Next to email, blogging is the fastest growing Internet communication model and is ramping up by astronomical leaps and bounds. Growth, for now, is cult-like and unabated."? What does this mean to broker/owners and the industry at large?

REALonomics believes the real estate industry is bloated from an economic standpoint."? Do you"?? Do we have too many people in our labor force? We are a"?national industries that doesn't feel the need to lay off people in order to improve our economic performance."? Why"?? I know, I know, you're going to tell me it takes care of itself, naturally, by attrition and the survival of the strong...something akin to big fish eating little fish.

The REALonomics response? No, it doesn't simply take care of itself. No other industry simply allows natural attrition as a means of managing ROI during an economic downturn."? Could you imagine Boeing Corporation, IBM or any other business"?adopting such a position"?? Is the traditional real estate brokerage"?model a business that"?can escape the razors edge in this, the Third Economic"?Era of the real estate industry"?? We concur with John Tuccillo, the prospects of a recession are becoming a potential threat with each new economic downturn.

REALonomics believes that 2007 will emerge as perhaps the most significant year of change in the real estate industry. Disruption of traditional models is no longer a topic for isolated discussion among the fringe lunatic wing of the industry.

Yes, I know, REALonomics and other industry voices, were once in the "flake" category."?The qualified and informed"?voices"?once labeled "fringe" have been gaining a growing audience and some traction, if only because"?the predictions are slapping us across the chops.

With '07 scarcely a few hours hence, REALonomics has assembled its own set of industry"? Dream Resolutions for 2007.

It's official. According to Time Magazine, YOU (as in you, me, he, her, she, him) are the 2006 Person of the Year!

Empowered by the World Wide Web (WWW), a.k.a., the Internet, the Consumer-Centric Era is the zone of personal empowerment and the democratization of self via the blogosphere and Napster-like peep-to-peer portals. Millions upon millions of consumers now wield the power of ONE, exponentially extrapolated into near infinity.

According to Time Magazine YOU is the euphemism for an all powerful consumer who shapes personal and corporate outcomes. What does Time's proclamation mean to the future shape of the real estate industry?

In what some have interpreted as a direct challenge to the 100 year-old Multiple Listing Service, Zillow announced last week that they would begin to allow consumers and agents to post listings in their market model.

My opinion comes later in this blog. For now, have you noticed the REALonomics in Zillow's formula? It's a mathematical real estate equation related to broker/owners:

(M+C+A+LI)-(B)=X

We have entered a "New Real Estate Economy" with tsunami-like"?changes that"?will eclipse all that has gone on before."? "Non-Brokers" have entered the market vying for a piece of the financial pie and a shot at consumer predisposition."? Who are the Non-Brokers and what do they want?

Non-Brokers are those entities that have no real historical connection to the traditional real estate industry."? Where did they come from and what do they have to do with the "New Real Estate Economy"?? Are we actually in a new era"?? If so, what are the characteristics of this new era?

Blog with me about "The New Real Estate Economy" and the three economic waves that have shaped the industry since its inception."? My contention is that we have entered a third economic wave."? But what are the first and second waves that got us here"?? This is a part of my ongoing blog series, "The Ten Commandments of the New Real Estate Economy."

We have been plunged headlong into the "New Real Estate Economy" with a new set of players, rules and challenges."? Are"?real estate companies"?equipped to play in the new era and what are the principles that will govern the competitive atmosphere now emerging"?? What are the new rules and who are the players going to be"?? Will everyone survive that rapid changes taking place in the industry?

I believe the real estate industry is"?in a bare knuckle fist fight without a referee, with few reliable rules and"?with almost everything we have relied upon for the past four decades up for grabs."? Noses will be bloodied and eyes will be blackened."? It's just that real and the changes and challenges facing brokerage firm owners will need to managed from a different set of operating principles than those we have relied upon in the past.

Are we prepared"?? Are we preparing"?? What are the Ten Commandments of the New Real Estate Economy and what do they mean to real estate company owners?

There are three major contenders that are going to influence the outcomes and thus play a role in reshaping the industry from the ownership and market perspective.

Why do we as owners of real estate companies do what we do, especially when we don't have to"??Why haven't we, as an industry, been able to morph into new models as required by the industry and the consumer?