Rob Hahn on lawsuits, commissions and the future of brokerage

Today’s RealTrending features Rob Hahn, better known as Notorious ROB. Rob is managing partner of 7DS Associates, which is a Las Vegas based real estate strategy and consulting firm. Hahn offers his straight-shooter take on commission lawsuits, the future of the industry and what real estate leaders should be doing today to prepare for possible industry changes.

Tracey Velt: In a recent discussion, Zillow’s Susan Daimler dismissed CoStar as competition, and I want to discuss that. What do you think is going on here and what are your thoughts on CoStar and Zillow?

Rob Hahn: Sure. So this is obviously something we could talk about probably for a couple hours. I’ll preface it and say, maybe this is a show. I don’t think it is that. Last year, when CoStar entered the market entered — the residential real estate industry — I thought, ‘this is a huge deal.’

I think CoStar is expecting cooperation and compensation to go away in the next few years. So, I think they’re positioning themselves to come in and take over. You know, they are the number one commercial real estate portal — what is it effectively the MLS for commercial real estate.

I think they’re seeing an opportunity — a window. I think they see that Zillow’s weak or weaker than people imagine. And they think they’re going to take that over. They’re a very serious competitor. Andy Florence is, I think he’s a genius. I think he’s one of the great business leaders of our generation. It’s no mistake that he and Jeff Bezos know each other, and he’s built a reputation that I think is well deserved for being a pretty tough competitor.