In Case You Missed It: February 2019 Real Estate News

By Jessie Trapp, Marketing Coordinator & Tiana Baur, Marketing Manager 

It’s almost the end of Q1 already?! That’s okay, we’re happy winter is almost over – MoxiWorks HQ experienced a bit of a snowstorm. Aside from that, MANY notable things happened in our industry in February. As always, we’ve boiled it down to the key stories you need to know to stay up-to-date with the goings on in our industry.

In case you missed it, here are the top five February 2019 real estate news stories to know:

1. Compass acquired Contactually

So… this happened. Compass bought Contactually and it set off some anger (but also many congrats) in the industry – just checkout the comments. We’re not sure what else we can say that hasn’t already been said by our CEO.

2. There was a giant conference

LeadingRE held their annual conference in Las Vegas (is it just us or did Vegas become the event city of the universe?) and everyone had a blast. We even held a wine event and got to learn some major pointers from a notable sommelier. Want to see some pics from the LeadingRE conference? We got you.

3. Amazon backs out of HQ2 New York campus deal

Well, we can’t say we’re too surprised. According to Inman, “Amazon’s decision to abandon New York City came after, and in response to, fierce opposition from area politicians and some locals.” In December’s #ICYMI, we wrote about just that saying, “their new headquarters in NYC and D.C. are sparking fear and anxiety with residents. Why? They’re worried about being priced out of metro areas. If Seattle’s market history is any indication, the outlook is less than ideal.” Basically, those in the real estate industry are none too happy, but we bet there are some locals rejoicing.

4. Rich Barton, co-founder of Zillow steps back into the role of CEO

After a less than ideal earnings report came out, Zillow made the decision to give Spencer Rascoff the boot, replacing him with Rich Barton, the co-founder of the tech giant. According to Inman, Barton said, “We decided to rotate seats a bit, and Spencer will step out of day to day but continue as an indispensable advisor and overseer on our board of directors.” We should note that under Rascoff’s leadership, the company grew to more than 4,000 employees. But as we like to say at MoxiWorks, what got us here won’t get us there.

5. Keller Williams announces 3 new international markets

Keller Williams is making some serious money moves. They announced that they’re expanding to Chile and Ireland and will soon launch in Italy. Turns out that, “As of Nov. 19, 2018, Keller Williams expanded into six new regions with 31 market centers and a net gain of 1,812 agents in 2018. The company now has more than 7,400 agents operating outside of the United States and Canada.” Wow.

There you have it! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for another #ICYMI!

P.S. If you’re into podcasts (and if you’re not, you should be) we have our very own! Episode #2 of the REAL with MoxiWorks podcast featuring Matthew Ferrara is out now. Have a listen!