It sounds like the FTC is close to finalizing the Zillow-Trulia merger. Expected to close February 17th. Congrats to all my friends at both companies. Watching Zillow-Trulia battle the newly acquired Realtor.com run by News Corp will make for an interesting 2015 and 2016.

Take a peek: Keep. From my understanding, it’s a branded version of the home reports Zillow send (details). Smart approach. [H/T to Audie for the heads up on this one]

I’m not sure how many of you read Seth Godin. Those that do, know he recently wrote about the end of geography, and concluded with this statement: If you’re still betting on geography, on winning merely because you’re local, I hope you have a special…

This coming weekend in Seattle, Zillow is sponsoring a hackathon with participation from the White House, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and offering up a $10k grand prize for the winner. It was announced a couple weeks ago,…

Zillow purchased Trulia. News Corp purchased Realtor.com. Clearly, there are things happening in the real estate industry. Joel thinks 2015 will be a big year in real estate tech. I tend to agree. But is anything really really big happening? Perhaps a real estate industry moonshot? If…

If you read this blog, you likely know I’ve been working on Horizon for the better part of a year. The starting point is Couchsurfing/AirBnB within your own trusted network; but the long term vision is trusted contacts by location. We may be crazy, but we believe Horizon is…

Here’s a rough prediction for what will take the place in the listing syndication arena after the “ListHub-Zillow divorce” (for more analysis on the deal, read Rob Hahn’s thoughts here and here): Zillow will continue to invest in their listing management and reporting dashboard. Brokers & MLS’…

Some of you may have seen this NBPP (National Broker Public Portal) proposal: http://thedataadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/NBPP-Tech-Committee-Report-Saul-Klein.pdf A few thoughts: This just sounds like rebuilding Zillow, 10 years late. How exactly will such a portal attract buyers away from zillow/trulia? What’s different/unique? Note Cyberhomes for an example of how that…

Just in time for the holiday season, Redfin completed a $70.9 million round.

To build a real estate portal, the standard strategy is collect lots of listing data. Or you could try the “AVM abroad” strategy (Zillow for country X). I’ve written about data sources before (MLS listing data, public property data, and other free datasets). Unfortunately, virtually no country in the world has the required…