Seven Predictions for 2020: The Rat Pack Edition

Earlier this year, Sunny and I made her third (my second) move across this great country of ours in three years, landing in Las Vegas. I have to say, so far, we’re quite in love with this city. Most of you only know Las Vegas from The Strip… which is unfortunate. It’s quite like judging … Read more

Musings on Defining Fundamental Problems

I was on a conference call earlier with a client discussing an upcoming strategy planning session, and one of the people raised a very interesting and a very good point. He said that if we don’t clearly define the problems, it’s very difficult to do good strategy. I couldn’t agree more. But as we kept … Read more

Time for a Housecleaning: Racism in Long Island Real Estate

I am alternatively furious and despondent that this post has to be written in 2019. But it has to be. In case you missed it, Newsday, the local newspaper for most of Long Island in New York, ran a three year investigation into racial discrimination and steering in real estate. They just published their findings … Read more

[VIP] Realogy, Q3/2019: The Profitability Dilemma

Earnings Week content keeps rolling on! It’s time we took a look at Realogy, the bellwether for health of traditional real estate brokerage. I wish I could report some joyful news on that front, but alas, I just can’t. Realogy is still profitable, generating good free cash flows, and still making some moves. It’s just … Read more

[VIP] Redfin, Q3/2019: Nice Rebound, And Yet…

Redfin’s Q3 results showed a solid rebound from a rather disappointing Q2. It looks great all around, with revenues, profit, market share, etc. all up and up very healthy. Agent productivity is up, traffic is up, and Redfin Now is a $80 million business in Q3. So all in all, a very nice rebound. There … Read more

Compass and Coming Soon: Not About the Client

[EDIT: This post has been updated with responses from Compass, and my further responses to those responses.] [EDIT: I have updated the post once again, with another round of clarifications from Compass Spokesperson.] This week is when NAR will decide on what to do about Off-MLS and Coming Soon. I have already written thousands of … Read more

[VIP] RE/MAX Q3, 2019: Don’t Look Back

RE/MAX reported Q3 earnings on Halloween, and I can’t help but think there was a lot more trick than treat in its Q3 results. Yes, RE/MAX remains fundamentally healthy and it has some advantages over its main competitors, especially the other publicly reporting franchise company, Realogy, but there were a lot more walking dead in … Read more

Zillow Offers vs. Traditional Selling: Data from Zillow

Back in February, I wrote a post that is one of the top read posts of 2019. It was titled, “Homeowners Net More Selling to Zillow Than With a REALTOR.” I wrote that based on the unit economics that Zillow released in its Q1 earnings call, and I have been collecting data on Zillow Offers, … Read more