In Which I Speak to Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move, Inc.

It’s now been a couple of days, and Errol Samuelson’s defection from Realtor.com to Zillow remains the top story in the world of real estate. I posted two questions about the move yesterday (and had one answered very quickly), and reached out to both Errol and to Move for comments. As of this writing, I … Read more

Dear MLS – Raise Prices, By A Lot

I have to be on an airplane in the not-too-distant future, but I really wanted to share this with everyone, because I think it’s so interesting. So fascinating. Recently, I asked a hypothetical question in one of my favorite Facebook groups: If you click on over, you can read all the comments. What I was … Read more

The Realcomp Anti-Trust Ruling Will Affect MLS Syndication

Inman News reports that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Realcomp II in a years-long case: Michigan’s largest multiple listing service “unreasonably restrained competition” among real estate brokers by refusing to transmit exclusive agency property listings favored by discount brokers to Realtor.com and other public-facing Web sites, a federal appeals court has ruled. … Read more

Dear Brokerages – First, Get The Basics Right

Thanks to a project I’ve been working on for the past few days, I’ve had the pleasure(?) of visiting a number of brokerage websites. As I write this post, Inman NYC is in full-swing, where tech people, consultants, vendors, and experts are telling the assembled brokers and agents on the latest and greatest in innovation. … Read more

Why You Should Know About Aereo

I’m reasonably certain that 90%+ of my audience — that would be you — have no idea what Aereo is. And until recently, there was no real reason to know, unless you lived in the NYC area and just looooved over-the-air TV. But last Friday, the US Supreme Court chose to hear a case involving … Read more

Seven Predictions for 2014: Power Ballads Edition

I wanted to get to this before 2014 dawned, of course, but… it was more fun to hang out with my boys. And by that I don’t mean my posse of secret real estate pundits, but my actual biological progeny. In any event, it’s customary here at Notorious to make predictions that are sure to … Read more

Grading Time! Reviewing My 2013 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 of 10 (.600) 2011 Predictions: 4.5 of 7 (.642) 2012 Predictions: 2 for 7 (.286) As ever, I hope to be … Read more

Notorious POD: Episode 10 – More on AgentMatch with Ernie Graham of Realtor.com

  In this episode, Ernie Graham, Director of Product Management for REALTOR.com, joins us for an in-depth discussion about AgentMatch, what consumers want, and what the industry needs to do. AgentMatch — a system in beta testing in two markets — has been controversial of late because it uses MLS data to “rank” agents based … Read more