Be sure to pick up a copy of the September issue of Inc., which features the top 500 companies named to the 2019 Inc. 5000 list. Homesnap’s three-year growth rate since partnering with the Broker Public Portal (BPP) is a whopping 6,176.7%. Broker Public Portal with Homesnap reaches over 200 markets across America and is now accessible to over one million real estate professionals! This massive expansion has led Homesnap to become the 3rd fastest growing company in America in the real estate category. The net effect is a win for real estate agents, brokers, and their MLSs, and may spell doom for Zillow Group.
The Why
Merle Whitehead, Founding Chairman for the Broker Public Portal, reminds us that the BPP was founded with the goal of delivering an alternative property marketing solution better than what consumers can access though the advertising portals. Directors of the BPP considered building, buying, and partnering for the technology that would power. The BPP leadership ultimately chose to partner with Homesnap and since then the success has been phenomenal.
The How
“We’ve developed a go-to market strategy that is mobile first,” says John Mosey, CEO of the Minnesota based regional Multiple Listing Service, Northstar MLS. Mobile home search surpassed desktop search between 2012 and 2015 in most markets across America. Homesnap is currently ranked as the highest-rated real estate search app in the App Store. “The Homesnap app delivers a mobile search experience for our agents and brokers that extends the quality MLS data to the consumer in the best possible way,” says Mosey. In a recent MLS market survey conducted by WAV Group, Homesnap was rated as the #1 professional real estate app and it currently has one of the highest levels of adoption for an MLS service.
Last week, Homesnap announced the launch of advanced integrations with Matrix, CoreLogic’s MLS software system, for SmartMLS subscribers. These advanced integrations enable SmartMLS subscribers to perform essential functions within the Pro version of the Homesnap platform including full synchronization of contacts, prospects, saved searches and favorites, as well as edit listing functionality. CoreLogic is now the second major MLS system vendor to integrate with Homesnap. Black Knight previously selected Homesnap as its mobile solution provider and other leading MLS vendors are now developing integration plans. These integrations make it seamless for agents to edit listings or share propriety information with consumers through Homesnap.
Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is emerging as the biggest threat to Zillow’s leadership position in home search. Zillow is a classic internet bubble company that makes no profits despite being #1 in real estate search and #1 in advertising revenue spend by brokers and agents. The advertising revenue from Zillow has not only peaked, but it has begun to decline. Zillow has become more of a competitor to its customers (brokers and agents) than a partner.
Agents and brokers are tired of paying advertising portals to connect with consumers interested in buying homes. That is why they are collaborating and supporting Broker Public Portal with Homesnap. Zillow battles an issue of high-priced, low quality leads for real estate professionals. On top of that, consumers are being targeted on Zillow with fraud schemes. Legendary investor, analyst, and fund manager of Neuberger Berman, Steven Eisman, recently told Bloomberg that “Zillow’s advertising sales growth is horrible” and Rich Barton’s decision to start flipping homes means it’s “entering a terrible business that’s cyclical in nature and generates low margins,” referring to Zillow’s iBuyer program. In a recent announcement of financial results, Zillow admitted to losing more than $2,000 per iBuyer trade.
Homesnap has entered into the top 20 list of most popular internet search sites in America, reaching even higher in some MLS market areas. Where the local MLS and Association of Realtors® have done a good job of driving adoption among agents and communicating to consumers through local media advertising and public relations: the performance of Homesnap is excellent. Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is among the largest MLSs in the country and is generating spectacular results in a major housing real estate market with their efforts. Bright MLS of the D.C. area leads the nation in agent adoption of Homesnap.
Join the BPP
The Broker Public Portal is the industry’s leading success story, passing the one million mark of agents who receive Homesnap as a member benefit. However, there is still much more work to do. There are hundreds of MLSs who have not adopted the Broker Public Portal as a member benefit. If your MLS does not offer Homesnap today, contact Victor Lund (victor@wavgroup.com) and we will get you connected with the right folks at Homesnap. The cost of the Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is $1 per agent, per month.
If the real estate industry wants to shift the consumer away from the big advertising portals, it is going to take a collaborative effort to deliver a better alternative. This strategy of delivering a better search experience to consumers is working great, and the journey ahead of us looks bright. Join the BPP today!
