Trulia to acquire Market Leader – And then there was one.

Posted on May 8, 2013

Trulia to Acquire Market Leader

“The combined company will have approximately 46,000 premium subscribers, more than any other online real estate marketplace. The transaction will result in a combined platform that creates value for the entire real estate market, from consumers to brokerages, agents and franchisors, and will create the most comprehensive end-to-end solution across multiple technology platforms in the real estate industry today.”

So smart on so many different levels. I’ve a ton of respect for Ian Morris and his team at Market Leader. They had some tough times (haven’t we all) but has managed to carve a nice niche in the business. I think this is a great deal for the management, employees and shareholders. They’ve got a new ticket in the race.

Some other things I can see right off the bat make this very interesting.

1. Market Leader has deals with Keller Williams (eEdge) and Century 21 to provide CRM services. A fertile ground for other Trulia products to grow.
2. Market Leader has a ton of experience selling to agents. Trulia is doing well but will benefit from this type of experience moving forward.
3. Market Leader owns Active Rain, which is still a hive agents seem to buzz around, which means more opportunity.

And those are just off the top of my head. Huge congrats to Ian, his team and everyone at Trulia. With Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia online real estate is fun race to watch!

UPDATE: The other piece I can’t believe I forgot was RealEstate.com. The site has been controversial but from what I hear Trulia has no plans to continue the site under it’s current model.

Categories: Market Leader, Trulia

Facebook Home, the Cuckoo’s Egg

Posted on April 9, 2013

Smart analysis from Matt Drance about Facebook’s new “family of apps” called Home.

Home Turf

“Facebook Home is a trojan horse designed to steal the Android experience, and the Android user base, right out of Google’s hands. The majority of speculation over the last year or two had been that Facebook was working on its own mobile OS. It may well be, but this move is so much smarter on a number of fronts:”

My only quibble is that I think a “Cuckoo’s Egg” is a better metaphor than “Trojan Horse”.

From Word Spy.

“This phrase comes from the bizarre actions of the cuckoo bird, which lays an egg and then leaves it in the nest of another bird species. The egg is incubated and hatched by the other bird, which even feeds the resulting chick as if it were her own. The cuckoo chick will even go so far as to forcibly remove the other chicks from the nest, leaving itself as the sole beneficiary of the food provided by the mother bird.”

Categories: Social Media

Trulia filling war chest for possible acquisitions in real estate.

Posted on March 11, 2013

Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch:

“Get ready for some more M&A activity in the real estate sector. This morning, the real estate search engine Trulia announced that it is looking to raise up to $100.3 million $150 million in a follow-on offering, with “some or all of such net proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products, services, technologies, or other assets.” Trulia went public last year, and currently has 23.6 million monthly active users. Update: today’s follow-on filing is an amendment that includes the partial release of some shares owned by “certain officers and directors of the company” that were previously locked up. A spokesperson says that it is for $150 million, with $100 million going to company reserves.”

I was at a real estate conference a couple weeks ago where a member of Zillow’s team said that at a company meeting they announced that they were not doing any acquisitions this year (2013).

Categories: Trulia, Zillow

Review roundup of new Realtor.com redesign

Posted on March 5, 2013
rdc_final

Thought I would put together some of the reviews for Realtor.com new site redesign.

First up is your truly on from Vendor Alley: Realtor.com gets it groove on.

“Whoa! Was my first reaction. Lower case typeface, new color scheme, simply clean look and feel. Is this MOVE? How did NAR approve this? Everyone knows its “REALTOR” not “realtor”…..So overall I have to say I love it. Looks like a promise of some great things to come. Kudos to everyone at MOVE!”

From Inman News: New Realtor.com branding downplays ties to NAR

“Realtor.com has rebranded with a new logo, slogan and website design that the listing portal’s operator, Move Inc., hopes will “bring sentiment and warmth to our best-in-class data” and help consumers “connect emotionally” to the site, which has lost ground to competitors Zillow and Trulia.”

GeekEstate: Realtor.com’s New Digs: Getting Slim and Cozy

“As Andrew Strickman, VP of Brand and Creative put it, “Our new logo, typography, and tagline amplify the human connection between consumers and the emotional process of finding or selling a home.”

Industry consultants WAV Group also chimed in: Move releases the new Realtor.com Brand

“Presumably they had the additional challenge of NAR review, since the REALTOR brand comes through the license agreement. It is an interesting challenge to blend someone another company brand into your brand. I think that O’Connor and team did a great job. I like it.”

Categories: National Association of REALTORS, Realtor.com, Review

Trulia posts record revenue, but loss higher than expected.

Posted on February 12, 2013

Trulia Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Results
Rapid increase in mobile traffic and strong subscriber growth

Pete Flint:

“2012 was a milestone year for Trulia,” said Pete Flint, Chief Executive Officer of Trulia. “We helped a record number of consumers find a great place to live, while connecting over 24,400 subscribers with those transaction-ready consumers. We finished the year on a resounding note, achieving record quarterly revenue, a rapid increase in mobile traffic, and strong subscriber growth. We are well positioned to grow in 2013 as the real estate market continues its recovery.”

20.6 million in revenue, and a net loss of 1.59 million. I’m not a Wall Street analyst but color me impressed by their revenue. Part of this is because Q4 has been traditionally tough time for the residential real estate market. Its tough to reach agents during this time because they tend to go in to hiding after Thanksgiving. It will be interesting to see how these numbers compare with Zillow (which come out tomorrow).

Categories: Trulia

Redfin opens the kimono on real estate deals

Posted on February 8, 2013

Redfin Publishes Thousands of Real-Time Insights on What It Takes to Win A Bidding War

“But Offer Insights is more than just a way to guide Redfin customers on how much to pay for a home. It’s part of a strategy based on our unique identity as a real estate broker and a software company. Unlike a pure online real estate company, Redfin employs our own agents in neighborhoods across 20 major American markets, working with thousands of buyers and sellers every month. This allows us to capture real-time information about every neighborhood from local folks on the ground.”

I encourage you to read the whole post, it does a great job of thoughtfully explaining this new feature. It is also an example of great writing.

Coverage aside, you have to list Redfin as one of the top real estate portals on the web. Their unique model, as described above, is driving a lot of innovation in the real estate industry, especially as it relates to data. This latest enhancement, Offer Insights, is another example why.

At a certain age we all be obsessed about real estate. We love hearing about what the home down the street sold for, visiting Open Houses (whether we are in the market or not), even looking at houses on the internet has been described as “property porn”. Redfin latest offering taps in to that obsession, and now peels away another layer, how the deal went down. Brilliant.

Categories: Redfin