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
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
I recently found this post on GeekEstate, which was from a while ago, that asked a provocative question: There are some proponents for the entire industry ceasing syndication entirely (specifically to Zillow). The thinking is generally “with no listings, Zillow would become irrelevant and lose all their traffic, all that traffic would frequent agent/broker websites, and the result would be … Read more
In Part 1, we discussed why Project Upstream as currently setup is problematic, despite the goals of Upstream being absolutely worth pursuing. In this part, I go more into offering solutions. Had I been involved with Upstream earlier on, this would have been my advice, but then, nobody asked me. 🙂 Basically, my take is that … Read more
At the Inman Connect conference that just wrapped up, there was a “town hall” on a variety of topics featuring industry thought leaders like Marilyn Wilson of the WAV Group, Mark McLaughlin of Pacific Union, Joseph Rand of BHG Rand Realty, and Katie Maxwell of Intero. One question I asked was about Project Upstream, the recently … Read more
Reader, thinker, and frequent commenter Sam DeBord has written a rebuttal over at GeekEstate to my declaration of vindication re: IDX = Syndication: IDX creates efficiency for brokers, which increases financial profitability for the group as a whole. Syndication is a less-efficient platform in terms of overall brokerage profits. Real estate is, on an annual basis, similar … Read more
I’m writing this brief post here, as the Facebook group I got this from isn’t exactly the widest-read one out there. But the issue posed is both interesting and important. Basically, the question is whether or not the most important function of the MLS in the minds of brokers is to simplify the sending of … 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
Over on Facebook, an interesting and intelligent discussion broke out — which is news in and of itself, I realize. We weren’t discussing The Dress or llamas. Amazing. What we were discussing is MLS taking over syndication, something that Kipp Cooper at North Alabama pioneered. Here’s how it began: The responses were really interesting, and … Read more