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

The Winds of War: Zillow's Q3 Earnings Call and the Inevitability of Conflict

By now, if you pay attention to this sort of thing, you’ve seen Zillow’s Q3/2015 earnings report and maybe even listened to the earnings call. And on the financial side of things, ZG appears to have kicked ass once again: Revenue of $176.8 million, up 13% year over year on a pro forma basis. Adjusted … Read more

Is It Time for Real Estate Marketing to Change?

A relatively brief post today, as I’m still trying to catch up from being on the road so much. Plus, I realized that I’ve been writing about Big Heavy Topics lately, and thought it’d be fun to talk a bit about marketing. Believe it or not, when I started this blog in 2009, my focus … 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

Short Friday Post: What If the Industry Yanked All Their Listings?

I recently found this post on GeekEstate, which was from a while ago, that asked a provocative question: There are some proponents for the entire industry ceasing syndication entirely (specifically to Zillow). The thinking is generally “with no listings, Zillow would become irrelevant and lose all their traffic, all that traffic would frequent agent/broker websites, and the result would be … Read more

Zillow Acquires Dotloop – I Chat With Errol and Austin, and Have Initial Thoughts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGbScr_4G0Y Earlier today, Zillow announced it was acquiring dotLoop, the popular real estate transaction management platform company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The press release is here: Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z), which houses a portfolio of the largest and most vibrant real estate and home-related brands on mobile and Web, today announced it has … Read more

MLS Conversions and Zillow Hate

I’ve been engaged on a project that is both interesting and important for a large regional MLS the last couple of months. As part of that project, I’ve spoken to dozens of people — brokers, agents, Association leadership, MLS leadership, etc. — about a variety of topics, which has been, to quote Tony the Tiger, … 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