It’s only been a week since GDPR has become a law and we need to start this week’s discussion with a simple question. How many of you thought the GDPR was only about privacy policy change emails and subscription notifications we have received over the last few weeks? Well, that was just the beginning.
It was a great week at NAR Midyear to re-connect with fellow colleagues, have sonorous discussions about the industry, and – of course – chitchat about the current controversial brew-ha-ha that seems to occur around these types of events. Over the last month – especially last week – I had the pleasure of talking to many real estate technology companies who provide products and services to brokers and agents. When the discussion would lead to back office architecture, the discussion was segmented into two groups.
When I was a young kid traveling in the car with my family, I would always see these signs “Truckers Welcome”. I didn’t understand why there was this special invitation to truckers. Wouldn’t everyone be welcome? As I grew older, I quickly realized the sign was to inform truckers there was ample parking space for their large rigs. Truckers had a big use case! As a trucker, if I wanted to visit a diner for a nice sit-down warm meal, I must have space large enough to safely park my rig. Diners caught on fast to this requirement and realized they could enjoy the revenue by creating a space for them to park. Once the parking problem was solved, they needed a method to entice truckers to use their parking and stop for a meal. Therefore, the signs!
Over the last month, a lot of people are talking about data. Inman Disconnect crafted a data statement as one of its Parker Principles, Real Estate Standard Organization (RESO.org) Spring 2018 Conference was all about data, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) held a panel to discuss how real estate can be more competitive with technology, which included data as a component of its theme. Here are some thoughts on the good, bad and ugly uses of data.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance crisscrosses every business in the real estate industry. Yes, it’s another acronym and it is not tech driven. Well, almost not tech driven.
Consolidation of Associations and/or Multiple Listing Systems (MLS) at any level has its pros and cons. Consolidation can tip the scale in the way that it improves the business, the industry and most importantly, how it impacts all the stakeholders. This of course includes the consumer who is at the top of pyramid!
In talking with various people inside brokerages, I hear the same challenge time and time again. "My data is all over the place and I have no way to figure out what it means." Driving information out of your data is Business Intelligence (BI). There are free or low-cost solutions to help analyze data in your control and derive the answers needed to make better business decisions.
A few articles ago, we looked at why Google Tag Manager is a Brokers friend. The use case mentioned in the article tracked form conversion of a customer inquiry on a web page. Form submissions in real estate capture leads, so it is imperative to integrate forms into Google Analytics and learn as much as possible from our customers. This is one area where Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics (GA) work beautifully together.
MLSs have a great opportunity to significantly improve the relevance and marketing power of their organization by finding ways to better serve the needs of their brokers and real estate consumers. I had the honor of interviewing David Charron, Chief Strategy Office of Bright MLS about the highly successful merger between Trend MLS, MRIS and several other MLSs in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. They have come together to create one of the largest MLSs in North America. Hear directly from David what it took to accomplish this broker-centric feat! Check out the video below where David will [...]
We are proud to announce that Dionna Hall and her newly formed team in South Florida at RAPB + GFLR is the FIRST recipient of WAV Group’s WAVes of Change Award! Watch the video below of the presentation of the first WAVes of Change Award! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhNbmHZ0ZJU Why were they chosen? For creating the 3rd largest Association and one of the top 10 largest MLSs in America. RAPB + GFLR is solving problems for brokers in South Florida. The newly formed organization will provide listing exposure to nearly 30,000 agents, dramatically increasing marketing impact. It will also make it easier for [...]
It is indeed a bright day in the MLS. The largest MLS consolidation in history is on the countdown to launch. A memo was released today to REALTORS® who will be impacted by the project called MLS Evolved - revealing the new name of their future MLS – Bright MLS Memo from Tom Phillips, CEO of Trend MLS As we continue to update you, TREND, MRIS and 7 other organizations are working to consolidate and create the next era of the MLS. I am excited to announce the name of this new MLS organization will be Bright MLS. We chose [...]
