Inman Top 5: The Buzziest Real Estate and Business Stories of the Week
Key Points Summary
- Who’s ‘Zillowing’ Now? – Users are getting hotel offers instead of house listings as Zillow sprints away from the ‘iBuyers’ race and jumps headfirst into the travel and tourism industry. You must’ve heard about diversified investment, but this is some next-level leap!
- Z Is for Zestimate Not ‘Zaccurate’: Zillow’s traditional home-valuation tool, Zestimate, hit turbulence, and lost around 6 Billion dollars. That’s ‘B’ for Billion and ‘O’ for Ouch! Now, that’s a roller-coaster ride nobody would want to be on!
- Ethereum Palace Anyone? – A San Francisco homeowner sells an $11.8 million mansion for Ethereum. Forget Bitcoin, Ethereum is the new king in town. Who knew house hunting would require a crypto wallet instead of a checkbook?
- ‘Amazon-ified’ Homes: Amazon launches its Alexa-powered homebuying platform, integrating its smart home technology throughout your soon-to-be newly-bought home. Because why would you want a real estate agent when you can have an AI powered one, amirite?
- The Grand Exchange: Companies are urging employees to swap cozy sweatpants for actual pants as they push workers back into their offices. Goodbye, Zoom meetings and hello, real-world office etiquette. It seems like kitchen counters need to retire from being workstations.
Hot Take
Zillow’s switch from Real Estate Tycoon to Travel Blog probably sent shockwaves through the iBuyer fan club. While Zestimate’s ‘Ztumble’ shows us the volatility of predictive analytics, Elon Musk probably curled up in laughter, considering Tesla’s recent achievements. Then the Ethereum whizz makes you wonder if Uncle Sam will begin accepting taxes in crypto. Amazon’s leap into the game is like a wake-up call, reminding us that the future called; it wants its AI-powered real estate, yesterday. Finally, the reunion at the water cooler might be sooner than we all anticipated. So, folks, brace yourselves! The real estate market isn’t about open houses anymore; it’s about open possibilities. Isn’t it a high time to upgrade your ‘real estate lingo’ and probably add some ‘crypto glossary’ into it?