Was talking to an industry buddy about some theoretical things, and something kind of jumped out at me. Why the standard practice in real estate of sealed offers? You know, the whole “best and final” submitted to the listing agent without knowing what you’re up against? Why not simply have more of the “open outcry” … Read more
The Pacific Northwest, where denizens created a religion out of worshipping coffee to overcome the gloom of the rainy months, has somehow become the mecca for technology-based innovation in the real estate industry. Everyone knows about Zillow, of course. Most folks know about Redfin. MarketLeader, and its portal, RealEstate.com are also in the Seattle area … Read more
I read a lot. Part of it is what I do for a living, which includes things like reading stuff written in legalese (aka, crime against English language), but a part of it is because I like to read. For the most part, it’s fiction — especially works of high fantasy like A Song of … Read more
I’m sure that if you’re a reader of this blog, you’ve seen the “I am a REALTOR and I live by the Code” meme that’s everywhere on Facebook. The man who began the whole thing is Brian Copeland, an extraordinary young leader, REALTOR (obviously), and a fantastic karaoke master. I was originally going to write … Read more
Over at AGBeat, Jeff Brown — a real estate broker I know personally and have respected for years both for his knowledge and his utter fearlessness — gets into the weeds and explains why “agent-centric” brokerage model sucks. Well, to be fair, the actual title of his post is, “Why real estate’s agent-centric broker models … Read more
This is a quick update for the purchasers of the Realogy Report. When I was researching that report, MidAmerican Energy Holdings had not filed its 2012 10-K. Which meant that we didn’t have any real information on the second largest brokerage in America: HomeServices of America. They did so on 3/1 but by then I … Read more
Note: I’ve decided to use the [PROMO] tag in the title when I’m talking about one of my premium content pieces. I just published something I consider to be among my best written works to date. It came to over 15,000 words and if it were printed out, I think it fills 40 pages … Read more
Heard a story the other night from a friend who is a REALTOR(R), while talking about the hot hot seller’s market we’re in now in many places around the country. (As an aside, doesn’t this mean that early 2013 is not a great time to buy?) Apparently, she had a house on the market … Read more
Heard a story the other night from a friend who is a REALTOR(R), while talking about the hot hot seller’s market we’re in now in many places around the country. (As an aside, doesn’t this mean that early 2013 is not a great time to buy?) Apparently, she had a house on the market … Read more