Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Industry Relations Podcast: CoStar Acquires Matterport, The photography wars

How will CoStar’s recent buyout of Matterport affect the industry? In this episode Rob and Greg dive into the recent acquisition of Matterport by CoStar and how Rob and Greg predicted this years ago. How will Zillow respond? And how will other industry giants such as Redfin be affected by this huge announcement?

They also talk about Realtor.com’s CEO, Damian Eales, and his plans to expand the portal’s offerings. But beyond the competition between these portals lies an important conversation about raising the bar in the industry and eliminating low-quality agents for the betterment of consumers. 

And what’s the next battleground in real estate? Buyer rep agreements will be crucial to differentiate between the showdown with good agents and bad agents.

Connect with Rob and Greg: 

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

Our Sponsors: 

Notorious VIP

This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2024.

Lisa Larson joins Percy.ai

PERCY.AI APPOINTS LISA LARSON AS CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

“In her new capacity, Larson will oversee the Percy Market Intelligence Platform, a proprietary tool that leverages machine learning to provide real-time market insights and pre-mover data to real estate professionals, mortgage loan officers and consumers. Her vision is set to maintain real estate professionals at the forefront of transactions, ensuring they remain central to the home buying process.”

Percy.ai

Congrats Lisa and Charles!

CoStar acquires Matterport (as predicted)

Matterport soars 187% after CoStar to buy company in a $1.6 billion deal

“The transaction, which is expected to be completed during the year, has been unanimously approved by the MTTR board.

“CoStar Group and Matterport have nearly identical mission statements of digitizing the world’s real estate. I look forward to welcoming Matterport to the CoStar Group family and believe that we will be stronger together, in pursuit of our common mission,” said CEO and founder of CoStar (CSGP) Andy Florance, Founder and CEO of CoStar Group

MTTR is headquartered in California and has ~440 employees, with FY revenue of $158 million.”

Sinchita Mitra, Seeking Alpha

Rob and I predicted this on a November 2022 Industry Relations Episode.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Top portal rivals show mutual support for buyer agency

“In a LinkedIn post, Zillow Co-founder and CEO Rich Barton drew attention to Eales’ “valuable thoughts” in the Wall Street Journal op-ed, but also reminded the industry that Zillow had previously launched its own effort — “Real Estate Rights for Consumers” — to show support for transparency in the industry and for buyer agency. “

AJ LaTrace, Real Estate News

Shocking. Two companies that sell buyer leads to agents agree that buyer’s agents are important.

No Equal

😢 Sad anniversary

The RESO kids are alright

Yup! I’ve been having major FOMO this week seeing all the posts of the Spring 2024 RESO Conference in Alabama. Even live band comprised of RESO members! But I think this shirt that Dan Troup, new CEO of BPP, is wearing perfectly captures that RESO vibe.

Trackxi chosen for NAR REACH program

Second Century Ventures Announces 8 Companies for 2024 REACH Scale-Up Program

“Companies accepted to the 2024 REACH program are as follows:

  • Chirpyest(link is external): a social commerce marketplace that empowers real estate professionals to earn cash back when they shop and share their curated finds.    
  • Final Offer(link is external): a consumer-facing, agent-driven negotiation platform for residential real estate, delivering clear, real-time offer alerts to all interested parties.
  • Kukun(link is external): a real estate data, analytics and applications platform for homeowners and the industries that serve them.
  • Notable(link is external): simple pay-at-close financing for everything a client needs to prep their home for sale and get the most out of it.
  • Purlin(link is external): AI tools that convert client conversations into transactions by simplifying business dealings among real estate agents and settlement service providers.
  • Scout(link is external): helping agents find and engage homeowners with AI-driven automated personalized email outreach. 
  • Trackxi(link is external): a collaborative deal and task tracker for real estate agents, teams, clients and consumers.
  • Unlock(link is external): helping consumers unlock the power of home equity without interest charges or monthly payments.”
NAR REACH

No small feat. Out of 1000+ companies considered, 100+ applications, Trackxi is among the final 8 companies chosen for this great opportunity. Congrats to Vijay and his team! Good things ahead!

CubiCasa hits 15% milestone of US floor plans

CubiCasa Surpasses Key Milestone with Floor Plans Included on 15% of New Listings in the US

“More than 15% of new listings in the U.S. now include a CubiCasa floor plan, a mark that is more than 700% higher than the 2% mark they recorded just two years ago when the company’s mission was in its infancy. Additionally, the number of CubiCasa scans performed for U.S. real estate customers in 2024 is nearly triple the rate it was during the same period a year ago.”

CubiCasa

700% higher in two years is amazing! I’ve been writing about CubiCasa and floor plans for years now. I think floor plans are the next aerial photos/maps. As Jeff Allen said in the press release.

“Floor plans are the single-best digital asset on a real estate listing because they provide consumers with a clear understanding of whether the home is the right fit for them,”

Jeff Allen, President of Cubicasa

If you add CubiCasa’s success to the Zillow and other portals efforts to “showcase” listings you can see a tipping point coming soon. Congrats to Jeff and his team.

Paragon Connect [Sponsor]

My thanks to Paragon Connect for sponsoring this month’s Vendor Alley. Paragon Connect is the latest and greatest version of the popular Paragon MLS system. In my podcast with Lucie Fortier at ICE we talked about how they started by adopting the Material UI design system, created by Google, and reimagined an MLS system. Check out the video below for a peak of its clean interface.

Learn about Paragon Connect’s new all-in-one dashboard, power and near me search, and many other features at this website. My thanks again to Paragon Connect.

This is a teenager

You gotta check this site out. Just start scrolling when you get to the site. Love this blending of storytelling, data analysis. I would love to see this type of data visualization be used when we talk about housing.

Sponsored By MLS Reset