Clayton Collins on HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters

HousingWire

On today’s episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with CEO Clayton Collins about HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters.  Related to this episode:  HousingWire | YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q  More info about HousingWire https://lnk.bio/housingwire  The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.

Transcript

00:07Welcome, everyone. My guest today is HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins to talk about some really

00:13exciting news. HousingWire's acquisition of Keeping Current Matters. We just broke that

00:18news on HousingWire.com and I can't wait to get all the details. Clayton, welcome back to the

00:22podcast. Thank you so much, Sarah, on a pretty exciting day. It really is. Okay, well, of course,

00:28much of our audience will be very familiar with Keeping Current Matters. For those who aren't,

00:33give us a brief description of what this company does. Yeah, Keeping Current Matters is a fabulous

00:38platform and product that for decades has been helping real estate agents better explain the

00:46market to their home buyers and sellers. We know how challenging it is to keep up to date on what's

00:51happening in the housing market. And one of the things that KCM, Keeping Current Matters, has done

00:56so well is help translate what's happening in our B2B world, the professional world that HousingWire

01:03operates in and translate that into the information that consumers, home buyers, home sellers need to

01:10understand so they can make decisions with confidence. So KCM goes to market to help agents

01:17win more listings. They have tools for social media, newsletters, video, any kind of content category you

01:25can imagine to help agents better explain what's happening in the market to their clients as well

01:31as prospective clients, helping them win more listings and deliver better outcomes for their

01:36clients. I think what's so interesting about this is that a platform like this really lets real estate

01:41agents do what they do best. None of them are like, hey, I want to spend so much time making

01:46sure the

01:47social media is right or somehow getting the analysis and figuring out how I should say that to a client

01:52sitting across from me. They don't have time to do that. No, absolutely not. We all have core things

01:58that we're excellent at, but we should be surrounded with the tools and resources and platforms that help

02:06us extend our core capabilities and just be more effective professionals. So we look at KCM as a

02:13critical tool that helps agents be effective market analysts, storytellers, understanding the economic

02:20data as well as local housing market data. So they can focus on what matters most advising clients to

02:27make decisions and make great decisions that put them in great homeownership situations. Well, tell me

02:32what, what is housing wire now add to this picture, right? KCM, as you said, has been doing this for

02:38decades, extremely popular people rely on it, very trusted. So what are we bringing to the table?

02:43Yeah. So at the core KCM is a content business, much like housing wire at housing wire, we exist to

02:51help housing professionals make better decisions faster. And that core mission, that vision is

02:56something that is fully embraced at KCM. KCM has been helping agents help their clients make better

03:03decisions faster for a really long time. So when we look at the two organizations, we look at housing wire

03:10at its core, understanding everything that's happening in the housing market and the real estate

03:14world from top headlines and economic news down to local market data. And we look at KCM, who's great

03:20at interpreting that information, turning into great assets and scripts and tools that agents can use to

03:26tell stories. So when you put these two organizations together, KCM gets faster access to news and

03:33intelligence from the housing wire newsroom. It gets access to housing wire's deep bench of experts

03:40and analysts like you, Sarah and Logan. It also gets access to all of our local market data and

03:46mortgage data that will flow into the KCM platform to help agents go layers deeper and taking national

03:54headlines and translating those to local market narratives and local market understanding. On top

04:01of all this, we get to bring together these two awesome teams. And the team at KCM is fabulous,

04:08great analysts, great analysts, researchers, storytellers, marketers, customer success team members, but also

04:15great technologists. There's a really strong engineering staff and engineering leadership team that helps put

04:21forward a great product to the users. We combine that with the deep engineering talent, data talent, storytelling and

04:29marketing talent we have at housing wire. We put together an organization that's best of breed from

04:34a product and platform perspective, but also best of breed from a team member capability and envision

04:41perspective. We've spent a lot of time talking to users, both individual and enterprise clients of KCM.

04:50And we have a very clear view of what needs to happen at KCM to make the product even better,

04:56even more effective,

04:57more efficient for its users and future users. We do hope to grow, Sarah. So we have a very clear

05:04roadmap of where we're

05:05going with keeping current matters. And a lot of it is blending the capabilities across the organization to better

05:12serve real estate agents and better serve the clients that they support as agents.

05:18I think I'm so excited. So, of course, you know, I mostly work with the newsroom and we're working on

05:22all these breaking stories.

05:23We also do a lot of analysis. We have tons of contributed pieces. We work with some of the top

05:29leaders in the industry

05:31across housing to get their insights. And to me, what this feels like is just an amplification of all of

05:38the work that we're already

05:39doing to be like, OK, that that's on this level. And now we can take it and put it on

05:43this other level where it's really easy

05:45for people to synthesize. And like you said, sit across the table and tell them, hey, this is what this

05:51means.

05:51Yeah. A big part of the future of content news data is not just telling people what happened and why

05:59it happened,

05:59but also why it matters to them. And Sarah, you and your newsroom and your podcast, you do inform professionals

06:07about why the information and news matters to them. KCM takes that a step further and explains to

06:12consumers why it matters to them. So this is an extension of the housing wire capability suite

06:18and not just going B2B, but ultimately going B2B2C and how the product extends to serve the ultimate

06:26consumer, the home buyer and seller. I'd be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit more about the team,

06:33Sarah.

06:33So KCM has a fabulous history. The organization has been run for years by Bill Harney. The KCM was

06:42founded by Bill's father, Steve Harney, one of the most legendary market analysts and storytellers and

06:49speakers and experts in the real estate industry. He came out of the agent and brokerage background,

06:54built KCM, and then Bill has elevated the business and grown it exponentially, which is just like the

07:03Harney family story is fabulous. And it's been really cool to see what Bill has done. But Bill

07:09hasn't done that by himself. He's been partnered with an amazing executive team, including David Childers.

07:16Dave has been prolific going across the country, speaking on stages and podcasts. His work is

07:24featured heavily in the product. And I'm so excited to partner with Dave in the future of KCM, but also

07:33have Bill around as a senior advisor and making sure all the years of knowledge and expertise that he's

07:40developed as he's built KCM are applied to the future of the product and in the future of the

07:45business. And that's just the top of the leadership team. There's fabulous leaders across product and

07:51tech and engineering that we're so excited to welcome into the Housing Wire ecosystem.

07:56So Housing Wire has made five acquisitions since 2020. That's the fifth one. And in each one of those,

08:02I know you really look at like, not just at like what these two things do together, but how these

08:06two

08:07teams will work together, how they will joining in and just the, the last week or so meeting with

08:12their team, understanding their vision and their mission. It's so similar. I can see why you were

08:17like, this is a great fit because of what we all are trying to do and also who the people

08:22are.

08:22Yeah. I think we all care deeply about furthering the success of housing professionals. Like we've long

08:29believed that Housing Wire, that we have an opportunity to help create a healthier, more sustainable,

08:35more efficient housing market. That's better for professionals operate in where we can

08:40have bigger, better careers, earn more money, and hopefully not have the volatility that the housing

08:46market has seen over the past few decades. I believe we can also impact a healthier, faster growing,

08:53more efficient housing market for home buyers and sellers. And when we create that outcome, when we help

08:59housing feel more accessible and a safer place to park capital as an investment and help people realize

09:07the benefits that it brings to family and education and health and financial wellbeing, Housing Wire combined

09:14with KCM has an opportunity to just keep pushing that progress forward, Sarah. And I don't think anybody

09:22stays in this industry long, the housing, the mortgage, the real estate market, if they don't have that

09:27belief that we're all here helping a greater good and playing a really important part in the broader

09:35health of our country and our economy. And when you look at the impact that KCM has had on clients

09:41and

09:41the impact they've had on their clients, this is a big exponential lever of helping us have a bigger

09:47impact on a healthier, more sustainable housing market. One that serves us well as professionals,

09:53but also serves our country and our economy extremely well. You know, at the very, at the very heart of

09:58our company has always been the belief that home ownership is a net good. It's good for individual

10:03families. It's good for communities. It's good for our country. And it's good for all these professionals

10:08who are like providing a living for their families in this great way. And so it's exciting to me to

10:13see

10:13like KCM is a through line straight to the consumer in a way that maybe we haven't had before.

10:18Yeah. And, uh, so we, we have that through line through, through agents and the world of real

10:23estate is changing a lot right now. We've obviously had a lot of pressure in the last few years, our,

10:28our sustained higher rate environment, you know, it's not something any of us hoped for,

10:33but one of the things that is coming out of this, um, you know, three plus year environment

10:38we've been in is a focus on real estate agents, as well as loan officers that are better prepared,

10:45um, more professional and equipped to navigate any housing market. And, uh, that's why I get cited,

10:53excited as housing wire as an information business is I think we have an opportunity to play a role

10:57in the future of the professionals that, that thrive in this industry. Um, a beautiful part of

11:05housing has been that the barrier to entry is, is low. You can come from any, um, background or, or

11:10education status and build a career in housing. Um, but a common thread that we're starting to see in

11:16the top performers, the folks we see at the top of the real trends verified list, the folks we see

11:21at the top of the housing wire mortgage ranking list, um, are people who are dedicated to building

11:27real professions and housing. They're not, they're not passing through. They're not here for a low rate

11:32environment. They are here because they are going to be housing professionals cycle in cycle out

11:36right environment in right environment out. And the people who stay, they get more reps,

11:41they get more expertise and they offer better advice. And that is core to what housing wire and

11:47KCM. We believe we deliver and we'll continue to deliver at a greater and greater scale and a

11:52greater and greater quality over time. Well, let's talk about the details because one of the things that

11:56really, um, distinguishes KCM. And now with our local data is that local, very specific market data

12:04that is like gold. Like it's, we all need that national perspective, but the local information

12:10is where people are going to win deals. They're going to, you know, be able to be most successful.

12:16So tell me a little bit about what an agent gets through this. Yeah. That question reminds me of a

12:21quote I've heard from Dave, Dave Childers. I mean, he talks about how KCM helps agents explain the

12:27market with confidence. And one of the biggest challenges to explaining the housing market with

12:31confidence is deciphering between national headlines and what's happening in, in local markets.

12:38And, uh, every, all, all the time is really not a housing national housing market. It's a,

12:43it's a collection of local housing markets that that's become even more pronounced in recent months

12:50and years, as we've seen some neighborhoods, some, um, some asset types of like home sizes and, um,

12:57and, uh, age of properties, um, start to accelerate why, why others stagnate.

13:04So when we talk about bringing data into KCM, we have brought to market a product called KCM local,

13:12which gives KCM users the ability to create scripts, social ads, um, assets copy, um, or just do analysis

13:21and intelligence. And what's that happening in their local zip code or their, their, their local

13:25neighborhood. So they can help their clients decipher what's happening locally versus,

13:31versus nationally. Sarah, you and I both call, um, the Dallas area home. And we know that the

13:37neighborhoods, the zip codes, um, the different cities and suburbs and expert excerpts of Dallas

13:43are performing wildly differently. We have neighborhoods where homes move in days and

13:48neighborhoods where inventory is stacking up. We have neighborhoods where, um, prices are still

13:55increasing and others where we've seen double digit pullback since, um, since highs a couple of years

14:00ago. So Dallas is, um, you know, obviously a, a large and important market, but that dynamic

14:06is, um, replicated across the country. So KCM local helps agents see the difference between what's

14:13happening in their city or national level of what's happening in their neighborhood, and then go tell that

14:18story and, and be the source of truth, the source of expertise that helps clients make decisions and

14:23confidence. Um, we know that if we're making local market neighborhood decisions off national data,

14:29uh, we're always going to be fearful. We're never going to be confident. We're going to have

14:33misperceptions. Um, you know, it's almost like, you know, making real estate decisions off of what

14:37your, your neighbor's uncle told you at a neighborhood barbecue. Um, that's rarely, uh, based in fact,

14:44these, these anecdotes, um, are, are, are not always value add. KCM local takes that expertise and that data

14:51and helps people make decisions with confidence and get, get past the fear that is uncertainty.

14:56I love the fact that you bring up like, Oh, it's like asking your uncle. Is there any other, uh,

15:03profession that is so much that lends itself to like, uh, I heard this. My neighbor said that I

15:08read this. It's, it's like, there's so much information coming out, but so much of it is like,

15:13it's either misinformation or just does not apply to where they are, or it doesn't apply to this exact

15:17moment in their exact market with their exact asset class and their kind of house. And like,

15:22it's very specific. And so that kind of like noise is everywhere. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I guess if you

15:28talk to a doctor, you'd probably hear a lot of people saying they were diagnosed by their neighbor

15:32or even worse today. Um, but, but, but we know the quality of, of advice, um, out there freely on

15:41the,

15:41the internet or, or, or thrown in your face at a neighborhood barbecue is, is rarely taking the full

15:47picture into account. And, um, so we, we believe bringing the full picture, all the data, um,

15:53expert analysis into how we understand what's happening in our market. Extreme, extremely important.

15:59And that, that is the housing wire and, and the KCM playbook.

16:03Amazing. Um, so you talked a little bit about the data that we provide it. If you look back at

16:08the

16:08acquisitions that we've done, it's like, Hmm, you you're, you're building a certain kind of business

16:13here and you're really building, um, the DNA to do something like this and help at this level.

16:19When you think about the housing wire data we now have, that's just incredible. When you think about

16:24real trends verified, that lets us see what is it that people are doing that the top performers and

16:29teams and agents and brokerages, and, and what does that look like? And, and combining that all

16:34together. And now with KCM's ability to tell the story and get it to the people, it's like pretty

16:38powerful. Oh yeah. I mean, um, real trends verified is a, is a great example. When you look at the

16:44top

16:45performers across the country, you see people who are deeply embedded in their community. They have,

16:50they have local expertise and it's amazing the scale you can build in a business with, with local

16:55dominance. Um, when people stretch themselves too far and try to be everything to everybody or

17:01everything to everyone everywhere, um, that, that rarely works well. And, um, I even saw this Sarah.

17:09So at the gathering, we partnered with Maxa on the exhibit awards and we, um, analyzed the websites of

17:17top real estate brokerages across the country and some mortgage lenders. And one of the things that

17:22stood out to me the most in that, in that analysis exercise was that the real estate brokerages that knew

17:28who they were, AKA we specialize in selling second homes in the mountains of Colorado. Um, we're way

17:36better at telling their story and the folks who happened to be, I don't know, let's just use an

17:40example based in Breckenridge, but had a palm tree on their website, not as much credibility. Um, so

17:47knowing who you are and having local expertise is just killer. Um, and, and that, uh, there'll be a

17:53few more like chapters to be revealed in this strategy, Sarah, but like with the acquisition of

17:58Altos in 2022 and the acquisition integration of KCM now, you're going to see a much larger emphasis

18:04on, on data and, um, local market narrative and storytelling, um, through this housing wire

18:11solutions product suite. We've heard so much conversation since the, um, since we had the

18:16commission lawsuit settlement and all of that about the value of an agent, about the value of this

18:21person who's, who's bringing you through this process. And to me, the fact that agents have the,

18:26this kind of information at their fingertips, it's they're proving their value at the very

18:31point where that person needs it. Um, and, and that can't be disrupted. How are you going to get

18:36that value from, from something else? And I feel like it's, it's just great timing to see like,

18:41we're helping people do what they need to do. Yeah. I mean, I opened up and my, our team in

18:47housing

18:47wire hears me say it all too much, but housing wire exists to help housing professionals make better

18:51decisions faster. And I've, I've long believed that having the wrong information or too much, uh,

18:56information is more dangerous if it leads to indecision than even the, even the wrong decisions.

19:02And there's a lot of people, which I think any mortgage lender in our audience can tell you

19:06have, who have stayed on the sidelines over the last few years, because they were fearful of entering

19:11the market, fearful of a competitive real estate market, fearful of, of high interest rates.

19:16And they stayed on the sideline. Very few of those people are happy with their decision today that

19:20they, they stayed on, on the sideline. So as we look at our strategy at housing wire and with KCM,

19:26it's not about flooding people with all the data or all the information. It's the right information

19:31to help people make decisions. And, uh, like making decisions is so critically important. We, we all

19:36know the people who have paralysis by analysis and they've, they've read everything they've analyzed

19:42every corner and every detail and think they, they see the full picture, but it's resulted in their

19:48ability to not make a decision or like resulted in them just sitting on the sideline. Um, I don't know,

19:54that's not our people. Our people are, um, biased action, forward momentum, helping making decisions

20:00as professionals, but also making, helping their clients make decisions, not sit on the sidelines into

20:05perpetuity. So excited about this acquisition and what this means for us, for, um, for all of

20:11the clients of KCM going forward. And, and that's a good thing to talk about. What can they expect

20:15going forward? Is a lot going to change for them? No, for the clients, like we are a growth oriented

20:20operator and growth oriented investor. Like we are here to improve the product, improve, go to market

20:26for the business and ultimately help serve more agents and potentially loan originators in this,

20:32in this product suite over time. So the agents that are KCM clients today can expect that our

20:37combined team of KCM and housing wire, we're going to come in, uh, we're going to make investments in

20:43the data and the content and the product. Uh, there's a few areas that we want to improve on. Um,

20:49some of those based on feedback directly from our, our clients. And, uh, so we see this as an

20:54opportunity. We're going to, we're going to come in and make sure that the product continues to

20:59grow and expand and improve, become more efficient and, uh, ultimately help them, um, uh, achieve

21:06better business outcomes. So, uh, I, it really took, it was really hard, Sarah, for me to not

21:10to say make better decisions faster, broken record on that one. Um, but deliver better business

21:16outcomes. So like, I hope the KCM clients, um, you know, look at, you know, the next few months and

21:22next few years as a, as a pivotal point in the time where KCM, which already has provided a lot

21:28of value to our users and clients adds even more value and helps them deliver more ROI and grow their

21:35businesses. Um, KCM is going to sit inside of our housing wire solutions business unit, which

21:41contains Altos and Realtrends. And, um, one of my real goals here is to see more and more Altos users

21:48elevate to the top of the real trends list as their production volume grows over, over time.

21:53And, uh, I think we're going to see some of the game changers and growers of real trends come out

21:58of this, um, out of this KCM community. Uh, I really do. You have so much enthusiasm. It's shared

22:04by all of our team and the KCM team. And I think it's infectious. I could talk to you about

22:08it all day,

22:09but we are at the end of our normal time, but thank you Clayton so much for coming on and

22:13just explaining

22:14this new, exciting chapter for us and for KCM. Yeah. And Sarah, I, I just want to make sure I

22:19mentioned that, um, we've had some great team members on the housing wire side that have helped

22:23bring this together. And I will give a special shout out to, to Mark Adams, who is, who's stepping

22:28up as the business lead of housing wire solutions. So, so Mark's going to be working directly with the

22:34KCM team on, on integration and as well as oversight of, of Altos and, and real trends verified.

22:40Um, thrilled to see him as a, as a leader. And, uh, as soon as we finish this podcast,

22:45I'm flying down to Richmond to see Mark and the team and, um, excited to keep running forward.

22:50So thank you, Sarah. Thanks for helping us bring some awareness to this really cool deal that I

22:55think is going to have, um, positive impact for KCM as well as housing. Absolutely. I can't wait

23:00to see as we go forward. Thank you again, Clayton. I appreciate it.

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