You’re sitting in your board room thinking through a tough decision that needs to be made. Many of the board members are passionate, engaged real estate professionals who have lived in the local area for their entire careers.
The smartest technology companies and most progressive MLSs are leading our industry to a new era of efficiency and profitability. They are making it easy for start-ups to expand quickly from market to market and serve the innovation needs of brokers. These leaders are supporting well-established companies to evolve their data platforms and opening the door for standardization in EVERY market in the country.
The National Association of REALTORS® Chief Executive Officer, Bob Goldberg has been making some impressive moves this week. The first move is to send threatening letters to about 90 MLSs who have not adopted the RESO Standards or are not adhering to the MLS Policy required to maintain NAR affiliation. Some of the MLSs are being cited for not being certified with the RESO Data Dictionary and some do not yet have availability with the RESO Web API. While many MLSs still believe that RESO is not critical to their business, we hear from brokers regularly that they are requesting [...]
We all know that successful agents are always looking for new ways to grow their business. Some spends hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month with online portals. Some pay $29.99 a month to a BUNCH of technologies hoping they will provide them with a magic bullet of brilliance. While there are billions of dollars spent online every year, most agents are disappointed by the results of these disjointed investments. The same agents that are happy to spend thousands on many ill-fated and poorly executed outside marketing services, ALSO belong to their local MLS. They are spending well UNDER [...]
Pam Johnson O’Connor has announced that she will be retiring from Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. Paul Boomsma, who currently serves a dual role as LeadingRE chief operating officer and president of Luxury Portfolio International®, will assume responsibilities as president and CEO upon O’Connor’s retirement. Pam has had an amazing career in the relocation and residential real estate industry. Here are just a few of her accolades: Here are a few of Pam's accomplishments: Pam was the first woman executive to head a major real estate network in 1985, her experience managing real estate and relocation organizations extends [...]
Real Estate brokers need to leverage reporting to know what is working in their digital marketing assets. The good news is that Google Analytics can provide answers to the performance of your website pages and campaigns if you train it. The tool to deliver these reports is called Google Tag Manager, and if you are not using this utility in your brokerage today, you need to start. Google Tag Manager (GTM). Brokers now have more accessibility to track usage for all their Internet assets. GTM easily installs on your website and intranet, and is available for native mobile applications on [...]
It’s hard to argue that standardized input, distribution and display of real estate information is not the desired path for our industry to follow. There aren’t many technology companies that would PREFER to map nearly 700 individual MLS data sets if they have the data and a choice. The Real Estate Standards Organization has set out on a path to remove millions of dollars in cost to real estate technology development and deployment while encouraging more innovation. Download the results of the study here: When you get past the obvious technical advantages what does it really MEAN to have data [...]
Heading to the holidays it warms my heart to think of the amazing progress that RESO has made in 2017. In just two years, membership has increased 500% from 125 to more than 750 members! Every conference sells out and enjoy great satisfaction ratings from members! And finally, 95% of MLSs have now adopted the RESO Data Dictionary and well over half of the industry has been certified on the RESO Web API! Broker membership has increased significantly – RESO Broker members now represent over 900,000 agents. Just about every large brand is a member now – Realogy and all [...]
I am SO happy to announce that Jason Sanchez has been promoted to CEO of the Greater El Paso Association of REALTORS(R). We have worked with Jason for years. He is one on the most progressive and thoughtful leaders I have met in our industry. He has a humility blended with a passion for our industry that makes him a GREAT leader! I absolutely can't wait to see how GEPAR will continue to evolve with his Jason's energy! We will miss Sharron Ramirez too. She is an amazing leader and has done a great job of developing her team to [...]
This year I am proud to say that through our member satisfaction survey efforts with our MLS partners we have been able to survey over 250,000 real estate agents and brokers. We have learned a lot about where the real perceived value of an MLS is derived. While many respondents are very satisfied with the technologies, training and support offered by their local MLS, few appreciate or even understand the marketing power that a multiple listing service delivers to them. Just think about it, MLSs offer a myriad of ways to help brokers succeed and yet get VERY LITTLE credit [...]
I just love to see great companies in our industry get recognized BEYOND the real estate industry for their hard work and dedication to building a strong corporate culture. eXp REALTY’s growth over the past year has been unprecedented, They have grown from 1000 agents to over 5000 agents in less than 18 months. Revenue growth, according to their Q3 earnings report was up. Revenue increased 203% to a record $48.1 million from $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2016. This represents 22% growth quarter-over-quarter, from $39.6 million in the second quarter of 2017. Gross margin grew 96% year-over-year for [...]
Exciting news from one of the hottest new technologies in the MLS space - REMINE. They have recently partnered with First American to include detailed property information for 100% of the properties in America. This will allow REMINE customers to conduct even deeper searches to uncover prospecting opportunities through their local MLS. For those that haven’t heard about this new company, their platform analyzes property records, transnational history, consumer data and delivers actionable insights on an intuitive user interface. With just a few clicks an agent can identify a specific type of audience they would like to target – investors, [...]
