Ever since I moved to HousingWire 10 years ago, we’ve had our share of ups and downs, like any small business. But what we’ve grown to today is a staggering accomplishment. And I’m still surprised by the new highs we continue to reach.
Our online readership continues to grow, as does our magazine community. So, that’s why we’re expanding our coverage, for the increasing number of readers in our print and digital communities.
Even today, your No. 1 source of premium content for the housing finance industry is expanding news coverage to directly cover the real estate agent community. We recognized that real estate agents face a myriad of challenges in simply earning a living. The emergence of real estate service and search engines as well as the advent of the iBuyer movement both pose major challenges to the ability of these agents to grow their businesses and serve homeowners in their local communities.
HousingWire’s coverage will better equip agents to help their clients make more informed home purchase and financing decisions, build stronger referral relationships and build sustainable businesses.
“As we recognize where the housing economy is today and the direction it is headed, we believe that alignment of mortgage, real estate and technology professionals has never been more important,” HousingWire President and CEO Clayton Collins said.
This is why we’ve brought in veteran journalist KK Howley to help us cover the market. Need more of a reason? Look no further than what’s happening at Zillow – arguably the biggest disruptor to the real estate agent space, at least for now.
When Zillow acquired Mortgage Lenders of America last summer, it led to a lot of industry speculation as to what their future aspirations were related to the financing side of real estate transactions (much more in this issue’s feature story).
Then, at the beginning of April this year, Zillow announced that it is launching its own mortgage lending operation, which it is calling Zillow Home Loans. Zillow is now facing competition from other iBuyer firms like Opendoor and Offerpad. In short, the disruptor is being disrupted.
This is the new normal. And we’re here to make sense of it for you. The markets may change, but our mission will not. With the help of Howley and the rest of the imitable HousingWire staff, we’ll keep Moving Markets Forward.
