irrelevant (since … Read more
Roughly nine months ago, after its Q1 results, I beat the hell out of Redfin. I admit it. Much of that was motivated by how disappointed I was with Redfin’s decisions then. I wrote in that post that I was and remain one of Redfin’s biggest fans so its decisions then were truly heartbreaking. Nine … Read more
RE/MAX came into 2020 on a big upswing. Q4 was a good quarter; it was a very good quarter, in fact. And as we have already seen from Realogy, Redfin and Zillow, Q1 was a record-breaking type of quarter until COVID hit. So it’s a bit surprising that RE/MAX’s numbers came in so soft. I’m … Read more