William Raveis wins Most Innovative Brokerage
Last Thursday afternoon was a surreal moment for William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance. The company was announced as the “Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise” at Inman News’ 2011 Innovator Awards, held in the beautiful Hilton San Francisco.
Inman’s Annual Innovator Awards recognize exceptional national achievements in real estate technology and marketing. To give a simple analogy: winning an Innovator Award is akin to winning an Oscar at the Academy Awards. Every year, the real estate glitterati, from world renowned brokerages to Silicon Valley startups-gone-mainstream, gather in San Francisco and New York to talk about what they see in the industry’s future.
About 10 days prior, Ravies had been informed that they had made the coveted list of Finalists for two critical categories in Inman’s 2011 Innovator Awards–Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise and Most Innovative Website or Service for multipurpose CRM (AgentAchieve), William Raveis Agent Dashboard. They were honored to be named among such forward thinking companies as Zillow, Trulia, Better Homes & Gardens and SpatialMatch.com.
This has been a remarkable year for William Raveis Real Estate. In addition to winning several accolades over the past few years from highly regarded real estate organizations, the company has been named as a “Best Place to Work” by the prestigious Boston Business Journal and as “The Best Residential Real Estate Company” by Banker & Tradesman, a subsidiary of The Warren Group.
Raveis launched William Raveis Agent Dashboard (announced by Inman), an enterprise CRM, marketing and business management solution, free to their agents. Agent Dashboard enables sales associates to be mobile, conducting business from their smartphones.
Raveis won a Gold Award from the American Advertising Federation for their custom mobile version of raveis.com, offering access to 300,000 listings from the convenience of a smartphone or tablet.
Raveis continues to push forward with their Exceptional Properties Digital Magazine, featuring some of their standout luxury listings and the latest news on the luxury market.
Raveis continues to add to their library of agent education through their Career Development Division-offering over 200 classes per year on topics ranging from targeted marketing with social media to mobile strategies for increasing lead generation.
Raveis engages with clients and the public in new ways, particularly with social and new media. They’ve added enhanced functionality and access to listings on their Facebook page and ask their followers for feedback on the condition of the real estate market in their area. Raveis also utilizes Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and foursquare to run contests and encourage participation from their virtual SOI. It’s customer feedback that helps Raveis continue to refine their social media initiatives.
Raveis continues to grow despite a challenging economy. In fact, William Raveis Mortgage had a record-breaking year, closing over $900 million in loans and William Raveis Real Estate is expanding its footprint throughout the northeast, opening new offices in Massachusetts and New York.
