A couple of days ago, there was a rumor floating around Wall Street that Realogy would acquire Trulia. Both Trulia and Realogy threw cold water on that dream quickly. Nonetheless, I found the whole thing fascinating, since a similar scenario was exactly a “Black Swan” event I used to amuse the audience at the … Read more
Am I the only one, while watching Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the titanic blockbuster movie Titanic, who thought “All these people are about to drown and they don’t know it yet?” That’s kind of what it felt like during the MLS Issues and Policies Committee meeting this past Saturday in San Francisco. Assembled … Read more
“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” “That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes. – Silver Blaze, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes I thought I might do a recap of the … Read more
I know many of you are at the NAR Convention in San Francisco, and I’ll be headed there soon myself. But I wanted to upload this so you’ll have something to listen to on long plane rides and such. 🙂 Click on the picture above if you want to be taken to the iTunes … Read more
Two weeks ago, Zillow organized a small event in Washington DC with the title “Getting Our House In Order: Solving the Lingering Issues of the Housing Recession”. The full program was filmed and is available here. If you’re pressed for time, you can get the highlights here. I was on an airplane to California then, … Read more
This “thought” by Steve Murray of RealTrends appeared in his October 31 email newsletter and was posted on his website the next day. State of Unrest Why is there so much angst between Realtor associations, MLSs and brokerage firms? By Steve Murray “The whole is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles. … Read more
In this episode of “As The Blog Turns” we learn that our protagonist — your humble scribe — finds even more amusement in the responses from Mr. Ben Caballero, of HomesUSA and of NAREP. For those missing out on the soap opera, here were my questions to Mr. Caballero, and then here are his answers, … Read more
As you may have read, I asked Ben Caballero of NAREP a number of questions. He has responded, and authorized me to post his responses, as long as I did not edit it or add anything else to what he sent in. In accordance to his wishes, I post his response in full. Any modifications … Read more
Episode 8 is a tragedy. I have a great conversation with the Notorious B.O.B. Bemis of Procuring Cause, and with Greg Robertson, of Vendor Alley and of W&R Studios (the creator of CloudCMA). We discussed CMLS, The Realty Alliance, big issues in the conflict between MLS and brokerages, future of the industry, and so … Read more