Longtime real estate columnist Robert Bruss has died in his home on the Peninsula at age 67. He frequently was called the “Dear Abby” of real estate writers and his column appeared in hundreds of newspapers. In his writing, Bruss combined three talents, those of a journalist, a lawyer and a real estate broker. He was a 1967 graduate of the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco and had worked for the large brokerage company Grubb & Ellis. An editor at Inman News, which syndicated his column, told the Merc that the circumstances of Bruss’ death were unclear, but that he had been ill earlier this year.