NAR Midyear 2019 Recap
NAR Midyear in Washington DC has become a mainstay on our WAV Group travel calendar. Many...
NAR Midyear Trade Show: Top Tech to Checkout
Navigating next week’s Midyear Trade Expo in Washington, DC at the Marriott Wardman is downright manageable, and much more intimate than its big sister.
Boise insider tips for RESO Tech Summit attendees
Perhaps a great unsung feature of the RESO conference is the selection of cool locations. Because of the size of the conference, they are able to accommodate attendees in smaller host cities. RESO Conferences have made me a fan of Kansas City and Milwaukee - who knew?
The Power of the Power Broker Report from RISMedia
The RISMedia Power Broker Report is the industry’s favorite top brokerage list. And with good reason.
Marketing tip: Pay more attention to Gen Xers
The National Association of REALTORS research experts continuously share housing data with insights that sometimes surprises or delights. Their recent look into Gen Xers did both – for me at least. Here are some terrific nuggets that I believe has one major takeaway. It seems all the attention has been on Millennials (or Gen Y) when perhaps we should be spending more time focusing on this ready-to-buy market, the Gen Xers. “Defined as buyers between 39 and 54 years old, they now make up the SECOND largest share of home buyers by generation, at 24 percent of all home buyers [...]
Why zavvie’s Offer Optimizer is an iBuyer Game Changer
When Zillow launched Zestimates, no one realized at the time how radical the impact of what they did then would become later. There are a lot of Sunday quarterbacks who would like to re-write history and say they knew it would result in helping to catapult the firm to $7 billion valuation. But no one predicted back then that Zestimates would fuel a phenomenon dubbed “real estate porn” that helped it drive more than 100 million unique visitors to Zillow’s website each month. Recently, another company that starts with a "z" called zavvie has launched what I believe is an [...]
OJO Labs accelerates AI dominance: First WolfNet, now $45 million in more funding
The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in real estate has been accelerating. Yesterday, real estate’s natural conversation AI leader OJO Labs of Austin announced $45 million in new funding. To borrow an analogy from advisor Ken Jenny – who once described OJO Labs as a “Ferrari” – AI is about to really take off in our industry as this sports car now has rocket fuel. OJO Labs you might recall, grabbed headlines last fall when it combined with data giant WolfNet of the Twin Cities. Its ‘OJO” AI virtual assistant had already been turning a lot of heads. [...]
Great PR Begins With Great Storytelling
What makes the difference between a good public relations campaign and a great public relations campaign? It’s the story. If you don't have a great story to tell, you won't have great PR. It's that simple.
Ben Caballero Becomes the World’s First $2 Billion Realtor
When Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams, presented Ben Caballero with the coveted Pinnacle Award for Real Estate Entrepreneurship five years ago, his comments were prophetic. Looking at Ben in front of a sea of KW agents at their Mega Camp event in Austin, Texas, Gary Keller explained the award. "Keller Williams a few years ago decided a few years ago," Keller said, "that if no one else was going to try and identify and acknowledge and respect the top real estate agents in the industry – not in Keller Williams but in the industry. That if no one else [...]
Moving: Is This Real Estate’s Next Big Play?
Mortgage. Insurance. Title services. Closing Services. Real estate brokerage firms continue to look to the one-stop shop for a couple of big reasons.
Double-Pane Windows
The other night I was driving down a main thoroughfare near where I live, and the traffic was heavy. This street is less than 500 yards from our home. And while we’re not adjacent to it, when we bought our house over 20 years ago, we were concerned about traffic noise.
Magnificent 7 Tech Trends to Watch in 2019 and Beyond
Two years ago, I picked a “Magnificent 7" list that included Automation, Deep Learning, IoE (Internet of Everything), Intelligent Apps, Security, Digital Twins, and Ghosting. Here's my list for 2019 of the NextGen and NextLevel tech that have caught my eye and the implications for real estate.