I just got back from three amazing days in Atlanta at RETech South. I think I feel pretty comfortable saying that RETech South (#RETSO) is today the best wide-audience real estate conference in the country. Brad Nix and Mike Pennington, the two righteous gents in charge of RETSO deserve so much credit for the amazing … Read more
Since I broke the news of the new NAR REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative (“#RPPSI” hereafter, as that is the Twitter hashtag as well) on Tuesday, the response has been really quite interesting and overwhelming. Various people have written blogposts on the subject. As of this writing, I know of the following posts: Jay Thompson … Read more
I’ve been writing about the mess that is Foreclosuregate on this blog, on Notorious, and on AOL Real Estate. And something I worried about (yet predicted, hoping to be wrong) was that we’d see significant lawsuits against banks, servicers, and MBS sponsors brought by homeowners and investors. Well, it appears that mortgage litigation rose significantly … Read more
I was reading some Facebook status updates — signifying that obviously, I’m not a total social media moron who hates all things social — when I came across an interesting little comment: The post that Eric Bryant and Maya were talking about is this one by Jeremy Blanton. His conclusion: I think in the case … Read more
One of the most insightful set of comments I’ve ever read on this here blog (remember, I usually learn more from writing this blog than I ever “teach”) is to my last post about technology-loving agents. As it happens frequently around these here parts, at the same time I was being enlightened by you, the … Read more
I forgot an angle on this post about agent ratings and consumers that’s more in line with the light and snappy flow of this blog. As the NAR survey, flawed as it might be, shows, consumers overwhelmingly want these skills/qualities in a REALTOR: Honesty and Integrity – 98% Knowledge of purchase process – 96% Responsiveness … Read more
In my continuing quest to get something positive out of Zebragate, I would like to offer some tips on how you could survive attacks by the feral Internet attack mobs who dare post hurtful things on blogs and Facebook and such. Some of the things that The Lones Group has done in response to the … Read more
On my 7DS blog, and on AOL, I wrote about the phenomenon of super-rich people paying cash for expensive ($5m plus) homes in California. And I wondered what it is that they knew that the rest of us didn’t. Here’s the post on 7DS, and here’s the one on AOL. Well, turns out, the rich … Read more
As you may have heard, the whole Zebragate scandal appears to be coming to a close, with Daniel Rothamel offering to settle with The Lones Group. Once again, I am totally uninterested in weighing in on the legal issues themselves, unless someone wants to retain me as legal counsel, but this settlement will provide a … Read more