At the Midyear meetings, I got into some conversations with fellow attendees about the whole MLS public website debate. Obviously. Again. Still. It was a lot of fun, and interesting thoughts were shared. But given that I have written that agent teams are the biggest threats to brokerages, I kinda got curious about something. Just … Read more
When I began writing this report, I did not think that a mere update on quarterly results would reach over 12,000 words and require so much work. After all, the annual report is the really important one, and the quarterly reports are mere milestones along the path. But with all of the changes going on … Read more
I have been asked for a recap of the events at NAR Midyear, but as I did not attend the Board of Directors meeting, and as I was busy doing other things, I felt it wasn’t really my place to give a recap. It is, however, my place to offer some thoughts — high-level, unusual, … Read more
The Pacific Northwest, where denizens created a religion out of worshipping coffee to overcome the gloom of the rainy months, has somehow become the mecca for technology-based innovation in the real estate industry. Everyone knows about Zillow, of course. Most folks know about Redfin. MarketLeader, and its portal, RealEstate.com are also in the Seattle area … Read more
Since publishing the Strategic Analysis on Zillow, Trulia, and Move — as well as prepublication, from comments — I’ve gotten some further information and clarification from all three companies that could be useful and interesting to consider. They “add color” in the language of Wall Street analysts. I don’t believe that this new information changes … Read more
The 2012 results for the Big Three publicly traded real estate portals — Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com (Move, Inc.) have been filed, and their senior executives have endured the grilling by Wall Street analyst types. There have been volumes of words already written about them, by financial analysts, by finance bloggers, by real estate industry … Read more
Once again, it is time for the world famous (in my own mind at least) annual tradition of making predictions for the coming year that are Guaranteed to be Wrong, or Your Money Back! This year, I thought I would pay tribute to the greatest musical act still working today: Alison Krauss and Union … Read more
I’ve gotten more than one request from readers to discuss the brutal analysis report on Zillow by Citron Research. I didn’t think I’d have much to add to a stock analyst’s report that tends to be heavy on financial metrics and such, but it turns out that the Citron Research report is indeed worth … Read more
First of all, congratulations to Pete Flint and the team at Trulia for their successful IPO. Trulia is now TRLA on the NYSE. The environment wasn’t necessarily looking friendly for a real estate related IPO, but Pete and crew navigated it. So a heartfelt congratulations to you all. Second, the thing that’s great … Read more