Context with Mike DelPrete

Rory Golod, President of Growth at Compass International Holdings, and I discuss what it's like to go from 20 agents to 340,000 across 120 countries, why the Rocket/Redfin partnership is about shifting the balance of power back to agents, not holding grudges against former adversaries, what he would do if he found $20 million in a briefcase, pre-marketing as a pricing tool (and the Halloween costume analogy), why being on the front lines is how you actually learn, the addictive habit of focus, and what really motivates Robert Reffkin.

Guy Gal, CEO and co-founder of Side, and I discuss why he was one of Zillow Preview's launch partners, the pre-marketing and iBuying parallel, why pre-marketing is a solution searching for a problem, the real problem nobody in the industry wants to address (too many part-time agents), how corporations extract value and small businesses create it, what the craft beer revolution teaches us about brokerage consolidation, why the gravity of real estate always pulls back to local, and why this is the last time he'll ever talk about pre-marketing.

Rocket's Joe Rath and I unpack the recently announced Compass & Redfin partnership, that, among other things, will see Compass's exclusive listings appear on Redfin.
We cover the specifics of the deal and the "why" behind it all -- from what Rocket is trying to accomplish, to why Compass, and what happens when someone clicks the button.
Joe makes a strong claim -- Rocket is playing to win -- and then lays out their rationale for this deal and everything else they're doing in the real estate space.

Emily Girard, CEO of Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors, and I discuss morning dopamine hits, how I ruined her weekend, the Google listings fiasco, why she hates being reactionary, why an MLS exists, why no one can force private listings, the “what’s best for the consumer” fallacy, what needs to change in VOW and IDX feeds, and why she wishes the industry never launched the clear cooperation policy.

From deep inside the world of real estate portals, Scott Bond and I have an intelligent conversation about the past, present, and future of the Portal Wars.

We look at the competitive landscape, how we got to today, why it’s trendy to hate Zillow, evaluate Homes.com’s strategy, look at the most important metric to track (trust), and sprinkle in international examples and learnings.

We then shift to the two Power Plays that will shape the portal landscape for years to come: the end-to-end ecosystem and exclusive inventory. We talk about why it’s going to be an absolute grind, the challenge of selling mortgages, why I don’t do all my shopping at Target, and, yet again, why agents are absolutely indispensable.