The Tragedy of Numbers, or Why (Some) REALTORS Should Embrace the Coming Storm

A while back, I put up a short little tweet with just pure data, because I found it interesting: Robert Hahn on Twitter: “2022 might come in at 5.12 million existing homes sold (July data, seasonally adjusted). At the end of July, there were 1.58 million REALTOR members of NAR.In 2000, 5.04 million existing homes … Read more

Potential Damages from Moehrl v. NAR

Last couple of days, I’ve given presentations and sat on a panel discussion talking about the class action lawsuits against NAR over the issue of commissions. I thought most people knew about these all-important cases that are making their way through the federal courts. Apparently, only about half of the REALTORS had even heard about … Read more

Four Horsemen of the Housing Apocalypse, Part 6: New Jerusalem

I had originally planned on the Four Horsemen series to be five parts: the four Horsemen, plus a wrap-up laying out the consequences for the real estate industry. But as I mentioned in part 5, a couple of you have asked for a slightly medium-to-longer term post-apocalypse outlook on the industry. Once the dust settles, … Read more

Four Horsemen of the Housing Apocalypse, Part 5: What It All Might Mean

At last, we come to the end of this dismal series. While it has been dismal, some of your emails and private messages have been very kind and encouraging. Dark these thoughts may be, but some of you share them and there is a comfort in knowing we’re not alone. (Update: but see below in … Read more

Four Horsemen of the Housing Apocalypse, Part 1: On a White Horse

Apocalypse by Victor Vasnetsov

I haven’t written in a while. Part of it is being extremely busy with work, which I hope to be able to tell you all about soon, but a big part of the reason is dread. I keep looking for white pill stories, visions of a bright future, or at least some kind of a … Read more

The 9th Circuit Reverses Dismissal of PLS.com v. NAR Lawsuit

Suddenly, it’s become like legal issue week here at Notorious. I wrote about the entirely expected certification of class action status in Sitzer v. NAR yesterday. Today, I get emailed the opinion by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the PLS.com v. NAR lawsuit. If the class action opinion from Sitzer required reading tea … Read more

Reading Tea Leaves: Class-Action Status in Sitzer v. NAR

A number of readers have sent me the news and the actual opinion from the court hearing Sitzer v. NAR (Case No. 19-CV-00332-SRB), in which the court basically granted the plaintiffs everything they wanted. This is now officially a class action lawsuit, certified by the court, to include thousands, if not tens of thousands or … Read more

Power to the People: REALTOR Associations and DAO

In the last webinar on Geek Estate Masterminds, Dave Conroy gave a presentation on blockchain, crypto, NFT and DAOs. Dave is not only a true expert on all things blockchain, he is also the Director of Emerging Technologies at NAR and a real forward-looking thinker. Proof? Here’s Dave writing about blockchain’s impact on real estate… … Read more

JP Morgan on CoStar’s Residential Strategy

A reader sent along a short note that JP Morgan wrote after a meeting with CoStar “where management outlined the strategy for residential real estate and provided a couple demos/screenshots from its solutions.” It’s an interesting set of observations by Wall Street and I thought I’d tag along and see what I thought about their … Read more