A Few Thoughts On Redfin’s Scouting Report

I’ve been traveling more or less nonstop for a couple of weeks, and busy as hell in any event, so I kind of missed the controversy around Redfin’s Scouting Report. I’d suggest heading over to Jay Thompson’s blog to get his thoughts on the product, and the various responses from the real estate industry to … Read more

Moore's Law and Real Estate: Speculations

I’m giving a presentation tomorrow at the Nextgen Realtor Group of the Houston Association of REALTORS. I do believe the actual title of my presentation, as in the program itself, is called Welcome to Dystopia. Somehow, it seems, I’ve become the Cassandra of the real estate industry. But in researching for the presentation, I ran … Read more

Is It Complicated? Further Musings on the MLS

“No servant can serve two masters.” – Jesus Christ, Luke 16:13 Judith Lindenau, a consultant to MLS and Associations with decades of experience, recently wrote a post in which she took up my modest suggestion of making brokers pay for the MLS. It’s worth reading the whole thing, as she presents some countering views both … Read more

A Modest Proposal On Fixing the MLS

Over at 1000watt, there is a rather interesting debate going on with some heavy hitters contributing, on whether big brokers should or should not support innovations and tools by the MLS or Association. Go check it out if you haven’t already. The general thrust is that Brian Boero and Marc Davison both believe that innovations … Read more

Why Shouldn’t the MLS Be A Public Utility?

Last week, at the Inman Connect conference, I got into a rather interesting — if dry and technical for non-lawyer types — discussion with Brian Larson about whether MLS could escape being classified as a public utility. I’m not going to go into that, since that discussion tends to have a lot to do with … Read more

Why Shouldn't the MLS Be A Public Utility?

Last week, at the Inman Connect conference, I got into a rather interesting — if dry and technical for non-lawyer types — discussion with Brian Larson about whether MLS could escape being classified as a public utility. I’m not going to go into that, since that discussion tends to have a lot to do with … Read more

Things Go In Cycles: The Return of Walled Gardens?

It’s a hot Saturday morning here in Houston, and the sunlight is so strong you can almost feel the weight of it on your skin. Maybe it’s early onset of sunstroke, but I felt like musing on random things. Feel free to skip this post; it isn’t likely to be useful to anyone. But I’m … Read more