I love me some Quora; I like when people ask my advice about real estate and… cheating spouses. I got a question about adverse possession today, of real estate not spouses, and I have heard about adverse possession but haven’t experienced it in the wild; I know about it in theory but not [...]

Chattel, Emblements, Trade Fixtures... Oh my

The distinction between real property and personal property sounds simple until you're sitting in an escrow at the closing table and someone asks whether the chandelier stays or goes. That's when the line between what conveys (real and attachments) and what does not (personal and some fixtures) [...]

You bought your home for $1,400.000 in 2019. Under California's Proposition 13, your assessed value increased at 2% annually—so by 2026, you're being taxed on roughly $1,608,000. Meanwhile, the market dropped, and your home is now worth $1,000,000 but you’re still paying taxes on the sales [...]

Real Estate 101 Appraisals

One of the most important contingencies buyers have in an agreement is the appraisal contingency. Appraisals provide a third-party reality check on the value of (anything really) real estate. If a property doesn’t appraise at value, then a buyer can renegotiate the agreement—as long as the appraisal contingency [...]

Real Estate 101: Agency

Real estate is full of words people use every day without really knowing what they mean. Agency is one of them. Buyers hear it and assume it means “my agent is on my side.” Sellers hear it and assume it means “someone is handling this for me.” Agents hear it and sometimes assume everybody knows the rules [...]

Let me preface this by saying there will always be all cash $300k above asking price in two day offers to talk about, but those are now the exception and not the norm. Real estate is cyclical with each new market cycle bringing some fresh new hell for agents, buyers and sellers. And the fresh new hell for a lot of newer agents is the [...]

There is a lot of real estate topics agents don't talk about because, A) no one really knows anything about the topic, and B) it isn't "sexy." There are no glossy photos, no vanity videos, pod casts, bidding wars, and no closing day champagne. But basis is what keeps the tax man from taking a bigger slice of your pie than he's legally [...]

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 2026 FOR @INMAN SELECT

Compass’s assault on the MLS: How a private deal with Redfin threatens the open market

The Multiple Listing Service has been the backbone of American real estate for over a century. It is the shared, transparent marketplace where every broker and buyer has equal access to inventory, where [...]

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN @REALTYTIMES.COM FEB 27 2026

January 9, 2026, Compass closed its $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, merging the nation's two largest brokerages into a single entity with 340,000 agents under one technology platform 

 This deal moves far beyond simple agent count or brand recognition. It represents [...]

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN Real Estate Agent Magazine (realesateagentmagazine.com) NOV 2025

The Golden Age of the "No-No" VA Loan Is Over—Here’s What Changed

For years, veterans and active-duty military personnel enjoyed one of the best deals in real estate: the "No-No" VA loan—no down payment, no private mortgage insurance (PMI), and, until [...]