I spent Sunday morning cleaning up some crap in my office. I threw out a bunch of old papers, crap I didn’t even know I had (how does this stuff just accumulate?), and then listed a couple of things on Ebay that I couldn’t bring myself to throw out. (If you need a cheap 1080p … Read more
Musings is a solo version of the Notorious POD in which I think out loud about issues in the economy, technology, and real estate industry. In this episode, I answer questions from a listener/reader from Ep. 33 with Jim Klinge, where we had discussed his predictions about the end of buyer agency from market forces, … Read more
Happy (?) Bloody Monday. Seems that as of this writing, the Dow is down over 630 points, NASDAQ down 273 points, and the S&P500 is down 90 points. The stock market is tanking like a mofo, and Gold is up $7.80 per ounce. (Though Bitcoin, which should be digital gold, is down sharply as well.) … Read more
Happy Friday, everybody. Recently, a reader sent me this Inman article from last week in which celebrity real estate broker Ryan Serhant predicted that 50% of all transactions will be done on the blockchain: In his annual letter to clients, the luxury broker and star of Million Dollar Listing New York sang the praises of blockchain technology and its … Read more
Last week, I had what was probably my fifth conversation of the week with a proptech-brokerage-disruptor startup that went something like this: Save somebody (consumers, agents, brokers, MLS) a lot of money Build a large userbase Make money from referrals to service providers (appraisers, movers, mortgage, etc.) As a general matter, I don’t really see … Read more
When it comes to topics in blockchain and crypto, real estate people often talk about transactions where a buyer used Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency to buy a house. For instance, here’s an article from BerkshireHathaway HomeServices called “Buying a home with Bitcoin.” Bitpay has a whole article on the same topic, which mentions Pacaso … Read more
Full disclosure: I have had a number of business relationships with HomeSmart in the past, hope to in the future, have spoken and will speak at some of their events, and I am friends with many of the people there. But they are not a client and I am under no confidentiality restrictions with them. … Read more
Got a phone call first thing this morning from a good friend of mine, who is one of the smartest people in the industry, who flat out asked me why Realogy was publicly taking a stance against cooperation & compensation in the MLS. He’s usually able to figure stuff out, but this one, he said … Read more
Welcome to yet another edition of the Seven Predictions, sure to be wrong or your money back. This is one of my favorite annual traditions around this time of year, and whatever the changes in focus to the blog, I’ll have to keep this one up. For those keeping track at home, I just published … Read more