Inman Innovator winners announced in Las Vegas to round out Inman Connect

Inman Connect Las Vegas wrapped its third and final day with the announcement of this year’s winners of Inman Innovator Awards. Congratulations to entrepreneur of the year Adena Hefets of Divvy Homes, and company of the year CoStar Group; click through for all the rest of the winners. And now, let the planning begin for Inman Connect New York, Jan. 24-26, 2023!

Laying off brokerage staff during a recession? Think twice

THE NEWS: It’s age-old business advice — hire slow when times are good, and fire fast when they’re turning sour. But it may not always be good advice for a real estate brokerage, where every round of support-staff layoffs runs the risk of spooking agents and even scaring them off, according to broker-owners who spoke at Inman Connect Las Vegas this week.?

“If you’re letting go of a ton of people, it means you’re poorly managed, in my opinion,” Thad Wong of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, told moderator Brad Imman. As home sales decline, a brokerage’s staff will naturally find fewer tasks on their desk related to accounting or contract administration. But instead of laying off those workers, Wong said it’s often better to shift them to new useful tasks that serve the agents.

BEHIND THE NEWS: The panel session explored various ways that broker-owners can prepare for a slowdown in real estate sales. Nina Dosanjh of Vanguard Properties said broker-owners can prepare for tougher economic times by conducting a complete audit of their technology stack, to make sure the business is fully utilizing the services for which they’re paying their vendors. “You can have a vision and sell a product,” Dosanjh said, “but if you are not bringing value, then you’re on the chopping block.” Read the full story here.

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Opendoor cutting prices in bid to get unsold homes off the books

THE NEWS: Opendoor says it’s cutting prices on its inventory after buying more homes than it sold during the second quarter, putting the company back in the red, but the company expects the homes it’s buying now will perform well. The iBuying giant dramatically boosted home sales during the second quarter, generating $4.2 billion in revenue, but racked up a $54 million net loss. That’s a turnaround from the first three months of the year, when Opendoor posted its first profitable quarter, with net income of $28 million.

Opendoor’s inventory balance swelled by 143 percent in April, May and June, to 17,013 homes valued at $6.6 billion, as it bought more homes (14,135) than it sold (10,482), the company said Thursday in reporting second quarter earnings. In a letter to shareholders, co-founder and CEO Eric Wu said Opendoor is “prioritizing inventory health by reducing the price of our existing inventory in line with the market.”

BEHIND THE NEWS: Opendoor also announced Thursday that it has entered into a multi-year partnership with Zillow, to allow home sellers on the Zillow platform to request offers from Opendoor. Zillow shut down its own iBuying program, Zillow Offers in November. Read the full story here.