Weekly Radar #279 - All-In On Commissions, Back With a Fractional Marketplace, & To Infinity And Beyond…For ConTech
Here's what we're covering in this week's edition of the Crystal Radar
- The All-In Podcast discussed the commission lawsuits on their most recent episode, but none of the "Besties" argued for the value of an agent--a massive miss for NAR and the industry.
- Fractional second homes player Kocomo is back...as a marketplace.
- NASA is helping guide research on building settlements on the moon, including a waterless concrete project from LSU (Geaux Tigers!)
- The GEM Proptech Portfolio was down 1.01% for the week.
Keep reading for full analysis on the topics above.
What's new on the Geek Estate Blog this week:
The inaugural GEM Proptech Getaway, an exclusive retreat bringing together visionaries, industry leaders, venture capitalists, and seasoned practitioners in the world of proptech. Taking place April 4-6 in a beautiful venue away from the distractions of a bustling urban core, this will be a deep foray into relationship building in a casual environment.
Crystal Transmission Recap
This week, we published our yearly reflections on GEM's 2023 predictions (Free for all readers). How'd we fare?
Overall 2023 Proptech Trend Score: 7-3-3
Overall 2023 Proptech Predictions Score: 0-4
Overall 2023 Contech Prediction Score: 3-3-1
Before that, Drew Meyers explored the opportunity for agents to serve as the HOA/community/neighborhood historian.
As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM Diamond content. If you would like to have access to all links, please consider GEM Diamond membership.
REAL ESTATE
All-In On Commissions
By: Drew Meyers
The All-In Podcast covered the lawsuits on episode #158 (December 22nd, 2023). The net summary was four top 1%, tech efficiency nuts saying that the current commission structure is flawed, consumers are hurt, and the MLS stronghold needs to be taken down.
None of them argued the case for the value of an agent, nor do any of them realize that most transactions are sub $500,000 rather than $5 million or above.
Watch/listen to the entire episode (lawsuit discussion starts at 1:17):
This is the #2 technology podcast in existence. The audience is huge. It's literally the only podcast that I listen to which occasionally comes up in my conversations with non-techies. The fact that there was no knowledgeable person in the discussion taking the side of NAR and agents hurts because, like it or not, these outlets are where the masses actually get news and form opinions This falls in line with what Robert Hahn has been suggesting: NAR should be booking slots on these sorts of podcasts. Listening to the conversation, I couldn't help but thinking how surface level their analysis of commission compression was. Aside from Redfin, none of the many attempts and tombstones in this category were referenced. I virtually guarantee they would cover the commission lawsuits again on a future segment with a guest taking the opposing viewpoint, were they presented with one.