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I have been reading articles about Zillow Group’s positioning on Upstream and the forms licensing policy of the California Association of REALTORS® with great interest. My take away is that Zillow Group is doing and saying exactly what they should be doing and saying to positively impact Zillow’s market opportunities in real estate. Remember, Zillow has industry relations people and government relations people that want to fight tooth and nail for every advantage they can get. It’s business.
Wow, just saw this and just HAD to comment. It’s rare that we see brokers go at each other so publicly about their competitive claims, but I have to say this letter is pretty interesting. The real estate industry is rife with hyperbole and marketing claims. Our industry’s preference of opinion over fact is one of the main reasons I started a research practice within WAV Group. The birth of business intelligence is allowing brokerages new ways to substantiate or refute claims like the article from Moxiworks shown below. Moxiworks is using MLS data married with BI tools to refute [...]
Congratulations to our friends at eXp REALTY for achieving yet another important milestone. In addition to doubling the size of their agent count in less than 1 year, they have been able to do it while keeping their employees very happy - not an easy thing to do! What’s the their secret? Here’s the secret sauce from where I sit. 1. Unique business model that focuses the money where it should be - in the hands of those creating value for the company - the agents 2. Consistent training and coaching because of centralized management support 3. Passion - [...]
Imagine a world where every real estate agent, broker and franchise in the nation promoted their real estate mobile app to consumers. The app is white-label branded to the agent, broker, and franchise offering direct access to every MLS listing without any competitive ads. That is the way it would need to work. Guess what, we have it. You have it. Our industry has it. Today.
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!
It’s real estate tech’s best sleeper story of super success. Tech Helpline, created and owned by Florida Realtors, is the real estate industry’s number one tech support service. By a county mile. I will bet you can’t even name who is ranked number two. Or three, or four, or any of their direct competitors for that matter. I can’t, and I am a consultant for them. Where else in real estate tech or proptech can you make that claim? Where does a real estate related tech firm dominates a category so profoundly? Tech Helpline is currently available to nearly half [...]
This post is the result of a collaborative effort amongst the Council of Multiple Listing Services, The Realty Alliance, The National Association of REALTORS®, and Larson Skinner PLLC. Many MLSs have been making changes to the way they file copyright applications and their MLS terms of use. Those changes have raised some questions from participants and subscribers. This FAQ is intended to answer some of those questions and emphasize that the MLSs are not forcing participants or subscribers to give up ownership of listing content.
Keller Williams had another great family reunion, their annual convention in Anaheim drew more than 17,000. Perhaps the most remarkable information conveyed is that they have hit a lot of their ambitious targets for growth, and are now re-targeting to leverage data and technology as their next conquest. According to Teresa Metcalf, their big bet is on the underlying framework and Platform – and the AI component is on top of that.
I will always vividly remember riding to a meeting with a large broker in Marin County, California back in 2002ish. We were discussing the brutal competition among brokers in Marin County. At the time, Keller Williams did not have much of a presence in San Francisco or Marin. I was wondering why Keller Williams had failed to grow as they have in other markets. Moreover, Century 21 was conspicuously missing from the market altogether. Coldwell Banker was huge, along with Pacific Union. A bunch of independent brands like Frank Howard Allen and Melissa Bradley Real Estate were performing well in upper Marin. Decker Bullock held their own with the large firms in Southern Marin.
It seems like every week we’re hearing about a new announcement from a large brokerage or franchise telling us they are spending millions on technology and re-positioning their brand story around their technology suite.
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.
