Jon "Jack" Douglas, founder of one of the most successful companies in the real estate industry and my former boss, passed away on July 27, 2010. The lessons I learned from working with Jack Douglas are timeless and can serve as a guidepost to all real estate professionals.Jack Douglas was much more than a real estate legend.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, where he served as a starting quarterback and Stanford's first All American in tennis. He also represented the U.S. on the Davis Cup tennis team and served in the U.S. Marines.His vision was to create a company where the agents always "did the right thing" and were the best trained, the most professional and most productive agents in the industry.All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. [Read the full article]

A slew of public advocacy groups, including the National Fair Housing Alliance, applauded President Obama's appointment of Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren to lead a new consumer protection agency Friday.Warren is now assistant to the president and special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created under the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed in July. She will take on the job of setting up the new bureau by mid-2011, including recruiting staff, initiating policy and helping choose the bureau's first director.All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News.Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law. [Read the full article]

I agree completely with the point made in this article, but was disappointed to see that it did not address natural and environmental hazard disclosure during the real estate transaction.The discovery of a leaking underground storage tank within the vicinity of a home for sale is vital information. It might not matter to a 60-year-old homebuyer, but I think it would be critical to a parent of a newborn.Same goes for natural hazards. How can the public mitigate its risk if it isn't informed of nearby hazard zones? I had hoped this article would have touched on some of these other types of disclosures.Sandra Smith Northwest Disclosures LLC Puyallup, Wash. Contact Inman News: E-mail Letter to the Editor Copyright 2010 Inman NewsAll rights reserved. [Read the full article]

Editor's note: This article is reposted with permission by The Real Deal. View the original article."Sold" means "sold" -- except when it doesn't. That's the argument behind a new lawsuit involving the Trump Soho.The condo-hotel development, which has endured fickle buyers, community backlash and an unforgiving sales market, now faces a lawsuit that brings one central question to light: What does "sold" really mean?The suit, filed Aug. 2, 2010, in U.S. District Court, pits 15 buyers against Trump Soho developers and marketers, both past and present. The plaintiffs claim that the Trump Soho team misled them in the press -- and in person -- by reporting inflated sales figures, which they say lowered the value of their investments.The plaintiffs are backing up their claims by pointing to an amendment to declare the condo-hotel development's offering plan effective, filed with the attorney general's office this spring. [Read the full article]