Curious: Why Not Open Bidding?

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NYSE-Floor

Was talking to an industry buddy about some theoretical things, and something kind of jumped out at me. Why the standard practice in real estate of sealed offers? You know, the whole “best and final” submitted to the listing agent without knowing what you’re up against?

Why not simply have more of the “open outcry” system as in the stock markets? With technology as it is, it should be simple indeed to put up some sort of a “Bid” page with a list of offers and major terms, no? (Or do it in the MLS if there are privacy concerns?) I could imagine someone setting forth the bidding period, at the end of which the decision will be made, with an Ebay-style anti-sniping rule (if bid comes in within the last 4 hours, the bidding period is automatically extended for another 24, etc.).

I know there are terms besides price (contingencies, time to close, etc.) but those could all be spelled out and put on a webpage somewhere. It’s not quite an auction system like they have in Australia and elsewhere, but it is a bit more transparent than the “best and final” sealed bid system.

Is the idea behind sealed bid that some buyers might bid way more than others because they don’t know what the others are offering?

Since I’ve never worked as a real estate agent, I’m just really curious about why. Would love to hear from my REALTOR friends on why the offer system is the way it is today.

-rsh

Estately Quietly Proves a Business Model

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estately-ss

The Pacific Northwest, where denizens created a religion out of worshipping coffee to overcome the gloom of the rainy months, has somehow become the mecca for technology-based innovation in the real estate industry. Everyone knows about Zillow, of course. Most folks know about Redfin. MarketLeader, and its portal, RealEstate.com are also in the Seattle area and made noise recently within the industry.

Far fewer people know about or think about Estately. But it’s time to give them some thought, because they’re quietly proving out a business model in the ongoing portalization of real estate that’s worth considering.

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Is This What Passes for Bipartisan at REALTOR Magazine?

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This is gonna get political, y’all, by necessity. You’ll see.

I went over to the REALTOR Magazine website the other day to check out a piece by Lawrence Yun on something or another. Then I started clicking around as I often do, and ran across this piece on the fiscal situation and real estate. Here’s how it looked:

ralph-martire

Note the introduction of Ralph Martire as the “head of a Chicago-based bipartisan economic think tank”.

Since I’m more than a little interested in fiscal issues and real estate, I read the interview with Mr. Martire. And was left wondering how in heaven’s name he got into the pages of the official publication of the National Association of REALTORS, whose core campaign these days is on defending private property rights, homeownership, and the American Dream.

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Book Review: The ONE Thing

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OneThing3dLeftI read a lot. Part of it is what I do for a living, which includes things like reading stuff written in legalese (aka, crime against English language), but a part of it is because I like to read. For the most part, it’s fiction — especially works of high fantasy like A Song of Ice and Fire (that would be Game of Thrones for you non-geeks). But from time to time, I review ‘business’ books. Especially when the publisher sends me a free copy.

I do love free books. :)

To be honest, most of the time, I find such “business” books to be dreadful. They make the same impact as a stone skipping over a calm pond: momentary, quickly fading, and never touching any deeper depths. Well, I’m happy to report that the new book, The One Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan of Keller Williams fame is not one of those books.

In fact, I would classify this book as far more of a personal help book than a business book, although I’m sure that tens of thousands of real estate people will use it for both.

Normally, a Notorious review consists of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, just because I really like Clint Eastwood. But in this case, I think we should go with the Good, the Hmmm…, and the Could Do Without.

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Live by the Code, Die by the Code: A Conversation with Brian Copeland

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The Facebook cover photo that began it all.

I’m sure that if you’re a reader of this blog, you’ve seen the “I am a REALTOR and I live by the Code” meme that’s everywhere on Facebook. The man who began the whole thing is Brian Copeland, an extraordinary young leader, REALTOR (obviously), and a fantastic karaoke master.

I was originally going to write a whole blog on the subject, but then thought, wouldn’t it be more fun to do this as a real conversation? And Brian was good enough to join me on a call where we discuss the campaign, the Code of Ethics, and he and I argue on whether to push things further or not.

So… here it is. I know the audio quality could be better, the editing could be better, and all of that, but… it’s a 30 minute conversation instead of a 10,000 word post.

Many thanks to Brian for joining me on the call, and let me know what you think, both of the subject of our discussion, as well as the whole “I’d rather read you instead, Rob, cuz your voice sucks” angle as well.

-rsh

My AE Institute Presentation: Ozymandias, 2013

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I’ve gotten more than a few requests for a copy of my presentation to NAR’s Association Executives Institute meeting from Monday. Now, it’s over 172MB so emailing it is out of the question.

However, the wonders of the Internet never cease. I’ve uploaded it to Slideshare.net and am embedding it below.

 

I believe that the session was recorded, and may be available on the AEI website at some point.

Of course, if you’d rather invite me to give the presentation live and in person, contact me. Heavily discounted rates are available for organizations based in Hawaii, US Virgin Islands, and select ski resort areas.

-rsh

Jeff Brown Explains It For You: Why Agent-Centric Brokerage Sucks

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Broker-Centric Brokerage of 1965…

Over at AGBeat, Jeff Brown — a real estate broker I know personally and have respected for years both for his knowledge and his utter fearlessness — gets into the weeds and explains why “agent-centric” brokerage model sucks. Well, to be fair, the actual title of his post is, “Why real estate’s agent-centric broker models are doomed” which on second thought isn’t any softer than “sucks”.

But he’s writing about the same phenomenon and threat that I wrote about in my Realogy Report (Premium Content): the threat of agent teams. He does so, however, with some hypothetical numbers and with historical perspective. Both are worth delving into; I urge you to read the whole thing.

There are a couple of points to be made from his post, so let’s go ahead and make them.

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[PREMIUM] Quick Note on HomeServices of America

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BHHS-black-white-logo1

This is a quick update for the purchasers of the Realogy Report. When I was researching that report, MidAmerican Energy Holdings had not filed its 2012 10-K. Which meant that we didn’t have any real information on the second largest brokerage in America: HomeServices of America. They did so on 3/1 but by then I was deep into other sections.

Well, I resurfaced and read the annual report and had a few thoughts.

So I thought I’d just give a quick update for the subscribers. This is free for everyone who is supposed to have access to the Realogy Report.

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A Couple of Thoughts on realtor.com Redesign

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The new, much more pastelly, Realtor.com

So more than  few people have already commented on the new design for Realtor.com realtor.com. Listingbits has a roundup with some choice quotes.

I guess all of the commentators make good points, and on the whole, I do like the designs. But then, I didn’t hate the old design either, so there is that.

But two things are worth at least thinking about.

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