I can’t think of any argument against oral presentations better than the stuff that comes out of the mouths of the people making them.
From InmanBlog, NAR CEO Dale Stinton says:
“If there ever was a case study for banks staying out of real estate it’s the subprime market.” He also said that the subprime situation is an example of the “inevitability of an open society,” “of going too far, too fast,” and “of liquidity in the marketplaces.”
See, it was the lenders who caused these problems, not the sacrosanct tax giveaways to homeowners and real estate investors. And god spare us all from an “an open society” (that is to say, not a police state) and “liquidity in the marketplaces” (money, that is). I’m thinking Stinton had to borrow extra feet from Glenn Kelman to put in his mouth.
Joel Singer, “president of real estate business services for the California Association of Realtors,” was not to be outdone:
“The brokerage industry to a large degree has ceded too much power to the agents. Once you have entrenched power … more importantly, once you have entrenched economic power — the economics are that the MLSs actually have more funding than the organized real estate itself — it becomes very difficult to overcome that.”
I think that says that the obstacle to MLS reform is posed by the MLS systems themselves, which leads me to expect a radical legislative intervention. If you’re a real estate licensee but not an brokerage owner or designated broker, hide your wallet.
But: The prize would seem to go to Zillow.com founder Rich Barton, who summoned forth this vision:
“I see an old-style marketplace formed, a city market like Pike Place Market. I actually dug up an old photo — Pike Place Market at the turn of the last century. People were gesticulating. People were buying things. People were gossiping. Negotiations were happening. Big billboards were advertising things above the marketplace. That’s the picture I have in my head.”
I think this is meant to be poetry — except poetry rhymes, scans and makes sense.
I’m sure Stinton is not an actual Commissar, despite his derision of “an open society.” I don’t doubt that Singer (and “the organized real estate itself”) would welcome a “lawful” fleecing the long-suffering Realtors (like they’re not already being fleeced enough), but I’m pretty sure the tide of the times is against him. Of Barton I can make nothing. I do understand that he was trying to craft a visionary metaphor, but I think it’s pretty unlikely that anyone ever traded residential real estate at the Pike Place Market in Olde Seattle Towne.
It’s late, and tomorrow is another long day. As you trundle off to your slumber, take solace that our industry is led by gentlemen who may not actually be certifiably nuts, despite their public pronouncements.
Technorati Tags: connectsf, disintermediation, Inman, Inman Connect, investment, RE Connect, real estate, real estate marketing, Zillow.com
Russell Shaw says:
Fantastic post, Greg. Nice job spotting each of the various “Leadership Visions”. It would seem the blind are trying to lead people who don’t bother to look.
August 2, 2007 — 10:37 am
Erik Hersman says:
Just sitting there listening to Dale talk about creating some agile consumer-facing product, coming from their behemoth, was painful.
August 2, 2007 — 11:22 am