Opinion
Zillow's experience shows that adding ancillary services is a long, slow road that requires big investment, patience, and a smart, consumer-first approach
Despite all of the activity of the major portals, the monetization ratio has remained constant
The various pieces of adjacent services are being built, but they still need to be assembled in a credible way that reinvents the transaction at a meaningful scale
Opinion
Attempting to directly compete with market-leading real estate portals is an incredibly difficult proposition — with success unlikely
The business model is undoubtedly here to stay, but not without its recovery challenges
Opinion
A deeper look at their rapid rise reveals a trio of insightful growth stories — which may very well shape the future of America’s real estate landscape
Opinion
Customer acquisition costs for major iBuyers is roughly similar at $3,000-$4,000, which is about 2-4X more than Redfin
Opinion
The point is that Zillow and Opendoor are actively losing money to gain market share, and if you're in the real estate industry, concerning yourself with disruptors willing to lose billions is a good use of time
Opendoor’s record-low selling costs dropped from 3% to 2.1%, which is likely the result of Opendoor continuing to push down buyer's agent commissions offered on its houses
Compass is losing less money per transaction as it scales, but it's still losing a lot of money, making a path to profitability uncertain
There is one significant risk — an achilles heel — to portals: They don’t control their inventory
Opinion
Our industry needs to better understand the economic equation of iBuying. The request is simple: Have an honest, upfront conversation about profitability
Opinion
The iBuyer market share and transaction volumes isn’t a failure of the model, but rather a result of it
Opinion
Disruption in real estate is being led by companies — and shareholders — willing to bet and lose billions of dollars
Does the success of the iBuyer model come at the expense of the traditional real estate structure?
Opinion
Most of the largest real estate disruptors are moving toward hiring agents for new brokerage services — that's nearly $35B in enterprise value pushing in this direction
In a highly contested and crowded field, the evidence suggests a long, difficult and uncertain road ahead
In response to the pandemic earlier this year, leading real estate portals reacted by rolling out discounts and new products. Now, the results are in — and here's the revenue impact
IBuyers are buying homes again but with a more cautious approach. Once they prove they can survive the pandemic, they’ll still have to overcome the challenge of profitability
The new listing volume data suggests that the harder the lockdown, the bigger the drop in new listing volumes — and the faster the recovery
