Regular readers know that I have said that Opendoor could be the most important company in real estate. My reasoning was that Opendoor looked to be trying to revolutionize the single biggest painful aspect of buying a home: the mortgage. Here’s what I wrote: So yeah, I think Opendoor is about revolutionizing the entire culture around how homes … Read more
[I had planned on writing this much, much earlier… but as you might guess, a few things happened since Part 1 was published. Like a social media storm around the issue of bad behavior in the industry. Even as I hope for some positive changes, life goes on, and the industry itself does need fixing. … Read more
It’s been a while since I’ve written. Blame a travel schedule that would be marriage-destroying, were I actually married, combined with far too much to do and far too little time to do it in. But I realized recently that I have actually never set down in words one of the main themes of my speaking … Read more
I was supposed to moderate a track of panels at Inman called Provoke, and I was really looking forward to some of those conversations, until a family situation arose that makes attending Inman impossible. (We’re all fine; my ex has to be out of the country, so I need to make sure my two boys … Read more
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
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
By now, if you pay attention to this sort of thing, you’ve seen Zillow’s Q3/2015 earnings report and maybe even listened to the earnings call. And on the financial side of things, ZG appears to have kicked ass once again: Revenue of $176.8 million, up 13% year over year on a pro forma basis. Adjusted … Read more
This is (hopefully) a brief post, inspired and triggered by something I saw on Facebook today. My friend Lisa Heindel, a broker in New Orleans, wrote up a post dealing with REALTOR.com’s partnership with AirBnB. It appears that a number of people in NOLA are not particularly happy with AirBnB, and Lisa isn’t too thrilled … Read more
I recently had the pleasure of talking to Andrew Flachner of RealScout, who penned this article on Inman recently: The answer to me, and to many real estate veterans, is obvious. A strategy that directly focuses on producing more transactions, while providing more value to the client, is far more rewarding, both financially and professionally. … Read more