{"id":2887,"date":"2008-04-03T09:33:19","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T16:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2008-04-03T09:48:29","modified_gmt":"2008-04-03T16:48:29","slug":"heard-on-broad-street-zillowcom-may-in-fact-be-reinventing-and-perfecting-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2887\/heard-on-broad-street-zillowcom-may-in-fact-be-reinventing-and-perfecting-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Heard\u00a0on Broad Street: “Zillow.com may in fact be reinventing — and perfecting — Capitalism”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 19th century, when the stodgy New York Stock Exchange was already ensconced in the lap of luxury, the traders who would one day form the American Stock Exchange were stuck out in the rain.<\/p>\n

Literally. Stock brokerages that couldn’t afford a seat on the NYSE instead rented offices on either side of Broad Street near Exchange Place. Clerks hanging out of windows would communicate bid and ask prices by hand signals to the traders working outside on Broad Street. Rain, sleet or snow, the traders effected their exchanges.<\/p>\n

Last Summer I poked fun at Zillow.com’s CEO Rich Barton for a vision he had of a 19th century marketplace<\/a>. This is Barton’s quote:<\/p>\n

“I see an old-style marketplace formed, a city market like Pike Place Market. I actually dug up an old photo — Pike Place Market at the turn of the last century. People were gesticulating. People were buying things. People were gossiping. Negotiations were happening. Big billboards were advertising things above the marketplace. That’s the picture I have in my head.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Give the man his due. I’m thinking Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace is more like Broad Street than the Pike Place Market, but it definitely is a true bourse<\/a> — the maximum flow of information between buyers and sellers with the minimum of friction — or even overhead!<\/p>\n

I wrote last month that Zillow.com is leading us toward the realization of Capitalism’s promise<\/a>. Everything we claim as a defect of Capitalism is in fact the confluence of two other systemic defects:<\/p>\n

First, a small few people want to behave badly, which fact permits other sleazy people to malign honest traders who are themselves innocent of all wrong-doing.<\/p>\n

And second, physical impediments to the flow of information prevent the overwhelming majority of overwhelmingly honest people from distinguishing the innocents from the crooks.<\/p>\n

Software systems like Ebay and Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace mitigate the second defect, leaving the bad actors fewer and fewer places to hide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Mortgage Marketplace is a small thing, so far, and, as with everything in the RE.net world, it looks much larger to us than it really is. But consumers — and lenders! — have Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the 19th century, when the stodgy New York Stock Exchange was already ensconced in the lap of luxury, the traders who would one day form the American Stock Exchange were stuck out in the rain. Literally. Stock brokerages that couldn’t afford a seat on the NYSE instead rented offices on either side of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26,6,5,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-zillowcom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1255,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1255\/greg-peeing-on-the-tree-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":0},"title":"Podcast with David Gibbons, Zillow.com’s Director of Community Relations: “We are throwing the gates wide open to the entire community”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Appended below is an audio podcast with David Gibbons, Director of Community Relations for Zillow.com. In this recording, David talks with me, reflecting upon the details and implications of tonight's new software release. RE.net readers know David as the voice of Zillow on real estate weblogs, effecting the small miracle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2958,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2958\/zillowcoms-mortgage-marketplace-brings-anonymous-apples-to-apples-mortgage-rate-quotes-to-consumers-free-consumer-leads-to-lenders\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":1},"title":"Zillow.com’s Mortgage Marketplace brings anonymous apples-to-apples mortgage rate quotes to consumers, free consumer leads to lenders","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Zillow.com's Mortgage Marketplace brings anonymous apples-to-apples mortgage rate quotes to consumers, free consumer leads to lenders Wouldn't it be great if you could get a broad array of mortgage quotes without having to make dozens of phone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1261\/a-screen-shot-tour-of-zillowcoms-new-feature-set\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":2},"title":"A screen-shot tour of Zillow.com’s new feature set","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Amending this: The site is live with Zillow.com founders Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink as the first Q&A links: These are screen shots I captured during a teleconference with Zillow.com Directory of Community Relations, David Gibbons. Everything is scaled to fit the weblog column, so the live pages, when they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2967,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2967\/a-bourse-is-a-bourse-and-zillow-mortgage-is-a-marketplace-and-never-the-twain-shall-meet\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":3},"title":"A Bourse is a Bourse and Zillow Mortgage is a Marketplace and Never the Twain Shall Meet","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bourse is a funny word isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 What exactly does it mean and why do people keep referring to the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace as a Bourse? Bourse: \\\u02c8burs\\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle French, literally, purse, from Medieval Latin bursa \u2014 more at purse Date: 1597 1:\u00a0exchange 5a; specifically :\u00a0a European\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Zillow.com"","block_context":{"text":"Zillow.com","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/zillowcom\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14816,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14816\/regarding-the-zillow-com-ipo-since-when-is-a-seven-year-old-company-with-really-no-large-scale-growth-prospects-that-has-lost-money-every-single-year-on-revenue-less-than-45-millionyear-worth-hal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":4},"title":"Regarding the Zillow.com IPO: “Since when is a seven year old company with really no large scale growth prospects that has lost money every single year on revenue less than $45 million\/year worth half a billion dollars? Am I missing something?”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The question comes from a comment to a post at Seattle-based start-up blog, GeekWire. The news? Zillow.com is bumping the per-share price on its forthcoming IPO to as high as $18, up from the $12-$14 range it started with when the public offering was announced. I like that question, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Innovation"","block_context":{"text":"Innovation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/innovation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1257,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1257\/greg-peeing-on-the-tree-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2887,"position":5},"title":"Planet Zillow.com: Burgeoning Realty.bot grows, potentially, to become a self-sustaining residential real estate eco-system","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the news. We'll circle back for details and implications. Zillow.com, the national Realty.bot growing out of the popular automated home valuation service, is releasing a new version of its popular web-based real estate portal tonight. Dubbed Zillow 5, the new functionality comes in three broad categories:Any user of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}