Move Inc. Attacks House Prices Site Zillow.com

Allan Dalton, CEO of Move Inc.'s (MOVE) Realter.com, launched a remarkable attack on competitor Zillow at a recent realtors' conference. Zillow president Lloyd Frink claimed in a speech at a California Association of Realtors conference in Long Beach that Zillow wouldn't disintermediate real estate agents. Mr Dalton, who was scheduled to talk next, opened his speech with a stunning 15 minute attack on Mr Frink. Here's a short video excerpt of the juciest bits:

(Thanks to Paul Kaihla for the tip.)

The speech highlights the competitive positons of the two companies: Move Inc. is allied with realtors, whereas Zillow (despite Mr Frink's claims) threatens realtors by attempting to dispell the key information inefficiency -- home valuation -- that forces home sellers to pay up for realtors.

You can take either side of the realtor disintermediation bet by going long or short stocks like MOVE. Privately-owned Zillow has raised $57 million; MOVE has a market cap of about $700 million.

Comments

[Parkite:]

What an arrogant guy! Who would dare price their home w/o consulting a realtor? Remember, these people have passed a test in ethics. This is not rocket science. Look at comparables in your neighborhood and make adjustments based on your square footage and finishes. The fact that realtors can extract 6% based on their skill level is sickening. The only thing that has insulated realtors from disintermediation is the MLS.

2006 Nov 02 01:31 PM

[User 26614:]

Rather an arrogant speech attacking the competition...whenever a competitor attacks your product without offering with constructive criticism or an explanation why their's is better, you know that blood is in the water.

Zillow is a pretty impressive concept that could begin to take away market share from realtors, if combined with a good ad campaign for each house (eBay or old-media buyout target?), but its a long way from becoming mainstream.

It's rather confusing when you see what Move Inc actually does, why does it have a $300m market cap? my instinct tells me eBay will be knocking on it's door before Q2 07

2006 Nov 02 05:01 PM

[Philip Davis:]

Nice clip, I've worked with (against) those guys at Realtor, they are like that 24/7!

It reminds me I should give Frink a call and offer him the concept that Realtor.com tried to sue me to stop (we won but we never finished the project).

2006 Nov 02 11:26 PM

[Daniel Houston:]

A realtor thug. And I thought Ted Haggard was the biggest loser I'd seen this week.

2006 Nov 05 03:27 AM

[Paul Meisel:]

I am very late with this comment, for some reason I couldn't get the video to play.

I am not sure how accurate Zillow is, but I would be surprised if it was outside of the margin of error you would get from the typical range of realtors and appraisers. I know quite a few and have knowledge of their work. There are low-ballers, high-ballers, "whaddayaneed"s, and folks who just aren't as good at the math or as knowledgable of the market.

I don't see the disintermediation of the realtor soon -- most folks genuinely need guidance through the process, and the realtors have some leverage in steering a lot of the customer flow towards properties where there is commission to share (or keep!). But some availablility of price and value information will probably make the market, including commissions, more competitive.

2006 Nov 14 05:55 PM

[david chamb...:]

zillow is a great concept but it cannot accurately value a home. There are factors that it doesn't include, curb appeal, condition, homes on the market, sellers motivation, watertreatment plant downwind. It is not that simple to value a home. want to debate it find me on trulia.com David Chamberlain

2008 Dec 14 03:59 AM