For a variety of reasons, I’ve gotten interested (again) in blockchain technology. The last time I really addressed this was back in August of 2019, when I wrote ShelterZoom, Blockchain and Real Estate. In that post, I think I was rather skeptical, writing: TL;DR: Blockchain might be the future, but it isn’t the present or … Read more
By now, you have probably heard the news that Zillow launched a “residential brokerage”, will join the MLS, and use the MLS IDX feed to power its dominant website. Just at random, here’s one news story from The Real Deal covering the announcement: For years, Zillow denied it had plans to become a brokerage. But … Read more
I’ve been asked by many of you to offer my opinions on COVID 19 / coronavirus and how it will impact real estate. Obviously, I have zero expertise on infectious diseases, am not an agent on the ground, and have very little to add other than what everyone has been reading from the CDC and … Read more
I gather that with 2020 just around the corner, navel gazing and thinking big thoughts about the ’10’s have become a relatively popular activity. Hell, I did it myself on the Industry Relations podcast with Greg Robertson. But I’m going to do it again, in writing, because it helps me think things through. What’s sort … Read more
In my last post on the NAR MLS Policy Statement 8.0, I wrote that offering a solution would take a few thousands more words and that I was already at 3,000 or so. Well, here is that offering of a solution… or at least a way forward. It might not be the only solution, or … Read more
As my Red Dot subscribers already know, I published the March Red Dot on the future of the Multiple Listing Service a couple of days ago. I have also been traveling nonstop since last Monday and most of my meetings and conferences have been on the MLS, so I have the MLS on my mind. … Read more
One of the things I missed while finishing up the July Red Dot was this well-done interview of Redfin’s Glenn Kelman in Inman. Andrea Brambila doing her rockstar thing again. I’m thinking through what Redfin wants to see happen, but one passage in particular caught my attention. At one point, talking about incentives for agents … Read more
I have to be honest here. I thought this post would be easy to write after Part 1, where I talked about impact on brokerages. Turns out not to be the case. There are several reasons why, but the biggest is that there are a lot of “if-then” branching scenarios that made me get into … Read more
I’ve been in the mountains of North Carolina the last couple of weeks with intermittent internet service and zero cell coverage. So obviously, blogging was nonexistent. I barely responded to emails, to be honest. One interesting conversation I had with Sunny around the campfire, though, was whether investor offers are always and everywhere worse than … Read more