Shouldn't REALTORS Take a Stand on Drones vs. Shotguns?

It’s been a busy few days, so blogging has been very light. But I wanted to do a fun post about a fun (yet serious) topic that caught my eye. From the Washington Post comes this story of a man who shot down a drone in his backyard: William Merideth had just finished grilling dinner … Read more

Shouldn't REALTORS Take a Stand on Drones vs. Shotguns?

It’s been a busy few days, so blogging has been very light. But I wanted to do a fun post about a fun (yet serious) topic that caught my eye. From the Washington Post comes this story of a man who shot down a drone in his backyard: William Merideth had just finished grilling dinner … Read more

The Myth of the Irreplaceable REALTOR

Over on the Texas Association of REALTORS website, there’s a reprint of an article from the December 2015 issue of REAL Trends entitled “Why technology will never replace REALTORS.” I’ll wait for the cheering to die down a bit. OK. Good? OK, moving on then. Steve Murray, who is one of my heroes in the industry, basically … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2016: The 90s Dance Music Edition

As you can probably see, this is a special edition of my 7 predictions. I normally post those on my blog at Notorious R.O.B., but not this year! Brad Inman asked if I wanted to share these crazy predictions with the readers of Inman, and I thought, why not? I mean, these are predictions sure … Read more

Grading Time! Reviewing My 2015 Predictions

Welcome to another edition of an annual tradition, in which I go back and grade myself on my predictions made at the start of this year. My track record so far: 2010 Predictions: 6 for 10 (.600) 2011 Predictions: 4.5 for 7 (.642) 2012 Predictions: 2 for 7 (.286) 2013 Predictions: 4.5 for 7 (.642) 2014 Predictions: 3 for … Read more

Follow-Up Post on Brass Tacks: What To Do About Marginal Agents?

Happy Friday everyone. I wanted to do this quick follow-up to my Brass Tacks: What To Do About Marginal Agents post from November 20, 2015. Because the comments on that post were… interesting… so I figured we might get some more interesting comments on this one. If you recall, in that original post, I highlighted … Read more

The Seven Most Interesting People in Real Estate, 2015

‘Tis the season for year-end lists, best-of lists, lists for Santa, lists for New Year Resolutions, lists of lists, yay! I recently spent a weekend locked in a conference room working on an actually important list — the Swanepoel Power 200 — that was fun, exhilarating, and hard work. But as we get to the … Read more

Marginal REALTORS: Five Things an Association Can Do Today

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday; I personally got some really great news the day before Thanksgiving, so I had a truly memorable one myself. I even managed to hold on to that feeling of profound gratitude as the sentiment turned from giving thanks to indulging in exercises in gluttony that would have … Read more

Futurism: The Rise of Online Education and Real Estate

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it might be fun to do some Big Picture Thinking, rather than overly earnest calls for reform that go silently into that dark night. One amazing story I saw recently deserves some of that Big Picture Futurism treatment. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the headline, “Homeschooled with … Read more