Housing Market’s “Brussel Sprouts” Edina Realty Regional Manager Terry McDonough gave a terrific talk at City Lakes yesterday about the advantages — and potential pitfalls — of using contracts for deed in today’s housing market. In an environment of zero percent interest rates (“ZIRP”) and lots of stealth home equity (something like 2/3 of those...Read More
Edina Realty Takes on the Third Party Aggregators, Cont. If you’re joining the action “already in progress,” as it were, here’s what you missed: Edina Realty announced 10 days ago that it was pulling its listings from third-party aggregators such as Trulia. Then all Hell broke loose. See, “Edina Realty Steals a Page From Southwest Airlines, the...Read More
“Taking Back Our Content” From Third-Party Aggregators Want to book a flight on Southwest Airlines? You won’t find Southwest’s flights for sale on Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak or any number of so-called third-party aggregators “serving” the travel industry. That’s because Southwest Airlines understands — correctly — that these companies are ultimately competitors, and threaten its business model....Read More
Edina Realty Pulls the Plug on Trulia.com, Other “Third Party Aggregators” In a post earlier this Fall (“Selling Realtors’ Listings Back to Them“), I discussed the dubious practice of Trulia.com and other so-called “Third Party Aggregators” of vacuuming up all the listings in a market, then charging the listing agents (representing Sellers) a fee if...Read More
Holiday Home Buyers How are people visiting the Twin Cities for Thanksgiving planning to spend their time here? Share a big meal with family and friends? Check. Watch parades, football, etc. on TV? Check. Shop for a Twin Cities home with a local Realtor? Apparently, that’s what at least a few visitors have on tap. During...Read More
Channeling Wayne Gretzky, or “Zen & the Art of Real Estate Sales” It’s hardly a coincidence that just-named Minnesota Realtor of the Year (and Edina Realty City Lakes colleague) Budd Batterson espouses a philosophy remarkably like that of former hockey great Wayne Gretzky. See if you recognize the similarity between the following: “I skate to...Read More
