Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Industry Relations podcast: The Impact of NAR vs. DOJ

NAR wins a major hurdle in the DOJ antitrust probe. But what does it mean for the rest of the real estate industry? How will this affect other lawsuits? In this episode of Industry Rob and Greg do what they do best and take a deep dive into the impact of the NAR and DOJ antitrust probe. Why Rob believes that this is far from over and why Greg thinks there’s going to be a lot of industry mistakes made in the near future.  

Watch us on YouTube!

Connect with Rob and Greg: 

Rob’s Website

Greg’s Website

This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2023.

Austin and San Antonio consider consolidating to one MLS system

ABoR and SABOR Consider Merging MLS Systems

“While still in the feasibility phase, this consideration has emerged amid rapid development throughout the Central and South Texas areas, further blending Austin and San Antonio. In addition, it is driven by changing dynamics in the real estate industry, including opportunities to leverage cooperation and technology to create order across the marketplace, enhance offerings and maintain affordable rates for our subscribers.”

Interesting to see if this plays out. Getting to the point of these discussions is a huge accomplishment. In a recent post by Brian Boero of 1000watt he stated his thoughts in regards to MLS consolidation…

1. It should probably happen where MLS boundaries are significantly incongruent with natural market areas and impose burdens of time and cost on brokers and agents

2. It should probably happen if an MLS’s broker and agent customers are consistently unhappy with product, service, scope of activity or management.

3. It should probably happen if a strong business case can be made that combination will create a stronger organization with more human and financial capital directed at supporting brokers and agents.

Everything else? Case-by-case.

I think this merger idea meets a lot of his criteria. Although, having lived in San Antonio, I think culturally Austin and San Antonio are an odd fit.

Listing Bits EP005: The Staying Power of MLS

You can subscribe to Listing Bits on iTunes.

Michael Wurzer is the President and CEO of FBS, Creators of Flexmls. FBS is a 100% employee-owned company, and every employee-owner is committed to exceeding customer expectations. Flexmls is a standards-driven technology platform connecting real estate professionals to their customers with collaboration tools that deliver timely and accurate information. Their products serve 185 organizations and 200,000-plus agents in the real estate sector.

Before taking over for his father at FBS, Wurzer enjoyed a seven-year career in law, primarily defending publicly traded companies in class action litigation. He also worked as the Assistant General Counsel for Aveda, a botanically-based hair and skin care manufacturer for beauty professionals. The method of thinking employed in legal analysis and writing provided unique preparation for his eventual work in the field of real estate tech.

Under Wurzer’s leadership for the past 20 years, FBS has worked to constantly evolve and embrace change. They were among the first to build a web-based system, striking a balance between the stability of being an established company and creating a culture of innovation. On this episode of the podcast, Wurzer examines the staying power of the MLS, real estate software product integration and the implementation of industry standards. Listen in to find out how building relationships provides the foundation for FBS’s success.

What’s Discussed:

– How a law background benefits Wurzer in the real estate tech industry
Talent in writing and communicating have been integral to his work with FBS
– The evolution of real estate tech community-building online
– The continued need for integration among real estate software programs
– Wurzer’s take on new initiatives like AMP and Upstream
– The source of anti-MLS sentiment
– The challenge of implementing standards in real estate tech
– How to solve the industry’s permissioning problem
– Wurzer foresees expanding agreements so that belonging to one MLS will provide access to a broader pool of data that can then be used
As long as the broker has permission, the vendor should have permission
– The necessity of reinventing yourself in the real estate tech business
FBS is actively developing leadership that embraces change

Connect with Michael Wurzer:

Twitter
Blog

Also, don’t miss Michael’s latest post

More Tired and Erroneous Propaganda About the MLS

Bright MLS launches new website

Check it out. Looks good.

“A new era of MLS is here.

The real estate industry is undergoing exponential change. The physical,
political and philosophical boundaries of MLSs no longer fulfill what
brokerages need to conduct business. We are changing that.”

I just love the audacity of this copy. I have a feeling the scale of this will be a lot bigger than anyone thinks.

Swanepoel Power 200 includes over 10 MLS executives

Well its that time of year again. The 2017 Swanepoel Power 200 (SP200) was released today.

“Each year the Swanepoel Power 200 (SP200) holds a mirror up to the industry and asks: Who are the most powerful and influential people in residential real estate?

Power is an elusive concept, defined as “the ability or right to control people, companies or the industry.” But power can also exist even when it is not exercised. The concept is not easy or straightforward, so you can just imagine the healthy debate involved in creating this list every year.

But we all agree what power is not. It is not a popularity contest. It is not based only on a single criterion such as head count, office count or revenue. And it is never “pay to play.”

The list includes a lot of familiar names in the MLS industry.

Bob Hale is the highest ranked MLS executive on the list, coming in at #32, here’s the parsed list…

#32 Bob Hale, President and CEO, Houston Association of Realtors
#59 David Charron, President and CEO, MRIS
#70 Art Carter, CEO, CRMLS
#114 Teresa King Kinney, CEO, Miami Association of Realtors
#131 Tom Philips, CEO, TREND MLS
#133 Jim Harrison, President and CEO, MLSListings
#143 Merri Jo Cowen, CEO, My Florida Regional MLS
#145 John Mosey, President, Northstar MLS
#153 Rebecca Jensen, President and CEO, MRED
#159 Kathy Condon, President and CEO, MLS Property Information Network
#198 Matt Consalvo, CEO, ARMLS

Some notable vendors also made the list

#37 Dale Ross, CEO, RPR
#43 Chris Bennett, General Manager, CoreLogic
#57 Errol Samuelson, Chief Industry Development Officer, Zillow Group
#129 Marty Frame, President, RPR
#147 Gregg Larson, CEO, Clareity
#152 Marilyn Wilson & Victor Lund, Founders, The WAV Group
#175 Alex Lange, CEO, UpstreamRE
#177 Mike Wurzer, President and CEO, FBS
#179 Me : )
#196 Mitch Skinner, Managing Partner, Larson/Skinner

and last (#200) but not least, Marty Reed, Vice President, Black Knight Financial Services. Yay Marty!

Denee Evans from CMLS came in at #176. Also Kirby Slunaker, CEO of REColorado and former CMLS President, Shelley Specchio, new CEO of MIBOR was named on a list of “Trendsetters”

Congrats to everyone!

Introducing the Listing Bits podcast!

I enjoy listening to podcasts when I travel. I’ve thought about how we don’t really have any podcasts in the real estate technology space. So about a year ago I started thinking about doing one myself.

Well I’m happy to announce today that I’m not just going to launch a podcast, but two podcasts!

The first one is called Listing Bits. This will be me having conversations with various industry players. David Friedman of Boston Logic agreed to do my inaugural episode. More on that will be in the next post.

I already have 3 episodes done for Listing Bits, so expect them in the coming days.

In regards to the second podcast, we are still in production. It’s an interesting and fun format and I know you are going to love it.

I never done this type of format before so I hope you’ll stick with me while I figure out how to get any good at it.

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