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WATCH: Mike DelPrete on Zillow’s competitive advantage

Photos by AJ Canaria of PlanOmatic

At the Inman Connect Las Vegas 2019 conference, Mike DelPrete, an entrepreneur, analyst and real estate industry strategic adviser, took to the stage to explain the seismic shifts shaking up the residential real estate market.

The real estate industry has become the focus of venture capitalists and public investors who have given companies such as Compass, Opendoor, Redfin and Zillow plenty of capital to engage in long-term business strategies that make them unprofitable in the short term in the hopes that they’ll be be better positioned to edge into a cut of every transaction that goes on in the real estate industry in the near future.

DelPrete shared his analysis Wednesday morning during a talk entitled “iBuying Disrupted: The Battle of the Behemoths.”

“The biggest disruption in real estate is financial disruption,” DelPrete said, adding, “Red is the new black,” to audience laughter.

Zillow is particularly well-positioned, but it’s struggling to keep up — in terms of growth — with companies such as Opendoor, DelPrete argued. The top dogs in the long term will be those who manage to scale and nab the most house buyers and sellers at the beginning of their real estate transaction journey and tailor service to the customers’ needs throughout.

Watch the full conversation now above on Inman Select.

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