The Industry Relations Podcast is now available on your favorite podcast player!

Overview

Rob and Greg open with Greg’s car breaking down in 112-degree heat outside Barstow, then dig into the FTC’s settlement with Zillow and Redfin over their leasing business deal, which regulators viewed as an attempt to dodge merger review. From there, the two spend most of the episode debating a bigger question raised by Rob’s recent exchange with Mike Wurzer: did the MLS create genuinely new value by aggregating listings, or was that value always meant for real estate professionals rather than consumers? The conversation ranges across aggregation theory, the history of IDX and portal dominance (Zillow, Redfin, realtor.com), whether companies like House Canary and paper brokerages even qualify as “brokerages,” and the 2008 DOJ settlement’s actual scope. It closes with a debate over how to legally define a broker at all.

Key Takeaways

• The FTC pushed back on Zillow’s attempt to acquire Redfin’s leasing business without triggering merger review; the settlement requires Redfin to restart its own rental business, though it can still display Zillow rental listings.
• Rob calls the $100M settlement a “slap on the wrist” rather than a real penalty for either company.
• Rob’s central argument: the MLS’s aggregation of listings created value primarily for practitioners, comparable to Lexis Nexis and Westlaw’s value to lawyers, not inherent value for consumers.
• Greg counters that aggregation itself creates new value regardless of who captures it, and that consumers clearly benefit from having listings in one place.
• The two trace the history of real estate going online — IDX, the rise of Zillow, Redfin, and realtor.com — and agree the portals won because they outspent brokerages on user experience.
• Rob argues the industry should unwind IDX in favor of straight data syndication to portals, separating “cooperation” (MLS’s original purpose) from “data distribution” (a later add-on).
• Greg pushes back that most agents don’t actually get leads from portals directly, but Rob argues that undercuts the case for IDX mattering to them at all.
• A long tangent debates whether entities like House Canary or paper brokerages qualify as “brokerages,” and whether the 2008 DOJ settlement (about brokerage business-model discrimination) supports keeping IDX — Rob says no, Greg disagrees.
• The episode ends unresolved, with both agreeing to continue the debate and possibly bring Mike Wurzer on to discuss further.

Links

Debating Rob Hahn In Ohio: Are MLSs Killing Themselves?

Continuing the Debate with Mike Wurzer

Riposte with Rob

Connect with Rob and Greg

Rob’s Website 

Greg’s Website 

Watch us on YouTube

Our Sponsors:

Cotality 

Notorious VIP

The Giant Steps Job Board 

Production and Editing Services by Sunbound Studios

The post Aggregation Aggravation? appeared first on Vendor Alley.

Be More Like Dolly. What an incredible human being. Rest In Peace.

The post BMLD appeared first on Vendor Alley.

The Industry Relations Podcast is now available on your favorite podcast player!

Overview

Rob and Greg open by unpacking the news that a federal judge has finally approved the Sitzer/Burnett settlement, tossing out remaining objections — officially closing that chapter for NAR and the industry. They debate whether this outcome was a “win” for NAR, discuss the power vacuum left in organized real estate’s wake, and praise NAR’s recent social media/PR efforts (specifically an Instagram explainer video). The bulk of the episode digs into Unlock MLS’s new tiered participant framework (base service, direct service brokerage, platform brokerage) — sparked by an op-ed from Emily Gerrard — and what it means to legally and philosophically define “what is a broker” in a post-compensation, post-NAR-settlement world. Rob and Greg spar over whether MLSs should double down on being cooperatives of brokerages or pivot to being data-licensing utilities, using Zillow, Homes.com, and hypotheticals (including an adult-content site and a NJ lead-gen “broker”) as test cases.

Key Takeaways

• The Sitzer/Burnett settlement has been fully approved after the 8th Circuit rejected remaining objections
• NAR reportedly told lawyers to negotiate the maximum settlement amount it could actually afford, effectively avoiding insolvency
• Rob argues NAR is no longer the center of gravity in real estate, leaving a “power vacuum” in the industry
• Both hosts praised a recent NAR Instagram explainer (legal/stats update) as a strong new-media format worth other associations copying
• Rob floats the idea of NAR/MLS leadership doing authentic, unscripted weekly podcasts or livestreams to rebuild member trust
• Unlock MLS introduced a new three-tier participant structure: base service, direct service brokerage, and platform brokerage
• Emily Gerrard’s op-ed on Real Estate News argues participant definitions should be reframed around data usage rather than identity
• Rob strongly supports Unlock’s move, calling it the biggest MLS innovation in decades; Greg is more skeptical of redefining “participant” and prefers a pure data-licensing approach
• They debate whether Zillow, Homes.com, and similar platforms should be treated as “brokers” vs. licensed data users
• Rob predicts Unlock will likely face a lawsuit over the new rules but believes they’d win
• The 2008 DOJ/VOW settlement is revisited as historical context for why MLS participant rules can’t discriminate by business model
• Discussion touches on AI/data governance, referencing a framework around who controls AI’s access to listing data
• Episode closes with a running bet: Rob wagers Greg a steak dinner that fewer than 1% of brokers would define a broker as “a website that generates leads”

Links

Cooperation Article

NAR Social Media Post

Sitzer Settlement

Connect with Rob and Greg

Rob’s Website 

Greg’s Website 

Watch us on YouTube

Our Sponsors:

Cotality 

Notorious VIP

The Giant Steps Job Board 

Production and Editing Services by Sunbound Studios

The post What’s a Broker, Anyway? appeared first on Vendor Alley.

As much as myself and others have critiqued the National Association for REALTORS (NAR) communication department, or lack thereof, over the years I thought this new format on Instagram (I’m sure you will find it on other social media sites) was really well done.

It’s quick, full of useful information (advocacy, legal, marketing, stats), and they even snuck in a commercial for RPR at the end!

Great job NAR!

The post NAR, same time…same place. appeared first on Vendor Alley.

The Industry Relations Podcast is now available on your favorite podcast player!

Overview

Rob and Greg dig into Brian Boero’s “enshittification” post about online home search getting worse, and spar over whether that’s really the story — or a distraction from the bigger issues of affordability, potential fair-housing lawsuits, and how AI is about to upend the agent’s role entirely. They debate what an “ideal” buyer experience even looks like, whether the industry should be fighting for lower home prices instead of easier loans, and close out with a wider conversation about AI, housing supply, and whether today’s young people are actually worse off than past generations.

Key Takeaways

• Brian Boero’s Friday Flash on the “enshittification” of home search sparks the episode’s central debate
• Rob argues no consumer uprising is coming — people absorb degraded experiences the same way they absorb worse airlines and shrinking candy bars
• NAACP president Derek Johnson’s op-ed frames online listing access as a fair-housing issue, raising the specter of another Sitzer-Burnett-style lawsuit
• Rob and Greg disagree sharply on whether disparate-impact claims around online listings hold merit
• Rob pushes back that the real “enshittification” story is home prices outpacing wage growth — not search UX
• The two debate what an “ideal” buyer experience looks like, from full information disclosure to self-scheduled tours without agent involvement
• Rob argues the industry’s political energy goes toward easier loans and lower rates instead of actually lobbying for lower home prices
• Discussion of Sitzer-Burnett’s legacy: post-ruling, buyer commission behavior largely hasn’t changed, suggesting culture — not rules — drives outcomes
• Rob predicts AI, MLS-only companies, and real estate lawyers could eliminate the need for listing agents; buyer agents may be more insulated for now
• Zelman & Associates’ “Cradle to the Grave” research raises the question of whether the US has a housing supply problem or specifically an affordable-supply problem
• Rob draws a parallel to AI investment vs. the dot-com bubble, questioning whether current AI spending will pay off
• Both agree using AI directly — not just reading about it — is the only way to actually understand its impact on the business
  

Connect with Rob and Greg

Rob’s Website 

Greg’s Website 

Watch us on YouTube

Our Sponsors:

Cotality 

Notorious VIP

The Giant Steps Job Board 

Production and Editing Services by Sunbound Studios

The post Big Deep Topics appeared first on Vendor Alley.

Jeff Bosch Named Next CEO of ARMLS

“The ARMLS Board of Directors has named Jeff Bosch as the organization’s next Chief Executive Officer. Bosch will assume the role in November, as Matt Consalvo will retire after 14 years as CEO.”

Congratulations Jeff!

The post ARMLS names Jeff Bosch as new CEO appeared first on Vendor Alley.

Brian Boero wrote a good one about how home search keeps getting worse and how nobody’s coming to save the buyer. He’s right that the buyer won’t save themselves. I just think he’s looking at the wrong rescuers.

“The Consumer is an abstraction; the empowered real estate consumer is largely a fiction.”

True. No consumer uprising is coming. People will put up with a worse home search the same way they put up with worse airlines and smaller candy bars.

Boero says “in time, the regulators may do something about it.” They already are. Washington passed a law that says listings have to be marketed to everybody. Connecticut and New York wrote the warning into the paperwork sellers sign. More states are lined up for January.

But regulators are the slow lane. The fast lane is the lawyers.

Last week the president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, wrote in Time that private listing networks are “more than an industry dispute. This is a civil rights issue.” His piece comes with numbers: sellers in majority-minority zip codes lose more when a home stays off the MLS, and MLS listings sell for around 17.5% more than off-MLS ones.

Read that again as a plaintiff’s attorney. You’ve got a protected class, a measurable harm, and a price gap you can put in front of a jury. And you don’t have to prove anybody meant to discriminate. A Texas broker laid the theory out back in March: under the Fair Housing Act, “You don’t have to prove anyone intended to discriminate.” Disparate impact does the work.

If that sounds familiar, it should. That’s Sitzer/Burnett. A theory, a damages number, and a sympathetic class. The commission lawsuits started as a fringe argument too, right up until they cost the industry billions and rewrote the rulebook.

So no, the consumer won’t fix online search. But three other parties are lining up to take a swing at it. The statehouses. A U.S. senator (Elizabeth Warren just sent Compass and MRED 23 questions about fair housing risk). And the trial bar, which just got its opening argument handed to it by the NAACP.

Boero says all this is “only good for lawyers and reporters.” Speaking as one of the “reporters”, I’d keep an eye on the lawyers.

The post The Consumer Won’t Fix This. The Lawyers Might. appeared first on Vendor Alley.

The Tennessee Waltz is the saddest song ever written about handing something precious to a friend. It’s also a pretty good history of this industry and Zillow. We introduced our listings to a friendly portal, the music played, and you know how the song ends.

Which is why it matters that Tennessee, of all places, just rewrote the ending.

Realtracs and Zillow Enter New Licensing Agreement

“Zillow will notify Realtracs at the same time an agent receives a notification that they have reached the threshold for listing suppression under Zillow’s Listing Access Standards. This provides greater transparency into those situations and gives Realtracs the information needed to work directly with brokers and agents to ensure healthy cooperation.”

So the Nashville standoff ends with a signature. Realtracs called out Zillow’s Listing Access Standards back in May, set a deadline, extended it twice, and after ten weeks of negotiating we get a “modernized license agreement.” Compare that to Chicago, where MRED pulled the feed, a federal judge ordered it turned back on, and the lawyers are still billing. Realtracs walks away with a contract. MRED walks away with a court date.

Both sides get to declare “victory” here. Zillow told Real Estate News its Listing Access Standards “remain in full effect across the Nashville region” and were “not modified as part of this agreement.” Stuart White gets defined use rights, AI and LLM guardrails on broker-created content, better listing activity reporting, and my favorite part, the pull quote above. Until now Zillow could bench an agent’s listings and the MLS would find out from an angry phone call. Now Realtracs gets the notification the moment the agent does.

But the real story is the paper itself. Back in April, Realtracs tore up its Participation Agreement and put “the broker owns the listing” in writing. This looks like chapter two of the same strategy: stand up a Data Licensing Platform, Homes.com was the first, now Zillow. The line at the bottom of the press release, “as additional technology providers renew their agreements,” is doing a lot of work. Every vendor pulling a Realtracs feed should expect the same paperwork.

Saul Klein wrote last month that the real AI question is “who controls the terms under which AI gains access to listing data.” Realtracs just gave its answer: we do, and here’s the license.

Will AI guardrails in a license agreement actually stop a foundation model from ingesting listings? Probably about as well as robots.txt did. But enforcement starts with terms, and you can’t enforce terms you never wrote down. In the post-settlement world the license agreement is the new rulebook.

Realtracs is still dancing with Zillow. It’s just done lending out its sweetheart without a word in writing.

The post The Tennessee Waltz appeared first on Vendor Alley.

The Art of the CMA, Second Edition, is a practical field guide for real estate agents to create powerful presentations, win listings and grow their business in today’s challenging market.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The US real estate market is rapidly evolving, driven by market forces and advancing technology. Consumers are challenged with affordability, supply constraints, and economic uncertainty.

Real estate agents face their own issues in this low-inventory, high rate scenario, including increased competition and rising operating costs. The Art of the CMA explores how real estate agents can stand out by using data and technology to enhance their own skills and experience.

Consumers have more data than ever. AI and automated tools generate home valuation estimates in seconds. To win listings in today’s dynamic environment, real estate agents must master data storytelling, communicate value, and build trust.

In addition to providing a proven playbook to master comparative market analysis (CMA) tools, the second edition includes updated modern valuation strategies, deeper insights into AI and automation, and practical techniques to help agents differentiate themselves and sell more homes.

“Technology can estimate property values, but only exceptional agents can create massive value for buyers and sellers,” said Greg Robertson, co-founder of W+R Studios and Giant Steps Advisors. “This updated edition is about helping real estate professionals use data more effectively while also strengthening the human side of the business — trust, storytelling, negotiation, and strategy.”
New research: 89.6% of agents say CMAs will be more relevant in the future.

A highlight of the second edition is the 2026 Survey of Best Practices for CMAs and Presentations, produced by Giant Steps Advisors and Lone Wolf Technologies.

This survey of 2,165 U.S. real estate professionals focuses on best practices for using CMAs and other technologies to create accurate valuations and winning listing presentations.

• In 2026, 89.6% of agents surveyed believe CMAs will be more relevant in the future, a 22-point jump from the 2020 survey.
• About 83% of real estate agents are open to AI-assisted CMA tools
• Over 90% of agents cite the MLS as their most trusted data source for comps
Rather than becoming less relevant in the age of AI and automation, CMAs appear to be gaining relevance for real estate agents. As the costs of marketing and lead generation rise, agents are paying more to get in front of qualified prospects. Creating an expert CMA helps agents make the most of their valuable time with clients.
The expanded second edition includes:
• A powerful three-step framework to win more listings
• Best practices to create AI-enabled CMAs and listing presentations
• Modern scripts, objection handling, and real estate storytelling
• New commentary on transparency, compensation, and consumer trust
• Original research to inform CMAs and listing presentations
• Expanded discussion of Zillow, iBuyers, and consumer expectations

The book is designed for:
• Residential real estate agents
• Brokers and team leaders
• Real estate coaches and trainers
• New agents entering the industry
• Experienced listing agents seeking differentiation
• Real estate professionals adapting to AI-driven consumer behavior

The second edition of The Art of the CMA is available now in paperback and digital formats. Complimentary copies and press kits are available to reviewers on request, and readers can:
Order the book at: The Art of the CMA — Official Website
Get a free sample chapter from the Art of the CMA
View the 2026 Survey of Best Practices for CMAs and Listing Presentations

About the book
The Art of the CMA is written by proptech innovator and founder Greg Robertson and marketing strategist Charles Warnock. The book presents a toolkit of business, growth, and technology strategies to help agents create a lasting competitive advantage in modern real estate. Industry leaders, brokers, coaches, and MLS organizations are encouraged to share the book with their networks as a training resource for agents competing in today’s market.

About the authors
Greg Robertson is a longtime proptech leader with more than 30 years of experience building real estate technology companies. At Giant Steps Advisors, Greg guides industry-leading clients through product strategy, business development, and go-to-market execution. He is co-founder of W+R Studios and a national speaker on real estate technology, data, and growth strategies. He is also publisher of the popular Vendor Alley blog and co-host of the podcasts Listing Bits and Industry Relations.

Charles Warnock is a growth marketer, content strategist, author, and tech journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Charles specializes in marketing strategy and assets for enterprise tech and SaaS companies. He has more than 20 years of experience in real estate, mortgage, proptech, and financial marketing. In addition to The Art of the CMA, he is the co-author of Future Ready: A Changemaker’s Guide to the Exponential Revolution. Learn more at charleswarnock.net.

What real estate leaders say about The Art of the CMA
“Outstanding — 34 years’ worth of wisdom presented with smarts and good humor. This book is a gift to any real estate professional that wants to think bigger.” — Brian Boero, CEO, 1000watt

“Greg has distilled over three decades of experience into a blueprint for you to make yourself a better real estate artist. It’s all laid out in a step-by-step format. It’s not just delivering a great CMA. It’s organizing your entire thought process around defining massive value for our clients.” — Sharran Srivatsaa, President of Acquisition.com

“All agents are not created equal. Those who constantly strive to understand and master their markets know the power of the modern CMA platform. It has become the key directional in better presentations, prospecting, and customer loyalty.” — David Charron, Executive Advisor and Former CEO of MRIS

“Greg Robertson and Dan Woolley’s dedication and creativity have enabled them to expand the boundaries of the CMA beyond a presentation tool to a prospecting tool — and a customer-for-life tool. This is a book of tips, checklists, and frameworks designed to help agents win. Learn the Art of the CMA today!” — Victor Lund, Founding Partner, WAV Group; CEO, RE Technology

Media Contact:

Charles Warnock, SF Marketing Labs, 1 408-334-5979, cw@charleswarnock.net, https://charleswarnock.net/
SOURCE The Art of the CMA

The post The Art of the CMA Returns with a New Playbook to Win Real Estate Listings in the AI Era appeared first on Vendor Alley.

“Emily will lead RPR’s strategic engagement across Member Experience (UX), Broker Services, Industry Relations (Association and MLS) and Commercial Services.

Emily brings nearly two decades of experience within the National Association of REALTORS® family, including more than a decade helping shape RPR’s growth. After beginning her career managing commercial outreach, she joined RPR in 2012 and played a key role in building RPR Commercial from the ground up. Throughout her career, she has championed user-centered innovation, helping align technology solutions with the evolving needs of REALTORS®, brokerages, associations, MLSs and industry partners.”

Congrats to Emily and Janine.

The post Emily Line promoted to Chief Strategy Officer at RPR appeared first on Vendor Alley.