Blog – Tuesdays with Mary

Tuesday, December 12, 2023 I’ve been thinking about conspicuous fees and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). What is a conspicuous fee? Well, one way to look at it is that a conspicuous fee is the opposite of a hidden junk fee. Are fees for your services conspicuous and delightful or are they hidden and junk? How would you know? Whose definition are we using? Queue a new proposed rule being offered by the FTC. We’re in a comment period running until Jan. 8, 2024, for the FTC’s proposed rulemaking entitled “Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.” If you’re involved in [...]

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 I’ve been thinking about measuring our businesses for effective 2024 budgeting. As we close out 2023 and set our eyes for what will hopefully be a more traditional market sooner rather than later, it might be time to rebalance some expenses. Knowing how to adjust those dials might make a big difference in how your Q1 balance sheet fares. In order to get the most out of your budgeting process, investing in a few hours of research can yield a huge benefit. While you might be able to quote quite accurate percentages and ratios in “normal” [...]

Tuesday, November 28, 2023 I’ve been thinking about real estate commissions. And wondering how they’re going to change. Given the recent news with commission-related lawsuits, it seems a safe bet to expect change. But it’s hard to anticipate exactly what form that change will take. One of the blessings and curses of being in an industry for 30-plus years is that you’re around long enough to see everything old become new again. Now and again, you also get to encounter something old get turned on its head and wrung out. I guess I’m not sure which category this settlement falls [...]

Tuesday, November 21, 2023 I’ve been thinking about this time of year, autumn. My thoughts drift between thinking of the seasons literally, and conjuring the notion of fall, figuratively. I love autumn, and maybe I always have. As a kid, it meant going back to school. Fall also meant that my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, was right around the corner. In later years, fall also meant slowing down a bit to enjoy the changing of the leaves. In the title business, it came to mean convention season, which is always great to see everyone out and about. When living in Texas, [...]

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 I’ve been thinking about millennials coming into their homebuying season of life, and what a jolt it is for many who waited longer than previous generations to buy a starter home. The market didn’t actually favor waiting, which makes the leap not only feel larger: that leap is larger for this group. For millennials who went to college, the journey into homeownership can feel more daunting, instead of less. Which wasn’t supposed to be the deal was it? But there that deal is, nonetheless. We (I’m talking about generations older than millennials here) set a stage [...]

Tuesday, November 7, 2023 I’ve been thinking about Chesterton’s Fence. If you’re not familiar, the concept starts like this: imagine you’re walking along a road and you come across a fence built across the road. You see no use for it, it leads nowhere, it prevents nothing. It’s just sitting there, being a fence. For me it helps to place the walk in a forest, and out of nowhere I come across a short bit of fence, in the middle of the forest, in the middle of nowhere. Regardless of the scenario you choose, there is no immediately discernible reason [...]

Tuesday, October 31, 2023 I’ve been thinking about the Trump trial in NYC. And how an appraiser just might be the key witness of the entire thing. I’ll bet you didn’t have that on your bingo card! Regardless of your political outlook on the presidential race, if you live and work in the world of real estate, you no doubt are somewhat interested in following the outcome of the trial in New York that centers on valuations of commercial real estate. It’s with that interest that I’ve mildly kept watch on the case. It deals with questions of reps and [...]

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 I’ve been thinking about Seller Impersonation Fraud. Did you know there’s an app for that? Everyone has been talking about seller impersonation fraud lately, and rightfully so. It’s on the rise and the amount of theft in real dollars is no joke. In every description I’ve read on how to combat it, there are wonderful tips and tricks to help mitigate these kinds of losses. In each of these I also read how easy it is to “comb the public records” looking for properties (usually vacant land) at the beginning of the scam. But it’s worse [...]

Tuesday, October 17, 2023 I’ve been thinking about mentoring. Do we do it enough in our worlds? Do we do it right? Heck, do you do it at all? I’m not talking about some big formal communication apparatus where you don a cloak of gray-bearded wisdom and pontificate from high atop the mountain, calling forth all your years of experience and storytelling about all the adversity you faced and overcame. Though if we’re being honest, isn’t that what some of us call mentoring? If that’s how you’re “mentoring” – stop. It’s a no. My guess is that isn’t your style, [...]

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 I’ve been thinking about customer service and artificial intelligence (AI). Listen, I get it. AI can do the rote activities of your business: driving out costs, finding new patterns for success, and boosting your efficiency. That is all true. In that sense, as in many others, AI is one of those game changers that comes along only once every decade or so. I embrace any tool that bolsters both sides of the profit equation. Anything that can help raise revenue and decrease expenses deserves serious analysis. The promise of AI to do that is legitimate. But [...]