My buddy Leo Pareja introduced me to the notion that if you aren’t paying for a product, you ARE the product. In other words, when you use a “free” service online or otherwise, your information is most likely where the company is making their money. This became painfully clear earlier in the week when it was revealed that Facebook effectively sold private information (by virtue of an app) on millions of its users to Cambridge Analytica, who in turn used the information to assist a client of theirs to use the information for the benefit of the Donald Trump presidential campaign. At this point, there is no evidence that the Trump campaign did wrong by acquiring this information, but it is a sobering reminder that the massive information that companies like Google, Amazon, Samsung, Facebook, and Microsoft have on us is anything but private. Facebook stock took a dive last week and Mark Zuckerberg has been crying mea culpa on CNN and the online media. Zuckerberg should expect a subpoena to testify in front of congress soon. I deleted all of my FB apps and definitely don’t want one of those creepy Amazon Echo or Google Home anywhere near my house.
The top real estate sales coaches, like Mike Ferry, flat out tell their students that representing buyers is for losers. Driving buyers around to open houses, dealing with fickle lenders, and filling out multiple offer forms is a lot of work. To make matters worse, after doing all that work, you still might not get paid if your buyers' offers aren't accepted.
By definition, unintended consequences are the results of an action different from what was expected or planned. They are often referenced in relation to changes in policies. I have heard the term used for years, primarily related to government policies. Still, I didn’t realize until recently that much has been written on the subject, and most experts believe that there are three categories of unintended consequences:
This week's big news in real estate was the settlement of the class action lawsuits directed against the National Association of Realtors (NAR)...Despite what you may have heard from the media, if the settlement is approved, this would be a modest victory for both realtors and homebuyers. The lawsuit's deeply misguided proponents, including Steve Brobeck from the Consumer Federation of America, have been calling for an outright ban on broker cooperation. In that regard, they didn't get what they wanted.