Technology

Dear Real Estate Tech Entrepreneurs: Hey, The Buy-Side Is Done, Guys

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I’m going to take a conservative estimate and say that once every few weeks, I get some PR agency emailing me with some news of a fantabulous, world-changing, paradigm-shifting (God, I love those Web 2.0 words, like paradigm), baldness-curing new technology around… you got it, home search. This is not at all an atypical example: #RealEstate Entrepreneur, Avantika Shahi Launches Revolutionary #HomeSearch Platform  … Read more

NAR Midyear 2016: Rumors, Questions, and Observations

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[UPDATE: Please see the Comment below the post, in which Cary Sylvester clarified a couple of things raised in this post.] I had originally planned on writing a day-by-day diary of sorts for Midyear as I did a while back, but… frankly, things were moving so fast, and I was too busy sitting in meetings … Read more

Clarifying My Remarks About Upstream and the MLS at the Zillow MLS Summit

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A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of MLS executives and leadership at the Zillow MLS Summit in Las Vegas. It was a Q&A format with Mitch Robinson from Zillow interviewing me on a number of questions and issues related to Project Upstream and the MLS. The video … Read more

Inside Baseball Issue: IDX and Internet Display

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In doing some research for a couple of assignments, I’ve run across something that’s quite frankly not all that interesting to anybody not in the real estate industry, which falls under the “Inside Baseball” type of stuff. For that matter, this might not be of any interest except to MLS nerds. But that’s what I … Read more

Taking AI Seriously in Real Estate

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For the second time this week, I’ve had the topic of AI (Artificial Intelligence) come up vis-a-vis the real estate industry. The first time was when Aaron Norris of The Norris Group asked me about it on an upcoming radio show. The second time was today, when I saw this interesting article on Inman by … Read more

The City, Post Self-Driving Cars

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My April Fool’s experiment has taught me that most people simply do not click on links. 🙂 Accordingly, I’ll minimize the links on future posts, including this one, unless I feel it’s absolutely necessary. Heh. In any event, back to semi-serious topics… and there’s a great one on LinkedIn by the one and only Glenn Kelman, … Read more

What If We Let the Consumer Decide on Syndication?

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It’s funny. Although I’ve been writing about syndication issues on these pages for oh… five or six years now… looking at all the different angles to that dead horse that won’t die… thanks to a Facebook post I just read, I thought of another new angle. Just goes to show you (well, show me) that … Read more

How the Agent-Free Future of Real Estate Could Come About

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There’s not much that excites the hoi polloi of the real estate industry more than the suggestion of disintermediation: that one day, buyers and sellers would transact business without having to call their local REALTOR and pay the commission. If it’s not one lion over the hill, then it’s another. If it’s not a lion, … Read more

A Quick Question on Upstream & the Local MLS

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I am performing a miracle right now. Blogging while flying 30,000 feet in the air. Will wonders never cease! In any event, given the quality of in-flight wifi, I thought I’d keep this as short as possible. Had a fascinating discussion recently with a friend of mine in the MLS business. We got to talking … Read more