Zipvo Revisited: Zipvoplatinum, Business Models, and a Q&A

Greg Afarian of Zipvo.com was kind enough to alert me in the comments section of my original post on Zipvo that they are about to announce Zipvo Platinum: I wanted to get back to you about our “incredibly flawed business model”. We are revealing http://zipvoplatinum.com/ after MANY months of production. We have kept ZIPVO Platinum … Read more

Discounting, Brand, and Real Estate

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

Coaching and Managing: On Gen-X

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

Three Thoughts On Local Blogging

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

Sex Sells: An Amusing Idea, With a Point

This post by Joe Ferrara made me laugh out loud.  Seriously, I don’t know where Joe finds such interesting nuggets.  You want to check it out.  Don’t believe me?  Okay, here’s a peek: For some reason, this reminded me of the rather interesting conversation that Joe, Jessie Beaudoin, and I think Jeff Corbett and Henry … Read more

Imagining the Future, Part 4: Specialization for Domination

“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

In Which I Support Government Bailout of Foreclosed Homeowners

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