Small talk
Do you dial, swipe or type?
“I am an Apple junkie, so almost everything I do comes with a swipe. It is so much easier!” – Raj Qsar, The Boutique Real Estate Group
Big talk
“The biggest challenge for the real estate industry and society comes in the form of global mobility and digitalization of our society. The idea is to reach and understand people and develop solutions for them with them,” said German real estate executive Roland Kampmeyer.
Bigger talk
What is one thing that you would like to fix about the real estate industry?
“The data is still too fragmented and protected. If it were open and in one place, or at least much easier to access, some very interesting analysis could take place,” said real estate Hacker Jason Finney. Go for it, Jason!
Bro talk
“Many people blame the tech industry’s gender gap for a ‘brogrammer’ culture, a hybrid of ‘bro’ and ‘programmer’ that describes the frat-house attitudes and behavior inside some companies,” wrote Brett Molina and Jessica Guynn of USA Today in a report about the Zillow sexual harassment lawsuit.
Some companies in this situation might send an executive to the guillotine. For what it’s worth: Wall Street bros seem unfazed by the allegations; Zillow’s stock is up 6 percent since the story broke.
Secret talk
I heard through the grape whine that some big brokers are up to something even bigger. I can’t tell you much, because I know nothing, but how does this sound: Two projects are being worked on in the dark; one is a public-facing, broker-driven listing site with a new acronym, PFBDLS (rolls off your tongue, right? Or is that just me being tongue-in-cheek?).
Project No. 2 involves brokers aggregating their listings to give them more clout with the portals. Hmm … is this brilliance or folly? I will keep my opinion a secret.
Really big talk
Now that the tech heads have figured out how to find homebuyers on the Internet, the new holy grail is finding home sellers. Hackers are hacking away trying to do just that. So it makes perfect sense that this week’s top stories were peppered with progress on this front. (Pro tip: Figure this out, and you can retire immediately to anywhere in the world.)
- Startup offers a new way to dig up seller leads
- How to find customers on LinkedIn
- Brokers using mobile well
- And good, old-fashioned advice for working with sellers
Onward!
Story talk
Speaking of stories, we really liked this story about stories. Go, Jeff, we love you! (Wish we had thought of it first … darn!)
Indie brokers rock! We had fun with this story: Real estate, rock and Jesus: What a combo!
And then there is the venerable Sherry Chris: Old-school biz model, but a hacker at heart. (BH&G stands for Blast, Hit & Go.)
Big guy talk
Think about it: Super successful big shots like legendary investor Warren Buffett (through his Berkshire Hathaway real estate franchise) and Rupert Murdoch (through News Corp.) are investing big time in residential real estate.
Billionaires have always loved their real estate.
Now we are talking
An MLS trade group hired its first CEO, Denee Evans (and if you want to be taken seriously when you meet this upstart, her name is pronounced “Deh-Nay”). We like her. She bought her first house when she was 21. (We know some important people in real estate who still secretly rent.)
Her developer father said, “She has had a passion for the real estate world for as long as I can remember.” Those are some good “aw, shucks” words to end the week on, right?
Look out, bros, because Denee has moved to town.