Recently, the NAR Professional Standards Committee announced that it had forwarded a set of recommendations to the Board of Directors for a vote in November at the (virtual) NAR Annual Meetings: The NAR Professional Standards Committee met on October 5, 2020, to consider recommendations from its Interpretations and Procedures Advisory Board on the Code of … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, Judge Andrea Wood of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division issued a memorandum opinion denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss in the all-important case of Moehrl v. NAR. You can find the opinion here. As many of you know, I’ve been interested in … Read more
In case you missed it, Greg Robertson and I recorded an episode of Industry Relations on Zillow’s announcements last Thursday; it was just posted. In it, I started musing about how IDX is less of a deal than VOW, and Greg and I started to talk about what Zillow might be able to do for … Read more
By now, you have probably heard the news that Zillow launched a “residential brokerage”, will join the MLS, and use the MLS IDX feed to power its dominant website. Just at random, here’s one news story from The Real Deal covering the announcement: For years, Zillow denied it had plans to become a brokerage. But … Read more
Over at Inman, there’s a great writeup of a truly inside baseball topic: the confusion and controversy around Days On Market. Andrea Brambila wrote the report on a panel discussion between Sam Debord of RESO, Rene Galicia of NAR, and Katie Smithson of W+R Studios. All three are people I count as friends, and they … Read more
There is a persistent narrative in the real estate industry. It is persistent because at its core, there is a lot of truth to it. Yet, it’s a narrative that has overextended that truth and is now threatening to become a blinder. Therefore, it somehow falls on me, the voice in the wilderness, to warn … Read more
Unless you’re in the MLS space of the residential real estate industry, you probably did not know that the MLS Standards Workgroup of the NAR MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board released an Interim Report. In fact, you probably didn’t know that there was such a thing as a MLS Standards Workgroup. Well, there … Read more
It’s Friday afternoon, and my brother is landing in Las Vegas soon, so I’m outta here! But first, wanted to briefly discuss a new T3 Insight from T3 Sixty: “Expanding the American Dream.” It’s a new monthly article from the good folks over at T3 Sixty and this first one is on a topic on … Read more
I didn’t really want to write this, because I assumed it was relatively common knowledge within the U.S. real estate industry that we have a sordid past of open racism, discrimination, and bigotry. Plus, I’m frankly tired of writing about and talking about social issues that go beyond the real estate industry. I feel like … Read more