Weekly Radar #384: GEM's First Town Hall on Jan 22nd, Misrepresenting for Self-Interest, Proptech Index down 0.74% WoW
In this Weekly Radar, we cover:
- On no planet did Opendoor replace real estate brokers. Don't misrepresent for your own self-interest.
- The GEM Proptech Index decreased 0.74% from the previous week.
For GEM members, we are conducting our first Town Hall this coming Thursday--covering the State of the GEM 2026 (release coming this week), all that we were in 2025, are right now, and will strive to be in 2026.
Geek Estate’s Proptech Getaway, an intimate (founders and C-suite) retreat for the brightest minds in proptech, is back for the 3rd year running…taking place in beautiful Central Oregon at Juniper Preserve April 28-30th, 2026. An exclusive gathering for GEM members. Are you coming?
New GEM Members
- Dan Green from Opendoor
Latest from Geek Estate Blog:
Nathan Miller
Merrick Lackner
As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM content. If you would like to have access to all links or attend our curated gatherings, please consider GEM membership.
Transmission Recap:
This week, Greg Fischer lays out the ❇️Certainty as a Service landscape heading into 2026❇️, arguing that certainty no longer lives in one place, one company, or one moment in the transaction—it has fractured across the lifecycle and shifted upstream. Before that, Drew Meyers highlighted the major developments of 2025, and GEMineers reflect on their 2025 predictions and trends published a year ago.
BIZ INTEL
PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY - AS OF 1/16/2026
By: Community Relations
Consisting of 25 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $292.898B, a decrease of 0.74 % from the previous week.
GEM MEMBER NEWS
- Obie was acquired by The Baldwin Group (NASDAQ: BWIN). — Ryan Letzeiser
- Placemakr is partnering with Hilton to introduce its furnished apartments to over 230 million of Hilton Honors members, through Apartment Collection by Hilton. — Jason Fudin
- Setpoint signed an agreement to acquire inTENT Fulfillment, a specialized loan diligence and transaction management firm with rating agency relationships and decades of experience across all residential mortgage and home equity products. — Stuart Wall and Ben Rubenstein
- Maverick Systems is live in MIBOR MLS, tracking agent movement, automating workflows, and giving 10k+ Indianapolis brokers predictive intelligence. — Diana Zaya
- Bilt launched Bilt Card 2.0, a suite of three credit cards that extend rewards to homeowners with the ability to earn points on mortgage payments. — Jonathan Lawless
STARTUPS
MISREPRESENTING FOR SELF-INTEREST
By: Drew Meyers
This week, JD Ross, one of Opendoor's co-founders, announced his new WithCoverage company in the insurance space.
My last company Opendoor ($7B) replaced real estate brokers.
Multiple people sent me JD's Tweet this week. I'll say what everyone is obviously thinking. That statement goes far beyond stretching the truth. That's a straight PR spinster at work. In fact, let's just call a spade a spade: it's an outright lie. 88% of buyers still use an agent. On no planet has Opendoor replaced real estate brokers. Does Opendoor aspire to axe agents from the transaction? Absolutely. But claiming that moment is in the past is baloney.
JD’s tweet has already backfired—hurting, not helping, his reputation and credibility. I have never met him, but anything from him that I see/hear will be met with a heavy layer of scrutiny. I'll default to believing false rather than true.