Notorious POD

I speak with the CEO of Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, the largest REALTOR Association as well as the largest single-Association MLS in North America, about their efforts to include blockchain technology in the MLS. As John has long been one of the biggest proponents of this technology in the space, and one of the leaders pursuing innovation using blockchain in real estate, I wanted to learn more about what TRREB is doing and what his vision for the technology is. Again, as before, this conversation gets technical at times, not to the level of true technologists but possibly beyond the interest of everyday agents. Nonetheless, I thought it worth capturing so we all can understand whether and how blockchain could apply to use cases in real estate.

The Blockchain and Real Estate series continues with a conversation with the CEO and Founder of Propy, Natalia Karanayeva, and the Chief Revenue Officer of Propy, Joe Budelli. Fair Warning: This conversation is filled with rather technical topics about blockchain technology, smart contracts, Ethereum blockchain, layer-2 scaling, transaction fees, DeFi and its impact, etc. etc. These topics will be basic to those familiar with blockchain, but it will be some heavy lifting for those who are not. At times, we might sound like we're speaking Martian. But I felt that to understand the implications and impact and potential of blockchain technology on real estate, it was impossible to do otherwise. Many thanks to Natalia and Joe for their time and expertise. I know I've learned a tremendous amount in this conversation, and I hope you will as well.

Part of the Blockchain and Real Estate investigation series. I speak with Thomas Park, CEO and Cofounder of Reitium, a blockchain-based fractional ownership real estate investment platform. We get into the basics, like what is blockchain and why is it relevant to real estate. I ask why blockchain is either necessary or advantageous over centralized database technology. And we have conversations about the promise of this technology for transforming the industry.

As the country steadily moves towards #RenterNation, the future of brokerage may be in a combined horizontally integrated company that offers services in property management, leasing, and property sales. I speak to Scott Brady, owner of Progressive Property Management, Progressive Association Management and Partners Real Estate Group, and a pioneer in the combined prop. mgtm + brokerage model. The newly liberated Sunny Lake Hahn is able to join me in talking to Scott.

I interview Prof. Scott Hemphill, Moses H. Grossman Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and co-director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy. There aren't many human beings who would be a better expert to speak to regarding the various lawsuits in the real estate industry. We discuss the various class action lawsuits on commissions (Moehrl, Sitzer, Leeder, etc.) and what the issues are. We discuss REX v. Zillow as well as REX v. Oregon, which deals with the anti-rebate provisions in Oregon. We discuss policy as Prof. Hemphill is actively involved in policy discussions around antitrust, technology, and innovation. This was one of the most enjoyable and enlightening conversations I've ever had, and I thank Prof. Hemphill for his time and insights.

I speak with Jeff Sibbach and Phil Sexton about the realities of today's real estate, how top agent teams are functioning today, and why he believes Zillow is in fact a competitor. We get into a lot of issues including data, IDX, competition in real estate, technology, big aggregators, and consumer behavior. We debate and disagree, and agree, and hopefully educate ourselves and others.

In this episode, I speak with my good friend and mentor, Phillip Cantrell. He is the CEO and founder of Benchmark Realty, the #1 brokerage by market share in the Nashville area. We discuss a sensitive and touchy topic -- the NAR Speech Codes (10.5 and beyond) and how conservative REALTORS feel about the direction of local, state and national REALTOR organizations.

I think Phillip is representative of a silent majority of REALTORS out there who are somewhere between uncomfortable and enraged about NAR's shift in direction in getting more and more involved with social/political issues. I say "silent majority" because so few people are willing to take a stance on these divisive issues and talk about how they feel about them. Phillip is the rare leader who is willing to be open about his feelings and thoughts, knowing that it could be controversial. I can say from personal knowledge that there are many, many REALTORS who are unhappy but stay silent. Silence should not be taken as agreement, or even acquiescence.

For being willing to share his thoughts, I thank Phillip. For listening, I thank you. This may be a conversation we need to surface and have to see if the REALTOR movement can actually be salvaged.

-rsh

I speak with my friend Keith Robinson, Chief Strategy Officer of NextHome, and one of the smartest guys in the industry who follows economic trends that affect housing. He wrote a great post about whether we're seeing a housing bubble or not, and we discuss and debate what's actually going on.

I saw a Facebook post talking about a common problem with real estate agents -- buyer disloyalty. That got me wondering, why aren't we moving towards agents getting paid by the hour? It would solve so many problems.

The way that real estate agents are getting paid leads to a lot of issues, one of which is the problem of client disloyalty. A few others -- desperation, lack of differentiation, not being paid like a real professional, lack of alignment in the interests of the client and the agent, etc. I thought I would muse on this as I've been thinking and talking about it for years.

I get inspired by a Listing Bits podcast with Sam DeBord and Michael Wurzer, and decide to join the conversation by talking about LEAP. I think we're not engaging in needed conversation that might make the entire thing less important about the role of the MLS in 2021.