That felt pretty crazy to type… I’ve had to keep this on the down-low for about two weeks and it became official on Monday.  Showing Suite, a San Diego based real estate tech company, who’s been in business for more than 10 yrs, has acquired the technology that Robot Workshop has developed over the last [...]

Yesterday I wrote a post with my analysis of the, now infamous, ARG video explanation of why that brokerage’s listings would no longer be appearing on Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com. Honestly, I had to make myself wait to pen that post, so I could be in a calmer state, and more effectively explain my logic. [...]

(Update: sorry about the messed up line spacing in this post.  My new WP theme is doing some weird things.) (Disclaimer: the contents of this post are opinion only) Last week, a brokerage in San Diego announced (on YouTube) that they are joining in with a new trend of (a few) brokerages, who will no [...]

I can’t read a single blog these days without hearing about how dangerous/evil/worthless Klout is. For those unfamiliar, Klout is an algorithmic platform that is designed to measure and grade a user’s social influence.  On the surface it sounds vain.  No arguments there.  And the algorithm is certainly not “there” yet.  (My score says that I’m influential [...]

Which sounds easier to you? Option A: Depending on which device you are on, go to either the App Store or Android Market. Blackberry users can take a hike. Do a search for “My Awesome Real Estate App”. Be sure to download the right one. After the download is complete, start the app. Follow the [...]

No, I’m seriously asking. Have you tried Realtors Property Resource (RPR)? It’s sweet! The interface is decent, the reporting is useful and robust, the visualization of stats and history is easy to understand, and when integrated into an MLS, useful tools required by agents, seem to be mostly there. Since it’s inception and announcement as [...]

Real Estate agents and individual brokerages have had the opportunity to display MLS listings on their own websites for quite some time.  Almost every MLS in the United States allows it’s members to display pertinent data about available listings and so hundreds of thousands of agents are displaying prices, numbers of bedrooms and the same [...]

Here is a post I wrote for my real estate search company, Robot Workshop. It was one of my most visited posts… Last week I participated in a panel discussion on the Evolution of Real Estate Search at ReTech South in Atlanta, GA. The panel included myself, a CIO of a very large brokerage and [...]

Author’s Note: I wrote this post a few months before a Chicago brokerage ran a Groupon deal and before Groupon unveiled their Home and Garden deals in some markets.  It was all hypothetical back then… Groupon is becoming unavoidable.  I can’t visit a website without seeing it’s big green display ads by Google Adwords.  I [...]

Here’s an idea for mortgage pros out there: Fully investigate potential buyers before they buy a house. With today’s ever changing mortgage guidelines, it puts mortgage originators in a tough position.  In the most thorough of pre-approval processes, an originator might look at a potential buyers tax return, pay stubs, and credit report, and pre-approve them for a [...]