The Insider: Issue 013
September. How did that happen? Welcome back after what we hope was a long, restful weekend. As we pack up the summer camping gear and break out the pumpkin spice, there’s lots to discuss, so let’s get going.
Last Week This Week
HomeLight raised $100 million in cash and $263 million in debt last week, at a $1.6 billion dollar valuation.
This company may be slightly outside your range of vision. They’ve never sponsored Inman, or shown up on the cover of RISMedia. They’ve done lots of cable TV advertising. Direct mail. Tons of PPC. But have definitely avoided our industry buzz factory.
So let’s talk about them a bit.
HomeLight started out 8 years ago as an agent matching site funded by Google Ventures. It was both controversial and compelling. HomeLight was a straight-up “paper broker,” a company with licenses, no agents, and full access to MLS data.
This allowed them to lift the veil on historical sales to create a compelling home seller proposition: See which agents are actually doing the business in your area, for your type of home.
While the “portals” focused on listing aggregation to build an audience, HomeLight offered the inside scoop on agents. The leads generated from this mix of content and audience were (and are) passed to agents at other brokerages for a referral fee.
The business seemed to grow steadily but slowly. But then the world changed. iBuyers. Cash offer startups. The tidal wave of investment dollars aimed at remaking, once and for all, the notoriously gnarled real estate transaction.
HomeLight jumped in, raised a bunch of new money, and expanded the scope of its business considerably. They acquired a lender, got into the title business, bought a software company that manages offers and disclosures, and leveraged their now-badass balance sheet into a cash offer/home trade-in business.
The core agent matching engine remains, but now sits upon a much larger chassis.
Enter another player in the end-to-end, all-in-one, easy-peasy, real estate transaction arms race.
Have You Heard About This?
Brand genius or eye-roll?
Zillow released a children’s book based upon its recent ad campaign, “The Journey,” which captures the experience of moving to a new home through the eyes of a child. Creative, emotional, relatable. This reminds us that it’s often the things some people find puzzling or frivolous that do the most to build a brand.
What's Inside
We’re kicking off a short work week with a fantastic 3 Things featuring Juliet Funt, author of the new book A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work. Don’t miss this one. Juliet rocks.
In case you missed it, be sure to listen to our Spotlight with HubSpot’s Chief People Officer, Katie Burke. The transcript is available as well.
Inspiration Point
Over My Cold Dead Body
So you think making real estate fun and cool is hard? These Brits managed to create one of the vibey-est, most fun brands we’ve ever seen… selling end-of-life services. Yep, that’s right. DeadHappy sells some typical stuff like life insurance and wills, but also something they call “deathwishes,” which are whatever their customers want to happen when they die… like say having their ashes launched into space, for example. From their slogan, “Please Die Responsibly” to their “corporate” video, to their promos, this company built a smashing brand and we stand in awe.
A Place to Lay Down
We live in ________ times. (Unprecedented, unpredictable, unstable, unbelievable, incredible... choose your own adjective here.) It’s inspiring to see how some brands step in when a crisis unfolds. As thousands of Afghans flee the chaos of their country, Airbnb created an initiative to give them a place to stay. What’s particularly cool about this is that it’s not a typical raise or donate money effort, but instead creates one big moment for the company to work together with its hosts to help out. Bravo.
Quote of the week
“New homeowners have a 98% chance of becoming their parents.”
— Dr. Rick
