Episode summary
Clayton Collins on HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters
HousingWire Daily
· · Hosts: Sarah Wheeler · Guests: Clayton Collins
Summary
HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters is framed as a content and data play built around helping housing professionals make better decisions faster. Clayton Collins says KCM has long helped real estate agents translate housing-market complexity into clear messaging for buyers and sellers, and he argues that pairing that strength with HousingWire’s newsroom, analysts, and local data will make the product more useful to agents and ultimately to consumers.
The combined strategy centers on bringing national news together with local market intelligence. Collins says KCM Local will let users create scripts, social ads, and analysis for a specific zip code or neighborhood, helping agents explain why local conditions can diverge sharply from national headlines. He argues that better local context reduces fear and indecision, and that agents with stronger information can prove their value in a market where clients are more cautious.
Collins also ties the deal to a broader housing-wire solutions strategy, saying the company wants to improve the product, expand the audience, and help more agents and potentially loan originators grow. He highlights KCM’s leadership history under Bill Harney and David Shilders, and says the acquisition fits HousingWire’s broader sequence of deals around Altos and Real Trends Verified.
Key takeaways
- Clayton Collins says KCM and HousingWire both exist to help housing professionals make better decisions faster, making the acquisition a natural fit.
- He says KCM Local will give agents zip-code and neighborhood-level data to build scripts, ads, and analysis that explain local markets better than national headlines can.
- Collins argues that in a market with higher rates and more uncertainty, the right information matters more than more information because indecision is costly.
- He says HousingWire plans to invest in KCM’s data, content, and product to improve ROI for current clients and expand the platform over time.
- Collins expects the combined HousingWire Solutions unit, including Altos and Real Trends Verified, to produce more high-performing agents and brokerages over time.
Notable quotes
“KCM takes it a step further and explains to consumers why it matters to them”
“we have brought to market a product called KCM local which gives KCM users the ability to create scripts, social ads, um assets, copy”
“it's not about flooding people with all the data or all the information. It's the right information to help people make decisions”
“we are here to improve the product, improve go to market for the business and ultimately help serve more agents”
How the episode opens
Welcome everyone. My guest today is HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins to talk about some really exciting news. Housingwire's acquisition of Keeping Current Matters. We just broke that news on housingwire.com and I can't wait to get all the details. Clayton, welcome back to the podcast.
Thank you so much, Sarah, on a pretty exciting day. — It really is. Okay. Well, um, of course much of our audience will be very familiar with Keeping Current Matters. For those who aren't, uh, give us a brief description of what this company does.
Yeah, Keeping Current Matters is a a fabulous platform and product that for for decades has been helping real estate agents better explain the market to their home buyers and sellers. We know how challenging it is to keep up to date on what's happening in the housing market. And one of the things that KCM, Keeping Current Matters, has done so well is help translate what's happening in our our B2B world, the professional world that Housing Wire operates in and translate that into the information that consumers, um, home buyers, home sellers need to understand so they can make decisions with confidence.
So, KCM goes to market to help agents win more listings. They have tools for for social media, newsletters, video, um any kind of content category you can imagine to help agents better explain what's happening in the market to their clients as well as prospective clients, helping them win more listings and deliver better outcomes for their clients.
I think what's so interesting about this is that it a platform like this really lets real estate agents do what they do best. None of them are like, "Hey, I I you know, yeah, I want to spend so much time making sure the social media is right or somehow getting the analysis and figuring out how I should say that to a client sitting across from me.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- housingwire acquisition
- keeping current matters
- mortgage industry media
- real estate news
Companies and tickers mentioned
- HousingWire
- Keeping Current Matters
Watch the episode
Watch “Clayton Collins on HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from HousingWire Daily
-
The headlines impacting mortgage rates -
Has housing demand already changed with lower rates? -
How midterms and jobs week will affect rates -
Preparing for Q1 growth in reverse mortgages -
A clear pathway to sub-7% mortgage rates for Thanksgiving? -
Mortgage rates, inflation and those homeowner vacancy numbers
HousingWire Daily, this episode and its artwork belong to HousingWire. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
