Rob Hahn 
Ben Thompson at Stratechery, the man responsible for setting Zillow on its path into iBuying, has published a newsletter discussing Zillow’s exit from iBuying. He’s very generous to Rich Barton and to Zillow, and eats a bit of crow. I rarely find anything in Thompson’s writings and opinions to disagree with, because he is one … Read more
I was in mid-air when the Zillow Q3 earnings release happened. By the time I had landed, there were dozens of texts, emails, and of course, social media postings. There were and are a lot of hot takes. I’m reasonably convinced that all or most are wrong in some significant way. Many are laughably shallow. … Read more
I was asked multiple times over the last few days about Zillow pausing its iBuying business, over email from some of you and in person at Inman that concluded last week. I haven’t written on it because I didn’t think it was a big deal, and others have already written on it. But since I’ve … Read more
I’ve now been asked by more than a few people on my take on the acquisition of Remine, the MLS technology provider, by MLS Technology Holdings, LLC., a new company formed by four major MLSs: ACTRIS (Austin), Heartland (Kansas City), FMLS (Atlanta) and Miami (er… Miami). Disclosure: I have personal relationships with three of the … Read more
Over on LinkedIn and on Facebook, the real nerds of real estate are posting how they’re en route to South Carolina for the RESO Fall Retreat. Hope my friends have a wonderful time on Kiawah Island. At the same time, a discussion of sorts has broken out over “native” data dictionary and so on. The … Read more
Let us continue with the hope-mongering, looking at the bright side of armageddon (for the real estate industry). This entire series assumes that some combination of civil anti-trust lawsuits and the federal government results in the end of cooperating compensation. There’s already quite a bit of handwringing going on about that prospect, with authors and … Read more
I often get accused of being a doom-monger. It’s probably because I kind of am. I mean, I find doomporn fascinating (and clearly, I’m not alone given the popularity of websites like Zerohedge) and I do like to think about — and talk about — what larger trends could mean. I used to have little … Read more
In my consulting work, I often say that strategy is 18-24 months, because things change too fast to make any reasonable plans past that point. It isn’t simply black swan events like the pandemic either; just the pace of technology change is that fast, and if the strategy worked, then the organization should be in … Read more
Obviously, posting has been very light — nonexistent, one might say. Part of the reason was that I was at the Council of MLS (CMLS) conference right here in Las Vegas last week. Well, the truthful way of saying that is to say that I was hanging out in the lobby bar of the Bellagio … Read more