In a ruling today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the Suffolk County Superior Court ruling in the case of Monell v. Boston Pads, LLC. “We are pleased that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the pro-consumer choice by real estate professionals to affiliate as either independent…

In 1981 Al Ries and Jack Trout published Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. The marketing book became an instant classic. The authors were the first to suggest that consumers have room for just one “leader” in their minds for any given product or service. Safe…

I alluded to the industry combatting the portals with an Orbitz strategy in January of 2014, which turned out to be the case in February (2015) after Broker Public Portal was announced. The industry is taking a Orbitz strategy. Great. Though travel and real estate are very different industries – it…

I got a question from a developer friend of mine this weekend, wondering whether Horizon had an API. I asked him why, and he responded with: Have a guy pinging me about helping him design/position a real estate mls + back office for [country X]….

Zillow’s data aggregation prowess has pushed its chief economist into a new position as a member of the federal government’s open data advisory council. Stan Humphries will take a position as an advisor on the Department of Commerce’s panel intended to help government make better…

In January of 2014, I wrote: Will the industry take an Orbitz approach (6 largest airlines teaming together to take on Expedia, Travelocity, etc), with the largest franchises/brokers teaming together to build a new portal? The national broker public portal — which I’ve written about…

I’m not sure how many of you read Seth Godin. Those that do, know he recently wrote about the end of geography, and concluded with this statement: If you’re still betting on geography, on winning merely because you’re local, I hope you have a special…

Zillow purchased Trulia. News Corp purchased Realtor.com. Clearly, there are things happening in the real estate industry. Joel thinks 2015 will be a big year in real estate tech. I tend to agree. But is anything really really big happening? Perhaps a real estate industry moonshot? If…

Zillow is in negotiations with MRIS to establish a direct data feed of broker listings ahead of the looming cancellation of Zillow’s ListHub syndication contract. “It is the sole prerogative of the Listing Broker to decide where their inventory appears,” said Jon Coile, MRIS Chairman…

The NAR Board Of Directors voted today on long list of issues from the use of drones to take property photos and member codes of excellence to rules that require MLS boards to expand the data they provide for use on broker and agent sites through current IDX…