https://library.mikedp.com Latest real estate tech research, analysis, podcasts, and reports by Mike DelPrete. en-us Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT 60 https://library.mikedp.com/content/redfin-pressing-its-inventory-advantage-in-chicago https://library.mikedp.com/content/redfin-pressing-its-inventory-advantage-in-chicago Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT In late May, Redfin (supported by Rocket) started advertising its inventory advantage in Chicago with the message, “more homes than anyone else.” article https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-04-a-day-with-rocket https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-04-a-day-with-rocket Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT I hit the road and spend a day with Rocket in Detroit. I want to walk the floors and see the biggest company chasing the Holy Grail for myself. I went in skeptical. Redfin's posting a 50% attach rate since the acquisition and I didn't believe it — they were at 27% before. How? Turns out the magic is that the loan officers and the agents just like each other. Bundles work when the partners want them to. But loan servicing is the real learning. I'll be honest, I thought servicing was boring. It’s just billing. But then I heard their pitch and saw the numbers. Building the relationship with customers, post-sale, is the key. And in terms of the pitch of a one-stop-shop to consumers, nobody led with price. The number one thing people want is trust. From search to sale, Rocket has your back. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/compass-is-bigger-than-zillow https://library.mikedp.com/content/compass-is-bigger-than-zillow Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT On June 18th, Compass's market capitalization overtook Zillow's for the first time: $7.47 billion vs. $7.43 billion. It's a reflection of the shifting power dynamics between brokerages and portals – partially driven by exclusive inventory – in a changing industry. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/the-listings-battle-webinar https://library.mikedp.com/content/the-listings-battle-webinar Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT One of the biggest power plays in the industry is the battle over listings, but there is so much noise, self-interest, and propaganda that it’s hard to know what’s really going on. I want to change that with a collaborative search for underlying truth. I reached out to two of the smartest and sharpest folks I know, Carey Armstrong and Rob Hahn, and they’ve agreed to join me in this endeavor. From new state laws to new MLS rules, portal partnerships to listing entry, clear cooperation to federal antitrust lawsuits — it’s all connected. video https://library.mikedp.com/content/everything-is-changing-nothing-is-changing https://library.mikedp.com/content/everything-is-changing-nothing-is-changing Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Here's my latest keynote presentation from Further, where I cover the shifting power dynamics across the industry, what's driving the search for the Holy Grail, and what I've learned from teaching and podcasting with industry leaders in the age of AI. video https://library.mikedp.com/content/market-caps-and-shifting-industry-power https://library.mikedp.com/content/market-caps-and-shifting-industry-power Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT The market capitalization, or value, of public real estate tech companies tells an illuminating story of evolving industry power. A company's market capitalization is a corollary for how "the market" views a company’s current position and future prospects: power and potential. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/googles-real-estate-listings-are-back https://library.mikedp.com/content/googles-real-estate-listings-are-back Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Google's real estate listings are back — with a twist — after disappearing following an initial test last December.Why it matters: Google handles over 3 billion searches a day in the U.S., and... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-03-the-power-buyer-clue https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-03-the-power-buyer-clue Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT I begin by tracking the number of mortgage loan originators at the big players — which tells me who's really investing in the search for the Grail. Then I sit down with Ryan Dibble, one of the Flyhomes co-founders. Flyhomes is a power buyer that stumbled on the Holy Grail with mortgage attach rates around 80%, and then pivoted away from it. Turns out finding the Holy Grail and making the Holy Grail business work are two very different things. One insight: an object in motion stays in motion, meaning consumers will stay in an ecosystem unless there's a reason to leave. That changes how I’ve been thinking about the whole system. Check out the companion site for this podcast series at ⁠⁠holygrail.mikedp.com⁠⁠. It's a case file — the evidence I've gathered, the theories I'm testing, the questions I'm chasing, and a place to drop intel if you're seeing patterns from the field. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-02-surveying-the-landscape https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-02-surveying-the-landscape Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT My first stop: a conversation with Carey Armstrong, who has glimpsed the Grail! She's been at Zillow, built a mortgage company, and is one of the few people I know who's seen this from every angle. I needed someone I trust to help me map the whole landscape before I start digging into the specifics. What we found: the Holy Grail has always been about profit, not consumers. The executives pitching it have probably never processed a loan. And the real unlock might not be price or convenience — it might be confidence that your deal will actually close. I didn't expect that going in. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-01-the-search-begins https://library.mikedp.com/content/holy-grail-01-the-search-begins Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:55:00 GMT I'm starting something new. This is the first episode of an investigative series — The Search for the Holy Grail of Real Estate. I'm going into the field, talking to the smartest people I can find, an podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/jun-choo-customer-problems-first https://library.mikedp.com/content/jun-choo-customer-problems-first Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Jun Choo, Chief Operating Officer of Zillow, and I discuss the launch that agents hated (and the lessons it taught about empathy), why Zillow Home Loans is really a trust business, how Zillow allocates resources, why the 10% revenue share with listing agents on Zillow Preview is such a big deal, why AI search is real but some of the predictions are hype, what Zillow Pro and the My Agent feature mean for the CRM play, and the fortune cookie advice he'd send his past self: you don't have to have all the answers. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/rory-golod-balance-of-power https://library.mikedp.com/content/rory-golod-balance-of-power Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Rory Golod, President of Growth at Compass International Holdings, and I discuss what it's like to go from 20 agents to 340,000 across 120 countries, why the Rocket/Redfin partnership is about shifting the balance of power back to agents, not holding grudges against former adversaries, what he would do if he found $20 million in a briefcase, pre-marketing as a pricing tool (and the Halloween costume analogy), why being on the front lines is how you actually learn, the addictive habit of focus, and what really motivates Robert Reffkin. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/guy-gal-coming-soon-stratagems https://library.mikedp.com/content/guy-gal-coming-soon-stratagems Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Guy Gal, CEO and co-founder of Side, and I discuss why he was one of Zillow Preview's launch partners, the pre-marketing and iBuying parallel, why pre-marketing is a solution searching for a problem, the real problem nobody in the industry wants to address (too many part-time agents), how corporations extract value and small businesses create it, what the craft beer revolution teaches us about brokerage consolidation, why the gravity of real estate always pulls back to local, and why this is the last time he'll ever talk about pre-marketing. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/quantifying-the-rising-ai-portal-obsession https://library.mikedp.com/content/quantifying-the-rising-ai-portal-obsession Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every major real estate portal just discovered AI at the same time — and they all want you to know about it. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/rocket-can-win-without-zillow-losing https://library.mikedp.com/content/rocket-can-win-without-zillow-losing Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT When Compass announced its new partnership with Rocket, bringing its exclusive inventory to Redfin, the first reaction of many was “Zillow is screwed” – but the reality is far different. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/deep-dive-the-redfin-compass-deal https://library.mikedp.com/content/deep-dive-the-redfin-compass-deal Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Rocket's Joe Rath and I unpack the recently announced Compass & Redfin partnership, that, among other things, will see Compass's exclusive listings appear on Redfin. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/rightmoves-revenue-diversification-challenge https://library.mikedp.com/content/rightmoves-revenue-diversification-challenge Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Like Sweden's Hemnet, Rightmove is almost entirely reliant on a single growth lever: pricing power. Growing new revenue streams is hard, and after four years of investment, Rightmove's strategic growth areas still represent only seven percent of total revenue. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/rocket-redfin-compass https://library.mikedp.com/content/rocket-redfin-compass Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Compass and Redfin (owned by mortgage behemoth Rocket) have announced a deal that will see Compass’s exclusive home listings displayed on Redfin. While portals around the world are... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/carrots-vs-sticks-hemnet-zillow-and-the-global-battle-over-exclusive-inventory https://library.mikedp.com/content/carrots-vs-sticks-hemnet-zillow-and-the-global-battle-over-exclusive-inventory Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT As the popularity of pre-market listings grows in Sweden, leading portal Hemnet is evolving its strategy to compete – revealing an interesting comparison to Zillow and the U.S. market. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/hemnet-trouble-in-arpa-paradise https://library.mikedp.com/content/hemnet-trouble-in-arpa-paradise Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT In a shifting market environment, revenue growth at Sweden’s leading real estate portal, Hemnet, has ground to a halt – revealing the limits of its past strategy. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/scout24s-consumer-subscriptions-driving-revenue-diversification https://library.mikedp.com/content/scout24s-consumer-subscriptions-driving-revenue-diversification Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Over the past six years, Germany's Scout24 has quietly built a consumer subscription juggernaut inside its classic real estate portal. Scout24 is uniquely monetizing consumers – primarily renters – through an ongoing subscription product, giving it a meaningful new revenue stream. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/investors-vs-costar-and-the-4-billion-challenger-portal https://library.mikedp.com/content/investors-vs-costar-and-the-4-billion-challenger-portal Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A pair of multi-billion-dollar hedge fund activist investors, Third Point and D.E. Shaw, have recently demanded CoStar significantly curtail – or divest – its Homes.com business.Why it matters: This... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/dafts-vendorpaid-portal-advertising-case-study https://library.mikedp.com/content/dafts-vendorpaid-portal-advertising-case-study Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ireland’s leading real estate portal, Daft, is attempting something that almost never happens: moving a market from an agent-paid to a vendor-paid advertising model — and it’s working. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillow-mortgage-and-the-holy-grail-of-real-estate https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillow-mortgage-and-the-holy-grail-of-real-estate Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Recently there's been a lot of noise around Zillow’s mortgage operation, including a pair of class-action lawsuits, but the company remains undaunted in its goal to build a bundled experience for... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/emily-girard-mls-whack-a-mole https://library.mikedp.com/content/emily-girard-mls-whack-a-mole Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:13:38 GMT Emily Girard, CEO of Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors, and I discuss morning dopamine hits, how I ruined her weekend, the Google listings fiasco, why she hates being reactionary, why an MLS podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/visualizing-8-years-of-real-estate-tech-trends https://library.mikedp.com/content/visualizing-8-years-of-real-estate-tech-trends Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I’ve published a lot over the years: 347 research pieces, 48 podcasts, 23 reports & videos – more than 600,000 words. Over the holiday break I built several interactive visualizations of this work... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/compasss-new-product-address-upon-request https://library.mikedp.com/content/compasss-new-product-address-upon-request Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Compass, soon to be the U.S.’s largest brokerage by far, is quietly rolling out a new product: Address Upon Request.Why it matters: Like it or not, Compass continues to innovate with new products... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/why-googles-listings-test-matters-with-mike-delprete https://library.mikedp.com/content/why-googles-listings-test-matters-with-mike-delprete Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT If you'd like to know more about my thoughts on Google's recent real estate listings test -- and the global industry implications -- I just did a podcast with the crew at Property Portal Watch on the subject. A good conversation! video https://library.mikedp.com/content/google-enters-the-portal-wars https://library.mikedp.com/content/google-enters-the-portal-wars Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think this might be one of those times. Why it matters: Google putting for sale listings directly into search results — even if it's a test — is a big deal. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/deep-dive-the-portal-wars https://library.mikedp.com/content/deep-dive-the-portal-wars Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT From deep inside the world of real estate portals, Scott Bond and I have an intelligent conversation about the past, present, and future of the Portal Wars.We look at the competitive landscape, how we got to today, why it’s trendy to hate Zillow, evaluate Homes.com’s strategy, look at the most important metric to track (trust), and sprinkle in international examples and learnings. We then shift to the two Power Plays that will shape the portal landscape for years to come: the end-to-end ecosystem and exclusive inventory. We talk about why it’s going to be an absolute grind, the challenge of selling mortgages, why I don’t do all my shopping at Target, and, yet again, why agents are absolutely indispensable. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/logical-fallacies-seller-motives-and-private-exclusives https://library.mikedp.com/content/logical-fallacies-seller-motives-and-private-exclusives Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT During last week’s Compass v. Zillow court hearing, surveys and research were presented to support each side’s position on the relative merits of exclusive listings versus broad exposure.Why it... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillows-listing-ban-and-violation-metrics https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillows-listing-ban-and-violation-metrics Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Zillow began enforcing its new listing access standards in July of this year, the lynchpin of its strategy to fight back against private listings, and last week’s courtroom hearing revealed new... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/a-strategic-analysis-of-the-compass-v-zillow-court-hearing https://library.mikedp.com/content/a-strategic-analysis-of-the-compass-v-zillow-court-hearing Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Last week I attended the best industry event I’ve ever been to. Over a dozen executives from Zillow and Compass were “on stage” for three days, discussing private exclusives, home search competition, highlighting evidence, and revealing their internal strategic planning processes – all under oath and subject to cross-examination. article https://library.mikedp.com/content/power-moves https://library.mikedp.com/content/power-moves Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT A smart, data-driven exploration of industry-defining POWER MOVES: the search for the holy grail of real estate (the end-to-end ecosystem) and the battle over exclusive inventory. I cover the major players like Compass, Zillow, and Rocket, what we can learn from Redfin and Zoopla, whatever happened to Purplebricks and Opendoor, and why it's a great time to be the #1 portal. Presented at Property Portal Watch in Madrid, Spain. October 2025. video https://library.mikedp.com/content/psychology-over-technology-what-consumers-actually-want-w-mike-delprete-the-mrea-podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/psychology-over-technology-what-consumers-actually-want-w-mike-delprete-the-mrea-podcast Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT We’re sitting down with researcher and industry truth-teller Mike DelPrete to cut through the noise on tech, AI, and what clients really want from us. Mike’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The Economist. He teaches, he studies the business, and he backs every take with data. We dig into the psychology behind home sales and why our industry is harder to “disrupt” than startups think. Mike shares fresh findings from secret-shopper research: Half of online and in-person leads never get a follow-up. We connect that to the three client traits that win listings and loyalty: be patient, be knowledgeable, and be transparent. We also explore AI in two simple buckets: an operating-expense buster that helps us work faster and cleaner, and a shift in how people search. Then we get tactical: reviews as trust signals, a tight niche, and a cadence of communication that matches each client’s expectations. video https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillow-costar-and-the-battle-over-rentals https://library.mikedp.com/content/zillow-costar-and-the-battle-over-rentals Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT When the FTC sued Zillow over its rentals deal with Redfin, it caught many by surprise (except CoStar) – but it’s just the latest move in the Portal Wars' other battle: rentals.Why it matters: While... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/what-didnt-work-aalto https://library.mikedp.com/content/what-didnt-work-aalto Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT This is the first episode of a new series: What Didn't Work. I'm diving into the real estate companies and ideas that just didn't work out, unpack exactly why, and reveal the key lessons learned -- directly from the entrepreneurs involved. My first guest (who inspired this idea) is ⁠Nick Narodny⁠, CEO and founder of Aalto, which just didn't work out. With over $50M raised from top tier VC firms, Aalto was a private listing marketplace and then pivoted to a "digital agent" once Clear Cooperation shut down their business. In the end, neither idea worked. Nick opened up about exactly what didn't work, why, and what he learned through the process. From navigating buyer emotions in real estate to product market fit suction to the three hurdles of fear, these are hard-fought learnings that I think everyone in the space should know! I'm doing this for two reasons. First, I want to reduce the stigma around talking about failure. Nick didn't fail. He tried and learned, and that should be celebrated. Second, I want to capture and publish these valuable learnings, which are really worth their weight in gold for other would-be proptech entrepreneurs in the space. Not everything is great all of the time. Sometimes things don't work out. Let's explore why, and get smarter together. Thanks for your vulnerability and openness, Nick. podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/content-is-king-the-compass-and-anywhere-deal https://library.mikedp.com/content/content-is-king-the-compass-and-anywhere-deal Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Compass announced it was acquiring Anywhere Real Estate, creating a behemoth with 210,000 agents and close to 20 percent market share in the U.S.Why it matters: The obvious play is consolidation,... article https://library.mikedp.com/content/austin-allison-bucking-the-status-quo https://library.mikedp.com/content/austin-allison-bucking-the-status-quo Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Austin Allison, CEO and co-founder of Pacaso (and dotloop), and I discuss what makes a real estate startup successful, the advantage of raising money from retail investors, why you need agents on your podcast https://library.mikedp.com/content/compasss-exclusive-inventory-finally-drops https://library.mikedp.com/content/compasss-exclusive-inventory-finally-drops Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT A funny thing happened two weeks ago: after I published an analysis on Compass’s exclusive inventory rising despite Zillow’s efforts to stop it, it suddenly reversed course and started dropping – a... article