Kenneth Jenny, a respected real estate consultant with a career that spanned more than three decades, passed away on Monday. In Jenny’s honor, we’ve pulled together his top five must-read Inman columns written over the years. We invite you to take a moment to reflect on Jenny’s timeless insights, through his own words.
No borders for News Corp.
Fence Background image via Shutterstock. Modified.
When Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced it was expanding its global portal presence by acquiring Move Inc. and its key real estate portal, realtor.com, the announcement lacked a summary of the potential consequences.
The acquisition caused a lot of noise in the real estate industry. Most of it has involved how this acquisition will impact the other U.S. real estate portals from a competitive standpoint. However, I believe that the real impact is what this move means for the entire U.S. real estate industry: Global real estate has just come ashore.
6 true confessions of an industry veteran: Part 1
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With the mere mention of the word veteran, so many different things come to mind. So I decided to go to the source for the proper definition.
Webster defines a veteran as “a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill.” The same dictionary further defines veteran as “an old soldier of long service.”
Opinion: The inside job no one’s talking about
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Despite the hype about the Upstream and Broker Public Portal projects, I am not impressed. Aren’t they another example of classic industry “inside jobs”?
Here’s why I say that.
Wake-up call to agents: Consumer experience is evolving fast
An Amazon Echo Dot | Photo by Amber Taufen
Many in real estate likely read with satisfaction Teke Wiggin’s story about Xome being placed on the auction block. Another real estate start-up bites the dust — the latest in a long line of them. By extension, that means the traditional brokerage model persists. And that traditional real estate remains to be alive and well.
In fact, Wiggin led off his story by writing:
“New, well-funded real estate tech ventures have reached a fever pitch lately, promising to change the world. But over the years, these grandiose undertakings often sputter or fail and are broken into pieces — never to realize their promise.”
Let’s get rid of the MLS
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The MLS must go.
What the industry needs now is a viable alternative to the industry’s historic set of data services. What the industry needs now is essentially a cure for MLS. So let’s cut the cord.
I am proposing something new, fresh and unique.
