“I’m thrilled to welcome BoomTown to the Inside Real Estate family!” said Joe Skousen, CEO, Inside Real Estate. “I commend Grier and the BoomTown team for what they have built and accomplished with their clients over the past 15 years. Our companies share a common DNA that is focused on driving real results for every client, every day. Together, we will deliver an unmatched experience for every user from single agents, to top performing teams and mega teams, to robust national enterprise brands. Our #1 job is being a tech partner to our clients – this combination reinforces that commitment.”
This has got to be a huge deal. But I can’t help but wonder how much bigger it would have been if they closed a year ago.
“When we looked at VHT Studios and the work they do, it was a natural fit to unite our efforts to reimagine the fragmented process that was in place for brokers and agents to list properties and prospective buyers to view them,” says Matterport CEO RJ Pittman. “We are not only excited for how we can transform the customer experience in the real estate industry but also how we can apply VHT Studios’ expertise to our growing enterprise business as demand for digital twin technology continues to surge.”
Smart. Zillow was ordered to pay VHT Studios2 million dollars for copyright infringement. Much less than VHT was originally asking for. I wonder if VHT (now Matterport) will appeal that ruling.
“With the most geographically expansive and growing reach in the state, NCRMLS represents 9,150 REALTORS® and Appraisers, with a major footprint currently covering 315 cities and towns in 27 counties. These new partnerships will expand NCRMLS’s reach to 361 Cities and Towns in 31 counties, representing some 10,300 REALTORS® and Appraisers, encompassing over 38 percent of the Tar Heel State.”
Somehow I missed this news earlier in the month. Inman News has a good article on some of the history of the organization and where it’s headed.
“The statement describes NCRMLS as a “wholesale cooperative” multiple listing service (MLS), which means that its data and resources can be used to power other Realtor organizations as well as other MLSs. Prior to this week’s partnership announcement, NCRMLS already had relationships with more than a dozen Realtor associations and MLSs in North Carolina.”
“Our goal is to bring the time-honored tenets of the real estate world into the present with a modern, innovative, and connected technology platform that makes it simpler for people—and the professionals who serve them—to buy and sell homes. Serving over 1.5 million agents, 15,000 brokerages, over 900 MLSs and associations in North America, boasting nearly 650 employees with hundreds of cumulative years of experience, and offering the most trusted solutions in the industry involved in over 75% of all real estate transactions the US and Canada, Lone Wolf is the only company with the reach, size, and technology that can make this happen.”
Chris Egan, Chief Strategy Officer for Lone Wolf
5 acquisitions in 9 months. Unprecedented.
While there is a ton of money out there trying to disrupt traditional brokers and agents, Lone Wolf is doing the opposite, putting all their chips on brokers and agents to win.
I was already a big fan of Propertybase. Cloud CMA was a popular option to include with their standard Bold Leads product and Boston Logic (now Propertybase). Good products and good people.
“Elm Street Technology, LLC (“Elm Street Technology”), a leading provider of residential real estate technology and marketing solutions, today announced the acquisitions of Morris Real Estate Marketing Group (“Morris Marketing”), and IXACT Contact Solutions (“IXACT”), specialists in marketing solutions and repeat and referral lead generation conversion technology across the Canadian real estate sector. Both the acquisitions of Morris Marketing and IXACT complements and expands Elm Street’s Elevate platform, which provides an end-to-end suite of real estate technology and marketing services.”
Vendor consolidation continues. Now United States companies are buying Canadian companies? Things are getting out of control! ????
Congrats to Elm Street and the great people at IXACT and Morris Marketing.
“Lone Wolf Technologies (“Lone Wolf”) is excited to announce the acquisitions of two leading real estate technology companies, LionDesk and HomeSpotter. With these acquisitions, Lone Wolf’s end-to-end technology suite now encompasses digital marketing, lead generation, customer relationship management (CRM), showings, comparative market analysis (CMA), digital forms and signatures, transaction management, back office and accounting, business insights, and recruiting. These solutions form the most comprehensive digital technology suite for agents, brokers, MLSs, and associations in real estate today. “
Well, we might not be physically at the NAR Midyear meetings, but I’ve got to think this is one of the biggest announcements during NAR Midyear in a while.
I’ve written about our decision to sell W+R Studios and how we thought that a CMA was a natural fit to what Lone Wolf was trying to accomplish. You can call it end-to-end digital solutions or just simply software that works together. In this way, the acquisitions of Lion Desk and HomeSpotter also make perfect sense. And hopefully, this won’t cause too much consternation with our mutual partners since Lone Wolf has no aspirations of becoming an MLS participant. ????
Dan and I are also excited to work directly with David Anderson and Aaron Kardell and their teams. I know both of them and admire the companies they have built and the software they have created. I’ve interviewed both of them on my Listing Bits podcast. You can listen to my interview with David here and Aaron here.
It will be great to have these two industry leaders part of the Lone Wolf team.
“Sacramento, California-based MetroList Services, which has about 21,500 subscribers, acquired the Sutter Yuba Association of Realtors MLS at the end of 2020, adding four counties to its footprint. The deal is part of a multi-year trend of consolidation among MLSs looking to provide better services and achieve economies of scale for their agent, broker and appraiser members.”
All I really wanted to do with this post is wish Bill Miller a Happy Birthday! Bill has been a great friend and supporter over many years, and I can’t wait to see him and the rest of the MetroList gang again soon.
“Northern California real estate brokers, agents, and appraisers now have one-stop single-login access to thousands of listings throughout 22 counties* spanning from the Greater Bay Area and Silicon Valley, reaching as far south as Monterey County, and up through the Central Valley to Sacramento and Nevada”
For almost as long as I’ve been in real estate there have been several initiatives to organize a way for MLS providers in Northern California to properly share MLS data. MLS Alliance, Mercado, just to name a couple. They have all failed in one way or another. But here we are. This is a truly remarkable achievement. Hats off to these MLS providers and their leadership.
• BAREIS MLS
• Bay East Association of REALTORS®
• bridgeMLS
• Contra Costa Association of REALTORS®
• MetroList®
• MLSListings
• San Francisco Association of REALTORS
One thing I find myself saying a lot is something akin to “we can do anything you want technology-wise, its the politics that get in the way.” But in this case the tech was a bit of a bear as well. This “cross pollination” strategy wasn’t easy.
“The NORCAL MLS Alliance unites four separate MLS operating systems and databases—Rapattoni, Black Knight’s Paragon, dynaConnections’ connectMLS System, and CoreLogic’s Matrix systems—in which each respective MLS maintains its existing platforms and protocols. While the transition will be a complex technical feat, NORCAL MLS Alliance staff have spent months testing, planning, and preparing for a smooth and successful launch on January 20, 2021”
They say the pandemic hasn’t started new trends, just accelerated existing ones. I’m hoping to have a podcast episode with some of the players to really do a proper deep dive. Also hoping to see these same players speaking at upcoming conferences telling their stories about making this achievement happen.
“The new moniker reflects “its members’ tenacity for action in the present moment,” MLS Now said Wednesday in a press release. The rebranding does not come with operational changes, though the MLS made the announcement with an eye toward future growth. Yes MLS was formed in 2018 when Cleveland area-based Northern Ohio Regional MLS (NORMLS) and Akron-based Centralized Real Estate Information Service (CRIS) dissolved to form a new, consolidated company that would serve 36 counties in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.”
If consolidation is what they looking towards, then NOW is the time. See what I did there? ????
