T3 Insight
Executive brief: articles and latest news
T3 Sixty’s monthly executive brief providing analysis on the most important trends and developments as well as a quick digest of the most notable news in the industry.
The industry has so many stories, blogs, press releases and announcements each month that we all struggle to digest the information and distinguish between truly meaningful developments and hype or advertisement.
With T3 Insight, T3 Sixty analyzes developing trends, provides new brokerage industry best practices, and creates new perspectives on recent developments in technology, leadership, and organized real estate, in a monthly executive brief. It helps executives understand how the industry is changing in real time.
Each monthly executive brief also includes a composite of latest news and current articles under the title “What We’re Reading.”
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
Have a question? Connect with our executive editor, Paul Hagey.
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Articles
Individual deep dive topics that T3 Sixty explores as part of the monthly executive brief
The articles listed here are an alternative view of the composite monthly brief. This offers an easy way to view recent, chronological, articles.
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October 2021
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The 2022 Swanepoel Trends Report, now in its 17th year, provides key insights and analysis of the most significant trends shaping the industry in what appears to be its most dynamic period in decades. This article presents some of what industry leaders an expect from the report.
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October 2021
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Technology has promised to make things simpler and more efficient for a long time now. In this article, T3 Sixty identifies some technology areas and products with which brokerages and teams are improving their efficiency and finding success.
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October 2021
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Realtor association executives play a critical role in administering the important services local Realtor associations missions, from serving members with training and education to advocacy and administering a multiple listing service. This article outlines the best practices Realtor associations should employ to hire successful executives.
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September 2021
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T3 Sixty ranks the residential real estate brokerage industry’s most powerful and influential leaders and executives. nominate a leader you feel is worthy.
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September 2021
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While real estate companies tout many potential applications, AI is actually in its relatively early stages in the industry
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September 2021
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Housing affordability has become a big challenge in communities throughout the U.S., as home prices rise, particularly at lower price points
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August 2021
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The large real estate brokerages and technology companies are getting even larger. And it is becoming more difficult to determine who owns whom when companies maintain the brands of some firms they acquire. This post summarizes the most significant brands operated some of the industry’s largest companies.
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August 2021
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Many real estate leaders are realizing that improving the diversity of their leadership teams support their corporate ideals, but they may not realize that it improves their bottom lines. In this article, we discuss the business case for improving diversity on real estate leadership teams
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August 2021
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Increasingly, the power of real estate technology does not lie with the systems brokers and teams use, but in how they use them. And perhaps nothing influences the way companies can use different technologies than the degree to which they integrate with each other. In this article, we outline the four main types of real estate integrations with examples of each.
What We’re Reading
Notable industry articles curated with T3 Sixty’s perspective
Every month T3 gathers most important news across all companies, brands and regions and created an executive summary for quick and easy review.
- Article avaiable on Inman
HomeSmart, the nation’s 10th largest brokerage and 12th largest franchise brand both by 2020 sales volume, has introduced a revenue-sharing option for its agents. Agents can choose to switch from the company’s existing compensation structure in which agents pay flat fees and keep all of their commissions to one in which they split commissions 80/20 with the company but then gain access to the company’s new revenue-sharing program based on them earning a share of revenue the agents they recruit to the company produce. With this program, dubbed HomeSmart Plus, HomeSmart looks to leverage a strategy eXp Realty used to fuel its spectacular growth in recent years. This move provides an example of how the industry is evolving as newer companies introduce popular features.
- Article avaiable on NBC News
Many factors are pulling homebuyers to different areas of the country, with prices as one of the largest considerations. For example, the 50 US counties facing highest heat risk saw 5 percent growth between 2016 and 2020. Texas, where temperatures frequently exceed 100 degrees for much of the summer, is one example. Covid-19 and remote work also plays a big role in the way Americans are moving. T3 Sixty covers this as a complete trend in the 2022 Swanepoel Trends Report, which comes out in early December. Available for preorder at t3trends.com
- Article avaiable on NAR
A 30-percentage point gap remains between the homeownership rate of white and Black Americans. Student loan debt plays a significant factor in this spread. At a median student loan debt of $40,000, Black homebuyers had the highest debt compared to white and Hispanic buyers, according to a NAR survey. This delays the homebuying efforts of Black Americans and plays a factor in them purchasing less expensive homes. The homeownership racial divide in America will take years to address. But organizations such as NAR, by producing studies that highlight the discrepancies and add information that can help influence change.
- Article avaiable on Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Howard W. Hanna, Jr., who founded the nation’s seventh largest brokerage Howard Hanna Real Estate in 1957, passed away in late September. He represents one of the entrepreneur leaders who shaped the industry into what the industry is today. His legacy continues with his children and grandchildren who continue to run his company today. Thanks, Howard, for all you did for us.
- Article avaiable on The Wall Street Journal
The significant home price increases in markets across the country have been scuttling transactions due to appraisal issues at higher-than-average rates. In August, 13 percent of the nation’s appraisals fell short of the contract price, according to CoreLogic data. That’s nearly double the standard rate of approximately 7 percent. The rise of alternative finance companies, which include iBuyers and the increasing number of companies who help buyers make the equivalent of all-cash offers with the ability to waive financing and appraisal contingencies, are increasingly removing barriers that have traditionally caused transactions to fall through. These AltFin companies, as T3 Sixty has dubbed them, are ushering in a real estate financing revolution, a trend featured in the 2022 Swanepoel Trends Report, available for order at t3trends.com.
- Article avaiable on HousingWire
After announcing an agreement to acquire the nation’s most popular showing software ShowingTime in February 2021, Zillow Group closed the acquisition formally on October 1. A review by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission delayed the closing. While the transaction has closed, however, an FTC review remains active. As we discussed in the Opendoor-related summary above, industry participants are beginning to grow and operate in new and different ways, including Zillow Group. With its ShowingTime acquisition, the company now owns the industry’s most used showing app, which many MLSs use exclusively; it also has launched brokerage services to power its Zillow Offers program, provides digital transaction management services through its dotloop subsidiary, and owns the nation’s largest real estate portal in Zillow. The industry is embarking on a new era, with companies operating in new ways.
- Article avaiable on Inman
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Opendoor’s advertising practices since August 2019, and in September 2021 the company reported that a potential settlement or FTC action is still possible. Details about exactly what the FTC is investigating were not disclosed. As AltFin companies and other brokerage industry participants innovating with newer business models, new messaging, consumer relationships and government scrutiny emerge. The fast-developing industry has many elements in flux now.
- Article avaiable on Vox
California passes a law that ended exclusive single-family home zoning in transit-rich and urban infill areas throughout the state. Until this law, it was illegal for property owners and builders to construct duplexes, triplexes, multifamily units or any other housing types on lots in areas zoned as single-family. Experts expect the impact of the new law will take time, but it signals a major step forward in making additional properties available for new-construction units, and a cultural shift toward encouraging increased housing density.
- Article avaiable on Inman
NAR’s MLS policy committee will consider several policies related to the U.S. Department of Justice’s review of NAR at its upcoming annual meeting in early November. These include the banning the word “free” for agents advertising their services to consumers and prohibiting the ability for agents to filter listings based on agent compensation. If the committee votes to send this for a vote and the NAR board of directors passes them, the changes would go into effect on January 1, 2022 with a March 1 implementation deadline. These proposed changes are just a few of many that the industry faces, thanks to lawsuits, DOJ and FTC review and more.
- Article avaiable on Inman
HomeServices of America is ending use of the Real Living real estate brand it took on in 2012, when it acquired a controlling interest in it and the Prudential Real Estate brand. In an email and video to Real Living franchisees obtained by Inman, Real Living CEO Allan Dalton said that the brands inability to realize growth caused the company to make the decision to sunset the brand. For years, HomeServices of America had been actively working to transition Real Living affiliates to the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand, which it introduced in 2013. Founded in 2002, the Real Living brand had over 2,800 agents who did over 28,000 transactions in 2020, making it the nation’s 19th largest brand by transaction sides that year, according to the Real Estate Almanac.