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While most headlines in 2024 have focused on Realtor.com’s bitter battle with CoStar, CEO Damian Eales said the rivalry is high on his priorities — especially as the growing housing shortage threatens the lives of millions of Realtors.
Damian Eales Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
“On election day last November, we ran ads in some of the biggest newspapers in the country congratulating the future leaders who will be elected overnight,” he told the Inman Connect New York crowd on Wednesday. “But we challenge them – we urge you in your new roles of commitment to address the real challenge of our time, which is housing affordability. I would say that the last administration really made Realtors atrocious for housing affordability by focusing on commissions.”
“And even if they only reduced the commissions, let’s say, a percentage point, which may have been their intention, that seems to be nothing in the real issue, which is the housing supply,” he added. “So what you will see from us in the coming year is a real focus on shedding light on the issue that America has 7.2 million short-lived homes and it is getting worse every year because we are not building enough stock to deal with the provision of basic services. .”
Eales said that addressing housing supply issues is a “win-win” for agents and buyers; however, the industry must do a better job of communicating with consumers and decision makers about policies that would overtax housing starts and slow home price growth to a sustainable level.
“I wish we could spend more time talking outside the bubble to all the community leaders the people in this room influence and certainly who we can influence like Realtor.com and who we can influence like News Corp,” he said. “[We need] starting to challenge politicians to deal with the issue of reducing red tapes, freeing the world, dealing with them [the ‘Not in My Backyard’ movement] and building more homes because we as an industry will be more successful, but more importantly, the community will be more successful as a result.”
Eales said Realtor.com is committed to advocating for sustainable real estate policies and educating consumers about those policies through its journalism division, which is the top publisher of consumer-oriented real estate news in the US.
“Ten years ago when News Corp bought Realtor.com, we didn’t have a single reporter at Realtor.com. Today we have many journalists,” he said. “We are the number one news site for home buyers. And, in fact, if you include all the real estate articles from all over News Corp, including Realtor.com, we are the leading publisher of consumer real estate news in the country.”
The CEO said that the brand’s strong focus on real estate speaking and producing consumer stories does not detract from the company’s larger goals of reclaiming its title as the number one portal in the industry. If anything, he said, it puts them in a better position to connect with buyers and build trust — a key piece of the puzzle in drawing a large portion of agents back to the Realtor.com platform.
“If we are serious about dealing with Zillow, we have to challenge ourselves. We are the number one brand most trusted by consumers in this country. We want to be the biggest website in the country,” he said. “It will take us some time to get there. And if we’re going to do it, we’re going to have to be a better alternative for consumers. We will have to grow our audience. And we will have to be a better alternative for customers. “
Describing his competitors, Eales said part of being better for home buyers, sellers, and agents will undoubtedly involve artificial intelligence working to improve the Realtor.com platform. The company’s technology team has already used AI to revamp search functions on the site, allowing buyers to use natural language and color-coded maps to easily find the listings they’re interested in.
“Artificial intelligence allows you to create a completely different search experience for every individual consumer. Imagine going to the Realtor.com app and my experience is completely different from your experience because I know not only your past behavior, but I know your past behavior across all the News Corp brands that you have across North America,” he said. “If you are The Wall Street Journal customer, you will probably have a different experience than a The New York Post a customer for example.”
On the agent side, Eales said Realtor.com is using AI to increase productivity and help them increase results from Realtor.com’s portfolio of lead-gen products.
“We work with companies like Ylopo, for example, to help us vet vets, to ensure that the leads are of high value, and help us to grow leads to remove some of the agents’ burdens so they can be more productive in their role,” he says. “I think it will be and major advances in AI’s ability to help train agents to identify good agent performance, bad agent performance, and we’ll be at the forefront of those developments.”
As for what 2025 holds, Eales said he is ready for the next wave of competition as AI and market forces challenge portals to expand their proposition.
“We love competition at Realtor.com. We think it’s our role to be better for our clients and buyers by competing hard and last year it was a level playing field,” he said. .. And today, we’re very focused on Zillow.”
“They are to be commended in many respects, but they are a very consumer oriented organization. In all the talks I’ve heard from their company representatives, they start with the customer first,” he added. “I think, not that consumers are important, we spend a lot of time talking to consumers and we’re agonizing over our consumer experience. But I think we’re a different company. You know we’re building an industry.”
Email Marian McPherson
