The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

On Compensation for Listing Data

by Jay Thompson on January 29, 2012 34 Comments

I've read (and participated in) many discussions about ARG Abbott Realty Group pulling their listings from national syndication sites over the past 24 hours. A recurring theme keeps coming up. It is another point the "anti-syndication" crowd tends to rally around, and another point I don't understand. "Agents and brokers deserve compensation for their listing data." "In the information age, Agent's listings data are Valuable, and they need compensation for it." "That listing data is valuable. They should pay us for it!" Syndication sites take listing data “without … Continue Reading →

ARG Abbott Realty Group Pulls Listings from Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com

by Jay Thompson on January 28, 2012 94 Comments

The real estate interwebs blew up last night when the announcement from San Diego based real estate brokerage Abbott Realty Group (ARG) came down that they were going to stop syndicating their company’s listings to national listing aggregator sites Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. Sounds exactly like what Edina Realty announced in November 2011. (Though curiously, [...]

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On Flat Fee “MLS Only” Real Estate Brokerage

by Jay Thompson on January 27, 2012 14 Comments

This hit the email inbox today. It happens on a quasi-regular basis… Hello, We are selling our loft by owner and we see it is listed on your website, but that it hardly has any pictures – and certainly not the types of pictures that would attract buyers. Is there any chance you could replace [...]

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World Class Jazz. In Gilbert! And a Contest!

by Jay Thompson on January 25, 2012 7 Comments

Mark the dates… On March 29 – 31, the 2012 Highland Jazz Festival takes place, right here in sunny Gilbert, Arizona. What is the Highland Jazz Festival? A three day event for regional high school Jazz bands. Over 1,800 students will have a chance to work with some of the top jazz clinicians in the [...]

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Thoughts on ‘Crowdsourcing’ in Real Estate

by Jay Thompson on January 22, 2012 19 Comments

Yesterday I finished reading the latest Stephen King tome, “11/22/63” (a great read by the way). Needing a new book, I posted this on my Facebook Profile: I need a new book to read. Not some business / self-help / save the planet book. I want mindless entertainment. Mainstream fiction, historical fiction, perhaps a biography. [...]

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Open Letter to the Gilbert School Board: On Music Education

by Jay Thompson on January 19, 2012 11 Comments

Dear Gilbert School Board Members – Long time no chat! Somehow my annual pilgrimage to one of your meetings to beg, plead and grovel for funding for music and fine arts programs never materialized this year. This is good. I do want to share a little story with you, one that I hope you will read, [...]

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Dear Flancer’s Cafe: I Hate You

by Jay Thompson on January 16, 2012 26 Comments

Dear Flancer’s Cafe – I hate you. Yesterday, we called in an order to go. Three of your delightful sandwich’s to take home and enjoy while we celebrated our daughter’s admission to the Barrett Honor’s College at ASU. The ladies ordered their usual Prickly Pear Chicken sandwich, and I went with my traditional We Must [...]

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New Home Construction in Gilbert Picks Up

by Jay Thompson on January 10, 2012 12 Comments

Nice to see a bit of good news (for once) in the mainstream press about real estate in Gilbert… A couple of days ago, the Arizona Republic ran an article, Gilbert new-home construction picked up in 2011. Some of the highlights: 1,545 single-family construction permits were issued in Gilbert in 2011. That’s up 46% from [...]

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