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.

Following the July 13 assassination attempt made on former President Donald Trump, increased security surrounding the Republican nominee has created an obstacle course of sorts for agents trying to do their job in Palm Beach’s luxury market.

The Secret Service closed off a large swath of South Ocean Boulevard in front of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club on July 20, and the area is slated to remain shut down until further notice. The closure impacts the stretch of road from Mar-a-Lago north to where South County Road intersects with South Ocean Boulevard. According to the Palm Beach Police Department, the closure will likely last until at least the November election, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.

With the road officially shut down 24/7, individual residents or workers who need access must be approved to do so by law enforcement. The closure means that properties south of Mar-a-Lago are largely isolated from the rest of the island, and those properties north of the club are cut off from one of the three bridges that connect Palm Beach to the rest of Florida.

For now, the road closure is more of a minor headache for agents since the market is currently in the midst of its slower season, agents told The Real Deal. But it could become a bigger problem once more seasonal residents trickle back in the fall.

“I don’t see it as being positive,” Douglas Elliman agent Gary Pohrer told TRD. Pohrer will soon be listing a property adjacent to the club, and added that for potential buyers, it “can’t be something somebody would want to endure.”

Listings in the impacted area span in price from $13.9 million to $48.9 million. There were seven such impacted listings in the area as of Monday, according to Zillow.

Since they’re now isolated from the rest of the island, properties south of Mar-a-Lago have also been impacted to a degree, including a $40 million listing located at 500 Regents Park Road. Even though the listing is only about 200 feet away from Trump’s club, sales agent Rob Thomson of Waterfront Properties & Club Communities said he’s not concerned about the closure impacting the sale of his listing.

“Can it be annoying? Sure,” Thomson told TRD. “Is it horrific? No. Last time we all just got used to it.”

The island faced similar road closures when Trump was in office. Whenever the then-president stayed at the club while in town, the road would close and then reopen when he left town again.

A property at 1045 South Ocean was on the market when Trump was president in 2018, listed by Traci DeGeorge, who was then affiliated with Waterfront Properties. Although the closure impacted the property, Waterfront Properties owner Thompson said that it was no different than having to access a property within a gated community.

“The barricade was literally in front of the front door,” Thompson told TRD. “It was really not any different time-wise than pulling up to a gold community and stopping at the gate.”

Thompson happens to be a member of Mar-a-Lago, and lives in Admirals Cove, about 20 miles north of the club. He said having the Secret Service around while Trump was president didn’t serve as a deterrent to potential buyers.

“It made people feel really safe,” Thompson said.

Town Manager Kirk Blouin, is wondering why a 24/7 road closure is necessary, however, and has asked the Secret Service for a legal explanation.

“If there’s a protectee in residence, it makes sense,” Blouin told the Palm Beach Daily News. “If there’s no one there, I don’t understand the road closure at this moment.”

Get Inman’s Luxury Lens Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly deep dive into the biggest news in the world of high-end real estate delivered every Friday. Click here to subscribe.

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.

The U.S. Navy will expand a toxic remediation project at Hunter’s Point Shipyard, the site of a San Francisco mixed-use neighborhood redevelopment, after radioactive findings at the site, The Real Deal reported on Friday.

Cleanup of the 500-acre site, formerly known as Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS), has been delayed 18 months, pushing past an initial estimated completion date of 2026.

FivePoint Holdings, one of the largest owners and developers of mixed-use communities in California, has the site in its portfolio.

Once complete, FivePoint boasts that the development will “provide housing, commercial and community uses reflective of the city’s rich history, diversity, and boundless energy,” and “complement San Francisco’s reputation as a world-class city by evolving into a community rooted in inclusivity, multi-modal accessibility, opportunity, and economic vitality.”

According to Navy officials, two radioactive objects, an inch-and-a-half deck marker covered in radium-tainted paint and a piece of glass, were produced on two parcels after soil sampling conducted on the site last year. The objects were discovered as Navy workers double-checked work performed by a former contractor, Tetra Tech.

Tetra Tech, global provider of engineering and consulting services, faces multiple lawsuits after alleged fraud on the cleanup project. Tetra Tech denies the allegations.

The site, located on the southeastern portion of San Francisco, has operations dating back to the 1860s, according to the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC).

From 1869 to 1939, HPNS was commercially operated as a dry dock facility. In 1948, HPNS was partially occupied by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL). In 1974, the Navy ceased shipyard operations at HPNS.

HPNS was identified for Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) in 1991, where the site was divided into parcels for cleanup efforts and the transfer of property.

The City and County of San Francisco has provided this resource as a source of updates on the current cleanup efforts.

Email Richelle Hammiel

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.

Is this the beginning of the end for Zillow Gone Wild? That’s the question the account’s fans are asking after professional photographer Jennifer Bouma filed a $300,000 copyright infringement lawsuit against Zillow Gone Wild’s parent company, Kale Salad, Inc., on July 29.

According to court documents, listing agents Barbara Orr and John Logue hired Bouma to take photos of a sprawling four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom medieval-style estate in Monroe, Washington, in September 2021. The listing quickly garnered the attention of the internet, with Zillow Gone Wild posting Bouma’s photos of a courtyard dragon statue and Arthurian dining room on its Substack, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, accounts in February 2022.

Bouma said she didn’t realize Zillow Gone Wild had posted her photos until April 2024 since account founder Samir Mezrahi never asked for consent. As the copyright owner, she attempted to negotiate a payment of $12,500 to $15,000 per photo; however, Bouma’s attorney, David C. Deal, told Fast Company that payment negotiations with Kale Salad, Inc. and its insurance provider stalled. Now, Bouma is suing for the maximum amount of $150,000 per photo plus attorney fees.

“Zillow Gone Wild . . . are in the business of copying the work of others for display on their website and social media,” Deal said.

Mezrahi and Kale Salad, Inc. have been quiet about the lawsuit. Deal said he expects the defendants’ counsel to say Zillow Gone Wild is protected by the fair use doctrine, which allows the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.

The United States Copyright Office’s fair use doctrine explainer said courts are “more likely” to find that using copyright-protected works for nonprofit education and noncommercial use is OK, especially if the creator added something new to the copyrighted work. The explainer noted courts also consider the “quantity and quality of the copyrighted material” a creator used and whether a creator’s unlicensed use of a copyrighted work harms the original creator’s current or future ability to financially benefit from said work, among other factors.

“In addition to the above, other factors may also be considered by a court in weighing a fair use question, depending upon the circumstances,” the explainer read. Courts evaluate fair use claims on a case-by-case basis, and the outcome of any given case depends on a fact-specific inquiry. This means that there is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work — or specific number of words, lines, pages, copies — may be used without permission.

Several copyright experts were split on whether Zillow Gone Wild would have difficulty convincing courts that its work is protected by the fair use doctrine.

“The case is straightforward copyright infringement,” University of Sussex copyright law expert Andres Guadamuz told FC, noting that Mezrahi tends to post listing photos as-is, striking out the ability to argue that Zillow Gone Wild is using photos in a new or transformative way.

However, Northeastern University law professor Alexandra J. Roberts said Zillow Gone Wild’s captions often offer commentary on a wily real estate market — something that could push them into fair use territory. “The character of the defendant’s use is an important factor, and in this case, the use appears to be comment and criticism — and perhaps satire — which are core functions that fair use aspires to protect,” she said.

Deal said he’s fully prepared to take on Zillow Gone Wild, noting that his client’s lawsuit may lead to a flood of complaints from other photographers, especially as Mezrahi moves forward on a nine-episode show with HGTV.

“If they want to fully litigate the issue of fair use, it comes with a lot of risk,” he said. “If they lose, they really lose because we have all these other clients who are in effectively the exact same position as Miss Bouma.”

Read the full lawsuit below: 

Email Marian McPherson

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.

Leonard Riggio, founder of book-store behemoth Barnes & Noble, has landed a buyer for his waterfront property on North Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, Florida, The Real Deal reported.

The 8,000-square-foot property that asked $96 million sits on 1.7 acres and is now under contract. Lawrence Moens, of Lawrence A. Moens Associates, held the listing, which was put on the market on June 20, according to Zillow.

A living area overlooking the patio | Zillow

As the island market otherwise rides out its slowest period of the year, it appears that serious buyers are still biting, according to agents. Buyers have been reportedly flying into the area for a day or two to look at properties and make an offer if they see something they like.

As a finite resource, oceanfront properties on the island are extremely coveted. This year, the only such oceanfront sales in Palm Beach have been Playboy Mansion owner Daren Metropoulos’ purchase of a $148 million property in June and Ideavillage founder Anand Khubani’s sale of a one-acre lot in April for $85 million.

According to the listing description, the Riggio home includes seven-and-a-half bathrooms and five bedrooms. The primary suite features a large sitting room and private gym, and the home also includes a separate apartment for staff.

The home’s kitchen | Zillow

Riggio and his wife, Louise Riggio, purchased the property in 2003 for $14 million, according to records, and conducted a renovation shortly thereafter. In 2009, the couple purchased an adjacent, quarter-acre lot for $1.4 million.

Once the deal for the property on North Ocean Boulevard closes, the Riggios will still own a property in Palm Beach County. Louise Riggio purchased a home in the village of Wellington for $8.1 million in June, The Real Deal reported.

The couple’s primary residence, however, is at 720 Park Avenue in New York City. They also own a sweeping, 13-acre estate in the Hamptons where the couple displays their extensive sculpture collection, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A bedroom overlooking the ocean | Zillow

Leonard Riggio began working in book sales when he was hired as a clerk at New York University’s bookstore while studying there part-time in the 1960s. Eventually, Riggio decided he could run a better business than NYU and decided in 1965 to launch a competing book store, Student Book Exchange, after dropping out of the university, according to Entrepreneur.

The store did so well that Riggio was able to use the profits to open four more college bookstores throughout the city. By 1971, Riggio was able to secure a loan for $1.2 million to purchase the then-floundering Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue. In an age when brick-and-mortar bookstores have faced increasing challenges to their business, Barnes & Noble has largely remained resilient.

Riggio retired from his position as executive chairman of the company in 2016.

Get Inman’s Luxury Lens Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly deep dive into the biggest news in the world of high-end real estate delivered every Friday. Click here to subscribe.

Email Lillian Dickerson

This article was shared here with permission from Mike DelPrete for Inman Intel, a data and research arm of Inman offering deep insights and market intelligence on the business of residential real estate and proptech. Subscribe today.

Real estate is a high-churn business, with over 144,000 agents changing brokerages in the past 12 months.

Why it matters: For brokerages, this highlights the critical importance of recruiting and retention — and knowing which types of agents are the most likely to move.

Context: The joke is that the median number of houses sold per agent each year is zero — and the truth isn’t too far away.

• Approximately half (47 percent) of the 1.4 million agents in this analysis sold zero houses in the past 12 months.
• These non-producers may be on teams, which was true for about 26 percent of agents in 2018, according to The National Association of Realtors.

Agent churn is when an agent changes brokerage; it does not include agents new to or exiting the industry, and the time period is the last 12 months (June 2023 – June 2024).

• Including non-producers, 10 percent — or around 144,000 agents — changed brokerage in the past 12 months.
• And lower producers in the $1 – $10 million range were the most likely to churn.

Excluding non-producers, some of whom were part of a team, 14 percent of the remaining “active” agents changed brokerages in the past 12 months.

• It’s notable that the highest producing agents, $50 million and above, churn at higher than 10 percent — a significant shift in revenue (and a recruitment and retention opportunity).

Tenure matters: The longer an agent has been in the industry, the less likely they are to change their brokerage.

• The newest agents — those in the industry between 12 and 23 months — were the most likely to switch brokerage, while agents in the industry 12+ years were the least likely to change.

Agent churn is also correlated to office size.

• The largest brokerage offices, with over 500 agents, are churn machines with the highest percentage of agents joining and leaving; agents are 33 percent more likely to leave a big office vs. a small one.
• Keep in mind, the publicly reported agent counts of brokerages obfuscate true churn; a 2 percent increase in agent count may be the result of 12 percent joining and 10 percent leaving.

The bottom line: Any business forecasting a minimum of 10 percent churn of its most productive employees or its total revenue is in for a challenging year ahead.

• By its very nature, real estate is a high-churn business, which represents a massive shift in potential brokerage revenue each year.
• This is a risk and an opportunity — the constant movement of agents means that brokerages can’t stand still and always need to be offering the best proposition to current agents and prospective recruits.

Mike DelPrete is a strategic advisor and global expert in real estate tech, including Zavvie, an iBuyer offer aggregator. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

This report is available exclusively to subscribers of Inman Intel, the data and research arm of Inman offering deep insights and market intelligence on the business of residential real estate and proptech. Subscribe today.

The real estate industry sits on the precipice of significant changes to MLS practices and client contracts that are set to go into effect later this month.

And for the most part, agents haven’t budged much on the skepticism that they felt in the immediate aftermath of the NAR settlement announcement in mid-March.

General agent negativity toward their potential revenue prospects remained unchanged in late July, and has not meaningfully improved since the NAR deal was announced in mid-March, according to Intel’s Client Pipeline Tracker.

Client Pipeline Tracker level in July: -7

• Previous level: -7 in June
• Recent peak: +7 in January

Chart by Daniel Houston

The Tracker is an updating measure of agent sentiment toward the pool of potential real estate buyers and sellers, powered by the Inman Intel Index monthly survey of real estate professionals.

But while general agent sentiment has remained fairly negative, there are some signs that agents may be less convinced today that the new rules will hurt them with buyers than they were in late March.

This month, Intel goes deeper under the hood, breaking down the main components driving agent sentiment.

Read the takeaways in the report below.

More buyers, little reassurance

Intel’s Client Pipeline Tracker is a compilation of how agents feel about their buyer and seller pipelines — both over the past year and in the near future.

Intel described the full methodology in this post, but here’s a quick refresher on how to read the results.

• A rating of 0 represents a neutral period in which client pipelines are neither improving nor worsening.
• A positive score reflects a market in which client pipelines have been improving, or are widely expected to improve in the next 12 months. The higher the rating, the more confident agents are in that conditions are moving in a positive direction.
• A negative score suggests client pipeline conditions are worsening, or are widely expected to get worse in the year to come.

An extremely positive combined score falls somewhere around +20. This type of score would signify that much of the industry is in agreement with the fact that pipelines are improving and will continue to improve.

An extremely negative combined score, on the other hand, falls closer to -20. That’s a bit lower than where the industry stood in September, the first time Intel surveyed agents about their pipelines.

For the four individual components that go into the score, results as high as +50 or as low -50 are sometimes observed.

Here are the component scores for July, and how each one changed from the previous month.

CPT component scores

June → July

1. Present buyer pipelines: -35 → -32
2. Future buyer pipelines: +2 → +2
3. Present seller pipelines: -17 → -17
4. Future seller pipelines: +4 → +1

These month-to-month changes reflect the first agent-reported uptick in buyer pipeline activity in six months, potentially an early sign that declining mortgage rates are finally bringing hesitant buyers back to the table.

• The average rate for a 30-year mortgage fell to 6.40 percent on Friday, its lowest point since the spring of 2023, according to Mortgage News Daily.
• This is part of a continued decline from where rates stood in April at 7.44 percent.

Perhaps noteworthy, however, is how agents report that they need to see more before they fully trust that this shift will change their outlook for their future business.

While most agents still believe their buyer pipelines will hold steady or improve in the year to come, a weak summer in terms of existing-home sales may weigh more heavily for some than the very recent uptick in buyer leads.

Also worth noting: The improving mortgage rate environment for buyers — and the hope of upcoming rate cuts by the Fed, potentially as early as September — have yet to give agents meaningful reassurance that they’ll have more listing clients to work with a year from now.

More details on that front below.

What’s actually changed since NAR’s settlement news

The news in mid-March that NAR had reached a settlement that would bring substantial changes to the MLS and buyer and seller contracts had an immediate negative effect on agent sentiment.

Particularly hard-hit? Agents’ outlook for their future buyer pipelines.

• In February, only 15 percent of agent respondents to the Intel Index said they expected their buyer pipelines to grow lighter over the next 12 months.
• By late March, immediately after the settlement news broke, that share had spiked to 28 percent.

Since then, agents have become less bearish on their future buyer pipeline prospects — signaling that maybe some of their worst fears about the settlement impact might not pan out after all.

• In late July, 23 percent of agent respondents expected their buyer pipelines to weaken over the next year.

There have been two other significant shifts in the underlying attitudes about client pipelines.

• Despite the recent reported uptick in potential homebuyer clients, the number of buyers had been steadily slipping. The share of agents reporting lighter buyer pipelines year-over-year in July was 54 percent — up from 45 percent who reported the same in March.
• Declining mortgage rates and looming interest rate cuts have yet to reassure sellers that their listing client pools will improve in the future. The share of agents who expect their listing pipelines to improve next year fell to 29 percent in July, down from 38 percent in March.

In other words, many agents may be less worried about the practical implications of the settlement on their businesses today, but more responsive to weak sales and an extended period of rate-locked sellers.

And even with the positive news with regard to mortgage rates and buyer pipelines in recent weeks, they’ll need more assurances before changing their minds on the market outlook.

Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted July 22-Aug. 4, 2024, and had received more than 550 responses as of Friday. The numbers used for this article are preliminary and subject to revision. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.

Email Daniel Houston