RECkoning with Real Estate

Today we’re back with Part 2 of our conversation with Sammi Silver! Sammi is a licensed Realtor®, founder, and president of Bright Idea Properties, where she specializes in manufactured homes. As you may remember from last episode, these homes are no longer called mobile homes. Today’s manufactured homes are beautifully crafted and permanent places to…

This special episode was recorded live at Minneapolis Pride! We were joined by two incredible leaders in the housing justice space: AsaleSol Young and Anne Mavity. AsaleSol, who has joined us on the RECkoning with Real Estate podcast before, is the Executive Director of Housing In Action, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit advancing housing justice through affordable…

Manufactured housing has come a long way from the days when they were “mobile homes” with a license plate and wheels. In this episode, we’re joined by Sammi Silver: licensed Realtor®, founder, and president of Bright Idea Properties! We’re lucky to be joined by her to get the inside scoop on these misunderstood homes, and…

This episode originally aired January 11, 2026: In this episode, we welcome a special guest to discuss the housing shortage in the United States. We discuss why it’s so difficult to build new housing, and the reality that the U.S. is facing a genuine housing shortfall. Our guest, Leora Tanjuatco Ross, is the California Director…

As promised, here is the episode we’ve been eager to present. Let us all brace ourselves for a topic that seems to be finding its way into every industry, including real estate: AI. Our previous conversation about how lenders are paid, the technology used to crunch numbers, and data security naturally led us here. We…

Hello again to Matt Berna and Marc Byers joining us this week! You may have heard those names before, and that is no mistake. These are two people with a lot of information to share. For this episode, we’re talking about how loan officers are compensated. We’ve spent previous episodes talking about how Realtors® are…

In Part 2 of our conversation with Doug Miller, we dive into a continuation of last episode’s discussion (watch here) surrounding practices that don’t serve consumers’ best interests. We discuss the 2024 anti-trust lawsuit involving NAR, “standard fee agreements,” and other anti-competitive practices that have been commonplace in the real estate industry for years. From…

We find ourselves yet again in the depths of the side of real estate most consumers never get to see. In this episode, we sit down with Doug Miller: consumer protection attorney, Executive Director of Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate, and believe it or not, a real estate agent himself. A trusted ally of…

This episode originally aired February 1, 2026: In this episode, we continue our conversation with Ben Feldman. This is an encore episode that was aired previously, but that we thought important enough to re-run! Ben is one of the owners of Active Insurance Solutions, an independently owned insurance company. In this episode, we unpack often-overlooked…

This is an encore episode with Ben Feldman, one of our sponsors of the show! Ben Feldman is a partner of Active Insurance Solutions which is an independent insurance agency based in Chanhassen. In this episode, Ben and Paige talk about all things ‘insurance claims.’ We cover the key steps to take when an event…

Paige, Marc, and Taylor are back, continuing the conversation around unpacking the Realtor® brand and what it really means to step outside the traditional model. We talk about how that shift shows up for consumers, the different ways agents approach their work (for better or worse), and how REC tries to follow through on doing…

We’re back with Paige, Marc, and Taylor, continuing the conversation around what it really means to be a “Realtor®” versus a real estate agent, and sharing more about how REC came to be. Listen in to hear how REC was strengthened through underappreciated activism and a distaste for the industry, its branding, and what it…

Did you know that being a REALTOR® is just a fancy brand name? Listen in to discover the difference between being a “Realtor®” and a real estate agent, and why we no longer will build our identity around the “Realtor®” title. While we’re still part of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) so that we…

We’re back with Bill Gray, a nonprofit relations veteran with the Homeownership Center. This week, we’re continuing the conversation from Part 1. We left off talking about how to understand where you may fall on the spectrum of homeownership readiness, aka the “funnel” (and if you missed it, be sure to check out the previous…

Understanding how people access homeownership and where barriers still exist is at the center of this week’s conversation. Bill Gray, Director of the Minnesota Homeownership Center and a longtime nonprofit public relations professional joins us for a conversation surrounding opening up access to homeownership. Bill shares how the Homeownership Center works to support those facing…

It’s been a little while since we last talked with Matt Berna, and there’s a lot to catch up on! Paige, broker and founder of the Real Estate Collaborative, sits down with returning guest Matt Berna, one of our show sponsors and now a lender with Bell Bank, an equal housing lender. Matt shares his…

In this episode of RECkoning with Real Estate, we’re once again joined by AsaleSol Young, Executive Director of Housing in Action. This week, we explore another side of Housing in Action’s work – their ever-important legislative and policy efforts. Learn about Housing in Action’s deep understanding of the economic pressures and safety concerns of renters,…

In this episode of RECkoning with Real Estate, REC agent Meghan Howard sits down with AsaleSol Young, Executive Director of Housing in Action in Minneapolis. Listen in to explore Housing in Action’s mission to build not just housing, but community. From developing and owning apartments, advancing policy work, to creating pathways to homeownership, Housing in…

Today, we engage in Part 2 of a hefty conversation with Professor Edward G. Goetz of the University of Minnesota, examining patterns of residential segregation in Minnesota. Dive in to explore meaty concepts like the “segregation tax” versus the “segregation dividend.” Along the way, we unpack topics like mortgage interest deductions and income-to-housing cost ratios…

In this deeply important conversation we are honored to welcome Edward Goetz, professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. Regarded as one of the foremost housing policy scholars in the Twin Cities and beyond, Professor Goetz guides us through the historical and structural forces that…

Part 2 of our conversation with Ginger Eager goes deeper into the real experience of buying a home. Ginger shares what it was like to look at 58 houses before finding the right one, including the excitement, the disappointment, and a bidding war that didn’t go her way. We talk candidly about realtor motivations, the…

In this episode of RECkoning with Real Estate, we talk with past client Ginger Eager about her experience working with REC and what drew her to Minnesota. We discussed further why upfront pricing, flat fees, and our retainer option mattered to her, and how refreshing it felt to work with a real estate team that…

In this episode, we continue our conversation with Ben Feldman of Active Insurance Solutions, an independently owned insurance company. We unpack more often-overlooked parts of homeowners insurance, including roof coverage, minimum deductibles, and common add-ons/endorsements. These details don’t come up often, but they’re helpful to understand ahead of time, before it may be too late.…

In this episode, we sit down with Ben Feldman: Partner of Active Insurance Solutions, an independent insurance agency based in Chanhassen, to talk all things insurance claims. We cover the key steps to take when an event needs to be reported, how to better understand your coverage, and best practices to keep in mind when…

In part two of our conversation with YIMBY director and housing advocate Leora Tanjuatco Ross, we dig deeper into the U.S. housing shortage and focus on the power of individual action. This episode shows how a single person can make a meaningful impact in the push for more housing. Links below will help you get…