Real Estate Company Is Replacing Agents With Robots

With robots slowly but surely taking over every semi-skilled occupation including in a bizarre development, the production of cocaine which may well unleash the era of cocaine deflation upon Wall Street (a welcome development in light of ever-shrinking bonuses), a new - and familiar - industry has emerged as the robots' next target. According to Newsday, a California real estate technology company that aims to lower the cost of home-selling by using robots and “big data” instead of commission-based real estate agents has recently opened a Long Island office.

The latest potential source of tech-inspired deflation, REX Real Estate Exchange, which charges a selling commission of only 2% instead of the usual 5 to 6%, launched its Long Island operation this summer. The Los Angeles-based company expects to start listing New York-area homes on its website, rexchange.com in the near-term.

Traditional real estate fees “are just crazy high compared with every other industry in the United States,” said Jack Ryan, Rex’s CEO and a former partner at Goldman Sachs. Decades ago, investment brokerages charged 12 cents a share for stock trades, but now they charge less than a penny, he said. By lowering real estate fees, he said, his company is “doing the same thing with residential real estate.” In the process - if successful - it will also put countless people out of work. 

According to Newsday, REX, which has raised $16 million from investors, is not the only company seeking to upend the residential real estate sales model. Another new entrant to the housing market is EasyKnock, a Sag Harbor startup that is rolling out a website designed to match sellers with buyers without the intervention of brokers. The company, which has raised $1.2 million in venture capital and plans to go live at any moment, has lowered commissions even more, to just 1.5% and does not list homes on the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, said co-founder and chief executive Jarred Kessler. The MLS is a way for brokers to share information about homes for sale.

“We’re a broker-free ecosystem,” Kessler said. 

Among national brokerages, Seattle-based Redfin charges sellers a 1.5 percent listing fee — or 1 percent in a few communities, including Washington, D.C. — though unlike REX and EasyKnock, it also pays a commission to the buyer’s agent.

In a typical home sale, the commission gets split between the seller’s and buyer’s brokerages. If a home sells for $300,000 and the seller pays a 6 percent commission divided equally, each brokerage receives $9,000 and pays out a portion of that to the agents.

Like any threatened ecosystem, long Island real estate brokers expressed skepticism about the tech-focused companies’ prospects for success. “Discount brokers have attempted to be around for many, many years, and they just fall away because it is important to provide good personal services to the seller and to the buyer,” said Joe Moshé, owner of Plainview-based Charles Rutenberg Realty.

To be sure, few home sellers choose to bypass agents. Last year and in 2015, 89 percent of home sellers used a real estate agent, the highest share since at least 1981, said Adam DeSanctis, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

Buyers typically start their search online, he said, “but at the end of the day, most people are still relying on the value a real estate agent provides.”

That could change, however,  once sellers and buyers discover how much they could save, REX’s Ryan said. For instance, he said, if the seller or buyer of a $500,000 home saves 3 percent on real estate brokerage fees, that adds up to $15,000.

Despite the discount fees, REX will provide full service, he said. The company expects to employ 10 licensed, salaried real estate agents here by the end of the year, and 50 by next year, Ryan said. The agents will guide buyers and sellers through listing and marketing a home and negotiating a sale, but the most sophisticated work will be done by computers, he said.

REX finds likely buyers by doing rigorous analysis of consumers’ income, location, spending habits and other data, and it reaches them through targeted ads on social media and other sites, Ryan said. The company even tracks potential buyers’ browsing on its website, so if a buyer spends time checking out one home’s pool and its zoned schools, that buyer will get more ads for homes with pools and information about schools, he said.

“It’s working brilliantly in southern California,” where the company closed 30 home sales in June, he said. 

The company does not list homes on services such as the MLS. Instead, Ryan said, it uses ads and listings on websites such as Zillow.

But rather than relying on commission-based agents to provide information about homes, it is testing a tabletlike “robot” named REX that will be stationed in listed homes, programmed to answer some 75 typical questions. The Alexa-like tabletop box can answer nearly any question a prospective buyer lobs in its direction — from when the roof was last repaired to where the nearest Starbucks is.  Since in its current generation, Rex can’t do it all, a human rep is also on site, greeting potential buyers. Rex also employs licensed brokers and salespersons but is paying them salaries rather than commissions.

The AI robot may very well appeal to millennials as they grow to house-buying age. Roughly 8% of sales in 2016 were from For Sale By Owner sites, a National Association of Realtors study found, while 89 percent of the sellers used a broker. Rex is trying to increase that 8 percent number by being super smart. Its research has found that the average buyer for a $500,000 home lives within 12 miles and for a $1 million home lives within 18 miles. But for a $50 million home, the buyer is global and already owns a home worth at least $10 million.

One California home seller said REX provided better service than the traditional agents he had used before in a dozen or so transactions. 

Bob Simpson, 62, of Ventura, agreed to be interviewed by Newsday at the request of REX. 

Simpson said he liked that his for-sale sign listed a webpage dedicated to his own home, instead of to a brokerage’s website, and that he always got quick responses to his questions. 

Moreover, he said, when his home sold for $518,000, “we saved $21,000 by using REX. That’s indelibly inscribed in my head.” 

One of REX’s Long Island-based agents, Bryan Starck, 22, who moved from California to Great Neck two months ago, said he has met with 10 to 15 buyers so far. The lower fee “makes a ton of sense” to sellers, and so does the use of technology to identify buyers, Starck said.

“You used to really need a traditional agent to buy a home or sell a home,” Starck said. But now, he said, “there’s an unprecedented amount of information available . . . I really do think this is going to be the company to change the industry.” 

If he is right, then your next real estate agent may look like this. 

Credit to Zero Hedge

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THE GREAT CRYPTO CONSPIRACY?

‘Amazing’ Second Temple Pillar ‘From Temple Mount Itself’ Found Under Western Wall

“He then led me into the great hall. He measured the jambs, 6 amot on either side; such was the depth of each jamb.” Ezekiel 41:1 (The Israel Bible™)




The Western Wall during the week of Slichot, special prayers for repentance that Jews recite on the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. (Abra Forman/Breaking Israel News)

In the course of excavations underneath the Western Wall plaza, a rare Second Temple-era pillar was found which researchers believe was originally part of the Temple Mount itself.

During a decade-long project to expand public facilities at the Western Wall, or Kotel, one of Jerusalem’s largest tourist attractions, workers drilled from the floor of the plaza, at ground level, down through 33 feet of Jerusalem history to the bedrock below.

The unique project enabled workers to stabilize and construct a building over an active archaeological site. Over the course of the work, several valuable ancient artifacts were uncovered, the most exciting of which may have come from the Temple Mount when the Temple was still standing.

The pillar believed to come from the Second Temple. (Abra Forman/Breaking Israel News)

Dov Rabinowitz, Director of Education at the Western Wall, said the rare pillar had been discovered as part of an 1,800-year-old Roman wall.

“We found a stone that was more ancient than the wall. They reused it for the wall,” he explained. “It’s the first pillar, the top, the head of the pillar, from the time of the Second Temple.” He noted the intricate carving and design on the stone.

“These are pillars from the Temple Mount itself, that were reused over here.”

The pillar was reused as part of an ancient Roman wall. (Abra Forman/Breaking Israel News)

Rabinowitz said the drilling process required for the construction necessarily endangered “for sure 2 percent” of any archaeological finding, but it was the price paid to uncover centuries’ worth of artifacts.

“It could be we drilled directly through a coin with the high priest’s name on it, we’ll never know about it,” he said. He compared the dig to going through a birthday cake layer by layer.





Credit to breakingisraelnews.com
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/95579/extremely-rare-pillar-temple-mount-discovered-kotel/#BjePWHo4sZUzbEaj.99

NORTH KOREA - ICBN rockets being moved to west coast LAUNCH LIKELY THIS WEEKEND!

Illinois Republican governor signs controversial abortion bill

There is no repentance on the land......

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed a controversial bill into law on Thursday to expand state-funded coverage of abortions for low-income residents on Medicaid and state employees.

The bill, approved by the state legislature in May, would also keep abortions legal in Illinois if the U.S. Supreme Court follows President Donald Trump’s call to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortions legal 44 years ago.

Illinois’ Medicaid program has previously covered abortions in cases of rape, incest and when a mother’s life or health is threatened.

The expansion would enable poor women to obtain elective abortions. The bill would allow state employees to have the procedures covered under state health insurance.


Rauner, who had earlier suggested he would veto the measure, said in a statement that he had talked to woman around the state before making his decision.

“I understand abortion is a very emotional issue with passionate opinions on both sides. I sincerely respect those who believe abortion is morally wrong,” he said.

Credit to Reuters

Mysterious Metal Structures Are Popping Up In NYC, Details Are Shrouded In Secrecy

Smartphone use has radical impact on mental health of teens

San Diego State University professor of psychology and author Jean Twenge has claimed that smartphone usage is having a radical impact on both the behavior and mental health of U.S. teenagers.

The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health […] Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.

Far from being the usual generalized complaint about teens spending too much time staring at their screens, Dr Twenge has plenty of hard data to support her contentions – made in The Atlantic, the magazine in which Laurene Powell Jobs recently bought a majority stake …

The long-form article, entitled Have smartphones destroyed a generation?, is packed full of graphs – each showing the launch of the iPhone as a reference point.

A 2017 survey of more than 5,000 American teens found that three out of four owned an iPhone.

They show that teens today spend far less time hanging out with their friends, fewer of them have a driving license, they date less, have less sex, get less sleep and are more likely to feel lonely.

There are also some stark statistics.

Teens who spend three hours a day or more on electronic devices are 35 percent more likely to have a risk factor for suicide, such as making a suicide plan […]

Boys’ depressive symptoms increased by 21 percent from 2012 to 2015, while girls’ increased by 50 percent—more than twice as much. The rise in suicide, too, is more pronounced among girls. Although the rate increased for both sexes, three times as many 12-to-14-year-old girls killed themselves in 2015 as in 2007, compared with twice as many boys. The suicide rate is still higher for boys, in part because they use more-lethal methods, but girls are beginning to close the gap.

Twenge is quick to note that smartphones are not the only factor, but she argues that it is a key one.

Parenting styles continue to change, as do school curricula and culture, and these things matter. But the twin rise of the smartphone and social media has caused an earthquake of a magnitude we’ve not seen in a very long time, if ever. There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them seriously unhappy.

And far from the common belief that kids grow up too quickly these days, she argues that the opposite is true when you examine common markers like going out without their parents, earning their own money and starting to date.

Across a range of behaviors—drinking, dating, spending time unsupervised— 18-year-olds now act more like 15-year-olds used to, and 15-year-olds more like 13-year-olds. Childhood now stretches well into high school.

The piece is illustrated with depressing examples of behavioral changes.

One of the ironies of iGen life is that despite spending far more time under the same roof as their parents, today’s teens can hardly be said to be closer to their mothers and fathers than their predecessors were. “I’ve seen my friends with their families—they don’t talk to them,” Athena told me. “They just say ‘Okay, okay, whatever’ while they’re on their phones. They don’t pay attention to their family.” Like her peers, Athena is an expert at tuning out her parents so she can focus on her phone. She spent much of her summer keeping up with friends, but nearly all of it was over text or Snapchat. “I’ve been on my phone more than I’ve been with actual people,” she said. “My bed has, like, an imprint of my body.”

There’s the now common portrait of social media usage making people feel unhappier as they compare their own lives with the self-curated online version of the lives of their peers.


Today’s teens may go to fewer parties and spend less time together in person, but when they do congregate, they document their hangouts relentlessly—on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook. Those not invited to come along are keenly aware of it. Accordingly, the number of teens who feel left out has reached all-time highs across age groups. Like the increase in loneliness, the upswing in feeling left out has been swift and significant.

Twenge doesn’t have any easy solutions. She acknowledges that it’s not realistic to expect teens to dramatically curtail their usage of electronic devices or social media. But she suggests that modest changes could help.


Significant effects on both mental health and sleep time appear after two or more hours a day on electronic devices. The average teen spends about two and a half hours a day on electronic devices. Some mild boundary-setting could keep kids from falling into harmful habits.

The whole piece is well worth a read, especially for parents.




Credit to 9to5mac.com

https://9to5mac.com/2017/08/04/impact-of-smartphones-on-mental-health/

North Korea Claims 5 Million New Soldiers Enlisted Ahead Of "Imminent Provocation"

In what is probably a "slightly" exaggerated figure, North Korea claimed on Thursday that some 4.7 million students and workers have volunteered to join or re-enlist in the North Korean army since Kim Jong Un called Donald Trump a “dotard” and vowed to retaliate against the US for President Donald Trump's threats to "destroy" North Korea. If accurate, that figure would represent nearly 20% of the North’s population (the country is believed to be home to 25 million people, making it about half the size, population-wise as South Korea).

Furthermore, according to the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s biggest newspaper among the volunteers were 1.2 million women, which was cited by South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Of course, North Korea has made similar claims in the past when tensions with the US have intensified. Pyongyang usually claims that its young citizens voluntarily enlisted in the military in its propaganda campaigns aimed at bolstering national solidarity – even as recently as last month.




North Korea made a similar assertion last month when it condemned the UN Security Council for adopting US-led resolutions over Pyongyang's launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.







Credit to Zero Hedge

With the Clinton Hit List at over 50 Dead, It Isn't Conspiracy but a Pattern of Fact

When the same thing keeps happening over and over again, under the same circumstances, it is called a pattern. Even in science, this type of pattern is used in experiments to determine a theory to be fact. Conduct enough experiments that result in the same outcome, the project then becomes fact.

This same analogy has to be applied to the long line of deaths associated with those who were a threat to Hillary Clinton. No longer can we just chalk these deaths up to being mysterious or coincidence. Almost on a weekly basis, someone who either was going to testify against her, release damning evidence on her or was going to oppose her in some way, are found dead. Thus, the body count under these circumstances has become a pattern, one which simply cannot be ignored or brushed aside as coincidence.

Only in the last few days, the body of Miami Federal Prosecutor Beranton Whisenant Jr. washed up on a beach in Hollywood, Florida. The cause of death was either a gunshot wound or some other trauma to the head. Whisenant was investigating DNC voter fraud in Wasserman Schultz's district. Whisenant was a direct threat to Clinton in uncovering her collusion with Schultz and the DNC in fixing the 2016 election in her favor.

The shooting of Seth Rich took place on July 10, 2016 in his own neighborhood. He later died in a nearby hospital, mysteriously, I might add. He was allegedly another individual who was set to testify against Clinton on voter fraud.

Rich's death was officially listed as the result of a robbery. However, nothing he was carrying was taken. Rich also did not die at the scene, but later died at the hospital, where, according to a surgeon, his wounds were not life-threatening and was still alive and doing fine after surgery. Yet, he later died that night after being visited by DC police who refused to allow doctors and hospital staff to enter his room for an extended time.

Sean Lucas, a process server, was found dead on the bathroom floor by his girlfriend on 08/02/2015. This was after he served papers on the DNC in connection with a voter fraud suit filed by Bernie Sanders’ attorney.

Author Victor Thorn, best known for his extensive research into the Clinton family and the Clinton Foundation and his book “CROWNING CLINTON: Why Hillary Shouldn’t Be in the White House” was found dead of an apparent suicide, according to the official story.

John Ashe, a UN official connected to Clinton corruption, died of a supposed weightlifting accident a day before he was set to testify against the DNC and Hillary Clinton on 06/22/2016. The first released cause of death was said to be a heart attack but was later changed to him having a weightlifting accident.

The trail of the assassinated goes far beyond those since Hillary Clinton first ran for president in 2008, all the way back through the Bill Clinton presidency and beyond.

Over 50 people who were either going to testify against the Clintons, present damning evidence against them, or posed a threat to their Crime Dynasty in any way have been found dead of either mysterious causes or murdered. The hit list also includes Don Henry and Kevin Ives, who were found dead on railroad tracks south of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1987. According to railroad employees, they were beaten, stabbed, and placed on the tracks. Yet, the Sheriff’s Department ruled the deaths accidental.

These boys just happened to stumble upon a police-protected drug drop via a drug smuggling enterprise based in Mena, Arkansas in the early 1980s that had Clinton connections.

Twelve Clinton bodyguards also join the list of those who apparently knew too much dirt on the Clintons and ended up dead.


Credit to freedomoutpost.com
https://freedomoutpost.com/with-the-clinton-hit-list-at-over-50-dead-it-isnt-conspiracy-but-a-pattern-of-fact/

In KFC China store, diners have new way to pay

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Diners at a KFC store in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou will have a new way to pay for their meal. Just smile.

Customers will be able to use a “Smile to Pay” facial recognition system at the tech-heavy, health-focused concept store, part of a drive by Yum China Holdings Inc to lure a younger generation of consumers.

Yum China, which spun off from its U.S. parent Yum Brands Inc last year, is trying to rev up growth in the world’s second largest economy, where food safety scares and changing consumer tastes have dented sales since 2012.


Yum is still the largest fast food chain in the market, where it has over 7,685 outlets. Its China same-store sales have also been slowly improving, rising in the second quarter of the year on a strong showing by its KFC brand.

The new outlet in Hangzhou, called KPRO, is targeting a younger generation of Chinese who are expected to drive the lion’s share of China’s consumption growth over the next decade.
Credit to Reuters.com

VENEZUELA PREPARES FOR WAR AGAINST U S with ‘RIFLES, MISSILES AND WELL OILED TANKS AT THE READY’

"Massive Birds Dying Bali Volcano Ready To Blow" Ezekiel Prophecy

North Korea moves warplanes into US bombers’ flight path

NORTH Korea has moved jet fighters to the coast to intercept US bombers after accusing Donald Trump of "declaring war".

The dictatorship's foreign minister yesterday claimed Pyongyang could target US jets flying outside North Korean airspace after President Donald Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea.

7US bombers accompanied by fighter jets flew off the east coast of North Korea on Saturday

7Tension is high between President Trump and Kim Jong-un over North Korea's nuke tests

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a fighter plane in 2014. His regime has accused the US of declaring war

Ri claimed North Korea would now be justified in shooting down US jets

Credit to The Sun.co.uk