We Need To Talk About Fannie Mae A Bit

A couple of weeks ago, I learned about a new Fannie Mae program that was rolled out to lenders called Collateral Underwriter, or CU. From the press release: Fannie Mae created the online tool in 2013 to analyze appraisal data it had been receiving from lenders electronically since 2012. With the rollout in early 2015, … Read more

Greed Is Good: In Which I Talk to Victor Lund about the BPP

I just had a fascinating conversation with Victor Lund of WAV Group who is spearheading the Broker Public Portal effort. We discussed a variety of topics from governance to equity to internal politics, shape of the industry, competitiveness, Zillow, Trulia, brokerages, etc. etc. It was awesome, and my thanks to Victor for making the time. … Read more

Who’s Down With BPP? Yeah You Know Me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGuGSDsDrM I figured that my post on the Broker Public Portal would create some conversation, and I didn’t figure wrong. Brian Boero of 1000Watt discussed the BPP on their “Friday Flash” email newsletter, saying: If you want to know all the reasons why a broker-controlled national listing site might not work, read this post from Rob Hahn. I … Read more

Who's Down With BPP? Yeah You Know Me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGuGSDsDrM I figured that my post on the Broker Public Portal would create some conversation, and I didn’t figure wrong. Brian Boero of 1000Watt discussed the BPP on their “Friday Flash” email newsletter, saying: If you want to know all the reasons why a broker-controlled national listing site might not work, read this post from Rob Hahn. I … Read more

Free Advice to The Broker Public Portal

Much in the news of late is the Broker Public Portal, a project/concept that has been in the works for months, if not years, and appears to be on the verge of happening at last. Victor Lund of the WAV Group has been publicizing the project, which had been shrouded in secrecy for quite some … Read more

Concerning MLS Enforcement of Cooperation and Compensation, An Observation

In the comments section of my post on Listhub and Zillow, an intelligent discussion and debate broke out. Given the rarity of such thing on the Interwebz, I think we should celebrate that. Now then, the subject of the discussion was around the “value proposition” of the MLS in the 21st century and how the … Read more

Musings On Direct Feeds

In the aftermath of the Listhub-Zillow divorce, which was my last post, I stumbled on a comment from the famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) Kipp Cooper and the main man at his vendor, Turan Tekin. [Disclosure: I’m friends with both men, like them both, have shared adult beverages with them, and my bias may … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2015: The Nouvelle Vague Edition

Welcome, faithful readers to an annual tradition here at Notorious ROB: making predictions for the coming year that are Guaranteed to be Wrong, or Your Money Back! The musical pairings for this edition comes from the extraordinary and extraordinarily unique French cover band, Nouvelle Vague. I mean, who else does remakes of 80’s new wave hits … Read more

Grading Time! Reviewing My 2014 Predictions

Welcome to another edition of an annual tradition, in which I go back and grade myself on my predictions made at the start of this year. My track record so far: 2010 Predictions: 6 of 10 (.600) 2011 Predictions: 4.5 of 7 (.642) 2012 Predictions: 2 for 7 (.286) 2013 Predictions: 4.5 of 7 (.642) When … Read more