The Insider: Issue 035
For Valentine’s Day, we have some sweet surprises below… one of which involves cake, and one of which highlights some of the most interesting developments in technology you may never have heard of. Dig into this issue, which is 100% made with love.
Last Week This Week
Zillow released its Q4 and full-year 2021 earnings and, more importantly, articulated for the first time its post-ibuying vision (or, as we have taken to calling it, “Zillow 2.0 (2.0)”.
Bottom line: Add Zillow to the very long list of companies looking to stitch together a “complete real estate transaction experience”. Players from Rocket to Redfin are chasing this opportunity. The crowded nature of this space is likely why Zillow artfully framed their new vision as creating a “real estate super app” instead of the usual “complete” or “end-to-end” language.
And, of course, Zillow has a mortgage company and a title company.
But... having the biggest brand and audience did not lead to success in ibuying. And stitching these things together, while not as capital intensive as iBuying, is a devilishly complicated proposition nonetheless.
Though the field is crowded, Zillow does have some unique advantages:
Brand power and a user base unequaled in the history of housing.
An online transaction platform, Dotloop, that already touches more than half of U.S. real estate transactions.
A property showing application, Showingtime, with massive market penetration.
And, of course, Zillow has a mortgage company and a title company.
But... having the biggest brand and audience did not lead to success in ibuying. And stitching these things together, while not as capital intensive as iBuying, is a devilishly complicated proposition nonetheless.
...
CNBC reported that there were more than $500 million in metaverse real estate sales last year. Stop by and welcome the new neighbors. Or whatever.
...
On a more concrete Web3 note, Propy conducted what they claim to be the first NFT home sale in the U.S., a single-family home in Tampa. Because this is so new, there was a lot of legwork involved, but the exciting promise of all this is a transaction that can take place, with confidence, in just a couple clicks. [disclosure: Propy is a 1000watt client].
Have You Heard About This?
No Code, No Problem
Imagine a world in which the people on your team with specific problems also have the means to create technology to solve them. That’s a glimpse of the future that “low-code” or “no-code” technology can fulfill. As their labels imply, no-code/low-code innovation is a way of creating tech solutions without a core need for a coder. We’re already seeing various ways this plays out in the world, particularly with solutions some companies had to put together quickly in the face of COVID. We’ve long lived in a world with two options when it comes to tech: custom build or off-the-shelf. Low-code/no-code offers a third option.
What's Inside
Make sure to be in The Lounge on February 25th at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern. We’re going to be discussing surviving real estate tech. Whether you’re a broker of a “vendor” you’re gonna want to be there. Sign up here.
Miss last week’s Gen Z From the Source focus group? Dig in right here.
Coming this week: A new Smart Guide to help you identify and articulate your brand’s core beliefs.
Inspiration Point
Did You See That?
“Visual shorthand” is how we look at much of the world today, says illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton. There’s so much information coming at us each day that we can’t process it all, so our brains fill in the blanks with patterns, she says. This creates a lot of missed connections. Wendy takes the audience at her TEDMonterey Talk last summer through an exercise that pushes comfort zones and teaches us how to really “look” at the world again — how to slow down, and look a stranger in the face for more than a minute without looking away. “Drawing is looking and looking is loving,” she says. Clearly, Wendy’s full message is not just for illustrators. Watch at the link above, and read a recent profile of the artist here.
Sweet Dolly
It’s always interesting to see brand/celebrity combinations — the who, how and why. This new collab between Duncan Hines and Dolly Parton felt like a heavenly match to us. For one thing, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sweeter celebrity than Dolly. In fact, sweet is one of her dominant brand characteristics. We also like that it goes further than putting her face on their products or shooting commercials with her as the star. The collaboration takes some of Dolly’s family’s best cake recipes and makes them accessible to customers via off-the-shelf mixes and frostings. And speaking of super sweet brand collabs…have you seen the new Little Debbie snack cake ice cream flavors? A continued partnership with Hudsonville Ice Cream has answered a call for nostalgia and taste buds. Yum.
Quote of the week
“The moment I stopped looking for the story I expected to see, an entirely new and richer truth was revealed.”
— Wendy MacNaughton
