Every American of good conscience is hurting now, both from the evil of police brutality and the evil of looting and rioting. I have been silently seething because I felt I had nothing useful to add that literally everyone with a conscience agrees on. What happened to George Floyd was a shocking and horrifying murder … Read more
In Part 1, we looked at what a Platform in real estate might look like, having been inspired by Ben Thompson at Stratechery who talked about platforms in an aggregator world. We then decided that such a platform does not exist in real estate today because of all of the disparate parts that have to … Read more
Ben Thompson at Stratechery is a great read, and he really does get my gears turning. Today’s email/post is particularly interesting as it raises some questions as to what a platform actually is and what it might look like in real estate going forward. Consider this a “big think” post in which I try to … Read more
I hold it true, whate’er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; ‘Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam” In my writeup of Redfin’s Q1 results, I wondered what happened to Redfin’s North Star: It used to be very clear: the … Read more
I’ve been busy with earnings season, which provides a unique peek under the hood of the five public companies (well, four, since EXPI doesn’t do earnings calls) and what they’re thinking about the future. But I saw something on the Book of Faces that made me think it’s a topic worth considering. It’s also a … Read more
One of my favorite moments in recent earnings calls came when Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, used the phrase “delayed blast fireball” in an actual call. I ended up naming my writeup that, because as a former AD&D Dungeon Master, I got a real kick out of just how legit a nerd Kelman probably is. … Read more
Realogy was one of the first public companies in residential real estate to report Q1 earnings… and it was more or less what was expected: Q1 came in strong, even with the crash towards the end of the quarter with COVID. This was always going to be the case for Realogy and everybody else in … Read more
It’s been a minute or two since I posted; blame the mundane annoyances of moving. Yes, I’m one of those people who bought a house during the pandemic and managed to move, despite all of the problems with vendors and the like thanks to government limits. I’ve also been very busy with projects and have … Read more
I don’t often check the “message request” function on Facebook, but did so earlier today and found a request from a reader, Shelley Scanlin, from the state of Houston in the Republic of Texas: Hi Rob, would love to see you do a piece on w2 brokerages and if this has changed your opinion on … Read more