I’ve now been asked by more than a few people on my take on the acquisition of Remine, the MLS technology provider, by MLS Technology Holdings, LLC., a new company formed by four major MLSs: ACTRIS (Austin), Heartland (Kansas City), FMLS (Atlanta) and Miami (er… Miami). Disclosure: I have personal relationships with three of the … Read more
Over on LinkedIn and on Facebook, the real nerds of real estate are posting how they’re en route to South Carolina for the RESO Fall Retreat. Hope my friends have a wonderful time on Kiawah Island. At the same time, a discussion of sorts has broken out over “native” data dictionary and so on. The … Read more
Let us continue with the hope-mongering, looking at the bright side of armageddon (for the real estate industry). This entire series assumes that some combination of civil anti-trust lawsuits and the federal government results in the end of cooperating compensation. There’s already quite a bit of handwringing going on about that prospect, with authors and … Read more
I often get accused of being a doom-monger. It’s probably because I kind of am. I mean, I find doomporn fascinating (and clearly, I’m not alone given the popularity of websites like Zerohedge) and I do like to think about — and talk about — what larger trends could mean. I used to have little … Read more
In my consulting work, I often say that strategy is 18-24 months, because things change too fast to make any reasonable plans past that point. It isn’t simply black swan events like the pandemic either; just the pace of technology change is that fast, and if the strategy worked, then the organization should be in … Read more
Obviously, posting has been very light — nonexistent, one might say. Part of the reason was that I was at the Council of MLS (CMLS) conference right here in Las Vegas last week. Well, the truthful way of saying that is to say that I was hanging out in the lobby bar of the Bellagio … Read more
Back in July, I wrote about the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) unexpectedly pulling out of the settlement agreement it had reached with NAR and said: The withdrawal, then, combined with the above (voluntary dismissal plus broader investigations) clearly signals that the DOJ will be pursuing other antitrust claims relating to NAR’s rules. Under a stipulation … Read more
Longtime readers know that I have an annual tradition around here that I’ve kept going for ten years. I repost this 2010 post about my personal experiences on that September day, and what I took away from it. This year, I thought long and hard about continuing that tradition, despite it being the 20th anniversary … Read more
Back in 2018, I had a series called The Red Dot. The very first red dot report was on real estate photography and copyrights. This was then and remains now an important issue for the industry, and one that still remains not very well understood by most brokers, agents, and MLS leaders. So it is … Read more