At the recent RISMedia Leadership conference, I walked around listening to the conversation, attending the sessions, and talking to people. Not suprisingly, the market was very much on people’s minds, and a number of people were talking about pressure on commissions. That pressure is nothing new, of course. Discount brokerages have come and gone and … Read more
I love that Wendy Forsythe, VP of Broker Services for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, often blogs on Gen-X and Gen-Y issues in real estate. I suspect that Wendy and I are both Gen-Xers, and if you searched our past photographs, I’m sure there will be a few blackmail-worthy examples involving neon clothing, Z-Cavaricci’s, … Read more
At the risk of revealing the true depths of my ignorance — seeing as how my son is some 15 years away from having to worry about college — I couldn’t help but think about this post on Zillow’s blog: While the potential gains are tantalizing, there are some major red flags and risks involved … Read more
I need help. Someone explain these numbers (PDF) to me, like I’m six years old. I mean, I think I have a pretty good education. I think I have a pretty solid record in business operations, marketing, and overall management. I think I know how to read 10-K’s and spreadsheets and so on. But these … Read more
I wrote a longer piece on the OnBlog recently about this topic, but in light of this and this, I thought it worth revisiting the issue in plainer language and shorter sentences. 🙂 1. If your “local blog” is of little interest to people who actually live in your “locale”, then guess what? It ain’t … Read more
“One man cannot practice many arts with success.” – Plato Welcome to Part 4 of this series of too-many-words. Here are the links to previous parts: 1, 2, 3. Let us review the situation. Upon deciding that the law firm (although not lawyers themselves perhaps) is a fine model for real estate, you have banded … Read more
According to the Zillow Blog, 1 in 7 American homeowners are now “underwater” on their mortgage. So the Zillowites ran a survey of 1300 homeowners. And found interesting answers: One question we asked was: Do you think homeowners who are currently facing foreclosure because they took out an adjustable rate mortgage or other loan that … Read more
From National Real Estate Investor comes news that loans for commercial multifamily projects have dropped 63% year over year: Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations continued to fall on a year-over-year basis in the second quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations. Second quarter originations were 63% … Read more
The conversations continue. It appears there are a whole bunch of folks who want to talk about the future of listings. And rightfully so — listings are important to the modern practice of real estate. The latest salvo marks the return of David Harris of Geek Estate to blogging, and it’s a good one. Read … Read more