by Nina Dosanjh | Aug 24, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Everyone — from Michael Ketchmark to the consumer advocates behind Moehrl — is letting agents know that they’re under scrutiny as they implement the new rules of buyer agreement and (not) commission-sharing.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Each week on The Download, Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on. This week: Everyone — from Michael Ketchmark to the consumer advocates behind Moehrl — is letting agents know that they’re under scrutiny as they implement the new rules of buyer agreement and (not) commission-sharing.
One of the big frustrations for agents and brokers coming from both the industry’s recent commission-related lawsuits and their subsequent settlements has been the jury-validated assertion of a vast real estate conspiracy when it comes to commissions. Imagine, then, what industry watchdogs make of conversations and planning that seem to suggest some Realtors are still planning to find ways to share commission-related information.
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We already know that the National Association of Realtors’ President Kevin Sears is aware of Department of Justice scrutiny on this issue. This week, we heard even more, including a two-part interview with Doug Miller and Wendy Gilch of the Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate, the watchdog that brought Gibson, the first of the so-called “bombshell” antitrust lawsuits, and a word of warning from the lead Sitzer-Burnett attorney.
In a phone interview, lead Sitzer | Burnett plaintiffs’ counsel Michael Ketchmark weighed in on the consequences of violating the NAR settlement, Zillow’s business model, and the “monster case” that remains.
According to Ketchmark, attorneys for homeseller plaintiffs in multiple antitrust cases will be keeping a close eye on how the real estate industry rolls out business practice changes to comply with the National Association of Realtors’ proposed settlement, and they’re looking to make examples out of brokers and MLSs who violate the deal.
“If anyone thinks they’re going to be able to avoid the application of this settlement agreement and the law by creating some new forms or hiding this cooperation on new websites, they’re wrong,” Ketchmark said. “If we get any sense that people or corporations are doing that out there as a way around this, we plan on taking swift legal action.”
EXTRA: In lawns and on key chains, stealth commission offers raise red flags
As we approach football season, it’s time to start using football-related metaphors, so here goes: The best defense is a good offense.
In this case, that means that knowing the ropes and staying educated on the rules is far preferable to trying to defend yourself for mistakes and workarounds after that fact. That’s why we’re here with plenty of advice, answers and analysis so that you’ll stay on the right side of all the folks who’ve got their eyes on your now.
Now that the “New Normal” has officially begun, it’s time to answer the frequently asked questions agents and brokerages have about the newly implemented commission settlement rule changes.
EXTRA: NAR settlement rules: Live updates as the real estate changes roll out
Steep fines can stack up and swiftly put you in a sticky situation. What’s worse is when it’s your competition turning you in. Trainer Rachael Hite tells you how to stay on the right side of the rules.
EXTRA: Law firms seek $36.8M out of $110M settlement pool in Gibson
Compliance expert Summer Goralik has the answers to queries from Cara Ameer’s “13 more questions agents should ask about commission settlements” as we head into the post-settlement transition.
by Jonathan Pressman | Aug 24, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Trainer Rachael Hite breaks down the latest viral TikTok trend and gives guidance on whether real estate agents should hop on the bandwagon.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Have you noticed how “demure” everyone is these days? Everyone’s recording themselves being low-key cool, calm, collected, and, of course, stylishly modest while talking about being “very demure,” “very mindful,” “very cutesy.”
It’s the latest social media microtrend. Celebrities like RuPaul, Jennifer Lopez, Lance Bass, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan have posted demure videos, and even Vice President Kamala Harris and Merriam-Webster can’t seem to resist it.
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You might be asking yourself: Why is this a trend right now? What is a microtrend? Should I be doing this on my social media?
For agents trying to stay in front of their audience in a fun and meaningful way — dissecting TikTok trends can be complicated. Let’s get into what micro-trends are, how this trend started and my three golden rules for deciding whether a trend is worth incorporating into your marketing strategy.
Background and context
A micro-trend is typically when something beauty or fashion-related picks up momentum on social media. The trend emerges fast and usually leaves just as quickly, and the next microtrend emerges.
The “demure” trend began with trans TikTok influencer Jools Lebron making a series of videos about how they stay “demure” and professional in the workplace.
Lebron emphasizes in a “cutesy” way that you have to bypass authenticity and adapt to your surroundings to avoid calling unnecessary attention to yourself.
It’s also important to understand the context of where the influencer is coming from. For example, Lebron created this trend as a nod to the internet dolls in the trans community, who are constantly up against social and political pressures.
This trend is not like the “Hawk-Tua” trend, which isn’t demure, elegant, mindful or very respectful.
It’s the ultimate “be vanilla” to show that you’ve got it together — because who could have an issue with someone who is low-key trying to have an organized, professional, mindful existence and appearance?
But in true Gen Z and Gen Alpha fashion, this trend turned toward sarcasm and satire, calling out both the ridiculousness of having to be demure and also saying that those who are just too loud or trying too hard should be demure.
Define it: Demure, an adjective that means reserved, modest, or serious.
So far, we are seeing agents jump on this trend to describe how they run their businesses and call out other agents who are not prepared and create chaos in transactions. Workarounds on commissions? Not very demure or mindful.
Fail-safe system for evaluating trends
Like any microtrend, you need to weigh the pros and cons of being associated with it. I have been coaching and teaching about social media trends for real estate agents since 2012, and there are three golden rules I follow when it comes to trends:
- Research and understand the trend to make sure you understand the context.
- Weigh the pros and cons of the trend against the mission of the brand. Ask yourself: What is the mission of the “trendy” post, and is it beneficial to the goal? Is this worth being attached to my personal digital footprint forever?
- Can you explain the trend to your grandma without being embarrassed. (You should have seen me explaining the Hawk-Tua trend to my grandma.)
As far as trends go, this one is pretty tame, and since it hints about professionalism, it could be a fun space to add a little humor into your marketing if that is part of your brand.
Parting thoughts and wisdom
What are we, as a culture, saying at this moment? That if you want to be taken seriously, you have to pull yourself together, but also, is it really essential to be taken seriously? I’ve written numerous articles about what one should or should not wear, and if it’s even ethical to ask someone to change who they are “sell” to the right client.
If you are on a mission to get things done at work with the least amount of friction and frustration, you may have to give in and be demure, mindful and modest. I work with seniors, and my clients get excited when I wear a nice pair of pleated slacks and pearls.
I’ve been dress-coded several times in life, since I was 16. Even most recently, there have been discussions about toning it down, staying modest, being professional.
Bright colors, animal prints, plaid pants, how I style my hair, if I wear comfortable shoes, the length of my skirt are all topics of discussion and a “problem” to solve.
Throw in your current weight and how much makeup you have on (too much you look like a clown, not enough you look tired or sick), and you have a typical day just interacting with the public at large. This is the joy of being a woman in corporate workspaces; everything is up for public commentary.
So go ahead, try and be demure or not demure. The next micro-trend will be here before you know it.
Rachael Hite is a business development specialist, fair housing advocate, copy editor, and former agent. Rachael is currently perfecting her long game selling forever homes in a retirement community in Northern Virginia. You can connect with her about life, marketing and business on Instagram.
by Jessica Souza | Aug 23, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
With election day looming, and just weeks after he made an appearance at Inman Connect Las Vegas, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is suspending his long-shot bid for the presidency and will support Donald Trump.
Kennedy announced the suspension during a press conference Friday, saying that he could not “in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers” to continue when there is no longer a realistic path to the White House. However, in a twist, Kennedy also said “I am not terminating my campaign, I am simply suspending it, not ending it.” He went on to say that he is in the process of removing his name from ballots in swing states, but that his name will remain on ballots in solidly blue and red states.
“I encourage you to vote for me,” Kennedy said to voters in non-swing states.
Kennedy also said that he will “throw my support behind Donald Trump.”
Kennedy recalled meeting with Trump after the assassination attempt against the former president. Following “intense discussions,” Kennedy was “surprised to discover we are aligned on many key issues.” Kennedy said he and Trump discussed Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals,” which “would allow us to disagree publicly and privately” while still working together on “existential issues.”
How that arrangement might work out in practice remains to be seen; the former president notoriously values absolute loyalty among his aides, and Kennedy’s endorsement was far from absolute. At one point he recalled being a “ferocious critic” of the president during Trump’s time in the White House, and later said that “my joining the Trump campaign will be a difficult sacrifice for my wife and children.”
Kennedy later said that suspending his campaign is “the best hope for ending the Ukraine war,” as well as stopping the “chronic disease epidemic,” a topic on which he spoke at length during the latter part of his press conference. He also spent significant time criticizing the media for its treatment of his campaign, and slamming Democrats for, among other things, what he described as the “profoundly undemocratic” process through which Vice President Kamala Harris became the party’s nominee.
“In an honest system, I believe I would’ve won the election,” Kennedy argued.
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Kennedy hails from a family that is famously aligned with the Democrats, but he left the party last fall. He spent the ensuing months positioning himself as an alternative to both Trump and Biden. However, Harris moving to the top of the Democratic ticket changed the dynamic of the competition and sapped significant attention from Kennedy’s efforts.
In the days leading up to his announcement, rumors ran wild that Kennedy was planning on exiting — and that he had reached out to both the Trump and Harris campaigns about exchanging an endorsement for a future job in their administrations. Trump reportedly indicated an interest in appointing Kennedy to a position. During his press conference, Kennedy said Harris did not respond to his outreach efforts.
Kennedy, the son of late U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Bobby Kennedy, spent his career working as a lawyer. He rose to national prominence in recent years after questioning the efficacy of vaccines, among other things.
But Kennedy may be most familiar to Inman readers for appearing earlier this month at Inman Connect Las Vegas. Kennedy took the stage for an interview with Brad Inman, then later met with Inman editorial staffers for a question and answer session.
During his discussion with Brad Inman, Kennedy responded to a question about his comments on vaccines by saying “if you want to get a vaccine you ought to be able to get a vaccine, but you ought to know the safety profile and the risk profile and the efficacy of that vaccine.”
Brad Inman also asked Kennedy about his housing platform, to which Kennedy argued that homeownership is the foundation of the American middle class. Later, while speaking to Inman journalists, Kennedy said he wanted to limit the ability of major corporations to buy large numbers of homes. That, he said, would free up more supply. Meanwhile, he also discussed creating incentives that would push local governments to loosen their zoning and planning laws.
Asked why he agreed to appear at Connect, Kennedy said “I wanted to talk to Realtors.”
Inman also asked Kennedy if the federal government is more corrupt under one party or the other.
“I don’t think anymore it matters,” he responded. “It used to. I don’t think it matters anymore. It’s overt with both of them. They don’t even try to hide it.”
Inman extended Connect invitations to both the Trump and Harris campaigns and has sent interview requests, but the campaigns have not responded to those inquiries.
Polling suggested Kennedy’s bid for the presidency was always a long shot. According to the Pew Research Center, Kennedy’s polling numbers peaked at 15 percent last month, but have since fallen to just 7 percent.
“Most of Harris’ gains have come at the expense of Kennedy,” Pew reported last week.
More recently, the Associated Press reported Thursday that Republicans are more likely to have a positive view of Kennedy than Democrats and that Trump’s allies have pushed for exactly the kind of dropout-plus-endorsement that finally came Friday.
Update: This story was updated after publication with additional commentary from Kennedy’s press conference, and with additional background.
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by Inman | Aug 23, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
RealPage is now within the sights of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ and eight state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing RealPage of operating as the center of an illegal scheme to drive up the price of rent in cities across the country.
The new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina is only the latest challenge against a company that uses advanced technology and cooperation from some of the country’s largest landlords to adjust rent prices in near real-time, but it’s the first major antitrust suit to take direct aim at an algorithm, according to The New York Times.
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“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. “We allege that RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents. Using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability, and the Justice Department will continue to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws and protect the American people from those who violate them.”
RealPage, which is owned by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has denied wrongdoing in previous lawsuits filed by renters and in Washington D.C., and again in a statement to Inman on Friday.
“We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the DOJ has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years,” RealPage spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said in a statement. “It is merely a distraction from the fundamental economic and political issues driving inflation throughout our economy – and housing affordability in particular – which should be the focus of policymakers in Washington, D.C.”
Bowcock noted that the DOJ had previously reviewed RealPage’s acquisition of one of its companies in 2017 and cleared the transaction of antitrust concerns.
“We believe the claims brought by DOJ are devoid of merit and will do nothing to make housing more affordable,” Bowcock said. “We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations.”
In some ways, the lawsuit is timely. RealPage sold its software to landlords as a way to beat down markets, feeding them data to help them set the highest possible rent despite potential urges to drop the price to fill units.
The country is now on its way out of a period where apartment construction was the highest its been in four decades. That has driven up vacancy rates in some markets, testing landlords’ ability to compete with other landlords also trying to fill new and vacant buildings.
“A free market requires that landlords compete on the merits, not coordinate pricing,” the complaint reads. “Landlords should win renters by offering whatever combination of price and quality they think is most attractive.”
The DOJ and attorneys general are seeking an injunction to stop RealPage from implementing its information-sharing framework and to stop what they said was the company’s monopoly.
Using some of RealPage’s own marketing language to outline the firm’s pitch to some of America’s biggest landlords, the DOJ said RealPage had created a way to avoid competing with each other.
“Renters are entitled to the benefits of vigorous competition among landlords. In prosperous times, that competition should limit rent hikes; in harder times, competition should bring down rent, making housing more affordable,” the complaint reads. “RealPage has built a business out of frustrating the natural forces of competition.”
“RealPage replaces competition with coordination. It substitutes unity for rivalry. It subverts competition and the competitive process. It does so openly and directly—and American renters are left paying the price.”
Read the full complaint here (refresh if you have trouble viewing):
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by Richelle Hammiel | Aug 23, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Whereas HomeStack comes with home search functionality, a CRM, on-board communications with two-way activity notifications, lead routing, tour scheduling and other tools, APInation helps send information from one major product to another, and vice versa, like Zapier.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
HomeStack helps real estate agents and brokerages build custom mobile apps, and the company has announced a partnership with APInation to make that even easier.
An Aug. 22 press release stated that the APInation “collaboration aims to revolutionize the way real estate professionals manage their business and engage with clients” by connecting disparate software solutions to improve business content and data integration.
Whereas HomeStack comes with home search functionality, a CRM, on-board communications with two-way activity notifications, lead routing, tour scheduling and other tools, APInation helps send information from one major product to another, and vice versa, like Zapier.
API Nation’s network of available software linkages spans the business enterprise of real estate, including property data providers, MLS systems, search portals, accounting solutions, CRM apps and back-office tools. For example, a Facebook Leads account can drive lead information straight to a Constant Contact email list, or into your Lofty database.
“We are excited to partner with APInation to bring their integration capabilities to our cutting-edge mobile apps,” said Will Grewal, CEO of HomeStack, said in the release. “This collaboration underscores our commitment to empowering real estate professionals with the tools they need to succeed in an increasingly digital world.”
Of the many benefits of such a partnership is the faster and standardized transfer of data between applications used to generate business. It can alleviate multiple logins and manual API configuration. HomeStack users should see their custom apps become more robust because of the variety of tools now available to its “stack.”
HomeStack already works alongside Lofty, Wise Agent, MoxiWorks, Follow Up Boss, Inside Real Estate, Sierra Interactive and now, many others.
An Inman review of HomeStack stated that the “roadmap is exciting for HomeStack. Users have a lot of sharp advancements to look forward to integrating with their branded app.” It appears this partnership is one of those “sharp advancements.”
Michael Davidovich is CEO of APInation and likes the idea of partnering with a company that, like his own, makes it simple for the industry to encourage collaboration among the many logins and innovations they use to reach clients.
“We’re empowering real estate professionals to build their dream system, seamlessly connecting HomeStack with the tools they use, to close more deals,” Davidovich said.
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by Holly Brink | Aug 23, 2024 | Industry, News Feed
Inman Connect is moving from Las Vegas to San Diego in 2025 and it’ll be bigger, better, and bolder than ever before. Join us for Inman Connect San Diego on July 30-Aug. 1, 2025 with the brightest minds in real estate to shape the future of the industry. Reserve your spot today for an exclusive discount.
Looking for a quick catch-up on the buzziest stories of the week? Here’s Inman Top 5, the most essential stories, according to Inman readers.
And don’t miss The Download, our weekly column that breaks down one of the top stories of the week and equips you with what you’ll need to meet next Monday head-on.
In a phone interview, lead plaintiffs’ counsel Michael Ketchmark weighed in on the consequences of violating the NAR settlement, Zillow’s business model, and the “monster case” that remains.
Doug Miller of Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate, the initiator behind the first bombshell antitrust lawsuit, sounds alarm against Realtor talking points that “continue steering.”
Now that the “New Normal” has officially begun, it’s time to answer the frequently asked questions agents and brokerages have about the newly implemented commission settlement rule changes.
Homie
The suit accuses NAR and major franchisors of breaking antitrust laws. The company’s complaint includes alleged text messages in which agents refused to show Homie listings.
From left: Marc Seltzer, Steve Berman, Michael Ketchmark, Brandon Boulware, Eric Dirks and Robert Braun
In a filing outlining costs and expenses, plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Ketchmark estimates he has spent 7,000 hours on Gibson and other commission suits for work totaling $10.1 million since 2019.
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