The Long Road to Anywhere Requires a Compass
The Long Road to Anywhere Requires a Compass. How a 1971 Franchise Idea Outlived Every Corporation That Bought It
Saul Klein
September 6, 2026
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The Long Road to Anywhere Requires a Compass. How a 1971 Franchise Idea Outlived Every Corporation That Bought It
That broker responsibility formula is the pressure point, and it is about to be tested by the largest brokerage in the country. If a company with tens of thousands of agents concludes that it is paying association dues for licensees who have chosen not to be members, and can point to a $20 alternative it already funds, the conversation with local leadership changes character quickly. The association is no longer selling a benefit. It is defending an invoice.
On June 15, 2026, MLex reported that Stanley Woodward, the Associate Attorney General, has been placed in charge of running the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The step matters because of who Woodward is and how he reached it. It matters more because the division he now controls has spent the better part of a decade as the principal federal antitrust threat to organized real estate.
It all began around a campfire 29 years ago: 50 real estate leaders came together in a redwood grove in Sonoma County, California, for the first Inman Connect. There was so much to talk about the impact on the real estate industry of this new thing called the commercial internet.
The Compass acquisition of Anywhere could be a “Big Deal” for Associations, MLSs, and other brokerage models.
After more than 15 years of visionary leadership, Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of Stellar MLS, announced she will step down from her role in Q1 2026.
Agency Disclosure in the late 1980s is the force that created the MLS Offer of Compensation as the MLS Compensation Vehicle. Prior to that. all Subscribers and Participants of an MLS had an Agency Duty to the Seller, and Buyers were not aware of this fact
Exclusionary zoning is defined as the zoning of an area in such a way as to exclude minorities and low-income people. For example. the requirement
UNDER ALL IS THE DATA | SPECIAL EDITION The First Draft of the Next Decade CRMLS proposes to abolish IDX and VOW, license everything, and