They're not going to give it away! Amid growing economic uncertainty, recession fears, and continuing tariff turmoil, there's a glimmer of hope among homeowners who say that they are still feeling very optimistic about getting top dollar for their properties—with many...
Commission Lawsuit
Homes.com vs Zillow
Everyone will be picking sides now! Dear Jim, This week Zillow Executive Errol Samuelson announced that homes not listed on the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing—won't be published on Zillow "for the life of the listing." Simply put, if your listing is not on...
Off-Market Sales Reality
Yesterday, reader Jim repeated the common belief about the Compass 3-Phase Marketing Plan: Compass isn’t going this route to protect sellers - they are trying to increase their dual agency transactions which will lead to more profits for a publicly traded company. In...
Compass Looking At Berkshire Next
Here's the full story so far but you know what triggered this move. Warren has to be as madder than Reffkin over the arbitrary penalties from the NAR, and their vig was 5x what Compass had to pay: What will be the impact locally? Combining the #1 and #2 brokerages...
Compass PEs – The Reality
The Compass CEO, Robert Reffkin, is a vocal opponent of the Clear Cooperation Policy. Those in the business call him names and say his only motivation for opposing the CCP is to promote in-house sales. The point that gets trampled over is that consumers and agents...
How To Sell A Home
Reader Jim G. made a couple of friendly comments on how Compass is handling our objection to the Clear Cooperation Policy. It followed what a big-mouth in L.A. said this week when he called the Compass explanation, 'disingenuous'. We're all struggling to describe the...
Buyer-Agent Commissions Paid, Second Month
For two months we've been settling in with the new arrangements for paying the buyer-agents. I haven't heard of any buyers yet who got stuck having to pay their buyer-agent because the seller refused to pay. Undoubtably, there are buyer-agents who were paid a partial...

Off-Market Armageddon
I was in Orange County yesterday and saw this in a local publication: The off-market craze is just getting started. We've already been hearing the hucksters at open houses who lead with their only pitch: "I operate in the off-market space." "Does your agent offer you...
Robert In Town
Robert the big boss was in town yesterday. He is committed to changing or ending the Clear Cooperation Policy, which is a controversial stance. The CCP makes in mandatory that every agent upload a listing onto the MLS within one business day after any public marketing...
Rough and Tumble
The NAR Clear Cooperation Policy states that every listing must be inputted into the MLS within one business day after it is advertised publicly. The idea is to ensure that every agent has a chance to sell it. Our boss is leading the effort to end the CCP (see above)....