More on Nextdoor & Real Estate
Nextdoor recently launched an ad product targeted at agents. A couple weeks ago, they took the next step and added real estate sections to neighborhoods in select cities (greater Atlanta area, Austin, San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, and San Diego).
Much of the current product seems to be about helping agents showcase their listings. It’s no secret real estate listings are a valuable piece to engaging content to home owners — but I certainly don’t think Nextdoor wants to be, or should be, in the business of importing XML feeds from MLS’ and brokerages. There are of course several providers in this industry who they can license that data from — or they could partner with Zillow or Realtor.com.
I spoke with Nextdoor’s CEO Nirav during the Inman Connect conference, and he mentioned the core product would be focused around interacting with real estate professionals. That makes me think Zillow Advice or Trulia Voices, which is no easy competition. However, Nextdoor has leverage in terms of a huge base of users already engaging with the product regularly. Thus, they don’t really “need” the industry the way many real estate startups do.
From my article on commissions a few years ago, I mentioned:
An unlikely player that could emerge? NextDoor, since they are driving toward a daily use case for home owners — regardless of whether they are buying or selling. Zillow or Trulia could do it as well, but of course connecting buyers and sellers directly would cannibalize their entire business of connecting consumers with real estate professionals.
I don’t believe Nextdoor is going to head down the path to connecting home sellers with home buyers directly (certainly not anytime soon), never say never. That said, I’d be curious to know how much traffic Nextdoor actually has. One person on this thread says over 700,000 daily actives (which is higher than I expected). This article mentions “double digit millions” of users. If anyone has further details, please do share.
I still believe Zillow and Nextdoor are a match made in heaven, and that we’ll see a very strategic partnership between the two at some point.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 11:02h, 22 AugustI could see Nextdoor as a place where Realtors can answer neighborhood questions.
I guess they can show listings too, but Zillow, Trulia, and thousands of others already do a good job at that, so I am not sure if people will stop using their favorite website to view listings on Nextdoor, especially if a lot are missing.
I am on Nextdoor and get emailed daily on what is going on in the Neighborhood. I am not that active at posting but I do post if I have something to add.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 10:41h, 24 AugustYea, I agree — q&a convos with re pros does seem like a viable use case for Nextdoor.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 11:46h, 24 AugustTrue, but that method does seem like a slow way to get clients. So you recommend an electrician or painter and the person says thanks.
It still takes a lot more to find buyers and sellers and turn them into clients.
There are a lot of ways to get leads, and unless one can find a efficient way to get leads it can be very challenging, which is why so many licensed Realtors drop out.