“If you tell me you’re a bird dog, it doesn’t mean you can fly.”
This could explain why Zillow has discovered that it is unfit for the house-flipping business: It can’t get rehab contractors, and, for bizarre reasons unknown, it (says) it can’t move its deals through title and escrow. Paper-shuffling was to have been propteched by now, likewise online notarization, but it’s not like there is a sudden supply-chain shortage of chatty, chubby folks to close deals.
What’s really Zillow’s problem? Duh. College boys can’t broker real estate from 30,000 feet, but before that there is this: The profitability of real estate brokerage, if any, entails NOT owning the inventory. All iBuyers make stupid marketing mistakes all the time, but their worst mistake – risking their own funds – will bleed them white as the market turns.
Not really a problem for Zillow: They have two reasons for iBuying, to stay in front of consumers – and to stay in front of agents. As long as pie-eyed agents are willing to pay Zillow to sell their own clients back to them, they can continue to soak their toes and call it swimming.
In other news:
CNN Business: Zillow slams the brakes on home buying as it struggles to manage its backlog of inventory.
CNBC: Homebuilder sentiment bounces back despite ongoing supply chain problems.
City Journal: Some Things Money Can’t Buy: For everything else, there’s deception.
Andrea Widburg: The DOJ has finally disgorged some exculpatory evidence about January 6.
John Stossel: Let Life Resume: “It’s not admitting defeat; it’s admitting reality.”
