Welcome to our (early) attempt at a tribute to the companies – all 200+ of them – that are taking on the mission of making the process of buying a house easier (the “latte vision“) by building technology to power real estate. These are the “Fixers” in Fixing Real Estate. (Also: check out analysis of this chart in Business Insider and Inman News)
A few notes/caveats/apologies:
- This is a work in progress – and I’d love your feedback on what’s missing. This is v0.1 of what I hope will be a valuable guide to the innovation that’s happening around us in real estate technology. Comment below or send me your thoughts. I can fix stuff here pretty fast.
- The Fixing Real Estate-scape (as awkward as that sounds) was built from the perspective of how the industry is fixing the buyer’s experience of buying a house. Thus, I’m sure there are holes where some pretty amazing tools to help sellers should be. Frankly I think it could even garner a second chart.
- This is missing the entire ecosystem around mortgages. While that industry is crucial to the process of buying a house, it’s so complex itself that it needs its own chart.
- This is based on similar charts made by an investment banker named Terence Kawaja at LUMA Partners. We owe him thanks.
- Feel free to use this chart and repurpose it as you wish. We only ask that you attribute to the source.
M&A Analysis
I’ve also taken a first stab at identifying the acquired companies (of the last few years) in the space. In doing so, some interesting trends emerged about M&A in real estate tech:
- Unlike advertising technology (my and Jonathan’s erstwhile stomping grounds) and other similarly hyped-up industries, acquisition values in the residential real estate tech space have been generally quite low. ~$30M seemed to be on the high end of things (Zillow/Mortech, Zillow/Hotpads, MarketLeader/RealEstate.com, Move/TigerLead being good examples of transactions below this number).
- This might owe to the fact that, until now, there wasn’t really a healthy cadre of strategic acquirerers. With Zillow and Trulia as public companies in billion dollar valuation territory, I suspect this trend will change.
- Lots of bootstrapping / non-VC funded companies in this ecosystem. This is probably good, but I would guess that as acquisition values go up, so will VC interest in this space. Things will get frothy at a certain point.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback!
-Paul Knegten (co-founder, COO & Amitree)
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Hi Paul,
I just came across your chart and I like what I see. It’s always helpful to know who is leading the way in real estate technology right now. My only thought is that you have missed a company that belongs up there, iHOUSEweb, Inc. (My company of course.)
I know we have been making websites for a long time, but that doesn’t mean we don’t stay on the cutting edge. Last year we launched a blogging tool, we added mobile accessibility to all of our websites and we created Apps that allow real estate agents to add IDX Search to their Facebook. (We’re one of only 2 companies I’m aware of doing this right now).
Obviously since I work here I could be considered a little biased, but I just thought I’d make our case.
Thanks and Keep up the good work!
Dimitri
iHOUSE Product Manager
Hi Dimitri,
Thanks for the head’s up and the kind words! Added to the chart…
Paul, why don’t you add links of those companies.
I would like to check some groups of companies but the image is to small to see the letters of the logo.
Good idea- while I can’t easily make them clickable on the image, I can compile a list of URLs and post them. Meanwhile, many of these companies can be found on http://1000watt.net/index/ with links.
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This Steve an Agent with Gardner Realtors. Paul great job and spot on with the 1000watts link. It really helped me see the big picture and the trees at the same time. Very rare to do this in life. WOW. And thanks.
Thanks Steve- we intend for it to be a ‘work in progress’ so check back from time to time.
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Paul, you’re really providing a great service following the Inman Latte Vision of simplifying the real estate buying/selling process. In the eMarketing category I would like to submit eCampaign PRO, they are a P to P only company that does one hell of a job. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Rossi, I’ll add it!
Added.
great info…i likes it…
Thanks!
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Lets talk or chat sometime. I am in S Bay. I have spent 5+ years working on this problem, and published a few books. Love this post too. Still darn interesting that no one in the industry has local data (block, track, zip code, etc..) and just property data, which is at the core, the problem. Did a post (and many others) about this at http://www.local-insights.com/blog/e-book/thriving-and-housing-market-predictions-chapter-7-part-7/ and borrowed one of your images to help illustrate the problem of missing data. I am looking for partners too, not easy to fix this by myself. Spatial data (local data) does not just feed or dump into a form, so takes new data and new tech to fix. Not just a new front-end or new interface or a new social media marketing system etc. And takes future value too, for those who hold long-term, which I have figure out….with lots of offline local data. Want to chat / meet? (PS, I am working more on the buying/selling/risk/investing parts, since they all need fixing and a mess with no local data)
What a great image – demonstrates the many pieces that are working together to serve buyers and real estate professionals! We also believe in the power of making it an easier, more integrated process.
Please consider adding Down Payment Resource to this list: http://www.downpaymentresource.com. It is the nation’s only web-based aggregator of homebuyer programs, helping bridge the down payment gap for homebuyers. Down Payment Resource is a winner of the 2011 Inman News Innovator “Most Innovative New Technology” award and is available primarily through Multiple Listing Services and Realtor Associations in select markets across the country. To date, the tool is accessible to more than 300,000 licensed REALTORS®, approximately 30 percent of all National Association of REALTOR® members. We touch all players in the housing market: help HFAs promote programs, help Realtors demonstrate their market expertise and connect buyers to programs, and help buyers find affordable homes eligible for assistance programs and quickly learn if they may also qualify.
Great information… very useful… Thanks
Trichy Flats
Thanks!
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