MLS, Cluetrain, and Social Web – One Step At A Time, Gingerly

A reader of Dustin’s sent him an email that both were kind enough to allow to be published at 4realz. The reader, a member of a MLS committee, raises some very interesting and very important questions provoked by the discussion on Cluetrain marketing in real estate between Dustin and myself. Read the whole thing. This … Read more

More on Proofs, ROI, and Web 2.0

Ben Martin at Agent Genius(an excellent site that I have now added to my RSS reader) has posted a trenchant response to my earlier post on proof in Web 2.0 type of activities. He takes issue, it seems, with a few things, confessing himself further and further befuddled by the dialogue. First, measuring ROI from … Read more

I Hate to Beat Up On NAR But…

Really, I have no axe to grind against the National Association of Realtors. I suspect that I would like most of the individuals who work there, and I admire them for many things. The Center for Realtor Technology is a good example of things I admire about NAR. But they make it so easy to … Read more

Got Proof?

I think Pat Kitano at TransparentRE is one of those guys who has brilliant and useful insights to anyone interested in exploring what Real Estate 2.0 might look like.  And despite disagreeing with him on a specific thing here or there in the past, I continue to think his blog is valuable and his insights … Read more

Getting On the Cluetrain, No. 2: Value of Expertise

In part one of this series, exploring the implications of the Cluetrain Manifesto on the real estate industry, I focused on the basic concept behind the Cluetrain: that markets are conversations, and in the Internet age, authenticity and honesty is absolutely indispensable. In this part, I’d like to muse on what the value of expertise … Read more

NAR Jumps Into The Commercial Fray

This is big news that portends intensely amusing times ahead: A National Association of Realtors tech incubator company has acquired a commercial real estate data exchange company and plans to use its technology to launch a national commercial real estate listing and transaction platform in May. Second Century Ventures LLC, a private equity fund established … Read more

Most Appropriately Named

From Inman blog comes news of this new organization: The Association of Associates Representing Sellers (AARSTEAM), a just-launched for-profit corporation that is open to membership by independent, non-Realtor agents and brokers who work with sellers, promotes an “Oath of Actions” that may rubsome buyers (and their agents) the wrong way (see Inman News). One of … Read more

Peter Flint Interview and The Significant Misconception

I didn’t realize earlier that the great interviews Dustin Luther got with Marty Frame and Alex Chang that I commented on here and here were of a series. Coz, I’m a RE.net newbie. They’re all worth a read. His latest is no exception. He got some great answers from Peter Flint, CEO of Trulia.com (total … Read more