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☆ The race to create the 'Amazon of real estate' could change home buying forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

But after years of trying, the basic structure of buying and selling a home remains pretty much the same. Even if you accept a bit of intricacy, real estate remains a stodgy industry — and regulation is at the core of that resistance to change. Despite the best efforts of would-be disruptors to cut out this middleman, 88% of buyers this year enlisted a real-estate agent, a Zillow survey found. Short of a tech-enabled homebuying nirvana, there are some other changes that could make the process easier for consumers. Saul Klein, an early internet evangelist in the real-estate industry, told me he sees an approaching "paradigm shift."

Persons: that's, you'll, they're, it's, Mike DelPrete, Rob Hahn, DelPrete, aren't, they'd, pocketing, —, ClosingCorp, we're, John Berkowitz, hasn't, Berkowitz, They're, Bobby Bryant, Bryant, Rich Barton, Wendy Gilch, Gilch, Saul Klein, Klein, James Rodriguez Organizations: Companies, University of Colorado Boulder, National Association of Realtors, Ojo, Group Inc, Universal Locations: Washington, California, Georgia

☆ Zillow offers a 1% down payment loan program
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Zillow Home Loans pays an additional 2%, bringing the total down payment to 3%, which is typically the minimum payment required for a conventional home loan. Currently the program is only available to buyers in Arizona, according to Zillow, with plans to expand. With mortgage rates crossing over 7% in recent weeks and home prices rising, home sales have plummeted over the past year. Offering a low down payment program is in line with Zillow’s return to its core business after a short-lived expansion into the ibuying business. Zillow also offers a down payment assistance tool to see if you are eligible for other programs.

Persons: Zillow, Rich Barton, haven’t, Orphe Divounguy, ” Organizations: DC CNN, Mortgage, Association, US Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans Affairs, Consumer Financial Locations: Washington, Arizona, homeownership, Phoenix

☆ Almost 30,000 Amazon employees have signed an internal petition to fight the company's return-to-office mandate. Read the full copy here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

New mandate requires most office workers to come into the office at least 3 times a week starting in May. About 3 weeks since the announcement of the new policy, more than 29,200 Amazon employees have signed an internal petition opposing the mandate. Roughly 30,000 Amazon employees have joined that Slack channel, which was created shortly after the RTO announcement. In the petition, Amazon employees added internal data supporting continued remote work and dozens of comments explaining why they oppose the change. A 2013 Stanford University study of Chinese workers found that remote workers are 13% more productive than their in-office counterparts.

☆ The problem with home-flipping giants
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Aj Latrace | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Meanwhile, the corporate scalpers of the housing market — companies that buy and relist homes by the thousands without doing much, if any, work on them to make a profit — are struggling. Last week, two of the biggest remaining corporate home-flipping companies, Opendoor and Offerpad, reported dismal earnings, another sign that their business model is incredibly risky. Kelman also said one "problem is that iBuying is a staggering amount of money and risk for a now-uncertain benefit. At its core, the main business model of home-flipping firms doesn't create a ton of immediate value. Opendoor, Offerpad, and other companies that rushed to purchase homes are now discounting the asking prices of those homes to get them off their books.

☆ Zillow stock up following fourth-quarter earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of Zillow popped more than 3% Wednesday in extended trading after the company released fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations on top and bottom lines. The company's Internet, Media and Technology segment's revenue came in at $417 million, a decline of 14% year over year. That segment, which represents the bulk of the company's business, includes various services for agents and consumers. Traffic to Zillow's mobile apps and websites reached 198 million average monthly unique users for the fourth quarter, flat year over year. The company will hold its quarterly call with investors at 5 p.m.

☆ Why corporate leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Evan Spiegel are all apologizing for the massive layoffs at their companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Since the pandemic, the largest tech layoffs have been at Meta, Getir, Booking.com, Twitter, Uber, Better.com., Peloton, and Groupon, Layoffs.fyi data show. Now companies in tech are reversing some of the huge hiring that they did in the past couple of years, Lee said. Mark Zuckerberg, MetaFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks about "News Tab" at the Paley Center, in New York on October 25, 2019. In the memo he wrote: "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. Jack Dorsey, ex-CEO TwitterTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, DC, in 2018.

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