Not every question needs the designated broker. The hard part is knowing which ones do.
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Not every question needs the designated broker. The hard part is knowing which ones do.

"How long is the inspection period?" and "The seller wants to stay three weeks after close — can we just write it on an addendum?" arrive in a designated broker's inbox the same way. One is a lookup. The other is a risk decision that deserves the broker's full attention. Most brokerages supervise both the same way, which means the DB either becomes the bottleneck or agents quietly stop asking. Here's a three-tier model that fixes it.

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How AI is Changing Real Estate in the USA
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

How AI is Changing Real Estate in the USA

A tour of 11 ways AI is reshaping U.S. real estate, from automated valuations and predictive market forecasting to AI lead matching, virtual tours, tenant screening, and 24/7 chatbots. A solid primer on where adoption is happening today, and a reminder of how much of the industry's AI focus is on speed rather than getting the transaction right.

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The policy manual is dead. Here's what replaced it.
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

The policy manual is dead. Here's what replaced it.

Every designated broker has been told for years to "document your policies." Almost nobody actually does it, not because they don't care, but because the shape of the work is wrong. A written policy manual sits in a shared drive. Nobody reads it. Six months later it's out of date. So the DB answers the same forty questions over and over. This week we tested something different, and got a result that changes how we're thinking about the whole problem.

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Escalation clauses: the form every agent uses wrong
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Escalation clauses: the form every agent uses wrong

Multiple offers on the table. The buyer's agent wants to write an escalation clause. Most reach for the Additional Clause Addendum. Some try a custom rider. A few draft the language into the counter-offer and hope it survives. All three are the wrong instrument. The correct place, and the only place, for escalation language in Arizona is Section 8 "Additional Terms and Conditions" of the RRPC, page 8, lines 342–405. Here's why the ACA is the wrong choice, what an enforceable escalation clause actually looks like, and the three drafting mistakes that make agents' clauses fall apart at COE.

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The Cure Period Notice: the form every agent reaches past
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

The Cure Period Notice: the form every agent reaches past

Escrow's slipping. The lender's dragging. An inspection response is 48 hours late. Most agents grab the Additional Clause Addendum or a Contract Amendment and try to negotiate their way out of it. Both are the wrong form. The correct instrument is the Cure Period Notice; three-day clock, formal breach, contract-terminating teeth. Here's how it actually works, and why the alternatives leave earnest money on the table.

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AI Becomes Early Step in Homebuying Journey
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

AI Becomes Early Step in Homebuying Journey

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the front door to the homebuying journey. According to a recent National Association of REALTORS® article, buyers—particularly Millennials and Gen Z—are increasingly using AI tools to estimate affordability, understand mortgage payments, research neighborhoods, and make sense of the overall purchasing process. Yet the takeaway is not that AI is replacing agents; it is raising the bar for how real estate professionals show up online.

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AI use widespread in real estate, but most professionals say it falls short
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

AI use widespread in real estate, but most professionals say it falls short

A Fyxer report found 90% of real estate professionals use AI, but only 35% consider it genuinely helpful. Researchers say reliance on generic tools, limited workflow integration and underused email automation are hindering productivity, while industry-specific, integrated AI platforms offer the greatest potential for meaningful efficiency gains.

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Most "AI in real estate" is a summary machine. That's not what agents actually need.
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Most "AI in real estate" is a summary machine. That's not what agents actually need.

Most AI tools sold to real estate right now are summary machines: they rewrite listings, tighten emails, and transcribe voicemails. Useful on the edges, but not transformative — because summarization is where the real work starts, not where it ends. The version of AI that changes the daily broker workflow reads the compliance corpus and acts on it. Here's what that looks like, and why it matters for supervisory brokers.

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Non-refundable earnest money: the Additional Clause Addendum, line by line
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Non-refundable earnest money: the Additional Clause Addendum, line by line

Every listing agent in Arizona has heard some version of this question from a buyer's agent: "My client wants to sweeten the offer with non-refundable earnest money. How do we do it?"Most agents guess. Some call their broker. A few make up custom language and hope escrow doesn't push back.None of that is necessary. The Arizona Association of Realtors already wrote the clause.

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Why AI Demands So Much Computing Power
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Why AI Demands So Much Computing Power

Why does AI seem to devour computing power? Data centers are popping up everywhere, putting pressure on the power grid and raising environmental concerns, all because modern AI systems consume a remarkable amount of energy to run effectively.

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The $7T Race to Scale Data Centers
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

The $7T Race to Scale Data Centers

AI is fueling high demand for compute power, spurring companies to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure. But with future demand uncertain, investors will need to make calculated decisions.

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AI in Legal & Financial Environments
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

AI in Legal & Financial Environments

Artificial Intelligence is transforming how we live and work. From helping us find information on the internet to driving our cars, AI is becoming an integral part of our daily lives. But when it comes to serious matters like legal and financial questions, can we really trust AI to provide the right answers?

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Why Language Models Hallucinate
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Why Language Models Hallucinate

Even as language models become more capable, one challenge remains stubbornly hard to fully solve: hallucinations. By this we mean instances where a model confidently generates an answer that isn’t true.

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Digital dividends: tokenized real estate
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

Digital dividends: tokenized real estate

Over the last eight years, since the first tokenized real estate deals were completed, tokenization has helped open potential new avenues for real estate investment through fractional ownership.

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AI Training Data Explained
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

AI Training Data Explained

In the exciting world of artificial intelligence (AI), one of the most important concepts to understand is "training data." But what does this term really mean? Why is it so crucial for AI? In this article, let’s break it down into simple terms that everyone can understand, whether you’re well versed or someone with no experience in AI.

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The 30% Rule in AI
Mike McGowan Mike McGowan

The 30% Rule in AI

AI can speed up work but cannot match human empathy or nuanced thinking. The 30% Rule keeps humans as key decision-makers while AI handles routine tasks. This approach safeguards jobs by blending automation with human strengths. It creates a balanced system where technology and people work together.

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