Housing News
Homes.com names new Executive Vice President, Brock MacLean
Homes.com’s new EVP
Homes.com has just announced the promotion of Brock MacLean, current Senior Vice President of National Sales for For Rent Media Solutions (ForRent.com) to the role of Executive Vice President of Dominion Homes Media starting next month.
Homes.com is a part of Dominion Homes Media and a division of Dominion Enterprises (parent company of For Rent Media Solutions). Also under the Dominion Homes Media umbrella are eNeighborhoods, AdvancedAccess, and AgentAdvantage.
17 years in the industry
MacLean has 17 years in the multi-family housing sector and how the dynamics of the company have changed since he first joined For Rent Media Solutions in 1994 (as General Sales Manager until 1996, later to rejoin the company ten years later). In 2009, he was promoted to Senior VP of National Sales and Development.
The company has experienced an interesting challenge as a 28 year old legacy brand that has grown organically and is reemerging (primarily in the ForRent.com category, we believe) as an innovative brand called upon to speak at conferences and the like.
Challenges of the brand
We spoke with MacLean today and discussed the challenges of overseeing not only the ForRent.com brand as he has for so many years but the Homes.com brand which serves a tumultuous market.
MacLean is stepping in during a time where Homes.com is making headlines for claiming quality and quantity of web traffic as Trulia and Zillow duke it out with Realtor.com.
MacLean’s goals
About his personal goals in his new role, MacLean said he aims to “extend the reach of real estate content into all forms of media and to be present where consumers are interacting today,” be that social media, video or text.
We think it will be interesting to watch how a leader in the multi-family tech sector can “come into it with a different set of goggles” as MacLean said, “with no preconceived notions.”
MacLean’s emphasis on mobile and digital marketing is cause for readers to pay attention to the Dominion brand, but most notably the Homes.com brand as they are privately held and have spent nearly three decades at bat while fledgling companies have come and gone.
We have high hopes for this fresh set of eyes on the residential sector and look forward to watching the Canadian who has experience living in Texas (where we are headquartered) as he steps into his new role.
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Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
Click here to continue reading this story…
Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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MH for Movoto
April 21, 2011 at 2:51 pm
"About his personal goals in his new role, MacLean said he aims to “extend the reach of real estate content into all forms of media and to be present where consumers are interacting today,” be that social media, video or text."
Those are some intense goals, but good for him. It'll be interesting to see where things go.