Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Big Deep Topics

The Industry Relations Podcast is now available on your favorite podcast player!

Overview

Rob and Greg dig into Brian Boero’s “enshittification” post about online home search getting worse, and spar over whether that’s really the story — or a distraction from the bigger issues of affordability, potential fair-housing lawsuits, and how AI is about to upend the agent’s role entirely. They debate what an “ideal” buyer experience even looks like, whether the industry should be fighting for lower home prices instead of easier loans, and close out with a wider conversation about AI, housing supply, and whether today’s young people are actually worse off than past generations.

Key Takeaways

  • Brian Boero’s Friday Flash on the “enshittification” of home search sparks the episode’s central debate
  • Rob argues no consumer uprising is coming — people absorb degraded experiences the same way they absorb worse airlines and shrinking candy bars
  • NAACP president Derek Johnson’s op-ed frames online listing access as a fair-housing issue, raising the specter of another Sitzer-Burnett-style lawsuit
  • Rob and Greg disagree sharply on whether disparate-impact claims around online listings hold merit
  • Rob pushes back that the real “enshittification” story is home prices outpacing wage growth — not search UX
  • The two debate what an “ideal” buyer experience looks like, from full information disclosure to self-scheduled tours without agent involvement
  • Rob argues the industry’s political energy goes toward easier loans and lower rates instead of actually lobbying for lower home prices
  • Discussion of Sitzer-Burnett’s legacy: post-ruling, buyer commission behavior largely hasn’t changed, suggesting culture — not rules — drives outcomes
  • Rob predicts AI, MLS-only companies, and real estate lawyers could eliminate the need for listing agents; buyer agents may be more insulated for now
  • Zelman & Associates’ “Cradle to the Grave” research raises the question of whether the US has a housing supply problem or specifically an affordable-supply problem
  • Rob draws a parallel to AI investment vs. the dot-com bubble, questioning whether current AI spending will pay off
  • Both agree using AI directly — not just reading about it — is the only way to actually understand its impact on the business

Connect with Rob and Greg

Rob’s Website 

Greg’s Website 

Watch us on YouTube

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Cotality 

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The Giant Steps Job Board 

Production and Editing Services by Sunbound Studios

Cheaper to keep her

Lone Wolf Launches Talent in BrokerMetrics, an AI-Powered Solution for Agent Recruiting and Retention

Lone Wolf is putting AI into BrokerMetrics, and the first release is called Talent. Buried in the release is the stat that explains the whole product:

According to a 2026 survey by Inman and Lone Wolf, brokerages rated agent retention’s value at 8.17 out of 10, significantly higher than recruitment value. However, only approximately 2% treat retention as a deliberate strategy, and 44% track no flight-risk signals whatsoever.

I remember a conversation I had with Sharran Srivatsaa a few years back. He told me that brokers should only care about 3 things.

-Recruitment
-Retention
-Profit

I think AI is the perfect tool for the recruitment and retention challenges and this joint survey confirms it. I got a demo at Inman Connect this week and it looks impressive.

This is also Matt Fischer’s first real product statement since taking over in February, and “this is just the beginning” is the part I’d take seriously. Lone Wolf has been quiet for a while. A little birdie told me there is more to come…

Hey Lucy, Do My Data Entry

Rechat Wants Agents To Ditch The Keyboard For Its AI Assistant, Lucy

“Agents have never enjoyed typing notes into a CRM. We ask people who sell with their voice to sit down and type, then blame them for not doing it. Hey, Lucy does the data entry for you. An agent walks up to a listing, says a few words, and the work gets done instantly.”

— Audie Chamberlain, VP of Strategic Growth and Communications, Rechat

I’m still a bit hesitant to say voice entry will be the primary way we interact with computers, I’ve written about it before. But, there is a lot of evidence that it will be. And lots of companies are betting on this. And the industry has been trying to solve “agents won’t update the CRM” for as long as I’ve been in it. Rechat’s answer is to stop asking them to type at all.

The campaign itself is the interesting part. Spots run 15 to 60 seconds, shot handheld in natural light, no narration, no feature lists. Just agents at listings, in cars, at open houses, talking to Lucy while the work gets done. That’s a confident way to sell software. Although I have no idea the quality of the CMA (or other output) it creates. I imagine them to be designed with the assumption they will be consumed on a mobile device.

Unlike some legacy apps Lucy isn’t some ChatGPT-era rebrand or bolt on. Shayan Hamidi has been building toward this since before “AI assistant” was a required slide in every pitch deck.

First Real’s HeyLeo, now Hey Lucy. Every platform’s AI is on a first-name basis with us now.

The ads run through the end of summer on Meta, Google, and national sites. If the demos hold up in the field, great. If not… Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Thrive Broker Summit [Sponsor]

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about this industry is that some of the best ideas don’t come from the stage. They come from the conversations.

The conversations about what’s working, what’s changing, and what everyone is trying to figure out next.

That’s what I like about the Thrive Broker Summit.

For two days, brokers, industry leaders, and companies serving the brokerage community will be in the same room talking about the issues shaping the business today. Technology, AI, operations, growth, and the realities of running a brokerage are all on the agenda.

The sessions are important. So are the conversations before the first session, after the last session, and everywhere in between. That’s where ideas get challenged, relationships get built, and you often leave with something you didn’t expect.

If you’re a broker, I’d encourage you to take a look.

Register here:
https://thrivebrokersummit.com/

P.S. If you’d like to get a feel for what Thrive is all about, here’s a recap from last year’s event:

Is the MLS Industry Finally Playing Offense on AI?

NorthstarMLS and REcore Introduce Project NexusRE, Giving MLSs and Brokers More Visibility and Control over Listing Data in the AI Era

“The use and misuse by machine based learning platforms is something MLSs have no exposure to.” — Art Carter, CEO of REcore”

For two years the listing data fight has been about distribution. Who gets the feed, who gets cut off, whose listings show up on Zillow. All of it about where the data goes.

Project NexusRE is about what happens after it gets there. Your data leaves the building, disappears into a dozen LLMs, and the MLS has zero visibility into which ones, under what terms, or for whose benefit. NexusRE is pitched as the layer in between. Permissions, usage metering, compliance screening, applied once and enforced everywhere. A toll booth and a security camera for MLS data in the AI era.

I know, “in active development”, is code for “there is still a lot of work to be done”. But I’ve seen some of the tech and excited to see how testing goes this summer.

But here’s the part I’m here for. NorthstarMLS holds the patent. REcore, the company commercializing it, and where I serve as a board member, “can only be owned by brokers and MLS investment.” In a year when Stone Point owns the brokerage, the MLS software, and the transaction stack all at once, that’s not a small detail. This piece can’t get flipped to private equity later.

Everybody else is arguing about who owns the listing. NorthstarMLS and REcore are the first to ask who’s watching what the machines do with it.

About time.

ICE [Sponsor]

The world envies our MLS system. Let’s remember why.

In April, Lucie Fortier wrote a blog that, at the time, felt like a measured observation. Now it reads like a prescient warning.

Her argument was simple. The MLS is the engine room of American real estate. Portals, AI tools, and PropTech platforms run on MLS data. Agents, brokers, loan officers, appraisers and more operate within an ecosystem the MLS makes possible. Without comprehensive cooperation, none of it works.

Anyone following industry news this spring knows that argument was just put through the wringer.

Why the system is worth protecting

The American MLS system is rare. In most countries, real estate data is fragmented, unreliable or unavailable to the average consumer. What exists here is the result of decades of cooperation among professionals who understand that a shared system serves everyone better than a fragmented one.

That’s not a small thing. It’s the foundation that everything else is built on. And it doesn’t maintain itself.

What this moment is about

New tools and platforms are only as good as the data powering them. That data lives in the MLS — and the organizations investing in it are the ones that will matter on the other side of whatever comes next.

Lucie’s full piece is worth your time. Read it here.

Going dutch with “nora”

MetroList and Lundy Launch “nora,” Ushering in a New Era of Personal AI Assistants

MetroList, the biggest MLS in Northern California, teamed up with Justin Lundy’s crew to launch an AI assistant named “nora“. She’ll read your email, run your calendar, answer MLS rules questions, dig through property data, and help with forms and transactions. The usual personal-assistant wish list, now with an MLS behind it.

Here’s the part that caught my eye:

“nora operates on a wallet-based system powered by Stripe. MetroList-specific features are provided at no charge to MetroList subscribers, while other services such as email reading, calendar management and other advanced task execution functions are micro-transactions to get tasks done.”

So the MLS picks up its tab. Everything else, you’re going dutch.

I think this is the front edge of something. LLMs cost real money to run, and every task nora does burns tokens. The flat per-seat SaaS price is about to get company. Call it usage-based pricing, the AI remix. Load a wallet, spend as you go, top it up when it runs dry. Same energy as the arcade, except the tokens buy task completions. Get used to it, because nora won’t be the last vendor to price this way.

Then there’s the other thing. I haven’t seen a company build real estate business tools and then stroll straight into everyday consumer territory like this. Reading your email and running your calendar is Siri’s job. Alexa’s turf. A vertical real estate tool just signed up to compete with the assistant already living in your phone. Bold.

Credit where it’s due. MetroList has been quietly stacking up Lundy products for a while, and they tend to ship before the rest of the industry finishes its committee meeting. I like that somebody’s running the experiment instead of writing a white paper about it.

Nora looks sharp. Now we find out how agents will respond.

Cotality [Sponsor]

Trust, But Verify: What Homebuyers Really Want from AI

According to Cotality’s recent “Trust, but verify” report, 75% of homebuyers already assume AI is working behind the scenes—whether they’re browsing listings or applying for a mortgage. But just because it’s there doesn’t mean they fully trust it.

There’s actually a growing gap between using AI and trusting it. In the U.S., confidence in AI to help find a home has taken a sharp dip. Instead, buyers are increasingly turning back to human experts to double-check those make-or-break decisions.

Buyers want speed—but not at the expense of certainty

AI is clearly helping. It makes things faster and surfaces information quickly. But when it really counts, buyers want to know the information is accurate—and they still want a human “second look”. That’s where tools like Cotality’s Realist® property intelligence platform come in, helping real estate professionals confirm the details. That human layer—verifying and applying information—is what turns uncertainty into confidence.

The takeaway for the industry

AI isn’t going anywhere, but it’s not the whole answer either. The future of real estate is a mix of both—smart technology paired with trusted data and real human expertise.

Read full survey findings here

Cotality [Sponsor]

Floor plans—from scan to listing-ready in MINUTES

AI is opening up new possibilities in real estate—and at Cotality, it’s built directly into everyday workflows to improve listing quality, strengthen marketing, and give agents more time back.

Cotality’s new CorePlans™ is a great example. It lets agents automatically generate detailed floor plans, room dimensions, and descriptions directly from their iPhone Pro. 

Leveraging LiDAR technology and Cotality’s proprietary CoreAI, agents can create ANSI-compliant floor plans in minutes—eliminating the traditional 24–48 hour processing turnaround— with 99.96% accuracy. Fully integrated into Matrix™, everything uploads with one tap, with room dimensions and descriptions automatically added to the listing.

According to a 2025 WAV Group study, 85% of buyers find floor plans extremely valuable. They are the new essential marketing standard that buyers expect. 

There’s a clear gap between what buyers want and what most listings deliver. CorePlans help close that gap. 

Available first to MLSs with the new Matrix Listing Manager, then rolling out to additional providers that meet requirements. Want to learn more? For more information, reach out to your Cotality rep to schedule a demo or visit cotality.com.

CMLS Brings It To The Table 

I’m looking forward to speaking at CMLS Brings It To The Table and joining industry leaders for an important conversation about how AI is showing up in real estate and why the decisions your organization makes now will define your competitive position. Join us and be part of the discussion.

Register here: https://councilofmls.org/brings-it-to-the-table-2026/

Sponsored By MLS Reset