Big Shakeup at HouseValues
From today’s Seattle PI, HouseValues Inc. eliminates 60 jobs
HouseValues also announced Wednesday that President and Chief Operating Officer Clayton Lewis will be leaving the company, joining a parade of executives — including Mark Jancola and Jun Choo — who have left in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Barry Allen, a former top executive at Cendant Corp.’s Move.com, has been named chief financial officer and executive vice president. He fills a position that was vacated last fall when John Zdanowski left for Linden Lab, the San Francisco creator of Second Life.
The layoffs were somewhat buried in their press release, not even mentioned until the sixth paragraph.
Nobody should be surprised by this move. Nor are they, as it seems – there’s some very interesting discussion from former HouseValuers in the comment section of John Cook’s blog; see Layoffs at HouseValues.
Investors (Nasdaq: SOLD) however seem to be responding somewhat favorably, as their share price ticked up slightly. But not enough to stem a prolonged, drawn out slump.
Ultimately, I’m not sure it’s the slumping real estate market that’s really to blame for HV’s troubles; rather, I think business models like theirs are increasingly irrelevant in the face of a new wave of competitors like Zillow, eppraisal.com and even Cyberhomes.
Nobody likes to see layoffs, I’ve been through them myself and it’s not a pleasant experience. But, hopefully this is the wakeup call they need to pull themselves out of their nosedive.
Anyone want to start a real estate deadpool?
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8 Comment(s)
4 Trackback(s)
- From theresoldgumbootprincess | theresoldgumbootprincess | Nov 30, 1999
- From Realtio | Feb 6, 2007
- From HouseValues | generalsearching.info | Feb 21, 2007
- From Santa Clarita Valley Real Estate Guide: Web 2.0 is changing Real Estate again... | Mar 20, 2007
Erik Hersman | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply
That is rather big news, as HouseValues is a big player (and spender) in our space. It’ll be interesting to see where they go with new leadership, especially now that they’re significantly behind in their consumer offerings (technologically).
Incredible Agent | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply
Definatley interesting news in our space. They say they’re out of the mortgage business game, but I wonder how much they were in it to begin with. It didn’t seem like they really went after the mortgage industry with full force.
As far as a death pool. I don’t think they’ll be closing down shop anytime soon, especially with $100m in annual revenue. They have some great branding and serious assets that will carry them thru for at least a few more years.
Who knows, maybe Zillow will buy them out after they IPO. :*)
Rory | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply
I know that there is currently an active effort from within our MLS system to establish and enforce rules about MLS data being used by the business models such as HV.
There is a problem if I, as an agent, take a photo of a listing, only to have a site display the same photo in order to sell me back a lead!
Not that this is the exact case with House Values, but perhaps their partners in ideology.
Calculator | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply
I’d put Zillow, Trulia, and Redfin in the deadpool before HouseValues.
HV is in trouble, but they built a business that was very profitable up until the last quarter, and they are sitting on a huge pile of cash. If they invest that money wisely they will thrive.
Zillow and the other newcomers have never been profitable and are bleeding cash, and they have far less cash to figure it out than HV did. At best one of Z,T,R will survive to be a profitable company, IMO.
REBlogGirl | Jan 26, 2007 | Reply
Wow, that kind of executive overhaul seems to be a hallmark of disaster to come. I sure hope those boys know what they are doing… Much like the above comment, I wonder what this will mean for companies like Trulia, Zillow and Redfin.
Steve Leung | Jan 27, 2007 | Reply
There’s definitely going to be consolidation in the online real estate industry, but it’s not a huge surprise to HouseValues stockholders that there’s an executive shakeup. Skiers would call the price curve a double black diamond.
Ken | Jan 28, 2007 | Reply
Theirs is a dying model where they pimp the consumer for contact info and sell it to the real estate agent. It seems to me that a model like that is only sustainable with an everlasting budget for PPC. I think a deadpool is a great idea.
Eloise | Jan 29, 2007 | Reply
Businesses like HouseValues do not have a sustainable model. Such businesses take advantage of boom markets that are always cyclical. Think about what they do. To a large extent, people, curious about their neighbor’s home prices visit websites like those of HouseValues and input unreliabe information. HV-type businesses vigorously market to real estate agents promising sure leads. Some agents for for the bait only to discover sooner or later that it is like playing the lottery and try to quit. The penalties for quittinf are stiff. How does HV handle supplying customers with leads as fewer and fewer homes go on the market? What happens to an agent who says, I am dissatisfied with your service and want to quit? I am not surprised at the downsizing.