SuperZips and Real Estate: In Which I Seek Answers from Economists

One of the most eye-opening books I’ve read in the past few years is Coming Apart: State of White America 1960-2010 by Charles Murray, a sometimes controversial scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. This is not a full book review, as there have been dozens of them already done, and there will be hundreds of … Read more

The Strange Song of Subsidies

Over on the Raise the Bar Facebook Group, I posted a question to the thousand-plus members: Question for this group, because it has so many ultra-engaged and informed people in it. If your MLS proposed to change fees from a flat-fee subscription to a percentage of closed transaction (NB: FMLS in Atlanta area does this), … Read more

Some Data I Just Don’t Understand…

I think this might be a bleg (that would be a blog/beg) for help in making sense of some recent buyer data. Some of this just makes so little sense to me that I’m asking the Notorious community for assistance. The buyer data comes from Redfin. I’m focusing on it because I know Redfin’s corporate … Read more

Some Data I Just Don't Understand…

I think this might be a bleg (that would be a blog/beg) for help in making sense of some recent buyer data. Some of this just makes so little sense to me that I’m asking the Notorious community for assistance. The buyer data comes from Redfin. I’m focusing on it because I know Redfin’s corporate … Read more

Calling the Housing Market Bottom? Not So Fast…

Courtesy of NAR Research — one of the more valuable things on Facebook — comes this CNBC article on how investors are flooding the residential real estate market: The number of homes sold to investors more than doubled last year, as rising rents and low-priced distressed properties fueled demand. Investors, half of them using no … Read more

Online Advertising and Content Ownership: In Which I Have Questions for Patrick Healy

Patrick Healy, the proprietor of Phacient, is a longtime friend from benighted Onboard days, through doing Lucky Strikes Social Media Club (which he has taken leadership of), and general RE.net camaraderie. He posted his thoughts on the whole syndication brouhaha on his blog, which was then picked up by GeekEstate. His point is that real … Read more

Craftsmanship in Real Estate

The perennial discussion around “what makes an agent bad, good or great” has taken an interesting turn. Some sixty odd comments into the thread, which featured numerous adjectives, we get this exchange between two brilliant people who know of which they speak. Josette Skilling, a REALTOR from Maryland, wrote: Great is in the eye of … Read more

Three Questions on the NAR/Bipartisan Policy Center Paper

The Bipartisan Policy Center — a think tank based in Washington DC once described as the place “where moderate Republicans go to embrace their inner liberal” — has released a new study in conjunction with NAR, the Urban Institute, and USC that is worth reading in full if you’re interested in topics like future of … Read more