I’ve been thinking about this topic for a few years now, but felt motivated to write on it after reading Ryan Gorman’s Medium post announcing what he’s working on now with btcRE. Gorman as the former CEO of Coldwell Banker understands real estate better than most people, and yet… there was something I felt was … Read more
[This is a VIP post, but given its importance and the fact that I’d love to hear from antitrust experts outside of the industry, I am opening it up to the public for a while. But hey, if you dig this kind of thing, consider subscribing to VIP.] A while back, when this case was … Read more
I apologize for the lengthy silence. I’ve been heads down on final prep for launching a new project I’ve been working on for over a year now. You’ll hear about it soon enough, I promise. And I hope it’ll interest all of you. In fact, I know it will interest some of you. I know, … Read more
A reader sent me this provocative article in The Atlantic, with the provocative title, “The Homeownership Society Was a Mistake.” At first, as I read through the damn thing, I was concerned that the writer had tapped into something real in the psyche of younger Americans who are getting royally screwed by the economy generally, … Read more
About a week ago, the judge in the Burnett v. NAR case (formerly Sitzer v. NAR) handed down his ruling in the motion for summary judgment. It did not go well for the defendants. The Inman story by Andrea Brambila does a good job of covering the highlights, so read that in full. The result … Read more
From RISMedia, we get some high-level concepts on what BPP 2.0 (Broker Public Portal) will look like. Or at least try to look like. According to the story, BPP 2.0 will be built on three pillars: National consumer platform created through technology reciprocity National dataset created through MLS reciprocity National display ruleset Read the whole … Read more
As longtime readers know, I’ve been talking about the possibility of the 1099 exemption for real estate agents going away for quite a few years now. I first wrote about it in 2014, after raising the issue of real estate agents getting classified as employees at the 2013 T3 Summit, then again in 2015 in … Read more
I have to go back to work on a number of projects, but… I had to puzzle this out with you all in public. The latest Redfin report on the housing market is… weird. The headline is “mortgage payments hit all time high” as the Fed keeps hiking rates. So the recommendation is for sellers … Read more
Writing has been thin as I’ve been on the road constantly, and very busy with projects. But news came across today that fairly requires some commentary. General “Mad Dog” Mattis, a storied military commander and Secretary of Defense under Trump, is said to have once told a group of Iraqi tribal leaders, “I come in … Read more