T3 Insight

Nailing tech vendor contracts, the future of brokerage accounting systems + portals hunting rentals

Articles in this Edition

In this edition of T3 Insight, T3 Sixty's latest monthly analysis of the residential real estate brokerage industry includes articles on Nailing tech vendor contracts, the future of brokerage accounting systems + portals hunting rentals. Take a deep dive below.

Released May 26, 2021

5 emerging real estate accounting systems

by: Jonathan Peterson

Tech vendor contracts: the critical questions to ask to avoid pain and suffering

by: Travis Saxton

The portal rentals battle heats up

by: Paul Hagey

What We're Reading

In addition to the articles, here are a few items we are reading from across the internet.

Industry leaders provide insight at T3 Sixty’s think tank

Long-time major industry leader Joel Singer announces retirement

After 43 years with the California Association of Realtors, including 32 years as CEO, Singer has announced he’s retiring at the end of the year. Singer led the nation’s largest state association with savvy and an aggressive, innovative bent. He played a key role in the development of popular real estate form software zipLogix, which CAR’s for-profit subsidiary Real Estate Business Services developed (Singer led REBS as CEO as well for many years). In the annual ranking of the industry’s most powerful leaders, the SP 200, ranked Singer among the most powerful association execs in the industry since it launched.

The Orange County Register

JPAR acquired by Cairn Real Estate

Cairn Real Estate, run by Chairman and CEO Rick Davidson, and backed by private equity firm Aperion Management has a goal to acquire brokerages companies and build a new national real estate enterprise. Its first major acquisition occurred in May when Cairns acquired the brokerage JP and Associates Realtors together with the fast-growing JPAR franchise. Davidson previously served as president and CEO of Century 21 from 2010 to 2017.

Inman

Fathom Holdings acquires mortgage, insurance and lead generation platform

Another example of the power that the public markets gives companies – Fathom Holdings, public company parent of agent flat-fee brokerage Fathom Realty, acquired E4:9 Holdings, which has mortgage, insurance and marketing subsidiaries. Fathom will use the acquisition to build out its ancillary services.

Street Insider

Compass acquires real estate transaction management platform Glide

As Robert Reffkin said during the T3 Summit, going public is just a financing event, one that gives a companies the resources to invest in growth and scale. Acquisitions such as the one Compass made in digital transaction management startup Glide Labs in April represent an example of this. Compass has long marketed itself as a tech company, and it has leveraged its financing to make that story a reality with acquisitions of promising real estate tech startups like Glide, title startup Modus and popular CRM provider Contactually.

The Real Deal

The pandemic’s influence on US migration

An analysis by the New York Times of U.S. migration patterns reveals that most of the pandemic’s effect on moving had to do with movements from large metros to smaller ones. Aside from this trend, migration patterns in 2020 resembled those that had been forming over the last several years: namely that cities largely in the South and Southeast continued seeing net growth while more expensive metros in the West and Northeast saw an outflux. The pandemic undeniably changed how people work and live, which will have long-lasting impacts on communities throughout the country. As remote work has made some areas more accessible to workers, real estate demand has also spread out, which should create a more dispersed, geographically balanced industry.

New York Times

Another industry lawsuit: RE/MAX sues eXp Realty

In the latest industry lawsuit, RE/MAX uses eXp Realty, alleging the company improperly recruits agent and broker affiliates and alleges the company advertises “false and misleading information” about RE/MAX commission structure. These types of suits are not uncommon but they industry has begun to see a flurry of them as competition heats up among the giant companies at the top of the industry. A host of brokerages have sued Compass, discount brokerage REX has sued Zillow Group, the U.S. Department of Justice sued NAR, and the industry class-action antitrust commission-related lawsuits are still in court.

Inman

Lone Wolf acquires Lion Desk and HomeSpotter

After acquiring forms software provider zipLogix in 2019 and CMA developer W+R Studios in December 2020, Lone Wolf continued its real estate tech acquisition spree with the acquisition of both CRM Lion Desk and real estate digital marketing tech company HomeSpotter in May. Lone Wolf represents the increasing tech consolidation trend occurring in real estate, which is giving brokers and agents fewer tech providers to choose from but the ones they do have, now offer deep, well-rounded tech platforms that provider richer functionality.

Vendor Alley

US’s top 1,000 brokerages grew market share in 2020

The nation’s 1,000 largest brokerages increased their market share to 52.2 percent by 2020 sales volume, according to the 2021 Mega 1000. That represents a growth of 16.2 percent from their 2017 share. The U.S.’s 10 largest brokerages grew share at an even higher rate over that time period – increasing it 34.8 percent to 31.0 percent total share. T3 Sixty data continues to show, again and again, the largest companies in real estate are getting larger, and doing more business. The industry is in an arms race as the big aim to get bigger.

Inman

Rising lumber costs at $36K to home building costs

The pandemic forced lumber providers and suppliers to prepare for a construction freeze, but the subsequent torrent of activity after a brief pause surpassed expectations and left the building industry with much more demand than it could handle, and prices have risen accordingly, an estimated additional $36,000 cost for building a single-family home. Constructing new homes is one of the most direct ways the industry can balance the current strong sellers’ market, but this relief valve is hampered at the moment.

CNBC