I like the way this man thinks!

October 10, 2006

When you think you have something compelling to say to the world, better say it fast before somebody else beats you to it, and says it better than you could.

I have a lot of strong thoughts about how we currently do business and how the Internet is changing that. As it stands now, much of what we do, especially our rules about what we can and can’t do with MLS data, absolutely do not benefit the consumer, for the most part do not benefit us in the industry.

Todd Tarson beat me to the punch with a well-written, analogy-based explanation of many of these changes. I’ll chime in later with more thoughts, but for now feast on what he has to say.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Disintermediation, Freakonomics, Mark Nadel, Real estate | Leave a Comment 

This just in from those pesky economists

October 8, 2006

Those pesky economists are at it again...It’s late — very late — and I don’t have the energy to look it over in depth now, but it looks like our Freakonomics friends — you know, the ones who believe it takes 20 hours to sell a home — are at it again.

In all fairness, this particular post is short and mostly alludes to a somewhat longer Brookings Institution paper which, at first glance, does seem to have a lot of meat in in.

None other than our very own Ardell Dellaloggia is mentioned in at least one footnote!

A lot of food for thought for Greg Swann and the others discussing alternative business models.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Disintermediation, For sellers, Freakonomics, Real estate | 1 Comment 

Did you miss me?

October 8, 2006

did-you-miss-me.jpgAfter some wonderful days off at Lake Tahoe and some painful days transferring my old blog from Blogger to Wordpress, I’m now back!

And the change of name from In the Trenches to Three Oceans? I picked the former name on a whim. It sounded like a strong, solid moniker to attach to a blog about somebody on the front lines in real estate. Alas, it turns out a number of other online real estate publications had similar thoughts, including The Property Grunt and Realtor Magazine. Wanting something more distinctive, I fell back on my business name, Three Oceans, a reference to my good fortune at having lived near to the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans — the first two in Cape Town, South Africa, from 1996 to 1999, and the latter since 2001.

A word to the wise…if you’re thinking about transferring blogging platforms, do so before you accumulate too many posts, unless you’re quite handy with php.

If you’ve been so kind as to blogroll me, please update my address. Thanks!

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Real estate | Leave a Comment