The most critical step you must take to experience success doing Facebook Live deserves the most attention: Just do it! Brian McKenna offers a step-by-step process for getting up to speed with this valuable marketing tool.

Attorney Wynton Yates specifically called out an Airbnb listing called "The Panther Burn Cottage @ Belmont Plantation" in Greenville, Mississippi, which has since been removed from the site.

Ask Brian is a weekly column by Real Estate Expert Brian Kline. If you have questions on real estate investing, DIY, home buying/selling, or other housing inquiries please email your questions to askbrian@realtybiznews.com.

Question from Brooke in TX: Hi Brian, My life seems to be kind of directionless right now. I’m 22 and have worked as a waitress and some retail sales in a big box department store. Neither paid very well nor am I excited about making a career of either. My uncle is a pretty successful real estate agent, and he thinks I should give it a try. He’s a seller’s agent and says that is the best way to go. I appreciate his advice, but he works out of a small office with only about six agents. From what I understand, two of them work as both seller and buyer agents and two work mostly as buyer agents. I don’t think the office owner directly works many deals at all. That means my uncle is the only one in the office only working only as a seller’s agent. That makes me wonder why he is the only one doing that? My uncle is not offering me a job, so I don’t feel obligated to do everything he is suggesting. The bottom line: is it better to be a selling agent or buying agent?

Answer: Hi Brooke. There is no simple answer to your question, but I do think that there is a general consensus that most agents would prefer being selling agents. Before we get into the reasons, let’s clarify a technical point. An agent doesn’t become a selling agent until there is a contract signed with a buyer. Up until that point, the agent is a listing agent. There is a reason why I make that technical point. Once the contract is signed with the buyer, the buyer’s agent also becomes a selling agent. Both agents have the same goal to sell the house. For that reason, I prefer the terms buying agent and listing agent. Now, let’s look at why one career path might be preferred over the other.

To start with, a well-rounded real estate agent should have experience on both sides of the deal. That’s how you learn what might be motivating the other party, what negotiating strategy they are likely to use, and a lot of other valuable information. Next, let’s take a quick look at the situation in your uncle’s office. It appears there is a pretty good mix of what each agent is trying to do. That’s what you need for a well-run office so that it attracts both buyers and sellers as clients. That’s also what we need for the industry to be balanced. So even if more agents prefer to be listing agents, there is an equal need (and opportunity) for buyer agents.

Some agents are both listing and buying agents. This can sometimes work in small communities without many agents or transactions. However, in larger communities and in the industry in general, the buyers and sellers want to be represented by their own agents. And they want a highly skilled agent which leads to specializing in one or the other. On the other hand, it does happen that one agent represents both the buyer and seller. This can complicate the transaction for the agent and in some states, it is not allowed. When one agent works for both, they become a “transaction broker.” They cannot effectively represent both the seller and buyer. They have to be a neutral go-between. In states where it is legal, the agent must inform each party of the dual agency situation and receive each party’s consent before moving forward. Brooke, I don’t recommend this situation whenever it can be avoided, and it certainly is not appropriate for a new agent. So, if you were thinking about trying this career path, I suggest that you not do it.

The vacation rental revenue management startup PriceLabs said last week it has raised $30 million in a “minority growth investment” round.

The sole investors in the round was Summit Partners. Price Labs, which is already profitable, said the round is the first time it has sought outside funding, and that the cash will be used to scale its revenue management platform and expand its teams.

Based in Chicago, PriceLabs was founded in 2014 when its co-founder Richie Khandelwal found he was struggling to price his own home on Airbnb, and came to the realization that vacation rental owners were essentially left to their own devices. He ended up creating a pricing algorithm to solve his problem with friends and co-founders Anurag Verma and Sana Hassan. Since then, the algorithm has morphed into a startup and has grown to include other artificial intelligence-powered analytical tools to help managers and small businesses owners manage short-term rentals.

“With the growth-focused support and resources that Summit provides, we are excited to continue our mission of innovating the short-term rental market and accelerating our global recruitment,” Verma said in a statement.

Khandelwal explained that pricing can be the biggest growth lever when running a business. “Especially in the hospitality industry, where most businesses still use archaic methods and static pricing that can drop between 10% and 40% of revenue on the table,” he added.

An English country-style home in Carmel Valley, a 1923 farmhouse in Laurel Canyon and a three-bedroom retreat a few blocks from the beach in Oceanside.

At the Holmes Towers on the Upper East Side, La Keesha Taylor has formed a coalition to keep the elevators running, the heat working and the rodents at bay.

Major companies share how much money they made as the real estate market veered south earlier this year and as Inman Connect unfolds, bringing these leaders together in Las Vegas.

An educated buyer will make a smart choice and move in the best direction. So it's more than overcoming objections. It's providing the right information at the right time. Learn how these top professionals from Corcoran approach these new discussions as the market shifts.

The right place for bringing about this change is the team and brokerage; those entities have the biggest impact on agent behavior and culture. The efforts can be done at those levels.

There are a few quality standards that should stay top-of-mind for any digital devices hoping to win agents’ favor.

As the strikes against affordability continue to mount, real estate technology company SkySlope felt compelled to take action.

I’ve joined Thomas Ma, the CEO of REAL, to introduce this app because we saw how large proptech platforms were chipping away at agents' roles and control.

This is a simple list of steps, but the work and process of building up to this are not easy. If it were, everyone would be a real estate agent and everyone would make millions doing it.

How can you capture their attention at this early stage so your listing stands out? Make sure to mention the qualities that matter most to this affluent audience.

The United States will need to add 4.3 million new apartments by 2025 to tackle challenges around affordability, demand and deficit, a new study has found.

The research, conducted by the National Multifamily Housing Council and National Apartment Association, suggests that demand for apartments is set to increase across all 50 states and all major metro areas. Altogether, about 40% of the demand will arise from California, Florida and Texas, the report found, with those states accounting for approximately 1.5 million in new unit demand over the next 13 years.

The study considers only those rental apartments in buildings with five or more residences.

NMHC Vice President of Research Caitlin Walter told Multi-Housing News that the research shows how the underlying fundamentals for the multifamily housing sector remain strong. That’s despite the economic uncertainty and the growth of single-family home sales during the pandemic, she said.

The NAA said most metropolitan areas can expect to see a big increase in demand for apartment, though on a national scale it expects growth to remain stunted until 2035.

Recent residential sales in New York City and the region.

Simply asking a landlord about how much the rent will go up shouldn’t change the landlord’s calculations — the decision has likely already been made.

Redfin's Homebuyer Demand Index increased 15 points since June 15, reversing 10 straight weeks of decreasing demand that started in mid-April.

The Everywhere Real Estate plan also sets up an agent's Google My Business Profile, another critical facet of online marketing that can challenge smaller teams and new agents.

Previously, the priciest listing in the greater Seattle area was a $60 million property listed about two years ago, which was also located in the Hunts Point community.