Looks like brokerages/franchises are going down the instant offers path in order to help their agents win more listings (as I guessed). ERA is joining the mix (Inman coverage here) that includes Zillow, Redfin, Opendoor, Easyknock, and OfferPad (and others). PS: I found the following video…

You may have seen the news that Nextdoor is releasing a new feature allowing agents to advertise themselves and their properties on the Nextdoor website (Inman coverage). I think they’ll learn what we learned at Zillow early on: self serve for agents doesn’t really work. (maybe,…

Fifth Wall, a VC firm based in LA that has raised over $200M, is entering real estate accelerator game (see TechCrunch). The program’s goal: Fifth Wall’s Accelerator Program is a 12-month program designed to help early-stage companies: (1) get introduced to real estate companies and potential customers,…

I spent some time looking at TruePad, a real estate portal only available in Chicago (Inman coverage here). “Find the best valued homes”. I like it. Unlike the majority of approaches I see (aka search for home in city X), that actually seems like a differentiated value…

There was news about HomeKit this week, which I’m sure is going to be a major player in the connected-smart home market over time. Apple has added interactive HomeKit experiences to 46 retail stores worldwide. Game changing news? Certainly not. But more foot traffic experiencing…

Zillow made their first financial “investment”. $10 million in Hutch. It’s clear Zillow is a just a tad interested in the home improvement space. It seems they feel the need to make another bet other than Zillow Digs (which I’ve long been a fan of) against Houzz (and…

Amazon supposedly has their sights on real estate (via HousingWire). From a brand perspective, how far away is Amazon from being thought of as the “place to go to find a local contractor”? Really far. How far away are they from being thought of as…

NAR has a few new commercials focused on home ownership (see here to watch the videos and here for Inman coverage) . After watching the commercials, I still wonder… What exactly does being a Realtor mean? Why do I need a Realtor to own a…

Rob Hahn has some follow up thoughts on Redfin’s coming IPO as it relates to brokerages that I’d highly recommend reading (if you care about such things as the future of brokerages). A few of my own thoughts… 1. In Seattle, I’ve heard two primary things about…

In our latest real estate tech entrepreneur interview, we’re speaking with the founder Andrew Weinberger of LeaseHop. Without further ado… What do you do? I’m Andrew and I’m the founder of LeaseHop. LeaseHop is a NYC based real estate marketplace that is focused on improving…