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.

Zillow Fever Strikes Again! Instant Offer Triggers Insecure Agents

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One of the more amusing things about the real estate industry in the 21st century is the extent to which Zillow triggers some folks to heights of lunacy otherwise seen only in the more extreme social justice warrior types. If Zillow bought Coca-Cola tomorrow, some people would immediately switch to Pepsi. The latest fracas involving … Read more

Pivot? Or Reveal? Upstream Decides to Go Downstream

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A few of you have already asked for my opinions on The Pivot, as it is now being called. At the NAR Midyear meetings that took place last week, Upstream’s CEO Alex Lange told the attendees at CMLS Brings It to the Table event that going forward, Upstream will take a data feed from the … Read more

The Difference Between Business and a Profession

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I’ve been traveling almost nonstop for a few weeks, so things have been light in the blogging department. My latest stop was Stefan Swanepoel’s T3 Summit in Los Angeles last week, a fabulous event made even more fabulous this year because of agent Eric Boyenga of the Silicon Valley Real Estate Team. T3 attracts  the most powerful people … Read more

Destroy Your Illusions

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Last week the well-known real estate author/speaker/consultant Stefan Swanepoel wrote on Facebook that money is flowing into real estate technology. That observation sparked a heated discussion; many argued that real estate doesn’t scale, it’s too complicated, transactions are too difficult, too expensive, and too emotional for technology to disrupt, and so on. To paraphrase Darth Vader: … Read more

HouseCanary, Predictive Analytics and TEOTWAWKI

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&nbsBrian Boero’s Friday Flash today is particularly interesting. He talks about the growth of predictive analytics, and writes this: It’s two years from now. Pretty much every agent in America has some sort of predictive analytics tool available to them, either through their broker, franchise, MLS or by buying it directly. They’re all looking at … Read more

Star Trek, Star Wars, and Real Estate: Failure of the Imagination

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I was stuck at the airport last week with the fifth flight delay in two days (courtesy of United Airlines). The upside to all that downtime? I got a chance to think through something swirling in my subconscious for a while – the parallels that exist between technology in science fiction and technology in the … Read more

What If the MLS Were A Service Company?

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Just about every single MLS in the country has mandatory training for all new members that’s in the 3-5 hour range. Add in other courses ranging from how to use the tax data system to creating CMAs to whatever else the MLS offers and you’re looking at tens of hours of training in order to use … Read more