Constance Freedman Ranks 1 of 200 Most Powerful and Influential Executives and Leaders for 2021

The Swanepoel Power 200 (SP 200) ranks the 200 most powerful and influential executives and leaders in the residential real estate brokerage industry every year (given that some roles have two or three leaders, the list includes a little over 200 leaders). The 2021 list, our eighth annual, as of December 31, 2020, can be found here. Read on to learn more about the process of how we determine the rankings.

We do not establish the ranking of leaders on the SP 200 solely by company size. In fact, it is just one of several key eight components of our methodology. Any reference to size and sales volume listed are shared for framing the companies the executives on the company lead; generally, 2019 numbers are used (unless a major event disproportionately may have changed the numbers) as those are the current audited numbers available across the board for all companies. Most companies are still busy with their 2020 financials and 2020 audited numbers will only be released by T3 Sixty in April or May (known as the Mega 1000) as soon as audits have been completed.

The Power 200 takes approximately 500 hours, uses eight criteria and follows a deliberate detailed procedure to determine who is included and acknowledged every year. The methodology can be reviewed here.

Porch valuation soars to $1B after IPO

After merging with a blank-check company, Porch.com is now a billion-dollar company.

The home-services startup made its stock market debut on Nasdaq, with shares opening at $15.37.

The company’s merger with PropTech Acquisition Corp. closed on Wednesday, 12/23. The special-purpose acquisition company was formed last year by Thomas Hennessy and Joseph Beck, former Abu Dhabi Investment Authority execs. After trading around $10 per share for several months, the SPAC’s stock jumped nearly 25 percent after shareholders approved the Porch merger on Dec. 21.

Prior to the IPO, Porch had raised $120 million from investors including Valor Equity Partners, Lowe’s Cos., Founders Fund and Battery Ventures.

Porch hopes to generate up to $500 million in revenue in five to seven years by growing its core business.

The company said it received $322 million in gross proceeds from the IPO, including a $150 million investment led by Wellington Management. Other investors include Scopus Asset Management and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, which acquired a 6.4 percent stake that’s now valued at $17 million.

CoStar to acquire Homesnap for $250M

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces, announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Homesnap, Inc. for $250 million in cash.

Homesnap is an industry-leading online and mobile software platform that provides user-friendly applications to optimize residential real estate agent workflow and reinforce the agent-client relationship. Over 300,000 agents nationwide use the application an average of 30 times each month. Those 300,000 agents are also the nation’s most productive, selling the majority of homes in the US. The platform enjoys high growth and engagement as the number of active monthly users has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of over 40% since 2016, while marketing product sales have risen over 75% per year over that same period. Supported by a consortium of hundreds of the country’s largest multiple listing services (MLSs), over 1.1 million real estate agents have access to Homesnap Pro. These agents represent over 90% of the residential real estate agents and listings in the United States. With the support of this impressive consortium, Homesnap’s public residential real estate portal showcases 1.3 million active property listings. Tens of millions of home shoppers use the Homesnap website and app to look for a home.

“The acquisition of Homesnap will enable us to enter a new space and expand the total addressable markets in which we can compete,” said CoStar Group founder and CEO, Andy Florance. “The estimated value of commercial real estate assets in the U.S. is $16 trillion. With the new addition of clients and information covering 90% of the estimated $27 trillion dollar U.S. residential real estate market we are almost tripling the size of our addressable markets. Over the past thirty years, CoStar has become the leading real estate technology platform by working in partnership with commercial real estate brokers to serve their needs for data, analytics and advertising exposure for their property listings. Similarly, Homesnap works in very close partnership with residential agents to serve their needs for data, analytics and advertising exposure for their property listings. We will continue to differentiate our residential real estate portal and solutions by working solely to help agents market their listings and their brands, which is in sharp contrast to other portals that increasingly advertise on top of agent listings and offer brokerage services directly.”

The addition of Homesnap’s complementary offerings will quadruple the number of professional, paying brokers and active agent users on the CoStar Group U.S. platforms from approximately 100,000 today to over 400,000. The number of U.S. property listings available across CoStar’s brands will double from approximately 1.35 million today to over 2.6 million.

“Homesnap has great relationships, data, software, and tools for residential real estate professionals that are complementary to our existing offerings,” continued Florance. “The tools and functionality developed by Homesnap for residential property agents, such as lead generation, client collaboration, and digital advertising, have direct applicability to commercial brokers. Our goal is to make these enhanced capabilities available to all of our audiences. Combining forces with Homesnap is also expected to enable us to expand and deepen our collaboration with MLSs nationwide. A very large percentage of CoStar’s clients such as investors, banks, government agencies, appraisers, suppliers, and brokerage firms are active in both commercial and residential real estate, so we believe that they would welcome a more comprehensive solution for their needs across all real estate segments.”

“Homesnap has spent years building tools that reinforce the agent-client relationship and arm both home buyers and agents with the data and software they need to find homes and do their jobs,” said John Mazur, CEO of Homesnap. “In addition, residential property agents spend an estimated $10 billion every year on software and marketing, while influencing a further $21 billion of spending in adjacent markets, such as lending, insurance and relocation services. We are excited to join CoStar Group and leverage their 30 years of knowledge and experience in property data, software and marketing to take advantage of this significant growth opportunity.”

Homesnap is also headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area, employs approximately 150 people and is projected to achieve approximately $40 million of revenue for the full year 2020, representing revenue growth of approximately 45% compared to the full year 2019. The transaction is expected to close in 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory review.

The preceding forward-looking statements reflect CoStar Group’s expectations as of November 22, 2020. We are not able to forecast with certainty whether or when certain events, such as acquisition-related costs, the exact timing of the closing of the acquisition, or the exact amounts or timing of any investments related to the acquisition will occur. Given the risk factors, uncertainties and assumptions discussed above, actual results may differ materially. Other than in publicly available statements, CoStar Group does not intend to update its forward-looking statements until its next quarterly results announcement.

About CoStar Group, Inc.

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) is the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. Founded in 1987, CoStar conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information. Our suite of online services enables clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on commercial property values, market conditions and current availabilities. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality sector. Ten-X provides a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked commercial real estate marketplace online with over 7 million monthly unique visitors. Realla is the UK’s most comprehensive commercial property digital marketplace. Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Westside Rentals, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com and Apartamentos.com form the premier online apartment resource for renters seeking great apartment homes and provide property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. CoStar Group’s websites attracted an average of approximately 69 million unique monthly visitors in aggregate in the third quarter of 2020. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Canada and Asia with a staff of over 4,300 worldwide, including the industry’s largest professional research organization. For more information, visit www.costargroup.com.

About Homesnap

Based in Bethesda, MD, Homesnap was founded in 2012 to provide residential real estate agents and consumers with an intuitive technology that facilities buying and selling homes. Homesnap’s flagship product, Homesnap Pro, is a free software application for real estate agents to view and manage property listings, communicate with clients, receive market alerts and schedule showings on their mobile devices. Homesnap collects data from over 500 data sources and has subscription service agreements with approximately 240 MLSs who provide data and subscription revenue to Homesnap in exchange for free agent access to Homesnap Pro. Homesnap also provides marketing products through its mobile application that agents can use to promote their listings, as well as a premium product called Homesnap Pro+, which provides agents with enhanced functionality and business intelligence through individual subscription agreements. The Homesnap platform contains approximately 1.3 million active property listings, including residential, commercial, land and other property types, covering approximately 90% of active listings. The company also aggregates information on property taxes, mortgages, individual property parcels, neighborhood schools and other property data elements.

This news release and the Company’s conference call contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about CoStar Group's plans, objectives, expectations, beliefs and intentions and other statements including words such as “hope,” “anticipate,” “may,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “will,” “should,” “plan,” “estimate,” “predict,” “continue” and “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management of CoStar and are subject to many risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions and estimates used as a basis for the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the possibility that the acquisition of Homesnap does not close when expected or at all; the possibility that the parties are unable to obtain regulatory approval, or the risk that any actions required to be taken in order to receive regulatory approval may impact the expected benefits of the transaction; the risk that the businesses of Homesnap and CoStar may not be combined successfully or in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the risk that business disruption relating to the Homesnap acquisition may be greater than expected; the risk that the acquisition does not produce the expected benefits or results for CoStar, Homesnap or their customers and advertisers, including expanded and deeper collaboration with MLSs nationwide and as otherwise stated in this release; the risk that Homesnap revenues and revenue growth for 2020 will not be as stated in this press release; the risk that the combination and integration of Homesnap will disrupt CoStar Group's or Homesnap’s operations or result in the loss of customers or key employees; uncertainty surrounding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including volatility in the international and U.S. economy, worker absenteeism or decreased productivity, quarantines or other travel or health-related restrictions; the length and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic; the pace of recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic; and government and private actions taken to control the spread of COVID-19. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements can be found in CoStar Group’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar Group’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and CoStar Group’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020 and September 30, 2020, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” section of those filings, as well as CoStar Group’s other filings with the SEC available at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar Group on the date hereof, and CoStar Group assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

ICON secures $35 million in a Series A led by Moderne Ventures

3D home-printing startup Icon raises $35M

August 20, 2020

Icon has secured $35 million in a Series A led by Moderne Ventures. Other backers in the round include Citi, Vulcan Capital and CAZ Investments. The Austin-based startup uses 3D printing technology to build houses and printed its first home in 2018. To date, it has raised $44 million in total funding.

Select Additional Investors

Ironspring, Next Coast Ventures, Oakhouse Partners, Wavemaker Partners

The BFD: ICON, an Austin, Texas-based home-printing startup, raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Moderne Ventures.

ICON, an Austin, Texas-based home-printing startup, raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Moderne Ventures.

• Why it's the BFD: Because using a giant 3D printer, with concrete as its substrate, to build houses is not only audacious, it also could help alleviate America's dearth of affordable housing.

• Others investors include BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, CAZ Investments, Citi, Crosstimbers Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Oakhouse Partners, Trust Ventures, Vulcan Capital, and Wavemaker Partners.

• Bottom line: "The first ICON home was permitted and built in Austin, Texas two years ago. Now the company, in cooperation with local nonprofit Mobil Loaves & Fishes, is building an entire community for homeless people in the Austin area... When completed later this year, the village will cover 51 acres and provide housing for 480 people — about 40% of Austin's homeless population." — Steve Hanley, CleanTechnica

2020's Most Powerful People in The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry

Constance Freedman Secures Spot 156

The overall 2019 SP200 ranks the most powerful leaders in the residential real estate brokerage industry as at December 31, 2018, with adjustments made only for the major leadership announcements made after that date and before this release on January 15, 2019. To rank the leaders eight (8) different criteria were reviewed and can be seen here.

These rankings (SP200) are of the leaders in our industry and is not a company ranking. Size and sales volume listed are shared for framing of the person listed. Note that 2017 numbers are used as those are the only available across the board for all companies. Most companies have not completed their 2018 financials and our official company and brokerage rankings (MEGA 1000) will be published in April/May 2019 after financial and audits have been completed.

How proptech is opening the door for real estate to ‘Engage the Future’

Proptech is powerful; its mission is to fuse the digital world with the built environment to create a competitive edge.

The interest in proptech was seen earlier this month, when US data giant CoStar bought Realla, a two-year-old, UK-based start-up offering a free-to-list search engine for commercial property.

CoStar is placing a bet that commercial property will follow the market for homes and move to online portals, like the market has done in the US. The pickings stand to be rich, especially with a proposed expansion across Europe.

US$12bn of funding for proptech companies in 2017

Last year, proptech globally saw venture capital investment triple to US$12.6bn, compared with US$4.2bn in 2016. A large slice of the 2017 pie came from SoftBank’s investments in Compass and WeWork (source: The Real Deal).

Constance Freedman, Founder & Managing Partner of Chicago-based Moderne Ventures, an ‘early stage’ venture fund, believes that this figure is in reality “significantly higher”. This, she says, is because it does not include ‘horizontal applications’: for example, DocuSign’s US$4bn initial public offering, which clearly has applications in and outside of the real estate sector; Perq – AI for creating lead generation; and platforms such as Envoy – all of which are not considered ‘true’ proptech. Global Real Estate Expert had the opportunity to ask Constance Freedman about how she sees the ability of proptech to create ‘durable growth’ in the real estate sector.

How can proptech help in ‘Engaging the Future’ over the next 30 years?

Over the next 30 years, technology will provide the tools to help the real estate industry to not only build faster and at a reduced cost – with no compromise on standards, but also with less waste and use of resources.

The industry is also evolving to act as an enabler in a way that has never been possible before; helping to link the creation of long-term economic growth with quality of life and optimal use of resources. This will have a tremendous impact for the industry and for its customers.

“As customers look for economic return, community cohesion and sustainable performance where they work, live, shop, and play, they are helping to push the industry and its technology partners to find ways to solve these issues.”

Technology is in a position to spearhead alternate means to address many of the current issues in real estate, from the way the digital economy has changed how end users view their physical space requirements to the massive shortage of affordable homes.

Many times, customer behaviour dictates industry change.  As customers – whether real estate companies, owners, operators, investors or consumers – look for economic return, community cohesion and sustainable performance, where they work, live, shop, and play, they are helping to push the industry and its technology partners to find ways to solve these issues.

To what extent is the real estate industry being challenged by ‘disruption’?

For most of the last century innovation was brought to us by a few large, incumbent technology players, and at the pace they decided.

Outside capital is now allowing into the market smaller, more nimble entrants, who do not have the same constraints as the big players.

“Disruption isn’t always happening to the real estate sector; it is also happening for the real estate sector.” 

We need to remember that disruption isn’t always happening to the real estate sector; it is also happening for the real estate sector.

Take the example of DocuSign; ‘DocuSign’ is now a verb in the real estate space. Or digital mortgage companies such as Better and insurance companies such as Hippo in the US housing sector, which can decrease transaction times by as much as 30 days.

On the multi-family residential side, we see companies in the US such as LeaseLock and Nova Credit allowing property managers and owners provide housing to people who might not otherwise qualify for an apartment, with no additional risk to the property.

These are all disruptive technologies creating enormous value for all players in the industry.

Many proptech firms will fail. How do you spot the survivors who will go on to have a radical impact?

Our Moderne Network has around 700 members, all investors, mentors or advisers, corporations and executives, looking for technology and innovation to create a competitive advantage.

We work closely with our Network to assess and then to spot the tech companies who they believe will have a radical impact on the industry; they look to understand the tech companies’ true value in their execution abilities and operational attributes.

How is proptech bridging the gap between the different players in the real estate industry?

Technology has enabled multiple constituents in the value chain or transaction process to share data and information quickly and often in real time.

In the past, data was siloed internally within companies and there was minimal transparency to the customer about a transaction.

“Technology has allowed integrated data flow to and from internal systems, which in turn creates operational efficiencies, as well as enhancing and increasing the speed of financial decisions.”

In the housing sector in the US, online search portals such as HomeSnap and tech companies connecting consumers with on-demand and local services, such as Hello Alfred, are providing greater transparency and better communication in a way that has never been conceivable before.

Technology has allowed integrated data flow to and from internal systems, which in turn creates operational efficiencies, as well as enhancing and increasing the speed of financial decisions.

Is the proptech industry doing enough to protect its customers from cyberattacks?

As we speak to companies and industry partners, the threat of cyberattacks is becoming a greater concern, especially in the IoT (Internet of Things) sector where an exponential rise is predicted in the number of connected devices on the internet.

Many new digital technologies are still vey nascent, so the true cyber threats are unknown. IoT devices will be installed inside a home or workspace, and connected to other connected devices, leaving multiple entry points for attack.

“All parties need to be involved in accessing any vulnerable systems and co-designing the necessary steps to safeguard the system.”

With so many links in the chain, it is hard to pinpoint who is responsible for safeguarding against any potential attack or breach.  That is why all parties need to be involved in accessing any vulnerable systems and co-designing the necessary steps to safeguard them.