Zillow hires Jay Thompson, ups the stakes in talent war

Zillow has hired Jay Thompson.

Jay’s an Arizona broker and a prolific, smart and well-respected blogger. But you probably knew that.

Congrats to Jay, and to Zillow. It’s a good match.

The bigger picture here is that in the face of industry angst toward the “big 3” online real estate sites, there’s a bit of a talent war going on. Expect to see more moves like this in the coming months.

Zillow has won the first battle in this war. Combined with the hiring of former ARMLS CEO Bob Bemis last month, they now have two of the most well-known – and, from and industry relations perspective, reasonable – people in the business in their corner.

It’s a good thing, really. If we’re going to settle into a place where the industry and the online players feel their relationship is win-win – and I think we must – then having more folks like Jay and Bob invested in making that happen is a good thing.