Rob Hahn

Managing Partner of 7DS Associates, and the grand poobah of this here blog. Once called "a revolutionary in a really nice suit", people often wonder what I do for a living because I have the temerity to not talk about my clients and my work for clients. Suffice to say that I do strategy work for some of the largest organizations and companies in real estate, as well as some of the smallest startups and agent teams, but usually only on projects that interest me with big implications for reforming this wonderful, crazy, lovable yet frustrating real estate industry of ours.

In Which Sam DeBord and I Solve the Clear Cooperation Dilemma

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I did a livestream on Facebook yesterday with Sam DeBord, a good friend and a fellow supernerd in MLS-related topics. Of course, he’s also the CEO of RESO and an active participant in NAR policy circles, so he’s among the most knowledgeable in the industry on the issues. We debated, discussed, and I’ve embedded the … Read more

The Notorious POD Ep 16: Housing Market with Keith Robinson

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In this episode, I chat with my good friend Keith Robinson, also the Chief Strategy Officer of NextHome. We discuss the housing market, why Keith doesn’t believe there’s a housing bubble, banter about what is actually going on with the insanity that is housing today, and where he sees things headed. Quite a topic for … Read more

Clear Cooperation Is a Disaster in the Making

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Back in 2019, I wrote a post titled Pass Clear Cooperation Policy, But Address the Gaping Loophole. In that post, I pointed out that because of the office exclusive loophole, Clear Cooperation Policy creates bizarre new incentives: In the FAQ that accompanied Policy 8.0, we are told that this policy does not affect “office exclusive … Read more

What Are Financial Investors Thinking?

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Recently, I’ve been trying to research what is going on with buyers in the residential real estate market. Specifically, I’m curious what is happening with institutional investors. My gut tells me that we’re probably seeing a lot more interest in single family housing units from institutions… but there’s very little data to prove or disprove … Read more

The Notorious POD Ep 15: Why Not Hourly?

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I saw a Facebook post talking about a common problem with real estate agents — buyer disloyalty. That got me wondering, why aren’t we moving towards agents getting paid by the hour? It would solve so many problems. The way that real estate agents are getting paid leads to a lot of issues, one of … Read more

Step Up, YPN

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A reader sent me an article I had missed from the New York Times, titled “Realtors Want to Sell You a Home. Their Trade Group Backs Evicting Others.” It was… well, it’s New York Times, which used to be a great newspaper. The article was posted in the Money section, and I kept looking for … Read more

Breaking Down LEAP Part 3, Breaking Down the Rules

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Sam DeBord has posted something he himself called “where we dig into the hard work.” It’s worth reading if you’re in the MLS subsector, or care deeply about it. If not, I doubt you’d care very much. The post is “Breaking Down the Rules: Brokers and MLS Data (LEAP Part 3).” Since he asked people … Read more

Quick Reaction: Why Would CoStar Spend $156M on Homes.com?

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Earlier today, we all got the news that CoStar is buying Homes.com from Dominion for $156 million cash: WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces, announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Homes.com, a division of Dominion Enterprises, for … Read more

Brokerage Valuation: Focus on Company Dollar

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There must be something in the water. I got three separate emails recently regarding publicly-traded brokerages. Two were on EXPI because they hosted an analyst day, and one was on Compass. Plus, there’s a lot of noise out there debating whether Compass is a tech company or a brokerage or whatever. Since I’ve been covering … Read more