Seven Predictions for 2016: The 90s Dance Music Edition

As you can probably see, this is a special edition of my 7 predictions. I normally post those on my blog at Notorious R.O.B., but not this year! Brad Inman asked if I wanted to share these crazy predictions with the readers of Inman, and I thought, why not? I mean, these are predictions sure … Read more

Grading Time! Reviewing My 2015 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 for 10 (.600) 2011 Predictions: 4.5 for 7 (.642) 2012 Predictions: 2 for 7 (.286) 2013 Predictions: 4.5 for 7 (.642) 2014 Predictions: 3 for … Read more

Marginal REALTORS: Five Things an Association Can Do Today

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday; I personally got some really great news the day before Thanksgiving, so I had a truly memorable one myself. I even managed to hold on to that feeling of profound gratitude as the sentiment turned from giving thanks to indulging in exercises in gluttony that would have … Read more

Brass Tacks: What To Do About Marginal REALTORS?

My recent post on Zillow and the winds of war led to some predictable responses. The automated bot-scripts posted about how Zillow sucks, the leads are terrible, and how Spencer’s gonna eat your baby, etc. etc., even though my post had nothing to do with any of that. The principal objection of those who actually … Read more

Upstream, the MLS, and the Unspoken Truths

I’ve been meaning to write this ever since the end of CMLS Kansas City two weeks ago, but have been on the road working on tremendously exciting stuff… that I hope to be able to talk about more in a couple more months. This is more of a “think-out-loud” piece, so for those who want to think … Read more

CALBRE to Keller Williams: Drop Dead

I’ve been on the road driving all around Florida since Labor Day, so obviously, blogging has been light. But I was sent some news by a reader — again, the best informed audience in real estate — and I was really struck by the forceful language. CALBRE (California Bureau of Real Estate) has released a Licensee … Read more

NLRB's Browning Ferris Decision: Bad, Bad News for Franchising

Earlier today, the National Labor Relations Board handed down its ruling in the Brown Ferris case. If you are a brokerage who belongs to a national franchise, like Coldwell Banker or Keller Williams or REMAX, or even a regional franchise, like Crye-Leike or Windermere, could I suggest that you take your mind off of Zillow … Read more

The Future of Real Estate, According to Zillow

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about Zillow’s acquisition of Dotloop, and offered the following under “The Long Game”: Over the long haul then, those who are working with Zillow, leveraging that end-to-end data, and managing the lead-to-contract-to-close lifecycle most efficiently will do more business, make more money, and drive competitors out of … Read more

What If Real Estate Brokers Worked Like Car Dealerships?

My friend Eric Stegemann, whom many of you already know as a frikkin’ brilliant dude who runs Tribus, posted something on Facebook today and in our banter, got my thinking going. Here’s his post: [fb_embed_post href=”https://www.facebook.com/ericstegemann/posts/10100343757120490/” width=”550″/] And obviously, you can see my comments too. I thought the similarities between car dealers and how they … Read more