Dot WEB (.WEB) sold at auction for $135 million

Jul 31,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

Dot WEB (.WEB) sold at auction for $135 million on July 29

First, it was the new Top-level Domain (TLD) .APP that was acquired at auction for a $25 million bid by Google; recently it was .SHOP that was won with a $41.5 million bid from a Japanese company.

And now, the contentious battle among 7 companies who applied to operate the .WEB suffix has ended in a winning bid of $135 million, with speculation that the winning bid was backed by .COM operator Verisign. For that kind of money and contention, the domain market indicates that .WEB could be even bigger than .COM

So, who gets the $135 million? It goes to ICANN, who has now banked over $235 million as a result of ICANN’s last resort auction mechanism that is used when several parties applied for the same suffix but were unable to resolve this contention by themselves.

And what will ICANN do with all this auction money? Good question! See http://bit.ly/2apFOlM

April 1

First Quarter Report – April 1, 2016

Apr 1,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

Once again the first quarter of the year has passed, and as we have done for the past 10 years or so, John and I will summarize events of note, April1, 2016. This is an election year and we have breaking political news, as well as THE major stories in the real estate industry, which is where we will start…

The Perfect Storm:

In a blow to the real estate industry, President Obama issued an Executive Order today, effective immediately, eliminating the employment status of independent contractor in a number of industries, including the real estate industry. This represents a paradigm shift to the current model of real estate sales. All real estate licensees will become employees of their broker, have the right to organize and collective bargain, receive health care coverage, retirement plans, and be paid minimum wage.

In another major blow to the Real Estate Industry, the U.S. Department of Justice, today filed a complaint in federal court, naming every MLS in the U.S. as Respondents. The complaint alleges, among other things, actions involving conspiracy, accusing the MLSs of per se violations of the Sherman Anti Trust Act, as facilitators of illegal collaboration between competitors. “New online technologies, companies, and innovation make the structure and purpose of MLS obsolete” stated a DOJ representative, who agreed to speak with us with assurances of anonymity.

And for the Hat Trick, Google announced that it is returning to real estate in a big way, opening its “National Listing Service” to the public, and purchasing Move, Inc (the operator of REALTOR.com) from Rupert Murdock.

newspaper_article

But that’s not all, keep reading!

If you ever wondered what Google planned to do with all of that “white space” on the search page, now you know, they are offering a free listing service, allowing real estate offered for sale to be advertised on the Google Real Estate Site, for free, launched off of the Goggle Search Page. Consumers are waking up to Google Real Estate…It will offer disrupting tools and applications to change the way real estate is bought and sold, virtually eliminating fees to buyers and sellers. This will redefine the role of the real estate professional, and fill the gap should the DOJ take out MLSs, as mentioned in an earlier story.

google_home_page-001

And, the world of politics leaves nothing to the imagination.

Our inside source has informed us that at 3:00 PM, EDT, Donald Trump will end his campaign and quest for the presidency of the United States. It is rumored, amongst those in the know, that Trump and Ted Cruz have struck a deal. In return for Trump resigning from the race, Ted Cruz, if elected, will build that wall Trump has been promising, along the border with Mexico. Ted Cruz, in turn, promised Donald Trump that he would deliver him the contract to build the wall, and Trump will be allowed to put the Trump brand on the wall, which will be able to be viewed from space. Masterful positioning, negotiating and branding by The Donald.

Also at 3:00 PM, EDT, we are told, the Department of Justice will issue indictments against Hillary Clinton, 27 different Causes of Action. Hillary could not be reached, but President Bill Clinton responded: “What difference does it make? She is the only one of the four remaining candidates prepared for the job of President. Are you going to let trust get in the way?”

Bernie Sanders was asked for his comments, but he could not be reached, taking the week off to celebrate Purim with his family.

And lastly, Jesse Ventura, and Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that they are running as President and Vice President respectively on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. When asked why they decided to run, they responded that this is the year for outsiders. Hulk Hogan will serve as Secretary of Defense.

It is an amazing world and an amazing time, and once again we are happy to bring you the news, April 1, 2016.

Domain Names Dot REALTOR Uncategorized

Universal Acceptance — TLDs

Feb 29,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

With over 12 million new Top-level Domains in operation, it appears that a few software developers and website owners have yet to update their systems to keep pace with this evolving domain name system. Check out this helpful link created by the Universal Acceptance Steering Group —http://www.universalacceptance.link/

The Universal Acceptance Steering Group is a community-based

team working to share their vision for the Internet of the future with those who construct this space: coders. The group’s primary objective is to help software developers and website owners understand how to update their systems in light of the rapid acceptance of the new TLDs. Its primary message is that Universal Acceptance will enable the next billion users to build their own spaces and identities online.

Of special interest to developers and programmers is the Domain Test https://github.com/google/domaintest

Domain Test is a tool designed to help developers test their applications for compatibility with new top-level domains (TLDs). Developed by Google and launched in a partnership between Google Registry and Ausregistry, CentralNic, Donuts, RightSide, and Uniregistry, Domain Test is an open source project available under the Apache 2 license and can be used across 145 new TLDs. It is freely available for use and modification.

This repository contains the documentation and code for Domain Test. For clarity, the documentation uses the term “new TLDs” to refer to the universe of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), new country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), and internationalized domain names (IDNs).

The Domain Test service runs on AppEngine and is available for any developer to use. However, depending on what type of new TLD you want to test, you can substitute any of the strings in the Domain Test TLDs section of this documentation.

Of interest, the Universal Acceptance site also references a number of examples of new TLDs currently in use — Top Websites using New gTLDs – http://list.ly/list/Rg5-top-websites-using-new-gtlds

Shopping on .SHOP

Feb 15,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

In February of 2015, the Internet community was shocked to find out that someone paid $25,001,000 in an auction to acquire the new Top-level Domain (TLD) for .APP (Dot APP). That someone, of course, was none other than Google. And just last month, on January 27, 2016, the new TLD for .SHOP (Dot Shop), was sold at auction for a whopping $41,501,000. The winning bidder was GMO Domain International, Inc from Tokyo. They outlasted Amazon and Google in a bidding war that went 14 rounds, the final round going from $36,800,000 to $46,000,000.
https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-result/applicationstatus/auctionresults

We are talking some serious money here in the ecommerce space, a space in which there are now over 12 million new TLDs.

How do we even get to the auction stage? First, for anyone to apply to operate a new TLD, there is a $185,000 application fee. In the event more than one applicant applies for the same domain (called a ‘string’), those competing entities move to a string contention status under ICANN rules. ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable.

According to ICANN, “Auctions are the mechanism of last resort to resolve string contention within the New gTLD Program. ICANN expects that most string contention will be resolved through other means before reaching an Auction conducted by ICANN’s authorized Auction service provider, Power Auctions LLC. However, there is a possibility that significant funding will accrue as a result of several Auctions. Auction proceeds will be reserved and earmarked until the Board determines a plan for the appropriate use of the funds through consultation with the community. Auction proceeds are net of any Auction costs. Auction costs may include initial set-up costs, auction management fees, and escrow fees.”

212 of the 233 contention sets are now resolved, the majority having self-resolved, but a few were resolved via ICANN’s auction process (“the method of last resort”). In some cases, contending applicants formed joint ventures in their efforts to resolve string contention. In other cases, some applicants withdrew after receiving some compensation from the surviving applicant — hopefully in an amount to at least compensate the withdrawing party for their $185,000 initial application fee.

In one case of a contention over the new TLD .coupon (Dot coupon), the battle was between Donuts, Inc and the Coupon.com company. Donuts prevailed. According to an SEC filing, Coupons.com received $4.8 million dollars, apparently based on a privately negotiated agreement. As one pundit noted, it only cost Coupons.com $185,000 to file its application for .Coupons TLD, making this the best coupon the company ever redeemed.

And what about the $41,501,000 winning bid for .SHOP – who got that money? Well, ICANN of course. In fact, in the 15 auctions that have concluded since June 2014, ICANN has amassed $101,357,812 in net proceeds. Some of the top auction winning bids besides Google’s .APP, were .TECH for $6,706,000, .REALTY for $5,588,888, and .MLS for $3,359,000 by CREA. https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/auctions/proceeds

According to ICANN, “Possible uses of auction funds include formation of a foundation with a clear mission and a transparent way to allocate funds to projects that are of interest to the greater Internet community, such as grants to support new gTLD applications or registry operators from communities in subsequent gTLD rounds, the creation of an ICANN-administered/community-based fund for specific projects for the benefit of the Internet community, the creation of a registry continuity fund for the protection of registrants (ensuring that funds would be in place to support the operation of a gTLD registry until a successor could be found), or establishment of a security fund to expand use of secure protocols, conduct research, and support standards development organizations in accordance with ICANN’s security and stability mission.”

With more than 1500 TLD applications submitted to ICANN in the first round, there are sure to be companies that do not turn their TLDs into successful businesses. But with such a large amount of investment money at stake, we can expect to see a lot of ecommerce activity built around many of the new TLD ventures.

Uncategorized

What would it be worth to be able to predict the future…with accuracy?

Feb 14,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

This is about the data, not the politics. Why all of the fuss over data? With data, you can accurately predict the future. Being able to tell the future could be a great, competitive advantage.

Don’t be so quick to give your MLS data away to outsiders.

Google calls it in New Hampshire.

Design Lab

RealTown Labs Accelerated Design Lab

Feb 11,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

What is RealTown Labs Accelerated DesignLab

RealTown Labs Accelerated DesignLab is a joint venture with PredictionWorks, Inc. The laboratory is an environment with tools, models and processes that accelerate for start-up and emerging companies’ product invention, market adoption, financing and business building challenges 50% to 300% faster than conventional means.

On the Cutting Edge

RealTown Labs Accelerated DesignLab partner, PredictionWorks, Inc., is the second licensee of the GroupGenius™ suite of human performance technologies with the license covering start-up and emerging growth companies. This GroupGenius™ human performance platform has been implemented since 1998 with Fortune 500 companies by the first licensee, Cap Gemini, in 24 Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASE) worldwide. Over 1,000 events have been conducted with over 50% of the clients being repeat customers. 54 of Fortunes Top 100 companies are now using Cap Gemini’s ASE environment. The proven tradition of GroupGenius™ makes it possible for months of work to be reduced to just hours or days.

What Goes on in the Accelerated DesignLab

Assessments. Realtown Labs offers a powerful due diligence tool for assessing a technology company and its market. This tool is called the New Venture Accessor and was developed by our partner, PredictionWorks, Inc. It covers the seven most critical areas of investor inquiry. Each critical area has over 15 levels of inquiry. The tool has over 1,000 best practice indices that are measured. The process results in a index rating for each of the critical areas of inquiry. This tool was tested as 100 percent reliable in 10 double blind backdated manual-based validation tests in Silicon Valley by Wilson Sonsini, Hitachi Consulting and FSX.

DesignLab. A powerful and integrated application of GroupGenius™ and the New Venture Assessor is DesignLab. Through DesignLab, the invention process increases in acceleration and accuracy 4x our conventional methods. Currently RealTown Labs is serving as “home base” for RealTown Labs invention work for build-to-flip technologies.

group group3

Build-to-Flip Inventions. One significant application of DesignLab is called the “Build-to-Flip” application (“B2F”). In this B2F model, DesignLab is used to invent a technology component that incumbent companies “got-to-have” for their core systems and these incumbent have neither the “time” or “talent” to invent themselves-so they will pay millions to own outright the B2F technology RealTown Labs has invented.

What Stakeholders Should Expect From A Realtown Labs Accelerated DesignLab Event

What if…
- You could get all of a project’s stakeholders to not only talk about inventing a breakthrough technology, but to actually develop it together?
- You could unleash the full potential and creativity of a team, key suppliers, customers, and subject matter specialists all at once?
- You could accelerate all phases of discovering, designing and developing a build-to-flip technology reducing months to weeks to days?

You can do this and more. At Realtown Labs Accelerated DesignLab, we combine our world-class and patented decision-making process, innovative workspaces and unique best practices models to enable a team of innovators to discover, design and develop a build-to-flip technology.

Participants can expect that event sponsors and facilitators are on the “same page” about goals, tactics and timelines.
Participants can expect read-ahead materials. These materials are important. They ensure everyone has adequate context before going into a DesignLab event.
Participants can expect professional and experienced Group Genius^® facilitation on DesignLab days.
Participants can expect the unexpected once DesignLab starts.
Participants can expect the finest models, processes and tools for maximum creativity.
Participants can expect that proper discovery and design constraints have been thought-out in advance by facilitators.
Participants can expect that the best practices of Group Genius^®will be followed.
Participants can expect that there will probably be breakdowns during DesignLab before there are any breakthroughs.
Participants can expect that there will be first-class capture of information and ideas generated during DesignLab.
Participants can expect that DesignLab will move all the stakeholders in the right direction for accomplishing the goal of DesignLab, namely

Inventing for an incumbent provider/supplier a technology component that the provider/supplier considers a “got-to-have” core part of provider’s/supplier’s product or production systems and the provider/supplier has neither the time or talent to invent the technology component themselves.

Methodology Flyer – click this link

News Risk Management

New Airbnb disclosure law in California

Feb 11,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

New Airbnb disclosure law in California

In a matter of a few years, Airbnb has developed a global presence that has attracted many enthusiastic supporters as well as numerous vocal critics, especially those living in the neighborhood. Interestingly, during Airbnb initial attempts to gain venture capital funding, it seems that Brian Chesky, co-founder, took his idea to seven venture capital firms – five threw him out the door after 15 minutes and the other two didn’t even return his phone call. After all, why would anyone give the keys to their house to a stranger who might be a serial killer? And today, that goofball idea has a valuation of $10 Billion.

Airbnb has also attracted the attention of government regulators who have attempted to assert some controls over what is called “hosting platforms.” One law recently enacted in California is of special interest to landlords and property managers. The law — Business and Professions Code Sec. 22590, 22592, and 22594, effective January 1, 2016 — requires a “hosting platform” to warn a tenant that subletting the tenant’s residence may violate his/her lease and could result in eviction.

A “hosting platform” is a marketplace that is created to facilitate the rental of a residential unit offered for tourist or transient use for compensation to the offeror of that unit, and the operator of the hosting platform derives revenues, including booking fees or advertising revenues, from providing or maintaining that marketplace. Airbnb is an example of such a platform.

This law requires a “hosting platform” to provide notice to an occupant listing a residence for short-term rental that states:

“if you are a tenant who is listing a room, home, condominium, or apartment, please refer to your rental contract or lease, or contact your landlord, prior to listing the property to determine whether your lease or contract contains restrictions that would limit your ability to list your room, home, condominium, or apartment. Listing your room, home, condominium, or apartment may be a violation of your lease or contract, and could result in legal action against you by your landlord, including possible eviction.”

The notice must be in a particular font size and be provided immediately before the occupant lists each real property on the hosting platform’s Internet Web site in a manner that requires the occupant to interact with the hosting platform’s Internet Web site to affirmatively acknowledge he or she has read the notice.

Well, that’s the latest from California. It’s a disclosure law, one that probably doesn’t have compliance or enforcement teeth.

So, what’s the status of these Airbnb type short-term rentals in your neighborhood? Are they drawing the attention of local regulators?

How Many local REALTOR Associations are there? And how many members at each Association?

Feb 4,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

Here is a list from realtor.org which covered 1246 Associations – as of summer 2015 (before Core Standards went into effect Nov 2015, shaking out a lot of the smaller ones and consolidating others).

Interestingly, less than 90 Associations have 3,000 or more members.

Less than 240 have 1,000 or more members

Here’s a manual count of members from largest to smallest:

37, 453 to 10,000 members = 14 Associations

7,000 to 10,000 = 15

5,000 to 7,000 = 22

4,000 to 5,000 = 13

3,000 to 4,000 = 23

2,000 to 3,000 = 38

1,000 to 2,000 = 115

600 to 1,000 = 112

500 to 600 = 23

400 to 500 = 68

300 to 400 = 84

200 to 300 = 137

100 to 200 = 255

Under 100 = 327 (INCLUDES 7 WHO HAD ZERO MEMBERS)

Conferences

Inman Connect New York City – January 2016

Feb 2,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

Connect NYC was preceded by Snomaggeden this year, but by the time I arrived at LaGuardia, the snow was all but gone. Inman Connect is one of the best events in the real estate industry and it is repeated in San Francisco in the summer. My recommendation is to buy your tickets now, make your plans, and be there. There are many events to attend in the real estate industry, many not worth the time or the money…Connect is one of the exceptions.

It all began 20 years ago at the first Inman Connect amongst the Redwoods in Northern California. There were about 50 in attendance, and I was one of the lucky ones. The Internet was first being commercialized and real estate listings were yet to be found in any numbers on the web. One of the biggest issues facing the Internet and its progress was bandwidth.

Twenty years later the attendance is in the 3,000 range. The technology vendors, industry experts, and speakers gives one an idea of how fast things are changing. As always, there were lots of new technology vendors, as well as many recognizable industry players.

The excitement grew prior to the opening, with the help of a live band.

Music to raise the energy level with a live band

Brad’s opening remarks are always a highlight of the event…here is how he opened this year…

Brads opening

The first speaker was author and marketer, Seth Godin…his message has changed little over the years and is excellent, as well as entertaining. “Be different, or charge less…and charging less is a race to the bottom you cannot win.”

Seth Godin

The agenda includes panel after panel in many segments of the real estate industry, and some of the technologies being brought to the marketplace. Many of these technologies are adaptable to other verticals.

Major Challenges Facing MLSs Segment

A three hour session around MLS, consisting of a series of panel discussions, was enlightening.

David Charron, and a team of known MLS industry experts delivered.

Does the MLS Limit Progress?

How Many MLSs does the country need?

Today – 826

Tomorrow – 30 by 2030?

What Do Next Generation Real Estate Professionals Expect from Their MLS?

(Personally) I think what needs to be asked here is what percentage of the subscribers and participants of your MLS are NextGen…before rediging the future for a handful of the customers.

And concluding with:

Upstream from the Source

UpStream – What is it, what isn’t it?

upstream is a journey

Data Licensing

What do free real estate forms have to do with data?

Feb 2,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

What is the value of online forms to the owners of the online form companies in real estate transactions? Plenty. John and I have been singing the song of the value of data for years now.

Forms are where the most authoritative data resides pertaining to a buyer or a seller’s progress and seriousness of buying or selling a propery. When someone buys a property, all sorts of things occur, other purchases occur.

Underlying an offer of free forms, is the question of what will the forms provider do with the data. It is a potential goldmine…but no one talks about it.

>>After vigorous debate, the board of directors of the National Association of Realtors approved a proposal Monday to provide the trade group’s 1 million-plus members transaction management software from Realtor-owned firm zipLogix at no cost to members.

NAR’s three-year agreement with zipLogix charges the trade group $10 per member for the first two years and increases the rate by no more than the increase in the federal Consumer Price Index in the third year, according to NAR CEO Dale Stinton.

The deal is estimated to cost between $11 million and $12 million per year from NAR’s reserves. NAR’s membership count stood at just under 1.17 million at the end of October.

Starting in the first quarter, agents and brokers will have free access to the firm’s zipForm Plus software, transaction forms specific to their area, document storage through zipVault, and zipLogix’ transaction management system, zipTMS (formerly known as relay).

ZipLogix is a joint venture between the National Association of Realtors and California Association of Realtors subsidiary Real Estate Business Services Inc. (REBS). As of the end of 2013, NAR owned an approximately 30 percent interest in zipLogix, carrying a value of $4 million.

The proposal was approved by a vote of 455 to 217, but not until after a spirited debate ensued among board members. Several dissenting members — though not all — were from Florida, where the state association has its own forms company, Form Simplicity.
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