Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

It’s hard out there being a pimp

Via HousingWire

California Assoc. of Realtors sues PDFfiller.com for $136M for ‘unlawful copyright violations’

“C.A.R’s complaint also alleges that PDFfiller.com engaged in the “willful infringement” of C.A.R.’s copyrighted forms and its registered trademarks.

The suit also alleges that PDFfiller.com purchased web search terms that lead the public to its site when they search for C.A.R. documents, rather than C.A.R.’s website, and then sells access to its website.

“PDFfiller.com has charged users for access to counterfeit C.A.R. documents bearing C.A.R.’s registered tradename and logo which they have no right to do,” C.A.R. said in a statement.

C.A.R.’s lawsuit seeks more than $136 million in monetary compensation, including statutory penalties, and attorneys’ fees, as well as a permanent injunction on PDFfiller.com to prohibit “future infringing activity.”

Revenue and profit

The recent announcement that Zillow is going to pay $108 Million for dotloop got me riled up. Then Dan forwarded me this article from Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp. So good, and keeps everything in perspective.

How much are we worth? I don’t know and I don’t care.

“Startups these days are bantered about as if they were in a fantasy football bracket. Did you hear Lyft raised another $150 million at a $2.5 billion valuation? But Uber got tossed another $2.8 billion at a $41.2 billion valuation! Then there are the companies barely off the ground getting VC backing with 25x valuations, despite having no product or business model.

Entrepreneurs by nature are competitive. But fundraising has become the sport in place of the nuts and bolts of building a sustainable business.

Errol Samuelson is out of the penalty box

errol comeback
Looks like Move, Inc.’s “power play” time is over (Errol is Canadian, so I can’t stop with the hockey references).

Look for an exclusive interview with Brad Inman. It’s posted now.

Also looking forward to see Stefan’s live interview with Errol at the T3 Conference in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.

Just don’t call it a comeback.

Vendor Alley Ad sponsorships are coming available.

You see the ad boxes on the right hand of this page? I’ve got 2 that will be available soon. More details can be found here. They typically sell out quick, and most buy the whole year. Holla! https://vendoralley.wpengine.com/sponsorships/

Some REALTORS want to strike AgentMatch

I was going to write something about this AgentMatch kerfuffle but Lani Rosales at AGBeat hits on all the key points (good and bad).

AgentMatch launches, objections appear to be anti-consumer

Lani Rosales:

“The industry must be more consumer-driven and quit giving the opportunities to third party sites that don’t have industry affiliations. If real estate technology innovates at the pace that some of the naysayers prefer, the MLS would still be exclusively on paper. If the few loud objections overrule the potential national launch of this tool, it will eventually be mastered by a third party company that has no industry affiliation, no ramifications for not following the rules, and no requirement to follow the Code of Ethics.”

Don’t get me started on the “Code of Ethics” but she’s exactly right. Also how weird is it that Keller Williams‘ is protesting this (asking their agents not to participate), via a letter to their agents?

Brothers

Dan and Andy Woolley
Dan and Andy Woolley

I owe so much to both these guys. The industry is lucky to have such talent. #NARANNUAL

More on Freemiums

Sarah Needleman and Angus Loten from WSJ: When Freemiums Fail

“The freemium approach doesn’t make sense for any business that can’t eventually reach millions of users. Typically only 1% or 2% of users will upgrade to a paid product, said David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars, a start-up accelerator since 2007 with five U.S. locations.”

Great article on why smaller businesses should forget the freemium hype and get money right away.

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