To all the agents in the house,
I'm here until the bitter end Monday at the National Association of Realtors' annual expo, which NAR dubs the "largest annual event for the most successful real estate professionals." It is certainly enormous. NAR President Charlie Oppler reported Friday morning that over 10,000 people are in attendance, and that does not look hyperbolic at all.
Including virtual attendees, Oppler said that 37% of NAR's roughly 1.5 million members registered. There have been 70 sessions each day sprawling over a massive convention center and adjoining hotels. It's the "Infinite Jest" of housing trade conferences.
That said! Of the 200 conference sessions, not one, explicitly at least, focuses on the topic de jour of real estate, which is the future of iBuying. Is this a glaring misstep by NAR? Or does it, perhaps accurately, indicate that iBuying is not that big of a deal?
On Wednesday, Opendoor and Offerpad both announced third quarter earnings, eight days after Zillow delivered iBuying earnings so disastrous they shut down their instant home purchase division.
The earnings were a mixed bag. For Opendoor, revenues increased 91% from the second quarter to $2.3 billion. The company lost $57 million in net income, but that's less than the prior quarter $144 million net loss.
So, the good news for Opendoor is that its technological know-how and operational capacity is allowing it to, unlike Zillow, push home purchase velocity without incurring greater net income losses. The bad news? They're still losing money in a historically high-demand housing market.
Offerpad, meanwhile, is a smaller company. On its maiden earnings call, the outfit reported $540 million in revenue, a 40% jump from quarter three. But the company, as its CEO Brian Bair telegraphed, lost $15.3 million, after posting a net profit a quarter earlier.
Meanwhile, Realogy, Keller Williams, eXp and mortgage lender Rocket (a presence at the NAR function), are dipping their toes into iBuying. Each says that iBuying is not a way to replace agents, but an alternative route agents can present to their clients.
Agents, with the dust settling, is iBuying more relevant than ever to your work? Or will Zillow's implosion make the industry marginal enough that there's not iBuying sessions at future NAR conferences?
Please email anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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