Tech Bytes: News from Follow Up Boss, CoreLogic, Cloze 

Editor's note: Technology is a driving force in real estate. From startups to established players, tech companies are constantly innovating, growing and forging partnerships. Here we highlight some of the latest news about the companies that help power the industry. 

Zillow closes deal on Follow Up Boss

In early November, Zillow shared news of its intention to acquire popular CRM Follow Up Boss. That deal has now closed, the company announced on Dec. 8. Zillow said it had agreed to pay $400 million in cash up front, plus an additional $100 million cash earnout, and that Follow Up Boss's 100 employees — including co-founders Dan Corkill and Tom Markov — would join Zillow.

The home search giant said in a blog post that the purchase was an opportunity to "invest further in new products and features to help agents supercharge their businesses," ultimately benefiting buyers and sellers.

Zillow emphasized that Follow Up Boss will continue to operate as an independent company, and all agents who use it will be able to do so "regardless of whether those clients engage with other Zillow Group platforms." Zillow also said that plug-ins and third-party CRM integrations used by agents will continue to work on Follow Up Boss, and any customer data entered into the Follow Up Boss system belongs to the agent and cannot be used by Zillow without permission.

For agents concerned about the future of Follow Up Boss, Zillow pointed to its acquisition of ShowingTime as a model: "When ShowingTime was acquired by Zillow Group, everyone was concerned about the potential for changes in how we serve our clients," said Mike Lane, former president of ShowingTime and current VP of enterprise sales and industry for ShowingTime+. 

"Two years later, we are still providing the same great service — only now, we have the power of Zillow Group behind us and our clients," Lane said.

CoreLogic unveils new mortgage tool

Property data company CoreLogic has announced its latest product: Market Intelligence, a tool that provides market data for mortgage professionals.

With the new tool and its "click-to-insight" feature, users can view census-tract-level data including market and referral trends, top mortgage originators, and origination patterns. Lenders and loan officers can then use the data to better identify loan products that may be more successful in their markets, according to CoreLogic.

Specific features of Market Intelligence include data visualizations, forecasting capabilities and historical market data.

"We have built a solution our clients told us they need when navigating the dynamic and often challenging mortgage market," said Jay Kingsley, president of mortgage solutions at CoreLogic.

"With Market Intelligence, we continue our mission to provide comprehensive insights into mortgage originations. The combination of our robust datasets and the easy-to-use interface makes market mastery easy for our clients, aligning with CoreLogic's commitment to technology transformation."

Cloze integrates with design tool Canva

The AI-powered CRM Cloze has announced its second integration in the span of a week. On Dec. 6, the company disclosed its partnership with RealScout, and on Dec. 12, released news that it has launched the Cloze app for the graphic design platform Canva. 

With the latest integration, real estate professionals who use Cloze and Canva can more quickly and easily create pro-quality marketing materials, Cloze said in the announcement. Canva, which offers customizable real estate designs, will now be able to sync with Cloze and pull listing photos, property details and agent contact information into the design tool. 

Cloze said agents don't need to be designers to take advantage of the integration — simple dragging and dropping will allow users to create a variety of marketing assets, such as social media posts and stories, ads, postcards and other mailers, web pages and email graphics.