{"id":3329,"date":"2008-07-07T12:44:57","date_gmt":"2008-07-07T19:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2008-07-07T13:06:39","modified_gmt":"2008-07-07T20:06:39","slug":"attention-realtor-association-wannabe-geeks-all-monopolies-suck-by-definition-so-you-must-open-up-our-forms-to-multiple-vendors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3329\/attention-realtor-association-wannabe-geeks-all-monopolies-suck-by-definition-so-you-must-open-up-our-forms-to-multiple-vendors\/","title":{"rendered":"Attention Realtor association wannabe geeks: All monopolies suck by definition, so you must open up our forms to multiple vendors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote a couple of times yesterday about using the iPhone as the laptop killer for real estate transactions. If my guesses about cloud computing play out, the iPhone and subsequent hand-held computers have the potential to replace our desktop machines as well — or at least give us every bit of the power we expect from a desktop machine no matter where we happen to be. This is all for real, a brand new world unfolding before our eyes.<\/p>\n

What is not<\/em> new, alas, are the monopolies of morons imposed upon us by the National Association of Realtors and all of its many tentacular sub-cartels. Where everything in business is about to change radically — in response to the iPhone, to Web 3.0, to the unforeseeable efficiencies of the cloud — everything in our<\/em> business will change at its usual glacial pace — driven not by the pursuit of profit, not by the thrill of innovation, not by the ever-more-vast oceans of information available to us — driven only<\/em> by the need of the NAR and its cabal of sleazy vendors to hold Realtors hostage.<\/p>\n

In late May I bitched about the vast hordes of bugs that infest Zipforms<\/a>, but I knew going in that this was a Sysiphean effort. The people who impose these awful products on us are not the ones stuck using them. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if there are off-budget contributions — subsidies for Realtor association parties, for example — written into the contracts, which simply introduces bribery into what is already a capricious decision-making process. Caprice, it is worthwhile to stress, is the opposite of reason.<\/p>\n

Tom Farley, the new CEO of the Arizona Association of Realtors actually called me in response to that post, but I could not manage to convey to him the importance of multiple, competing vendors to a free — or even quasi-free — market. What he told me is that, instead of Zipforms, in the future we will be inflicted with a different<\/em> hopelessly buggy Windows-only piece of crap software. I know the man was in deep earnest, and I know Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote a couple of times yesterday about using the iPhone as the laptop killer for real estate transactions. If my guesses about cloud computing play out, the iPhone and subsequent hand-held computers have the potential to replace our desktop machines as well — or at least give us every bit of the power we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,5,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-supplanting-the-nar","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12005,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12005\/facebook-privacy-monopolies-and-marketing-revenue\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":0},"title":"Facebook, Privacy, Monopolies, and Marketing Revenue…","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"May 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"More than several years ago, I used to snicker at those who were (in my mind) overly concerned about Google OWNING all of the data in their disparate enterprises. \"What would happen if they would put all of that data into a large data warehouse and mine it?\" folks would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1986,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1986\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-nominated-posts-is-open\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":1},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This was a great week. It wasn't easy getting to a short list of twenty nominees, and I think it's going to be particularly tough to pick an ultimate winner. I can't imagine it will be any easier for you to vote for the People's Choice Award. What gets a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1985,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1985\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-the-long-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":2},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — The long list","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a lot of news this week, some tragic, some comical. All of it and then some is represented here. This is \"the long list\" -- the total list of nominees that made the cut to be considered for the short list, the nominees available for voting for The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3526,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3526\/whats-the-obstacle-to-a-paperless-iphone-able-real-estate-transaction-the-sclerotic-real-estate-industry-itself\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":3},"title":"What’s the obstacle to a paperless, iPhone-able real estate transaction? The sclerotic real estate industry itself","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for last week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0What's the obstacle to a paperless, iPhone-able real estate transaction? The sclerotic real estate industry itself I carry my digital still camera and my Flip video camera with me wherever I go. I have belt-mounted camera cases,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3357,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3357\/realty-dreams-moving-wisely-ever-cloud-wise-we-approach-the-day-when-we-can-do-anything-from-anywhere-without-lugging-anything\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":4},"title":"Realty dreams: Moving wisely ever cloud-wise, we approach the day when we can do anything from anywhere without lugging anything","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Attend, if you please: OmniFocus for the iPhone. It will not only help you Get Things Done, it will tell you when to do them. No kidding. If one of your tasks is to ship a parcel at the post office, OmniFocus will sound an alarm when you are near\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4081,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4081\/bloodhoundblog-sports-new-iphone-theme-all-the-dog-half-the-drool\/","url_meta":{"origin":3329,"position":5},"title":"BloodhoundBlog sports new iPhone theme: All the dog, half the drool","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I installed an iPhone-only theme this morning. If you land on BloodhoundBlog from any browser except Safari for the iPhone, you'll see our normal theme. If you come in from the iPhone, you'll get a theme optimized for the iPhone's (or iTouch's) screen size. This is the way BHB looked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}