While real estate agents chase leads and close deals on houses, there’s another level of deal-making that takes place within the real estate industry: mergers, acquisitions, integrations and partnerships.
We’ll be recapping every week’s noteworthy deals that didn’t make it into print (and some that did) for your perusal.
We missed you last week!
June 26
T3 Sixty is offering the T3 MLS Workshop to help MLSs learn about their consolidation options. It will be held on Tuesday, September 12, the day before the 2017 Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) conference, at the JW Marriott in Austin. This one-day workshop is not part of the conference but hosted separately in association with CMLS. The T3 MLS Workshop will cover T3 MLS’s 7-step consolidation roadmap and provide best practices based on over 50 previously handled consolidations. It is custom-designed for chief executives of Realtor associations and MLSs, Presidents/President-Elects, MLS Chairs and MLS Directors. Attendance is limited to only 50 MLS organizations and will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Register now at www.t3mls.com/register.
Armed with an additional $13.5 million in funding, Pillow, a short-term rental management service, has released a platform to help landlords and tenants walk the line — while milking units for extra cash. Pillow Residential lets apartment-building owners either directly rent out vacant units on a temporary basis or provide a controlled environment under which their tenants can do the same. The service essentially allows landlords to add an amenity to their buildings — permission and support for tenants to rent out their units short term — while wringing more cash from their inventory.
June 27
BrokerSumo, a leading back office, commission management and accounting platform for real estate brokerages and agent teams, announced a new integration partnership with SkySlope. The partnership brings together SkySlope, an industry leading transaction management platform, with BrokerSumo to make the process of managing and closing out transactions simple. The integration allows BrokerSumo customers to pull their SkySlope transactions seamlessly into BrokerSumo, eliminating double entry of data, the potential for human errors when entering data and making the contract to close process more efficient.
June 28
Edina Realty, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate and the largest residential real estate company in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, announced that it is expanding into the Mankato market with an office located at 313 North Riverfront Dr. Edina Realty president and CEO Greg Mason said the company has been looking for the right opportunity to open an office in the Mankato area for more than a year. “Mankato is a growing area, and we’ve had our eye on it for some time,” said Mason. “We’re confident that we’ve found the right fit and are pleased to welcome Vonda Herding, who will be managing broker of the location, and her agents, formerly with Real Living Home to Home Realty, to the Edina Realty family.”
Homebuilders that advertise with Zillow Group can now get deeper insight into homebuyer preferences and housing supply to figure out where to break ground next. Housing analysis tools and data have been baked into Zillow Group’s platform for homebuilder advertisers that market listings on Zillow and Trulia. Drawing on homebuyer search activity, “as well as Zillow Group’s unique economic insights,” the feature allows homebuilders to see data such as how often Zillow users are searching and favoriting certain home types by ZIP code.
June 29
ShowingTime, the residential real estate industry’s leading showing management and market stats technology provider, announced that Triangle MLS, Inc. (TMLS), a regional multiple listing service covering 16 counties in the greater Triangle region of North Carolina, selected the ShowingTime Appointment Center to equip its 11,000 subscribers to manage showings. The ShowingTime offering will enable TMLS subscribers to call the ShowingTime Appointment Center 24/7/365 or schedule showings online through their MLS system, the ShowingTime mobile app or through other technology platforms selected by TMLS.
This week’s deals
July 5
The Miami Association of Realtors, The MLS in Beverly Hills, Calif., NorthstarMLS serving Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, CarolinaMLS in Charlotte, N.C., and GSREIN in New Orleans, La., have all signed agreements to deliver Remine’s big data and predictive analytics platform to their members. With these editions, Remine is now available to more than 400,000 Realtors nationwide.
Engel & Völkers announced it has opened its newest real estate shop in The Bahamas, the international real estate company’s third shop in the Caribbean. The expansion comes as the result of a union with Bahamas Waterfront Properties, a real estate brokerage specializing in luxury beachfront and waterfront properties. The newly established Engel & Völkers location in The Bahamas will be led by license partner Colin Lightbourn and will serve the markets of Nassau/Paradise Island, Abaco Cays, The Exumas and Eleuthera/Harbor Island. As part of this announcement, Abaco Cays Realty Ltd. will also become part of the Engel & Völkers Bahamas shop to widen the brokerage’s comprehensive service in The Bahamas real estate market.
July 6
Exit Realty Corp. International announced it has named realtor.com, a leading online real estate destination operated by News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc., to its Premier Partner program. The strategic relationship provides Exit’s affiliated brokerages and sales associates’ access to the realtor.com platform of advertising products. The relationship also provides Exit’s affiliated brokerages and sales associates’ access to lead management solutions from realtor.com operator, Move, Inc. Exit Realty offices will receive enhanced branding on property listings while broker/owners can readily offer all sales associates one-click capability to enhance their realtor.com Essentials profile page with free upgrades including the EXIT logo and photos, plus the ability to market themselves, their listings and demonstrate value to clients. This marks the first time realtor.com has collaborated with a franchisor to offer the Essentials product system wide.
Email deals and partnerships information to press@inman.com.
