I've been reading tweets this morning from Inman Connect in New York #ICNY. Mostly I've been interested on the RPR discussions.
Everyone is (once again) talking about leveling the playing field. Ugh. That just gets me all fired up. Leveling the playing field. Bah! RPR providing the same reports and tools to all Realtors does not make all Realtors level. Data is great and is an integral part of the real estate transaction but there is so much more to buying and selling a home!
When the market in Florida was super hot we were seeing Fee-For-Service, Flat Rate and other non-traditional business models opening up all over the place. I wasn't really considering selling my home but I looked at some of the services available to me if I did want to sell. Remember, I love statistics and analytics. I love crunching data. I would bet I can get a better idea of market trends in my area than most agents. It's what I do. If the question is only pricing my house right, I wouldn't need any help. I could price my house, pay someone to add it to the MLS then hire a real estate attorney to represent me at closing. Quick, easy and painless? No way.
There is so much more that a good real estate professional brings to the table other than reports. Things like staging, curb appeal, proper marketing channels, open houses on the seller side. Then there's little Susie's ballet classes, neighborhood vibe...feelings on the buyer side.
I like to think I know a lot about real estate, especially when it comes to real estate information but I would never dream of buying or selling my home without representation. I know there are disclosures but I don't know what they are. I don't know what's reasonable in negotiations. I can look at average days on market but I don't know, strategically, when to modify my price in order to get the best return in the shortest time. There are tons of things I can not do.
So RPR is providing some cool tools for agents. That's awesome. Leveling the playing field? I dunno. IMO the playing field is not data or reports, the playing field is how a person takes the data and reports, add their own intellectual property (something which can not be managed by a computer) and uses that information to represent a buyer or seller. I don't know what all will shake out of RPR, still too early to tell, but I think the tools they are providing will enable the great agents to shine and the bad ones will continue to just get by.
Showing posts with label MLS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MLS. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Congrats to a GREAT dude!
I'm sure everyone has already read the post on Vendor Alley but I wanted to take a minute and write up my own congratulations to my friend Kurt Von Wasmuth with RMLS in Portland.
I met Kurt for the first time at the Clariety MLS Workshop a few years back. As the night got later and later a few of us tough guys were hanging out in the bar at the hotel. I have lots of great memories from that bar but the night I hung out with Kurt is one of my favorites. If you know Kurt at all you know he's one of the most hilarious people ever. We were hanging with the Tarasoft boys and just laughing and laughing. I'm not even sure what we were talking about but I do remember laughing so much my stomach hurt.
Over the years I've been fortunate enough to cross paths with Kurt at most conferences. We try to make it a point to spend at least a few minutes together and I've always felt honored that he'd take the time for me. We've even had some grown-up conversations, Kurt's business philosophies and his ability to share are a true benefit. I believe Kurt is a wonderful choice for RMLS (the real RMLS) Kurt is the kind of person who makes you want to do well. His personality drives success - not because he's mean and scary but because you want to see him pleased. Through my experience I can truthfully say the folks at RMLS are amazing - they're all very driven, smart and super kind. Kurt makes a wonderful leader for that group.
So congratulations, my friend! I look forward to seeing the great things you and your team do in the future. And...don't forget who your friends were when you were one of us little guys.
I met Kurt for the first time at the Clariety MLS Workshop a few years back. As the night got later and later a few of us tough guys were hanging out in the bar at the hotel. I have lots of great memories from that bar but the night I hung out with Kurt is one of my favorites. If you know Kurt at all you know he's one of the most hilarious people ever. We were hanging with the Tarasoft boys and just laughing and laughing. I'm not even sure what we were talking about but I do remember laughing so much my stomach hurt.
Over the years I've been fortunate enough to cross paths with Kurt at most conferences. We try to make it a point to spend at least a few minutes together and I've always felt honored that he'd take the time for me. We've even had some grown-up conversations, Kurt's business philosophies and his ability to share are a true benefit. I believe Kurt is a wonderful choice for RMLS (the real RMLS) Kurt is the kind of person who makes you want to do well. His personality drives success - not because he's mean and scary but because you want to see him pleased. Through my experience I can truthfully say the folks at RMLS are amazing - they're all very driven, smart and super kind. Kurt makes a wonderful leader for that group.
So congratulations, my friend! I look forward to seeing the great things you and your team do in the future. And...don't forget who your friends were when you were one of us little guys.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fair Housing, Discrimination
I got into a Twitter conversation this morning with Brian Larson and Marc Davison. It started with a comment about the term "Family Oriented" and kind of got crazy. Ardell DellaLoggia and I sent a few tweets back and forth as well. I sent the following email to Brian (edited slightly) as a means for more dialog since Twitter can be so limiting.
Crazy topic!!!
When I worked at MRIS 10 years ago we changed "Handyman Special" (meaning a house that needs work) to "Fixer-Up" because "handyman" could be seen as discriminating against women and handicapped. I grew up in DC so being politically correct is native to me! Moving to South Florida was a *huge* eye opener.
At RMLS met many times with a Fair Housing attorney for Palm Beach county. She used to attend the RMLS tradeshows, have a booth and also do a session on Fair Housing. What Pam said was basically the fed, state and local gov'ts do not publish a "forbidden" list but they do have the list of protected classes. Some terms are obviously derogatory and are easy to restrict but others are more "code" and it's hard to create a list of words people can't use. RMLS used to publish a list of forbidden words but it got a bit too complicated to check using programming.
The list RMLS had included forbidding the use of any nationality. That didn't work because it's okay to say "Mexican tile" but it is not okay to say "no Mexicans". We were throwing too many false positives. Also, once you define words someone can not use they find others to replace them. I think the practice now is pretty much the context of the statement/remarks. And the stories I hear are more from actual people telling a story than remarks put into the MLS. Discrimination and steering are still out there, they just find sneakier ways of doing it.
Specific to the "family oriented" thing - we had to send a warning to someone once because of that comment. The agent got all worked up because she was referring to a park within the community but I had to explain those comments were seen by the old-schoolers to mean husband, wife and children.
It's great to see the disconnect here, though! If so many of us have to learn the hidden meaning behind some of this stuff it means it isn't something we're used to. Hopefully it'll all be gone at some point and we can say "family oriented" and mean any kind of family, even the unrelated kind. Or we can say "heavenly" and have it interpreted as peaceful, not Christian.
Crazy topic!!!
When I worked at MRIS 10 years ago we changed "Handyman Special" (meaning a house that needs work) to "Fixer-Up" because "handyman" could be seen as discriminating against women and handicapped. I grew up in DC so being politically correct is native to me! Moving to South Florida was a *huge* eye opener.
At RMLS met many times with a Fair Housing attorney for Palm Beach county. She used to attend the RMLS tradeshows, have a booth and also do a session on Fair Housing. What Pam said was basically the fed, state and local gov'ts do not publish a "forbidden" list but they do have the list of protected classes. Some terms are obviously derogatory and are easy to restrict but others are more "code" and it's hard to create a list of words people can't use. RMLS used to publish a list of forbidden words but it got a bit too complicated to check using programming.
The list RMLS had included forbidding the use of any nationality. That didn't work because it's okay to say "Mexican tile" but it is not okay to say "no Mexicans". We were throwing too many false positives. Also, once you define words someone can not use they find others to replace them. I think the practice now is pretty much the context of the statement/remarks. And the stories I hear are more from actual people telling a story than remarks put into the MLS. Discrimination and steering are still out there, they just find sneakier ways of doing it.
Specific to the "family oriented" thing - we had to send a warning to someone once because of that comment. The agent got all worked up because she was referring to a park within the community but I had to explain those comments were seen by the old-schoolers to mean husband, wife and children.
It's great to see the disconnect here, though! If so many of us have to learn the hidden meaning behind some of this stuff it means it isn't something we're used to. Hopefully it'll all be gone at some point and we can say "family oriented" and mean any kind of family, even the unrelated kind. Or we can say "heavenly" and have it interpreted as peaceful, not Christian.
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