RISMedia

What the Most Successful Real Estate Brokerages Are Getting Right Today 📈🏢

Clients in today's housing market aren’t looking for the biggest logo in the room—they are looking for trusted, highly connected advisors.

A new exclusive commentary from Brown Harris Stevens dives into why independent brokerages are thriving by prioritizing an intentional approach to growth. Learn how prioritizing accessible leadership, a collaborative culture, and individualized agent development is helping top professionals scale their businesses without losing the personal touch. 🔗 ⬇️

What are the Most Successful Brokerages Getting Right Today? — RISMedia Agents who understand their worth and align themselves with a vision for how they want to build their business are better positioned to grow.

Realtracs and Zillow Extend Talks as Listing Feed Deadline Passes 📈💻

Yesterday's deadline for Zillow to comply with Realtracs’s new rules has come and gone with no disruption to local property listings. Realtracs announced that it will not suspend Zillow's access to MLS data while productive licensing negotiations continue.

At the heart of the dispute is a rule requiring that any publicly marketed home must be visible to all buyers matching its criteria. While Zillow argues for consumer transparency, MLS leaders and brokerages like Compass contend that tech platforms shouldn't dictate how sellers choose to market their homes. 🔗 ⬇️

Realtracs Still in Negotiations With Zillow; Deadline Extended — RISMedia Rather than suspend Zillow’s access to its MLS data feed, Realtracs said negotiations with the portal remain active and will continue.

: Why Team Leaders Make the Best Brokerage Owners 👥🏢

Think running a team and owning a brokerage are completely different? Think again. The skills required to run a high-producing team are identical to the ones needed to build a company—the only difference is the scale.

The fundamentals cross over perfectly:
❌ Your success is tied to coaching others, not your own production.
⚙️ Onboarding and tracking systems must replace pure hustle.
✨ Agents join for tools, but they stay for the culture and leadership.

If you’re a team leader looking to take the next step into ownership, you already have the DNA. It's just time to expand the platform. 🔗 ⬇️

From Team Leader to Brokerage Leader: More Similar Than You Think — RISMedia Whether you’re leading five agents or 500, long-term growth is driven by leadership, not individual production.

Before You Plant the Sign: 3 Crucial Seller Conversations 📋✨

Ever taken a listing you quickly regretted? Most client friction can be avoided by aligning on these three areas before signing the paperwork:

📉 Price: Use hard market data to set a realistic baseline so the market delivers the reality, not you.
📱 Communication: Establish how and when you’ll give updates, and set boundaries for after-hours messages.
💰 Net Costs: Review all closing expenses and potential timeline bottlenecks so there are zero surprises at the end.

Taking 15 minutes to set these boundaries upfront saves months of frustration. 🔗 ⬇️

3 Conversations to Have Before You Take Any Listing — RISMedia The best agents set the terms before they win the listing. Learn three conversations about price, communication and closings that protect every deal you take.

Mastering the "Win-Win" in Today's Housing Market 🧠🏠

Negotiating in today’s environment isn't about trying to bully the other side—it’s about finding a strategic balance.

We sat down with Jared Oliver of ChuckTown Homes to discuss why localized markets with high affordable inventory are a goldmine for first-time buyers right now. Discover his deliberate process for guiding clients through search anxiety, managing modern consumer expectations, and setting terms that satisfy the seller's bottom line while keeping monthly mortgage payments within a buyer's comfort zone. 🔗⬇️

May Housing Market Update: More Homes, Softening Prices 🏠📈

Spring data shows a more active and resilient real estate market compared to previous years, giving buyers and sellers a strong foundation heading into summer.

The quick takeaways:
✅ More Inventory: Housing inventory increased 5.8% over last month.
✅ Cooling Prices: Average home values dropped 0.2% month-over-month.
✅ More Contracts: Pending sales rose 1.4% monthly—up 3.2% year-over-year.

While high inflation (3.8%) means interest rates will likely stay higher for longer, more realistic home pricing is successfully keeping the market moving. 🔗 ⬇️

Econ Review: A Look at May’s Key Market Data Editor’s note: Econ Review is a roundup of the month’s housing and economic market data reports. Spring 2026 is shaping

May Jobs Report Outperforms Forecasts, But Rate Cuts Remain Unlikely 📊🛠️

The US job market posted another stronger-than-expected month, adding 172,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate remained stable at 4.3% for the third month in a row.

While a steady workforce is great news for the overall economy, economists note that it won't necessarily translate to lower mortgage rates. With inflation risks still lingering, the Federal Reserve's next interest rate move is more likely to go up than down. For the housing market, a record-high number of employed Americans is helping the industry tread water, but high home prices and elevated borrowing costs continue to hold back real spring activity. 🔗 ⬇️

Labor Market Posts Another Strong Month Amid Economic Uncertainty The labor market remains in good standing, beating out economist expectations for another month in May as the rest of

April proved to be a disappointing month for new home sales after a promising start to the year. 🛑🏠

With income growth struggling to keep pace with housing costs, higher mortgage rates and everyday inflation are forcing prospective buyers to hit pause. The good news for anyone still shopping? New home inventory has risen.

Experts predict builders will have to introduce steeper price cuts and sweeter incentives to get buyers across the finish line this summer.

Is AI Poised to Replace Real Estate Agents? A Reality Check 📱⚖️

You might have seen the viral article circulating about a homeowner who used a chatbot to sell his property and pocketed thousands in saved fees. It’s an attention-grabbing headline, but our Executive Editor Maria Patterson says it leaves out some critical context.

In her latest op-ed, Patterson explains that this specific sale succeeded due to massive advantages—including a red-hot housing market, waved appraisals, and the fact that the seller is a tech journalist whose actual day job was managing this experiment. Still, this serves as an essential wake-up call. Real estate professionals must do a better job of explaining their worth, accelerating response times, and proving why local human expertise can't be replaced by an app. 🔗 ⬇️

Op-Ed: This Is Your Wake-Up Call Have you seen this article? If not, you need to read it. And, sorry, but it's going to make you

This week’s Court Report covers a major milestone in the buyer commission lawsuits, new developments in Zillow’s legal dispute with MRED and the latest clash over Matterport virtual tours.

Swipe through for the latest legal headlines, then read the full Court Report at the link in the comments.