Lion coming over the Hill...

CoStar

In 1993, Billy Chee, President of the National Association of REALTORS® famously stated:

'The Lion is coming over the Hill and REALTORS are like a bunch of Chihuahuas arguing over the bone.'

Bill thought the Lion(s) were the Telcoms, and others.

Today it looks like that Lion is CoStar.

Ignore this at your own professional peril.

I received the following from a knowledgable friend yesterday. There is a lot to unpack here, and will be an ongoing topic of discussion.

"CoStar is the lion coming down the hill (and not over the hill. It is already visible and on its way).

Its strategy is to go Over the Top - directly to consumers and agents.

The integration of their components with a business model based on securing first party data rights for all real property could make brokers and MLSs - walking dead men within 12 months."

CoStar has grand ambitions in residential real estate. It is already a juggernaut in the Commercial Space.

CoStar CEO Andy Florance said a few days ago:

“We are engaged in a very ambitious scale software development effort,” he said, with “well over 1,000 people working on the project right now.”

CoStar CFO Scott Wheeler said the company plans to ramp up spending on its residential channels by $200 million to $220 million this year, with $110 million earmarked for content generation, $65 million for marketing, and the remainder on technology.

CoStar seeks to replace Zillow and Realtor.com as the real estate agents’ go-to source for customer leads in a full launch of a new Homes.com collaborative marketplace that will directly connect home buyers and sellers to agents. That project is on track for a 2023 launch.

Ask any commercial broker you know what they think of CoStar. It could be your future.