7DS Associates

I just got confirmation that CRMLS will merge with SOCAL MLS, forming the largest MLS in the country. I’m waiting for the press release now. [Full disclosure: CRMLS was a client of 7DS Associates.]

EDIT: The press release is out. It’s here.

Word is that the combined entity — which will operate under the CRMLS (California Regional MLS) and with Art Carter as the CEO — will have some 68,000 subscribers, dwarfing the current largest MLS (MRIS) by over 50%. MRIS has roughly 40,000 subscribers in the Mid-Atlantic area.

I’ll post more once I’ve read the press release and looked into this more. But top of mind thoughts/impressions:

This is quite obviously the start of a major new regional MLS in the largest real estate market in the country: California. It could be a game-changer in the MLS landscape.

The other smaller MLS’s in the southern California market have got to be thinking about what this means. Either join the parade, or possibly get steamrolled. Northern California — which boasts a couple of very large MLS’s as well — should be taking a very hard look indeed at consolidation.

And M&A within this space is a very difficult task, given all of the politics involved. Major achievement by the teams, the various Boards, and the Associations involved. Kudos to all!

-rsh

Last week, I was fortunate to be able to participate in the Inman Data Summit in my small way as one of the two co-moderators. Some of the conversations that occurred, both on and off the stage, are among the most important in the real estate industry today. Since I was “working” the whole time, however, it was difficult to wrap my head around some of the more interesting things I saw.

In fact, I don’t think I can do some of the topics justice in a short blogpost. What I can do is simply to highlight a few of the more interesting issues that came up.

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Some people have too much endurance... and time...

In Part Two, we looked at how social might impact real estate, if it is in fact taken very seriously indeed.  All of it triggered by the acquisition of SocialBios.com by Move, signaling a major strategic move into social.

In yet another display that the universe has a sense of humor, the announcement came at the heel of Google+ being released to the public. If you have even a passing interest in things social media, you’ve probably been playing around with Google+, reading various opinions about it, and either loving it, or hating it.

Initially, I thought Google+ was evidence that Sergey Brin and Co. had too much money. Since they don’t know what else to do with all that cash, I figure they said, “Hey, let’s just make a Facebook clone; that’s only a $100 billion company.”

But an incredibly clever presentation, done via photos on Google+, made me rethink. And now I believe Google+ might be a sign of something rather visionary. That is a Curious Thing that has strapped on sneakers, so let’s take a look at it.

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Any excuse to post this picture...

In Part One, we congratulated Ernie Graham and his team at SocialBios for getting acquired. I hope he picked out a nice Lamborghini Reventon in taxicab yellow.

The second Curious Thing that came about just as Move was announcing its acquisition of SocialBios was the confluence of two seemingly unrelated things. Making sense out of unrelated things — that’s what we do here.

First, over on Notorious ROB, I wrote about the terrible June jobs report, and the statement by Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of NAR, that because of “shrinkage” in the real estate industry, most REALTORS would see a bump in their personal income.  That is, pie might be shrinking, but the number of people who want to eat pie is shrinking even faster.

Second, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would not enforce MARS (Mortgage Assistance Relief Services) regulations against licensed real estate brokers and agents. From the statement:

In recent months, a number of real estate brokers and agents (“real estate professionals”) and their representatives have contacted the Commission to question the applicability of certain provisions of the MARS Rule to real estate professionals who assist consumers in obtaining short sales. In particular, these persons have raised concerns about the accuracy and comprehensibility of the disclosures mandated by the Rule, and the unintended consequences that might result from application of the advance fee ban, in the context of a real estate professional assisting a consumer in negotiating or obtaining a short sale. [Emphasis mine.]

As a result, except for certain provisions having to do with misrepresentation, real estate agents are not subject to MARS rules as long as they are licensed and in good standing, and working on a short sale. Behold the power of NAR.

What the hell do these two things have to do with each other, nevermind with social and real estate? Has Rob finally gone over the edge? Read on, but as always, caveat lector.

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This is the first part of what I think will be a three-part examination of some rather curious things I’ve been seeing.

First of all, I’m sure other sites will be announcing the news that MOVE has acquired the startup SocialBios. From the press release:

Move, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOVE), the leader in online real estate, today announced its acquisition of SocialBios, an award-winning social search platform. SocialBios allows individuals and companies to create one social hub for their online profiles through interactive ‘About Us’ pages that simplify the discovery of shared connections on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare and Google without sacrificing their privacy.

The acquisition of SocialBios points to Move’s acceleration into the area of social and its integration into the real estate search experience throughout Move’s online real estate network. As a result, Move will leverage the SocialBios platform and talent to develop products that connect people with real estate professionals based on the commonalities of their on- and offline social networks..

…

As part of the acquisition, SocialBios founder Ernie Graham and co-founders Ira McMahon and Andrew Van Tassel have joined the product development team at Move, Inc. Graham, who will head up Move’s social product strategy and development team, will work with the Move’s franchise and broker customers to develop social graphing strategies that help them facilitate more connections between their agents and brokers with consumers.

I wrote about SocialBios a few months ago when I met Ernie Graham, and the events of that evening are sealed under a blood oath of secrecy. But suffice to say I thought he is a smart guy, and what’s better, a great fella to boot. SocialBios won the ‘Best Tech Startup’ award at Inman NY earlier this year, and now the founders have gotten fabulously rich (or so one hopes).

So congratulations to Ernie and his team, as they now move into the tightly-controlled PR environment of the publicly traded company. Henceforth, he and his whole staff are going to have to learn how to keep their mouths shut lest they make forward looking statements of some sort. <grin>

But that news alone is not worthy of a post. So what makes this interesting? Read on, but caveat lector.

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So, who's figured out how to distribute all this money?

In the aftermath of the vote on REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative (RPPI), NAR has released a document showing where the funds will be going (PDF). I’m not entirely sure what some of the terms mean. For example, what does “Campaign Services” cover? What is the difference between “Issue Mobilization Program” and “Issue Coordinated Campaigns”? I figure I could probably learn more about it in the next few weeks.

But the real question arises in the footnotes. (Don’t they usually?)

Footnote 2 says this:

The program dollar amounts (rounded) in the 2012-2016 budget years are based upon the proposed RPPSI budgets & a constant of 1,050,000 members, except for the state/local candidates IE Program, explained in Note #4. The state/local IE Candidates Program is the only program that has a “per member” allocation as a formally stated component of its operation. Direct funding or use of services in all other programs is approved based upon submitted applications that outline the issue and need. Additional programs for education and new pilot initiatives that are approved as the RPPSI evolves will result in adjustments to the annual per member allocation amounts.

Footnote 4, referenced above, says this:

This is in response to AE & Member feedback requesting an updated distribution of State & Local Independent Expenditure Campaign resources over the five (5) year period and does not reflect the Executive Committee’s recommendation prepared subsequent to the Finance Committee’s 2012-2013 budget proposal.

The chart following, in footnote 4, shows that of the $6.31 per member allocated to “State & Local Candidates IE Program” breaks down as $4.73 for Annualized State Allocation (Per Member) and $1.58 for Annualized NAR Reserve Pool (Per Member).

People say I’m a pretty smart guy, but man… I’m confused.

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Huh? Franchise IDX? What the...

I think this mostly analytical, mostly opinion post nows goes beyond the ambit of my NAR Midyear coverage. So, many many thanks to Zillow for sponsoring the Midyear series (I may have more of them in the future) but this post is sponsor-free.

Predictably, the news from Midyear about Franchise IDX has resulted in mass confusion and criticism from industry experts. Now that the Board of Directors actually voted in a policy, the various people responsible for implementing it — namely the MLS and the Association staff and consultants who provide guidance to them — are trying to figure out what that means for them.

At the same time, a number of observers and experts bemoan the decision, and point to it as an example of how backwards the real estate industry is, how out of touch the MLS’s are, and so on. I give you two of the better, more influential critiques.

First comes from Brian Boero of 1000watt Consulting who writes:

Others have reported on the series of events that led to this. The details matter, of course, but the reason I believe this swift policy reversal is wrongheaded has nothing to do with the details.

It’s about the lessons of the past that were ignored and dimmed prospects for industry innovation in the future.

Second, Matthew Ferrara — a brilliant guy and a consultant to some of the top companies in the industry — opines that the decisions at Midyear means the beginning of the end of the MLS:

Over the weekend, the National Association of REALTORS voted to become more like a union, and to start the process of killing off MLS. Did you miss that vote, too? We thought so.

I strongly recommend reading both of their posts in full.

It is fairly rare that I disagree with anything that either gentleman says or writes. But in this case, I must because I think both are missing some critical details in the dispute which are important for understanding both the vote itself and what it signifies for the industry.

Onward to the discussion. Warning: this is likely to be long. [ED: Yeah, like that's so unusual for you, Rob.]

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This post, and this series of reports and opinions from NAR Mid-Year 2011, brought to you by:

Now that the RPPI (formerly known as RPPSI) has been approved by the NAR Board of Directors… what is the actual impact? Passing the thing was just the first step. The absolutely critical work of implementing whatever programs the RPPI enables comes next, and here is where the future of NAR and of the industry may be set in place.

I offer some observations from Midyear itself, as well as opinions both well- and ill-informed.

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This post, and this series of reports and opinions from NAR Mid-Year 2011, brought to you by:

Thanks again to Zillow for sponsoring the series. I walked around one full day at Midyear with a Zillow shirt, as promised in my Ebay sponsorship listing. Got more than a couple of comments as a result, ranging from “You guys need to do XYZ” to “Uh-oh!” and so forth. I do believe they think I work for Zillow.  And I do believe Zillow needs to do some more outreach and more sweet-talking.

In any event, I know that I witnessed history on Saturday. But the impact of that history-making is a bit less clear now that I’ve had the benefit of sleep. A few details keep sticking in my mind, which I thought I would share with you all, if for no other reason than to get my own thinking clearer. As E.M. Forster said, “How will I know what I think until I see what I write?”

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This post, and this series of reports and opinions from NAR Mid-Year 2011, brought to you by:

The historic meeting of NAR’s Board of Directors is now over. I had the privilege of being able to listen in as a member of the “press” — which the blogosphere and RE.net can actually be. I hope I’m able to do the same at Annual Convention in Anaheim in November.

These are my unorganized thoughts on what happened here today. I wanted to get my impressions out as fast as possible, and compare them to how I might think about the issues with a few days of reflection. If you want my instant reactions from the meeting itself, you can find my tweets from the Board of Directors meeting here (or do a search for #rppsi and #midyear).

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