Last week, I saw something that is not an uncommon sight here in Las Vegas. This was parked outside my office building. That is a 2021 Lamborghini Urus (it had paper plates still on it). This is a car which starts at $222K but with options and such, it’s normally for sale around $300K. I … Read more
I promised a Part 2 where I would treat the subject of regulation, which I think is the real Big Guns of the upcoming war between the United States and NAR. If you missed Part 1, where I dig into why the US DOJ pulled out of a settlement with NAR (which it has never … Read more
[UPDATE: To celebrate Independence Day, I’ve decided to make this one open to everyone. My VIP subscribers have mostly already read it over the weekend anyhow, and the issue is important enough to the industry as a whole that I thought it an appropriate July Fourth gift of sorts. Yay, ‘Murica!] I was traveling most … Read more
I’m super busy with a couple of important projects, and I’ve been up in the mountains celebrating the Sunny Freedom Tour ’21, so time is a bit short. But I did want to share something that I thought was interesting. As you know, I’m of the opinion that real inflation is way higher than the … Read more
I had a long conversation recently with a friend who is serving as the president of a large REALTOR Association. He had heard my latest podcast in which I debate two of my friends about the value of the REALTOR brand, about the Association, about professionalism, and so on and he had questions. It was … Read more
[UPDATE: I heard from Dave Price, CEO of MARIS, about this. Please read the updates below.] Yesterday, I posted something small just to my friends on Facebook as an illustration of an issue that Sam DeBord and I discussed at length earlier in the week: how brokerages and agents were gaming Clear Cooperation Policy with … Read more
I did a livestream on Facebook yesterday with Sam DeBord, a good friend and a fellow supernerd in MLS-related topics. Of course, he’s also the CEO of RESO and an active participant in NAR policy circles, so he’s among the most knowledgeable in the industry on the issues. We debated, discussed, and I’ve embedded the … Read more
Back in 2019, I wrote a post titled Pass Clear Cooperation Policy, But Address the Gaping Loophole. In that post, I pointed out that because of the office exclusive loophole, Clear Cooperation Policy creates bizarre new incentives: In the FAQ that accompanied Policy 8.0, we are told that this policy does not affect “office exclusive … Read more
A reader sent me an article I had missed from the New York Times, titled “Realtors Want to Sell You a Home. Their Trade Group Backs Evicting Others.” It was… well, it’s New York Times, which used to be a great newspaper. The article was posted in the Money section, and I kept looking for … Read more