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Industry Relations

This is Industry Relations, a podcast that is at the intersection of real estate and technology from an insider’s perspective. Hosted weekly by Rob Hahn (The Notorious ROB) and Greg Robertson.
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Now displaying: February, 2021
Feb 25, 2021

Zillow has been consumer-centric since its inception in 2006. And in the early days, the tech company didn’t pay much attention to agents. Now Zillow realizes that reducing friction for consumers means helping agents respond to online leads and schedule showings, for example. But is it too late to earn the industry’s trust?

 

Errol Samuelson is the Chief Industry Development Officer at Zillow Group. With 25 years of experience in proptech, he served in leadership roles at Realtor.com, Top Producer Systems and Move, Inc. before joining Zillow in 2014. On this episode of Industry Relations, Errol sits down with Rob and Greg to explain why Zillow is acquiring ShowingTime and explore what’s behind the industry’s volatile reaction to the announcement.

 

Errol discusses the real estate industry’s distrust of Zillow, acknowledging the frustration the tech company has caused over the years and assuring us that his team will not misuse ShowingTime data. Listen in to understand how Errol thinks about CoStar as a competitor and learn why he believes an industry without cooperation and compensation is not good for agents, brokers or consumers.

 

What’s Discussed: 

 

Why the real estate industry went apeshit over Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime

Zillow’s assurance that ShowingTime will remain an open platform with a strict privacy policy

What problem Zillow is trying to solve by acquiring ShowingTime

Errol’s insight on the rumor that Zillow bought ShowingTime to keep it out of CoStar’s hands

How Errol thinks about the fact that people assume Zillow is lying

Errol’s acknowledgement of the frustrations Zillow has caused agents over the years and how the company’s behavior may have amplified the industry’s distrust

The possibility that social class and age are a factor in the industry’s mistrust of Zillow

The focus of Zillow’s Q4 earnings call (Zillow Offers vs. streamlining the consumer experience overall)

Why innovation in the lending space is limited by federal regulations

The unique opportunity Zillow has to innovate around ownership models

Errol’s thoughts on CoStar as a competitor and why CoStar’s success hinges on the government putting an end to cooperation and compensation

Connect with Errol:

Errol at Zillow

Errol on LinkedIn

Errol on Twitter

 

Connect with Rob and Greg: 

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

 

Resources:

Rob’s Post on Zillow, ShowingTime & Paranoid Realtors

Zillow’s Press Release on Acquiring ShowingTime

ShowingTime

Steve Murray at REAL Trends

CoStar News

Greg on Twitter

Zillow’s Q4 2020 Earnings Call

Zillow Offers

Nick Bailey at RE/MAX

Gary Keller’s 2021 Family Reunion Vision Speech Recap

Trulia

Dotloop

Jay Thompson on Inman

Susan Daimler at Zillow

Rob’s 2020 List of the Seven Most Interesting People in Real Estate

Zillow Home Loans

Divvy

Federal Regulations on Mortgage Finance

REA Group

Andrew Florance at CoStar

Rob’s CoStar Red Dot Report

CoStar’s Q4 2020 Earnings Call

Rob’s Interview with Joe Rand

 

Our Sponsors: 

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Feb 24, 2021

As the real estate industry has evolved, we’ve been trained to focus on who owns the data. And Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime has many concerned about sharing their data with the proptech giant. But what if hoarding your data is not the only way to compete with a company like Zillow? What if it’s not really about access to the data but what you do with it?

Nick Bailey is the Chief Customer Officer at RE/MAX. With nearly 25 years of industry experience, Nick served as an agent, broker and proptech vendor before becoming the head of a major real estate franchise. On this episode of Industry Relations, Nick joins Rob and Greg to share his take on Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime and what’s behind the industry’s emotionally-charged reaction.

 

Nick offers insight on how the data Zillow acquired was already publicly available, explaining why that information doesn’t necessarily give the tech company a competitive advantage and reminding us that it’s not unusual for companies at scale to offer various products and services to the industry at large. Listen in for Nick’s perspective on what we can do to improve the process of buying or selling a home for consumers and find out why you shouldn’t panic about Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime.

What’s Discussed: 

Nick’s background as an agent, broker, tech vendor and head of a major real estate franchise

Why Nick sees Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime as one tech company acquiring another to make the process of buying and selling homes easier for consumers

How ShowingTime’s market share influenced the industry’s emotionally-charged reaction to its acquisition

Nick’s argument that the data Zillow has acquired was already publicly available

How Nick addresses the objection that the ShowingTime acquisition forces agents and brokers to provide Zillow with a competitive advantage

How it’s not unusual for companies at scale to offer various products and services (e.g.: RE/MAX’s acquisition of Motto Mortgage)

What Nick is doing to educate agents around the spirit of cooperation in the industry

How Nick thinks about whether Zillow is a RE/MAX competitor

What the real estate industry can do to improve the fragmented process of buying or selling a home

Nick’s insight on what differentiates RE/MAX in a competitive industry that includes a growing number of iBuyers

The trend toward a greater concentration of power among fewer agents and how that might contribute to the panic around Zillow

Nick’s advice for MLS, franchisor and large brokerage CEOs on using data to identify trends and create contingency plans accordingly

 

Connect with Nick:

 

Nick at RE/MAX

Nick on LinkedIn

 

Connect with Rob and Greg: 

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

Resources:

ShowingTime’s Press Release on Its Acquisition by Zillow

Nick’s Video on Zillow’s Acquisition of ShowingTime

Market Leader

Rob’s Post on Zillow, ShowingTime & Paranoid Realtors

First App

Steve Murray at REAL Trends

Motto Mortgage

NAR Code of Ethics

We Are RE/MAX on Facebook

Brad Inman’s Piece on Zillow & ShowingTime

Gary Keller’s 2021 Family Reunion Vision Speech Recap

The Art of the CMA: Win Hearts, Minds, and Loyalty by Mastering Real Estate’s Most Versatile Tool by Greg Robertson 

Dave Liniger at RE/MAX

 

Our Sponsors: 

 

Cloud Agent Suite

Notorious VIP

Feb 22, 2021

Zillow’s Economic Research Team just released its forecast for 2021, and they expect it to be the best year for home sales since 2005. In fact, Zillow’s number crunchers believe that a whopping 6.8M existing homes will close next year, marking the biggest one-year gain in sales (nearly 22%!) since the early 1980’s.

 

Jeff Tucker is a Senior Economist at Zillow Research where he studies the causes and consequences of changing supply in the housing market. On this episode of Industry Relations, Jeff joins Rob and Greg to discuss the inputs his team used to make its predictions for 2021 and describe how current growth differs from what we saw at the height of the bubble in 2005.

Jeff offers insight around the demographics of who’s buying and selling homes right now, sharing his take on why the low millennial marriage rate may not impact the housing market as much as we think and how feasible it is for young, working-class Americans to afford homeownership. Listen in to understand how COVID facilitated the single-family home inventory crash and get an economist’s perspective on why the housing market will stay hot through 2021.

What’s Discussed: 

The inputs Jeff’s team used to predict that 6.8M existing homes will close in 2021

How current growth differs from what we saw at the height of the bubble in 2005

The decrease in the share of income spent on mortgages since 2018

Why the iBuyer’s mission to create a frictionless experience is so important moving forward

Jeff’s insight around the demographics of who’s buying and selling homes

The distinction between family and household formation

Why the low millennial marriage rate may or may not impact the housing market

How COVID facilitated a single-family home inventory crash

Why Jeff sees appreciation slowing down by the end of 2021

Jeff’s take on the feasibility of homeownership for working-class millennials

How the skyrocketing US money supply might impact the real estate market

 

Connect with Jeff:

 

Zillow Research

Jeff at Zillow

Jeff on Twitter

 

Connect with Rob and Greg: 

 

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

 

Resources:

 

Lone Wolf Technologies

Zillow’s Forecast for 2021

NAR Data on Single Women Home Buyers

Pew Research on Millennials & Marriage

 

Our Sponsors: 

 

Cloud Agent Suite

Notorious VIP

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