James Thorner, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer, penned an article last week titled, "Paying a 6.5% commission made sense". Looks like Mr. Thorner instructed his real estate agent to offer a "higher" commission to the buyer's agent in order to motivate buyer's agents to show his home. I've discussed buyer's agent incentives here before, and my opinion on this is clear -- any agent that … [Read more...]
DOJ Antitrust Launches Site on Competition in the Real Estate Industry
by on October 11, 2007
The Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday launched a website to ostensibly "educate consumers and policymakers about the potential benefits that competition can bring to consumers of real estate brokerage services and the barriers that inhibit that competition". (DOJ press release is here).The site links extensively to an April 2007 report from the FTC … [Read more...]
The NAR Fires a Shot at RealtorGenius.com
by on October 2, 2007
The NAR (National Association of Realtors) sent our buddies at RealtorGenius.com a cease and desist notice. Their domain violates the NAR trademark "REALTOR". Huh. Mayhap they should have gone after whoever has parked the domains "RealtorsStink.com" or "RealtorsSuck.com" or "FuckRealtors.com". Those would all seem just a wee bit more derogatory than … [Read more...]
The Call of the Entrepreneur
by on September 26, 2007
The documentary, The Call of the Entrepreneur, premiers tonight at the American Film Renaissance Festival. What's it about? Here's the marketing spin: A merchant banker. A failing dairy farmer. A refugee from Communist China. One risked his savings. One risked his farm. One risked his life. Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs—as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous … [Read more...]
ReAlToR HuMoR
by on September 22, 2007
From those wacky and wonderful Austin, Texas real estate folks at Single Pointe Realty... [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho_m6sVBGsM[/youtube] If you can't laugh at yourself... By way of Lani. And Chris. And Mike. And....UPDATE 9/24/2007: Tragically, the person in this video spoof, Aaron Anglin, was killed in a car accident yesterday. A letter from Lani -- Aaron's sister and … [Read more...]
I'm Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... Welcome to The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, or "TPREG" as I fondly refer to it.
