Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Is WestsideRentals.com a scam?

lgsANMFcWSKJtD3q4MzR3k9PQtpnfKnMJd0EejKTgjgSomeone I work with is looking to rent a home. They pulled up a rental listing on their trusty realtor.com iPhone app. Right area, right price range, perfect. So they give the company (WestsideRentals) a call. The person on the other end of the call said that in order to get anymore information or see the home they needed to buy a membership to their company.

Really?

My question is this, is this common practice nowadays with rental listings? Does realtor.com (or any of the other portals) allow this “pay to see more” type of rental listings?

DOORSTEPS SWIPE

SWIPEI got a chance to preview and now playing around with a fun app called SWIPE, created by Michele Serro’s team at DOORSTEPS. DOORSTEPS was was acquired by MOVE last year.

The premise is easy, you are presented with a single property photo and the street address. If you like the home you swipe the photo the left in you “PASS” on the home, or swipe to the right to “SAVE” a home. It also aggregates statistics about your preferences. Like I said, easy peasy.

It reminds me of the old website “Hot or Not”, and I’m told mimics a new popular app, Tinder (which for martial reasons I have chosen not to install on my phone). : )

The design is exquisite. Too me it functions basically as a triage for choosing homes.

If I had one quibble it would be that I would rather have the price, beds, and bath on the main screen. I found myself tapping on every photo for more detail. One photo and an address were not enough for me to give a decision to “Pass” on the house or “Save” it for later. Having said that I fear adding too much to the screen might make the app less fun.

I love the fact MOVE is releasing stuff like this. More please! Real estate needs to be more fun. Great job Michele!

Industry relations….

NAR just sent out this message to its membership.

“NAR: We stand with those who respect our Realtor® members
NAR is joining a lawsuit filed by MOVE Inc., against Zillow and new Zillow Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson. In addition to NAR and MOVE, the plaintiffs include RealSelect, Inc., Top Producer Systems Company, and Realtors® Information Network, Inc.

NAR’s relationship with MOVE and realtor.com® is based on a mutual respect for Realtors® and their efforts to bring online home buying and selling resources to consumers, and the defendants named in the lawsuit have not demonstrated that same respect.”

If Zillow’s intentions of hiring Errol and now Curt was to improve industry relations it sounds like the plan may have backfired. Time will tell.

Errol Samuelson leaves for Zillow

Holy shit, things just got real.  If you haven’t heard the news Errol Samuelson, former President of REALTOR.com and chief strategy officer for MOVE, Inc. just announced he left to join Zillow as their Chief Industry Development Officer.  Details are sketchy but here’s what I’ve been able to dig up.

1.  It was a total blindside.  Not even Errol’s closest friends knew.
2.  This represents a tectonic shift in the industry.  Unlike like the other poaching that Zillow and Trulia have been doing this represents a whole other level.  Brilliant move by Zillow.
3.  I don’t think it was just about money.  But I’ll save that analysis for another post.

From a larger sense I think that Zillow was losing ground to Trulia. To me Trulia was winning the “industry friendly” game.  Zillow didn’t seem to care, hell I don’t think I know anyone that thinks Bemis got a fair shot.  That has cost them.  Seems that industry relations does matter and Zillow is coming back around to understand that.

But the more interesting narrative I think is this, what does Errol know, that we don’t know?  This kind of move doesn’t happen without something else lurking out there.  And that’s the real story.

 

Developing….

 

UPDATE:

Move, Inc. Announces Curt Beardsley Has Been Promoted To Executive Vice President Of Industry Development; Errol Samuelson Resigns

MOVE/Realtor.com looking for Chief Economist.

“Move and realtor.com has an exciting opportunity for a Chief Economist responsible for developing and translating real estate data and trends into consumer and industry insights for a variety of audiences.

Our ideal candidate has a strong background in economics and analytics and other appropriate disciplines. You are comfortable speaking and presenting diverse material with influential audiences in various stages of the home ownership life cycle, the financial press, academics and agencies.”

 

Read more about it on the Vendor Alley Job Board

ListHub launches an online “Reference Guide”

bill stack

This ought to clear things up: ListHub Reference Guide

Why doesn’t MOVE just shut down ListHub?

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu

I had many great side conversations at last week’s Inman Connect in New York City. One of them imagines the premise that MOVE shutdowns ListHub.

Think about the consequences. It would basically cut off the largest source of listing data for Trulia and Zillow. At the same time Realtor.com would immediately become the largest single source of all listing data in the United States.

It also puts brokers back in the driver’s seat. For Trulia and Zillow to compete they would now have to do a full court press to brokers for data. Think about it, who would have the leverage in those conversations?

Brillant or batshit crazy?

ListHub says the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

Lots of chatter about Austin and Northern Alabama leaving ListHub. So what’s a company to do? Issue a press release!

ListHub Surpasses 2012 Growth Rate with 36 New MLS Customers in 2013

Although I did find this tid bit interesting…

“Several MLSs had previously used alternate methods to support members’ listing syndication, such as the Corpus Christi Association of REALTORS® (CCAR). After two years of managing syndication for their members independently, CCAR has returned to the ListHub network with a new agreement to provide listing syndication and metrics to their broker and agent members.”

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