Does it make sense for banks or FinTech players to operate real estate marketplaces?

Jorge Combe is the CEO of DD360, a company with a unique business model. Having started out as a B2B development loan specialist it has since moved into B2C mortgages and has built its own very sophisticated marketplace on top.

In this episode, Ed and Simon ask why a FinTech business would go to the trouble of building a marketplace on top of its existing business...

Inspired by a PropTech & Portal Watch presentation by Malcolm Myers, Simon and Ed discuss some of the threats to real estate portals that have come along over the years...

• Web-based horizontals
• Global verticals
• Search engines
• Social networks
• iBuyers
• Virtual brokerages

Some are just buzzwords, others seemed more threatening. None of them have seriously challenged big name marketplaces.

So are portals invincible?

The link to Malcolm's presentation that inspired this episode is here password = PPWBKK24

The Online Marketplaces news team has to look through a lot of different real estate marketplace businesses and we often get naked if we've seen any interesting ones. Ed and Harvey try to impress Simon Baker with two companies that they think have gone a little under the radar: Tsukuruba in Japan and DomClick in Russia...

Ed and Simon are joined by Rubrikk Group CEO, Adil Osmani to talk about the future of real estate classified aggregators. These businesses sit above portals and pass them traffic but they have been in the news for the wrong reasons recently. Is time up for the aggregator-to-portal CPC business model?

On this week’s podcast, Harvey Hancock and Simon Baker speak to Stefan Gunnarsson, CEO at PropTexx.From which photos get the most attention, to the importance of flexible pricing—and chewing glass—enjoy!

0:00 Intros and Proptexx in context

3:20 Proptexx’s widget and functionality

7:00 What can Proptexx do and not do?

11:00 Data collection and usage

14:10 Challenges, and minimising lag times

18:20 Building in a high-growth space—what did you do right/wrong?

23:30 Where does user engagement evolve to next?

29:00 AI, Search and co-piloting

34:45 Pricing

40:00 Goodbyes

Edmund Keith interviews Simon Baker about running a real estate portal. They discuss the first steps a CEO should take, the importance of defending and extending market leadership, and the focus on pricing and adding new products and services. They also explore the role of operational expenses and the need to free up resources rather than just cutting costs. The conversation touches on the significance of traffic and leads for a portal's success, the challenge of measuring lead quality, and the importance of building relationships with agents. The conversation explores various levers that a real estate portal CEO can pull to drive success. These levers include staying connected to the audience, understanding unit economics and price increases, diversifying revenue streams, and navigating market dynamics. The key takeaway is the importance of clarity in strategy and execution, focusing on the core business, and avoiding distractions.

Ed and Simon are joined by Pietro Pellizzari, CEO of Wikicasa, to talk about the unique challenges and opportunities in the Italian real estate market.

Discussion points include

• The state of the Italian market and the challenges and opportunities.
• The state of real estate portal competition.
• What makes Wikicasa different from its competitors Idealista and Immobiliare.
• The challenges of being an agent-backed portal business.
• FSBO listings

In part two of our interview with Dhruv Agarwala, we discuss a much-needed topic: health and wellbeing. Dhruv is the ideal interviewee—his personal and professional journey involved losing over 70 kilos in just two years, without any surgery, supplements or coaching; he did it all organically, by himself. How did he do it? How has it impacted his work? Find out all this, and more, on this episode of the Property Portal Watch Podcast. 0:00 Dhruv's Journey 09:20 Mindfulness and Prioritising Self 30:36 The Key to Successful Acquisitions 40:53 Longevity: A Focus on Quality of Life