T3 Insight

Zillow shutters iBuying, 2022 and strategy + tech brokerage fit

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 Zillow shutters iBuying, 2022 and strategy + tech brokerage fit. Take a deep dive below.

Released November 18, 2021

Zillow switches off the iBuying switch

by: Paul Hagey

How to make 2022 your best year ever

by: Dean Cottrill

How to find technology that best fits your real estate firm

by: Travis Saxton

What We're Reading

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

Douglas Elliman Real Estate to go public

Douglas Elliman, the nation’s sixth largest brokerage, is set to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the “DOUG” ticker as its public parent company, Vector Group, plans to spin it off as a separate company, likely by the end of the year. Vector Group Chairman Howard Lorber says operating as a standalone public company will give Douglas Elliman easier, more direct access to capital markets and allow it to tell a more focused marketing message without any entanglements with tobacco, the other major business operated by Vector Group.

Bloomberg

Prefab backyard homebuilder Cover raises $60M

Los Angeles-based Cover has raised $60 million to help fuel its service that builds one- and two-unit prefab homes for homeowners to place on their properties. These types of properties, also known as accessory dwelling units, will play a critical role in adding affordable housing, and housing period, as communities look to diversify their housing stock, cities look to add infill and housing demand outstrips supply.

The Real Deal

MLSs acquire Remine

Four MLSs – ACTRIS (Austin, Texas), First MLS (Atlanta), Heartland MLS (Kansas City) and Miami Realtors MLS (Miami) – created a joint venture in MLS Technology Holdings LLC to acquire MLS technology provider Remine. Remine had developed some innovative MLS technology products, but had dealt with reports of unprofessional conduct of leadership and had stumbled in recent months. The move by these MLSs reflects the desire of MLSs to take their future into their own hands and begin owning some of the technology infrastructure they rely on to provide services to brokers and agents.

HousingWire

Why people are leaving their jobs in droves

In August, a record 4.3 million Americans left their jobs, a growing trend that some are calling “The Great Resignation.” The pandemic has forced many to confront their lives on a deep level, and experts suggest this has contributed to professionals reevaluating their careers and making decisions to pursue opportunities and jobs they want now, rather than putting those feelings off.

CNBC

Housing starts stumble into Autumn

Housing starts stumble into Autumn In September, home starts fell by 1.6 percent from the previous month while the gap between completed homes and those under construction was the largest on record, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The drop in starts is unexpected as demand for homes remain very high. A Reuters poll had suggested that starts would instead rise in September, but rising prices for lumber and other building components have added some hurdles.

Reuters

Keller Williams Realty launches national expansion team

With a strategic investment in a Vermont-based Keller Williams Realty expansion team, the franchisor has launched a national mega team in Livian. Tailored to attract and support productive teams across the nation, KW has introduced a new team brand it hopes will become a significant player in this arena.

Businesswire

A critical analysis of the Clear Cooperation Policy

A critical analysis of the Clear Cooperation Policy Inman conducted a multipart investigative series on Clear Cooperation Policy, which NAR implemented in 2020. The policy, intended to curb property marketing that illegitimately circumvent the MLS, limits the ability for agents to market listings to a max of one business day before it goes active in the MLS. The series includes a discussion of how, in some markets, pocket listings continue at high rates. For example, one study reveals that the percentage of homes sold within a day of going active in the MLS (a sign that the home was actually sold before going live in the MLS) shot up in markets around the country after the Clear Cooperation Policy took effect. Irrespective of consumer benefit, brokerages and agents face big incentives with marketing homes off the MLS, a practice that has been commonplace for decades. As the industry looks to keep the integrity of the MLS intact, workarounds to the Clear Cooperation Policy as covered in this series make it clear that the practice is alive and well and will continue.

Inman

CoStar Group continues aggressive posture toward Zillow Group

CoStar Group continues aggressive posture toward Zillow Group Andy Florance, the founder and CEO of CoStar Group, which has aggressively jumped into the residential real estate portal arena with its recent purchase of Homesnap and Homes.com, has developed an aggressive tone toward Zillow Group. His recent interview with Brad Inman at Inman Connect revealed how he’s hoping to position his firm’s real estate play in relation to the nation’s dominant portal. A backdrop to the conversation was Homesnap’s October launch of a New York City portal, Citysnap, that will compete with Zillow-owned New York City portal StreetEasy. While Zillow Group sells advertising and leads to agents for placement on other agents’ listings, CoStar Group has a focused strategy of only placing the listing agent’s contact info on listings on its sites.

Inman

John L. Scott celebrates 90th anniversary

John L. Scott, the nation’s 15th largest brokerage led by J. Lennox Scott, the grandson of the firm’s founder, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2021. The company epitomizes the entrepreneur-led, family-owned character that has dominated the industry since World War II. Family-owned and -run companies like John L. Scott are becoming fewer and far between, especially at the largest brokerage tiers.

RISMedia

Coldwell Banker Bain, world’s largest Coldwell Banker affiliate, acquired

Bill Riss, owner of Seattle-based Coldwell Banker Bain, whose 2020 sales volume of $6.4 billion made it the nation’s 26th largest brokerage, has sold his firm to a subsidiary of real estate title giant Stewart Information Services Corp. Stewart is a global firm publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with, as of early November, a market cap of over $2 billion. This is another example of the industry’s entrepreneurial owners selling and transitioning the industry in general into one that is more corporately-owned and publicly traded.

425 Business