Notorious POD

In this rare public episode of the Notorious Interview, I speak with Jennifer Branchini, Treasurer, and Sanjay Wagle, SVP of Public Policy, for the California Assoc. of REALTORS about SB50.  SB50 is a bill that is making its way through the California legislatures, and is supported by CAR. The goal of SB50 is to make it easier to build new housing in California, something that the state desperately needs. And more broadly, this episode addresses one of the key issues for REALTORS everywhere: political engagement and advocacy. Many thanks to CAR, and to Jennifer and Sanjay for taking time to speak on this issue.

We're back after nearly a month long hiatus due to the holidays. In this episode, I talk to Nick Taylor, Vice President of Growth at Modus, a proptech company looking to disrupt the least talked about part of the transaction: the closing. He's also one of the most intelligent and thoughtful people in the space, and I'm thrilled to have spent an hour or more in conversation with him. So settle in and get to know Nick and get to know Modus.

One of the most interesting and most controversial figures in the real estate industry today, Jack Ryan is the founder & CEO of REX, a real estate brokerage that relies on technology to find buyers for its sellers, rather than the MLS-based system that everybody else uses. A former investment banker, Ryan is bringing techniques honed in trading financial assets to physical assets. If you have an interest in how technology and capital are changing the real estate industry, this is a must-listen.

A conversation with a pair of economists from Zillow Group, which publishes an annual Consumer Housing Trends Report.  It is one of the best research studies on what is happening on the ground with buyers, sellers and renters. Ms. Olsen is the Director of Economic Research, and Ms. Coursolle is the Senior Survey Economist. We talk about what they found, but focus on Millennials and housing, as that is a personal passion of mine. The future of housing cannot be separated from the future consumer, after all.

A conversation with Jarred Kessler, Founder & CEO of EasyKnock, one of the most interesting companies in real estate I had not heard of. EasyKnock is kind of like a blend between a bridge lender and an iBuyer with a very interesting value proposition for sellers and for agents alike. Whether you are in the real estate industry, or an investor looking at it, I think you would find the conversation interesting.

A different Interview episode than normal, I speak with Bill Fowler, Sr. Director of Industry Relations for Compass, the tech-brokerage who has been making all kinds of waves in recent years. Normally, I like to use the Interview to introduce people and companies that most of you don't know about, who are doing interesting things or have interesting perspectives on real estate. In this case, I wanted to speak to Bill about Compass's recent open letter to Bright MLS for its new policy restricting Coming Soon. The letter specifically threatened litigation, so it has become big news in industry circles. We discuss, we debate, I ask questions, Bill answers, and it appears that Compass's position might not be what one might think.

A wide-ranging conversation with Mike Maher, the Co-founder & CEO of Houwzer, an innovative brokerage based in Philadelphia with a W-2 agent base and a flat listing-fee model. We dive into the history of Houwzer, how it works, its keys to success, its philosophy, and get Mike's opinion on what is going on with the industry, what Redfin's major mistakes are, and where things are headed in residential real estate.

In this Interview, I speak with Alex Doubet, the CEO and Founder of Door. Door is an interesting brokerage based out of DFW that combines W-2 agents with virtual representation to offer brokerage services at a flat fee. We go into his model, his operations, and his challenges, along with Alex's opinions and views on the industry.

I have a conversation with Mark Schacknies, CEO and Co-Founder of Remine, a real estate data and technology company that has been making quite a lot of news in the MLS space. We talk about Remine, what they're up to, and specifically, an article that Mark wrote on LinkedIn called "One real estate platform for all." It's a fascinating look at a corner of PropTech that most people are missing.

I have a conversation with John Campbell, Managing Director of Equity Research for Stephens, Inc. and one of the best analysts of the real estate services sector. We go over his views on the market, on the stocks he covers in our little space (Redfin, Zillow, RE/MAX, Realogy, and eXp) and talk about what he sees coming.