Law of Unintended Consequences: The ACTRIS Version

The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. – Library of Economics & Liberty I’m in St. Paul, MN, where the sun has conspired with the river to create a hundred gorgeous pleasures. Like conversing with new and … Read more

“You’ve Got Ten Days”: CMLS 2013, Realty Alliance, and the Most Interesting 30 Minutes in Real Estate Conference History

This post, like every post in the month of October, is brought to you by our sponsor, Teardowns.com (and its subsidiary 2Elm), the winner of the Ebay Auction for sponsorship of this blog for October. On the last day of CMLS 2013, the most interesting 30 minutes in the history of real estate conferences happened. … Read more

"You've Got Ten Days": CMLS 2013, Realty Alliance, and the Most Interesting 30 Minutes in Real Estate Conference History

This post, like every post in the month of October, is brought to you by our sponsor, Teardowns.com (and its subsidiary 2Elm), the winner of the Ebay Auction for sponsorship of this blog for October. On the last day of CMLS 2013, the most interesting 30 minutes in the history of real estate conferences happened. … Read more

The Next Lion . . . the Next Hill: Thoughts from CMLS 2013

The Council of Multiple Listing Services held its annual conference in Boise, ID this past week. In keeping with the high standards of excellence (which may be redundant, but I liked the phrase) of past conferences, our host, Greg Manship from Intermountain MLS, the local host, and his staff put on a top notch program. Many of the … Read more

Be Careful What You Wish For: The MLS As Public Utility

This post, like every post in the month of October, is brought to you by our sponsor, Teardowns.com (and its subsidiary 2Elm), the winner of the Ebay Auction for sponsorship of this blog for October. I’m at the CMLS 2013 meetings, and thought I’d post some further thoughts about a discussion/debate I had on Twitter … Read more

Notorious POD, Episode 7: Breaking Bad With Bob Bemis

  I think every single podcast episode I do these days is my newest favorite. This one is really special, really amazing. I’m only sorry that due to travel, work, and life in general, I couldn’t post this sooner. We recorded this a couple of weeks ago, right after Bob’s first post on Notorious but these … Read more

The Tiger Over the Hill: Real Estate in the Age of Elance

In 1993, Bill Chee gave the (in)famous “Lion Over the Hill” speech in which he sounded the alarm at tech companies coming in and destroying the MLS. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we know either that Lion never came over the hill, because it was far too steep to climb for outsiders, or … Read more

Why A National MLS Is Quite Unlikely: The Road Trip Edition

Blogging has been very light as I’ve been at the wheels of a large Penske truck driving across half the United States. The reason: my mother is retiring and moving overseas, and there is a piano that I could not allow to be sold or taken out of the country. Tons of sentimental value to … Read more

NAR Mid-Year: Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War

I have been asked for a recap of the events at NAR Midyear, but as I did not attend the Board of Directors meeting, and as I was busy doing other things, I felt it wasn’t really my place to give a recap. It is, however, my place to offer some thoughts — high-level, unusual, … Read more