Don’t Miss Out on the Latest Trends in Real Estate

With conferences and meetings in full swing, many associations and MLSs are sending staff and board members, however it is impractical to have everybody attend, every conference. The answer is simple, join us for the WAVes of Change. Don’t miss out on this rapidly growing webinar series in 2017! Did you miss AEI? Where you and members of your Board of Managers stuck in the office rather than being out at AEI in Denver a couple of weeks ago … ? …Not a problem! We attend the events and conferences so you don’t have to! The WAVes of Change webinars will educate everyone on [...]

By |2018-11-08T04:02:08-08:00March 28th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights, Wav of Change|Comments Off on Don’t Miss Out on the Latest Trends in Real Estate

Compass Exhibits The Value Of A Broker Public Relations Strategy

If you are a broker in a market where Compass is operating, you are watching them like a hawk. They have a keen ambition to recruit top producing agents. Yesterday they had a story in Inman News that exhibits the power of public relations. If you track real estate technology as WAV Group does, you understand exactly what this tool is and what it does. If you read the comments, you see that there are a number of technology companies that have offered this tool and functionality for a long time. But peel back the story a layer, and you [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:53-07:00March 28th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on Compass Exhibits The Value Of A Broker Public Relations Strategy

Big Brokers Need To Stake Their Claim Or Risk Annihilation

The start of 2017 has been like no other in real estate. We have just completed our cycle of strategic planning for brokers in real estate and every large broker is facing the same issues. Remember the folklore about the dodo bird. The species lived in a world that was so plentiful; it lost its ability to fly. In the end, that was its undoing. If large firms are not careful, they could walk off the same cliff. Small Firms Are Out Recruiting Large Firms Large real estate firms have become easy recruiting targets for small firms. The big guys [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:54-07:00March 9th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Recruiting|Comments Off on Big Brokers Need To Stake Their Claim Or Risk Annihilation

CoreLogic Announces Integration with Centralized Showing Service

CoreLogic just announced a significant agreement that will integrate its Matrix MLS platform with Centralized Showing Service (CSS). The scope is huge as Matrix is North America’s most popular multiple listing platform and today serves 650,000 real estate professionals. Under the agreement, CoreLogic will integrate and offer CSS appointment scheduling services to clients of Matrix and other CoreLogic real estate solutions. This is a big win for CSS too, which before this announcement, reached 170,000 agents. The CoreLogic connection will deliver to CSS a much bigger footprint with the Matrix integration. Here is the news release:  CORELOGIC TO INTEGRATE CENTRALIZED SHOWING [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:54-07:00March 2nd, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Press Releases|Comments Off on CoreLogic Announces Integration with Centralized Showing Service

Independent Brokers Find Their Secret Sauce

Real Estate is among the most competitive industries in America. On Main Street in America, only clothing stores and restaurants have as many offerings. Although Leading Real Estate Companies of the World is the clear leader in the independent broker category; they focus primarily on the largest independent brokerage in a given community. Franchise Organizations have set their eyes on the Independent Broker for many years, offering their brand, technology services, and business guidance as reasons to give up independence and join their flock. For too many years now, the independent broker has been isolated, alone, without a family to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:55-07:00February 27th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, Press Releases|Comments Off on Independent Brokers Find Their Secret Sauce

Understanding Push Reporting

Many technology companies fail to understand the value of push reporting. WAV Group works with many technology firms to appreciate push vs. pull, but so many fail to grasp the importance. Every broker should pay attention to this example to evaluate how the software licensed in his or her company should leverage push reporting to improve the value. For example, I would love to see data and analytic companies like Terradatum, TrendGraphix, and ShowingTime incorporate this type of push reporting to show market trends, office productivity, and productivity by agent (solds, pending, active). In another example, I would love to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:55-07:00February 22nd, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on Understanding Push Reporting

Zillow Improves Broker Programs

Zillow Group, which includes the websites of Zillow and Trulia have landed on a broker strategy for marketing that works. Zillow Group, which includes the websites of Zillow and Trulia have landed on a broker strategy for marketing that works. Featured listings are dead, and have been replaced with a product to advertise in ways that drive the largest margin opportunity for a brokerage firm – leads to eTeams and Relocation. I call this “shared display,” where the brokerage and agent are clearly displayed and may be contacted – easily understood as “your listing, same leads.” This functionality works equally well [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:55-07:00February 15th, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on Zillow Improves Broker Programs

Brokers and MLSs Get Paid To Display This Old House Content

In a press release today, Prem Luthra of Elm Street Technology unveiled his latest venture, a partnership with This Old House. You may know Prem from his work in marketing at MOVE, Cyberhomes, Real Estate Digital, Xome, and the like. One of his primary and lasting impacts to the real estate industry was the innovation around helping brokers and MLSs monetize the consumer traffic on their website. Real Estate content around listings has been pretty lack luster from the perspective of the consumer on most broker, agent, and MLS consumer facing websites. Simply stated, firms have lacked the internal resources [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:56-07:00February 2nd, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on Brokers and MLSs Get Paid To Display This Old House Content

Forget About a Statewide MLS! How About a Statewide Consumer Site Instead?

As always there is chatter in our industry about more MLS consolidation.  After Ann Bailey’s proclamation that there should only be 12 MLSs in the United States at CMLS last year, I often get asked how many MLSs should we have?   Should we go for s statewide MLS? While it is logical in many markets to think about a statewide MLS or even multi-state MLS the politics and emotion surrounding a program like that is daunting.  The chances of getting 50 statewide MLSs is slim to none in the foreseeable future in my opinion. There IS a great way for [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:56-07:00February 1st, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Forget About a Statewide MLS! How About a Statewide Consumer Site Instead?

RESO Standards Adoption Report

The Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) has driven the most important data solution for real estate brokers over the past year. With support from the National Association of REALTORS®, all NAR® affiliated MLSs (think association-owned) are required to adopt the RESO standard for MLS data. This change compelled CoreLogic®, the nation’s largest MLS provider to make the changes to the MLS data feeds. Zillow Group also jumped into the mix with the acquisition of Bridge Interactive to complement RETSLY. But firms went further, and it‘s good for brokers. Prior to the NAR mandate to adopt RESO data dictionary, every MLS [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:57-07:00January 11th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|Comments Off on RESO Standards Adoption Report

Brokers Need To Fix Their YouTube Channel

WAV Group has studied the effectiveness of video marketing for brokers over number of years. By and large, firms are not seeing the level of engagement on video marketing that justifies the trouble or expense. Having a video on YouTube with 2 or 3 views is not a conveyance of success. The promises of video marketing are pretty significant. By using video, a property is marketed more dynamically than photo and text marketing. Videos are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Simply stated, it’s a better consumer experience. Prima facie – people enjoy a video television experience [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:57-07:00January 11th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on Brokers Need To Fix Their YouTube Channel

About MLS Client Portals

This afternoon I was able to enjoy a delightful conversation between two very bright, very experienced real estate CEOs – Greg Robertson of W&R Studios – makers of CloudCMA and CloudStreams, and Michael Wurzer, CEO FBS Data Systems, makers of FlexMLS (America’s second largest MLS vendor). The discussion centered on speed, design, delivery, among other things. It all went down on Twitter. If you love real estate technology - @gregrobertson and @mwurzer are must follows. Bigger Considerations? Stakeholders in the MLS client portal services are a combination of broker interests, agent interests, and by extension a consumer interest. I wonder [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:57-07:00January 10th, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights, Twitter for Real Estate|Comments Off on About MLS Client Portals