Estately Quietly Proves a Business Model

The Pacific Northwest, where denizens created a religion out of worshipping coffee to overcome the gloom of the rainy months, has somehow become the mecca for technology-based innovation in the real estate industry. Everyone knows about Zillow, of course. Most folks know about Redfin. MarketLeader, and its portal, RealEstate.com are also in the Seattle area … Read more

Is This What Passes for Bipartisan at REALTOR Magazine?

This is gonna get political, y’all, by necessity. You’ll see. I went over to the REALTOR Magazine website the other day to check out a piece by Lawrence Yun on something or another. Then I started clicking around as I often do, and ran across this piece on the fiscal situation and real estate. Here’s … Read more

Live by the Code, Die by the Code: A Conversation with Brian Copeland

I’m sure that if you’re a reader of this blog, you’ve seen the “I am a REALTOR and I live by the Code” meme that’s everywhere on Facebook. The man who began the whole thing is Brian Copeland, an extraordinary young leader, REALTOR (obviously), and a fantastic karaoke master. I was originally going to write … Read more

My AE Institute Presentation: Ozymandias, 2013

I’ve gotten more than a few requests for a copy of my presentation to NAR’s Association Executives Institute meeting from Monday. Now, it’s over 172MB so emailing it is out of the question. However, the wonders of the Internet never cease. I’ve uploaded it to Slideshare.net and am embedding it below. Ozymandias 2013 AEI 1.1 … Read more

Jeff Brown Explains It For You: Why Agent-Centric Brokerage Sucks

Over at AGBeat, Jeff Brown — a real estate broker I know personally and have respected for years both for his knowledge and his utter fearlessness — gets into the weeds and explains why “agent-centric” brokerage model sucks. Well, to be fair, the actual title of his post is, “Why real estate’s agent-centric broker models … Read more

That, Or Cause a Wave of Unfriending…

Either one is a possibility.

Facebook’s revamped ‘Newsfeed’ could be a boon for agents (Inman News):

The redesign’s focus on images and video could help generate more interest in listings real estate agents market on the social media site.

I’ve got my unfriend button ready to rock if a flood of listing photos start invading my news feed. Or unsubscribe from Facebook altogether.

Either one is a possibility.

-rsh

[PREMIUM] Quick Note on HomeServices of America

This is a quick update for the purchasers of the Realogy Report. When I was researching that report, MidAmerican Energy Holdings had not filed its 2012 10-K. Which meant that we didn’t have any real information on the second largest brokerage in America: HomeServices of America. They did so on 3/1 but by then I … Read more

A Couple of Thoughts on realtor.com Redesign

So more than  few people have already commented on the new design for Realtor.com realtor.com. Listingbits has a roundup with some choice quotes. I guess all of the commentators make good points, and on the whole, I do like the designs. But then, I didn’t hate the old design either, so there is that. But two things … Read more