I’ll have some thoughts on Realogy/NRT’s new HomesForSale.com later, but I couldn’t resist this brief observation. I kinda knew the problem existed, but until this splashy website came along, we did not have the visual impact/evidence. If HomesForSale.com accomplishes nothing else, it really ought to wake up the industry (particularly the MLS) about the problem with … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I learned about a new Fannie Mae program that was rolled out to lenders called Collateral Underwriter, or CU. From the press release: Fannie Mae created the online tool in 2013 to analyze appraisal data it had been receiving from lenders electronically since 2012. With the rollout in early 2015, … Read more
I just had a fascinating conversation with Victor Lund of WAV Group who is spearheading the Broker Public Portal effort. We discussed a variety of topics from governance to equity to internal politics, shape of the industry, competitiveness, Zillow, Trulia, brokerages, etc. etc. It was awesome, and my thanks to Victor for making the time. … Read more
If you’re in the real estate industry — and why wouldn’t you be if you’re reading this blog — then you know by now that our lords and masters have approved Zillow’s $3.5 billion acquisition of Trulia. The new entity is not named TruZilla, Destroyer of Tokyo; it’s named Zillow Group. I’ve had the opportunity to … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGuGSDsDrM I figured that my post on the Broker Public Portal would create some conversation, and I didn’t figure wrong. Brian Boero of 1000Watt discussed the BPP on their “Friday Flash” email newsletter, saying: If you want to know all the reasons why a broker-controlled national listing site might not work, read this post from Rob Hahn. I … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGuGSDsDrM I figured that my post on the Broker Public Portal would create some conversation, and I didn’t figure wrong. Brian Boero of 1000Watt discussed the BPP on their “Friday Flash” email newsletter, saying: If you want to know all the reasons why a broker-controlled national listing site might not work, read this post from Rob Hahn. I … Read more
Much in the news of late is the Broker Public Portal, a project/concept that has been in the works for months, if not years, and appears to be on the verge of happening at last. Victor Lund of the WAV Group has been publicizing the project, which had been shrouded in secrecy for quite some … Read more
Real estate journalism in the mainstream media is not exactly the stuff of Pulitzers. But even by that low standard, this “news story” from MarketWatch (via Realtor.com) is amazingly incoherent. Titled “Half of Americans Can’t Afford Their House“, the main thesis of the article is that housing affordability is a serious crisis: Over half of … Read more
As some of you may know, I’ve been assisting Stefan Swanepoel with a project called SP200, the second annual edition of which just went live. SP stands for “Swanepoel Power”, so the actual list is the list of the 200 most powerful individuals in the residential real estate industry. Since I haven’t shown this post … Read more