Was it just yesterday when I was speculating on Zillow’s recent hiring of Bob Bemis? Why, yes, yes it was. How things change in 24 hours when you live in interesting times. [Editor’s Note: Obviously, you started writing this on the 15th and didn’t finish? Nice managing the deadline, Rob.] Today, Zillow released their Q4/2011 … Read more
One could quibble with the title of this post. Someone could say, “Rob, you were paranoid long before any hiring of anybody happened” and I’d not have a whole lot to say in response. But first, the news. ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service), the fourth largest MLS in the country with over 32,000 … Read more
It’s late, and I’m fairly certain that this horse I’m about to pound on some more is long since departed for greener pastures in the hereafter… but hey, what the hell, right? So by now all readers of Notorious ROB have seen the latest developments in the Syndication Serenade: Metrolist pulls IDX from Diverse … Read more
The average denizen of the RE.net cybercafe — that includes you, since you’re reading this on a blog — knows that the hot topic du jour is syndication. I wrote about it here and here already, but frankly, have been talking about this issue for quite some time. And influential bloggers like Jay Thompson and … Read more
Another brief update, before my day of continuous meetings begin…. Regarding my post yesterday on the syndication brouhaha brought on by Abbott Realty Group… first, you need to read Jay Thompson’s take on the subject. He takes longer to articulate the issue than I did, and I think more clearly than I have: If you … Read more
I would write a review of my week in New York City at the Inman Connect conference… except that I was in meetings pretty much all day long, and missed all but one session. I’ll direct you instead to people like Sean Carpenter for a recap. But I did have a great series of … Read more
Continuing the tradition that started when the earth was young (or last year… depending on your definition of “time”), I’d like to present this year’s version of “Predictions Guaranteed to be Wrong, Or Your Money Back”! As we saw in the report card post, last year, I went 4.5 for 7 in predictions. I hope … Read more
In 2009, I batted .600 in predictions for 2010. And I thought that was fun. It’s one thing to make predictions; it’s another to look back and see how those predictions fared. How did I do last year in predicting events of 2011? I was hoping to be maybe 1 out of 7, since most of … Read more
Over on Facebook, in one of the real estate discussion groups I’m involved with, Loren Sanders posted the following: I saw a documentary called “The Pit” about floor traders on the New York Board of Trade. It shows before and after they were bought out by an electronic trading company ICE. It is not … Read more