What Does Fair Play Mean in Real Estate?

A response to a fun and interesting article by Summer Goralik

Over on Saul Klein’s The Data Advocate, Summer Goralik wrote a fun article titled, “What Real Estate can Learn from Baseball’s Shake-Up.”

If you have watched my podcast with Summer, you know that for a legal compliance person, she’s entertaining and friendly, and this article is another piece of evidence.

I did in fact learn stuff from the article, not the least of which is that Summer is a huge Shohei Ohtani fan. But that isn’t enough to want me to pickup my pen.

What is enough is that the substance of what she discusses raises a truly important and fundamental question.

She portrays the core conflict as being between “Tradition and Change” and concludes that “change isn’t the problem—clarity is.” She writes:

In baseball, not every new rule is universally loved, but the pitch clock proved something important: with the right change, fans adapt. The game got faster, more dynamic, and more enjoyable for a broader audience. The shift wasn’t just about pace. It was also about making the game feel more alive, more accessible, and ultimately, more engaging for the people watching.

Real estate is capable of the same transformation and the same reception if consumers and clients are given the clarity they need to follow the game, from both industry professionals and regulators.

It is an interesting claim, and one worth considering. But the real core conflict, in my view, is in what she highlights as “The Power Gap.” That in turn raises the central and fundamental question:

What does fair play mean in real estate?

Let’s dig in.