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So far Kevin Hawkins has created 336 blog entries.

Digital Dawn: Amazon is creating the smart house for the rest of us

Late Christmas morning, after the presents were opened, the wrapping discarded and breakfast consumed, my wife sent a text to her real best friend Paige that read, “I have a new best friend!” Paige promptly responded with “Huh?” “Her name is Alexa, as in the new Amazon Echo,” my wife texted back. How lucky am I, as a guy, to have a wife who put at the top of her gift list, a technology item? But more important was her reaction. She genuinely fell in love with Alexa within minutes after turning it on. It was wickedly cool and ridiculously [...]

By |2018-08-14T03:54:30-07:00March 16th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on Digital Dawn: Amazon is creating the smart house for the rest of us

LeadingRE, Miami Beach and Marketing Automation

The Fontainebleau in Miami Beach recently hosted LeadingRE. It’s always happens during what I like to think of as the real estate brokerage convention season. Keller Williams, with its Family Reunion, preceded it in New Orleans and RE/MAX R4 followed it in Las Vegas. If you really want to get a feel for the real estate market in America, these conferences are a great place to gauge what is really happening on the ground because the preponderance of attendees are broker-owners. Conferences that target industry leaders or tech companies or the intelligentsia of real estate are great for forward thinking, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:21-07:00March 16th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on LeadingRE, Miami Beach and Marketing Automation

Florida Realtors® Tech Helpline Records 20% Growth in 50 Days

It's one thing for a new tech Startup to grow rapidly, and quite another for a tech service that has been around for 15 years to grow 20 percent in just 50 days. But that's exactly the incredible accomplishment that Florida Realtors® has registered: 9 new state and local associations and nearly 90,000 new members in 50 days. Tricia Stamper, who manages Form Simplicity and Tech Helpline, and her team at Florida Realtors have done just that. They're also growing Form Simplicity, their transaction management software firm by targeting Real Estate Brokerages with a highly affordable "white label" service so brokers can [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:22-07:00March 2nd, 2016|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off on Florida Realtors® Tech Helpline Records 20% Growth in 50 Days

LeadingRE, Miami Beach and Marketing Automation

The Fontainebleau in Miami Beach this week is home to LeadingRE. It's happening during what I like to think of as the real estate brokerage convention season. Keller Williams had its Family Reunion last week and RE/MAX R4 follows in Las Vegas, Feb. 29-March 3. If you really want to get a feel for the real estate market in America, these conferences are a great place to gauge what is really happening on the ground because the preponderance of attendees are broker-owners. Conferences that target industry leaders or tech companies or the intelligentsia of real estate are great for forward [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:22-07:00February 24th, 2016|Main category|Comments Off on LeadingRE, Miami Beach and Marketing Automation

iPad Listing Presentations and Relationships

WAV Group has been working with many companies on listing presentations. They are the Barnum & Bailey Circus of selling real estate. You know the drill, in this ring we have the home tour, in this ring we have comps, and in this ring we have why you should pick me. iPads deliver listing presentations with much higher impact than paper. It’s a great listing tool. There are a few tools that make the iPad sing that I really like. I think that Paperless Agent has put together a great series of education and applications that make the iPad a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:23-07:00February 8th, 2016|Main category|Comments Off on iPad Listing Presentations and Relationships

Do you have a PR plan for 2016?

Public relations may be one of the most underappreciated and misunderstood tools in the average real estate brokerage’s marketing arsenal. Yet, the more you understand public relations and how it can be fully integrated into your marketing plans and sales activities, the greater your ability will be to make both more effective. As we begin a new year, ask yourself this question: Do you have a PR plan for 2016? What is PR? It’s no wonder most people are confused when trying to describe what PR really is. Trying to find one universal definition is futile: there are dozens. Here [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:25-07:00January 21st, 2016|Main category, Marketing, Our Services|Comments Off on Do you have a PR plan for 2016?

New Opportunities for Form Simplicity, Tech Helpline

The big buzz in November at the National Association of REALTORS® Convention in San Diego was all about transaction management. The move by NAR to make one solution available as a member benefit was a major validation of the crucial business role that forms and transaction management technology play in streamlining the real estate process. Forms and Transaction Management must be universal to achieve the ubiquitous mission of paperless real estate transactions. For more than a decade, Florida’s state Realtor association, Florida Realtors®, has been providing technology solutions created by Realtors for Realtors. Nearly five years ago, the association launched [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:25-07:00January 21st, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on New Opportunities for Form Simplicity, Tech Helpline

RESO Elects 2016 Officers, Names New Directors to Its Board

RESO just announced its new officers for 2016 and line up for its Board of Directors and that MLS firms reaching more than 600,000 Realtors have been Data Dictionary Certified. Here is the news release: Morrisville, NC – December 21, 2015 – The Real Estate Standards Organization, or RESO, announced today the election of its 2016 Officers and the addition of four new directors to its Board of Directors, as well as the re-election of two directors. Newly elected Officers of the Board of Directors: • Art Carter, CEO of California Regional MLS or CRMLS, Chair • Rob Overman, Chief [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 21st, 2015|Main category|Comments Off on RESO Elects 2016 Officers, Names New Directors to Its Board

Is there a hidden downside to lead generation?

Real estate lead generation research tells us only about 1 or 2 percent of all purchased online leads become transactions. Another way to say that is 98 out of 100 times, an agent fails to turn a lead into a client, or 98 times out of 100, they are being rejected. Yet, the conventional wisdom in real estate is that you only need to turn one lead into a transaction to pay for all the leads you’ve purchased this year many times over. But is there a problem with this logic? Is it looking at only one side of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 16th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment

Millennials, Shmillennials: Why aren’t we marketing to the over 50 crowd?

Advertising contrarian Bob Hoffman gave a talk at Matt Beall's Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers' Worthshop 5 conference last week, which is a wake up call to real estate agents and brokers everywhere. Why are we spending so much time, energy and money marketing to 18-34 year olds when the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful spending group in the world in nearly every major product category is 50+ years old? Remarkably, Bob helps us answer that question and a more important one: How should we be marketing to the over 50 crowd? Full disclosure up front: The majority of the marketing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00December 16th, 2015|Main category|1 Comment

7 Surprising Facts from NAR’s Newest Research on Buyers and Sellers

Each year, the National Association of REALTORS releases a study of homebuyers and sellers, which is my favorite REALTOR research publication. The NAR Research Group publishes publishes excellent research  -- including its superb daily Economists' Outlook -- but this one is especially chocked full of golden statistical nuggets, which is ideal for a data junkie like me. These are the kinds of facts I love to pull from research because these data points are what help tell a story, and that’s a great way to earn the attention of a reporter who covers our industry. Here are seven facts from [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00November 11th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|2 Comments

5 Hot Trends in 2016 to Look for at NAR

This year’s REALTORS® Convention & Expo in San Diego traces its origins to the first Chicago meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges held May 12-14, 1908. One hundred and seven years later, some 20,000 real estate professionals will visit the San Diego Convention center where more than 400 organizations will display their offerings and pitch their products. 2016 promises to be a pivotal year of rapid adoption of sweeping innovations and the emergence of new powerhouses in the residential real estate matrix. Here are five hot trends to look for and listen at the workshops to learn [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:29-07:00November 11th, 2015|Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on 5 Hot Trends in 2016 to Look for at NAR