Over on Facebook, Sam Debord (regular readers are familiar with Sam) asked a really, really good question: Sam DeBord Rob, give us your take on AMP benefiting small MLSs. Does better software slow consolidation, or are other issues driving it? AMP, of course, stands for RPR’s Advanced Multi-List Platform, a project with which I’ve been … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1_9WYllhiQ Without question, the big topics coming out of NAR Midyear Legislative Meetings were about RPR-AMP, Upstream, and the future of the MLS. I’ve already written a few posts about them, and expect to write more in the future. But lost in all of that was a big rebrand and relaunch by Move of Realtor.com. … Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0SR3pYJ7c Who am I, what have I become? Two stories hit my awareness overnight that confirm something I’ve been saying for a while. In 2013, I wrote this: The second possible unintended consequence is not regulatory, but practical. For a while, I’ve argued that the reason why the MLS has become so important was that … Read more
In a recent post on Realuoso, my friend Erica Ramus, wrote an Op/Ed on how Project Upstream will change everything: The Project Upstream broker initiative is an attempt to gather real estate data under one umbrella, again trying to wrestle back control of our listings and data. … Hahn’s description of “MLS Mashups” and the … Read more
I have a feeling we’re going to be talking about a whole variety of things that went down at NAR Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo (aka, “Midyear”) this year for months and years to come. It’s been a great week, but rough on the sleep schedule, so these are not exactly deeply-thought-out opinions here. It’s … Read more
Now that I’ve been liberated from some of my confidentiality constraints (see my previous post, which required permission from various companies I had non-disclosure agreements with, as well as permission from a client to discuss work I had done for them), I can opine more freely about the topic of RPR, Advanced Multi-List Platform (“AMP”), … Read more
[NOTE: This is a post I wrote for a client, SIRMLS, and decided to cross-post to my blog because it tells so much of my personal involvement in it. Thanks to Tim Dain and to SIRMLS for the opportunity to tell the story, and granting me permission to cross-post to my blog.] “Something hit me … Read more
This is a brief post, since I just got off nearly three weeks straight of being on the road. The latest stop was at Stefan Swanepoel’s T3 Summit where I spoke on a panel and had a great time bantering with Brian Boero of 1000watt about hot topics in the industry. I may do a … Read more
This is one of those posts I write from time to time to figure out what I think about an issue. For now, that issue is trying to discern the possible direction of the residential real estate industry in the U.S. If you’re an agent and only care about something that will have a direct, … Read more