About Kevin Hawkins

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So far Kevin Hawkins has created 335 blog entries.

CRMLS, MetroList and High Desert all Go Platinum

When RESO - Real Estate Standards Organization - announced the release of Data Dictionary 1.6, the group that is fueling future innovation in real estate unveiled the biggest update in the history of the RESO Data Dictionary. Hundreds of new data elements and massively important new capabilities were added. Data related to Accessibility, Showing Data, Saved Searches, Prospecting, Internet Tracking, Structure Types, and standardized Universal Identification of Organizations can all be delivered through this new Data Dictionary standard. It truly is real estate's Rosetta's Stone. Now three of the top MLSs in the nation -- and not surprisingly all out of California [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:39-07:00October 13th, 2017|MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on CRMLS, MetroList and High Desert all Go Platinum

Great Content Should Still Be King

The lines in the world of communication are blurring, between content that is paid for and content that is earned. Think about it. Is the last content you just read sponsored content or earned content? Do you know for sure? Did you check the source? Are you familiar with the writer?

By |2018-08-20T08:01:46-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on Great Content Should Still Be King

It’s the Biggest Marketing and PR Mistake

Stay on message. Those three little words sound so simple. But it amazes me how difficult it seems for companies – and their messengers – to do this. It should be the core of their marketing and PR compass. Consistency and repetition: That’s what every well-crafted marketing and PR program adheres to over the long haul. Unfortunately, most companies forget these crucial tenets and they stray. Or worse, they veer so far from their original course, they completely undermine what they have already have accomplished. Building brand awareness takes time, often a very long time. Building brand loyalty (a.k.a. understanding [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:39-07:00September 18th, 2017|Main category, Sales Advisory, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on It’s the Biggest Marketing and PR Mistake

$25,000 in Cash for Tech Startups via New RESO DataComp

It’s the first RESO DataComp, a data competition sponsored by Realtors Property Resource®. Prizes total $25,000, courtesy of prize sponsors that include FBS, the creators of Flexmls and Stratus Data Systems, Inc. It’s set to begin on September 17, at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time. It will end with live demonstrations before a distinguished panel of industry judges from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in San Diego on October 17  during the RESO fall conference, October 17-19, being held at the uber-hip Pendry. That’s right, unlike a Hackathon, this data competition will last a month, and unlike many other real estate data events, this one is [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:39-07:00September 14th, 2017|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on $25,000 in Cash for Tech Startups via New RESO DataComp

Using Twitter as a PR Tool

Twitter is probably one of the most ignored social media channels in real estate marketing and PR, which is remarkable considering its breadth and depth: 328 million monthly active users and 67 million of them in the U.S., a half-billion Tweets per day, and 80% of users access Twitter on their mobile devices. Okay, admittedly, Twitter also has 20 million fake users, and the profile of a “typical” Twitter user is (unfortunately) not a primary target for most brokerages: A young woman, with an average of 209 followers, using an iPhone. In fact, 37% of all Twitter users are between the ages [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:40-07:00September 5th, 2017|Twitter for Real Estate|Comments Off on Using Twitter as a PR Tool

This is the blueprint for the near-future of real estate tech: RESO Data Dictionary 1.6 Biggest Update

Art Carter, Chair of RESO and CEO at CRMLS, the nation’s largest MLS put it this way: “This is one huge leap for the RESO Data Dictionary…(and) a giant spring forward to greater innovation by combining and leveraging real estate’s Big Data in a way that will give agents, brokers and consumers better information and help us all make the real estate transaction process better.” Carter nails the importance of the announcement because what the “Rosetta Stone of Real Estate” delivers with this Data Dictionary 1.6 Update is massive: Save Searches, Showing Data, Accessibility Data, Internet Tracking, and a heck of a lot [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:42-07:00August 11th, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on This is the blueprint for the near-future of real estate tech: RESO Data Dictionary 1.6 Biggest Update

zavvie Breaks with the Status Quo at the Big Tech Show

Inman Connect SF is next week, and it’s so great to see the spirit and spunk that a startup called zavvie is bringing to our industry’s biggest real estate tech conference. The headline of the news release they issued this week touting their appearance at Connect SF: “Real Estate Startup zavvie Breaks with the Status Quo at the Big Tech Show.”  The subhead is nearly as sassy: “Taps Top Pros for Inman Connect to Educate Agents, ‘Debunk’ Tech Hyperbole.” Turns out zavvie will be at Startup Alley and they are sponsoring one of the coveted “Learning Lab” tracks in Parlor 8 at [...]

By |2018-08-20T12:55:51-07:00August 3rd, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on zavvie Breaks with the Status Quo at the Big Tech Show

Imprev Hosts Stellar Learning Labs at Inman Connect SF

One of the greatest innovations that Brad Inman added to Inman Connect in recent years is a hidden treasure that not everyone may be aware of: the Learning Labs. These are held on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, August 9 and 10, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Learning Labs have become, in my experience, one of the best places where agents and brokers can learn tangible business practices that can be implemented immediately. A company that perfected the Learning Lab concept out of the gate is Imprev, a pioneering sponsor of the Inman Labs. Imprev, America’s largest real estate marketing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:43-07:00August 2nd, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on Imprev Hosts Stellar Learning Labs at Inman Connect SF

Ben did it again: A Look at America’s #1 REALTOR®

America’s number one real estate agent isn’t from Manhattan or Beverly Hills. You won’t find him when you’re filing through the programming guide for HGTV, and he’s never graced the cover of Real Estate magazine. He doesn’t cater to the rich and famous. Ben Caballero is the broker-owner of HomesUSA.com®, based in Addison, Texas, and sells new homes to Texans for more than 60 top builders in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Ben is not only arguably, real estate’s most successful agent, he may well be its most unconventional one. The World’s Most Successful Agent On the success side, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:43-07:00July 25th, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on Ben did it again: A Look at America’s #1 REALTOR®

Chalk’s “The Confident House Hunter” Wins National Book Award

  We told you about “The Confident House Hunter: A Home Inspector’s Tips for Finding Your Perfect House” by America’s new favorite home inspector Dylan Chalk just before it hit the bookstores and Amazon last year. Well, Dylan just won the Silver Award at the 11th Annual Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Awards, held during the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) conference in Denver last week. In my column from July of last year, I called his book a breakthrough in capturing “A Better, Different Way to Buy” a home. Now he has won one of the highest awards for real estate authors available. The [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:45-07:00June 21st, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on Chalk’s “The Confident House Hunter” Wins National Book Award

NAREE Denver Conference Destined to Dazzle

Even when it comes to working with reporters who cover our industry, the real estate business is unique. Think about it. You could spend a month and tens of thousands of dollars on transportation, lodging and meals, trekking across the country to meet with a couple of dozen reporters, or you could attend a single conference and in a few days accomplish much the same thing. That’s exactly what’s happening in Denver next week: an opportunity to meet with journalists, face-to-face, who write for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Dallas Morning News, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:47-07:00June 6th, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on NAREE Denver Conference Destined to Dazzle

Highlights and Lowlights at NAR Midyear

The REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo is a mouthful, so we all just call it NAR Midyear. This one was a scorcher: both inside, as Upstream was the hot topic, and outside, as the temperatures were in the 90s in mid-May and the humidity made me remember why everyone leaves D.C. in August (except the tourists). CMLS Brings it to the Table For me, this was the highlight of the conference and it really isn’t even officially part of Midyear. It’s a tangential track that the Council of Multiple Listing Services hosted at American University, about 15 minutes north [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:47-07:00May 25th, 2017|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment