I’m on the road, so blogging may be light. But I thought the announcement of the new RealSure Sell and RealSure Mortgage programs deserved some brief initial commentary. I didn’t feel like waiting for Friday’s Quick Takes and then writing up a giant post on this. Inman News has further coverage of the announcement, but … Read more
Happy Friday afternoon, everybody. I normally wouldn’t write something today, but… I’ve been traveling and came down with a cold and have been wanting to write this for a couple of days. Plus, what the hell — maybe some of you will enjoy some light reading over the weekend. I just recorded a great conversation … Read more
The battle between Realogy and Compass took a strange turn in recent days, when Compass claimed that they rejected a marriage offer from Realogy according to The Real Deal: With his back against the mats, Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider considered selling the brokerage to its chief rival: Compass. In a statement Friday, the SoftBank-backed brokerage … Read more
One of the more interesting things that happened last week was news that Keller Williams will roll out a new “concierge” program in California, Georgia and Texas. Designed to compete against similar offerings from Compass (note that KW says they pay no attention whatsoever to competitors, but I do think the lady doth protest too … Read more
Happy Monday, everybody. A couple of you have asked for this topic in the Notorious VIP Network (all VIP Subscribers have been invited, so check your inbox if you don’t know what the Network is), so I figure I’ll kick off this week of writing-while-at-home with some free advice (worth exactly what NAR paid for … Read more
Brokerages and national franchises partnering with big money companies to offer iBuyer services appears to be all the rage these days. Realogy was first, partnering with Home Partners of America, for its cataLIST program. Redfin was next, partnering with Opendoor… while saying that they plan to compete head on against their partner in overlapping markets. … Read more
After RE/MAX reported last quarter, I wrote a post saying that RE/MAX was poised on the brink of greatness, but was refusing to make the jump. Q2 earnings results do nothing to make me change my mind on that, but now, there are signs that RE/MAX is going to have to make some difficult choices … Read more
As a former Dungeon Master all through junior high school and part of high school, I found it absolutely thrilling that Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, used the phrase in the Q2 earnings call. Thank you Glenn for making all of us former (and present day) nerds feel a little bit better about our misspent … Read more
The great move West is now complete! The last boxes are finally unpacked, and while we still have to set up the new house, I think we’re able to get back into the regular swing of things.. Once again, I apologize to you VIP Subscribers for being so silent, but I do hope you all … Read more