America’s Top Real Estate Pro Becomes the First Billion-Dollar Agent

Addison, TX (May 4, 2016) – America’s number one Realtor® for the last four straight years – Ben Caballero, president of Texas-basedHomesUSA.com – has become the first billion-dollar producer in the world for total home sales last year. Caballero personally was responsible for 2,491 home sales, totaling $1,022,000,000 in 2015. Uniquely, nearly all of his transactions were new home sales for more than 40 homebuilder brands that he represents throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin metro areas. Caballero’s feat is the result of a highly inventive technology he developed: an online listing management platform that streamlines the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:16-07:00May 5th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on America’s Top Real Estate Pro Becomes the First Billion-Dollar Agent

BUYSIDE Ramps Up Nationwide Adoption and Engages Industry Veteran to Lead Expansion Initiatives

NEW YORK, May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Charles Williams IV, CEO and Founder of the leading real estate analytics company Buyside has announced that Michael Pressnall, a respected and tenured industry executive and DocuSign veteran, has joined the company in the newly-created role of Vice President of Industry Engagement. “Mike is an ideal addition to our team as the Buyside platform continues its nationwide expansion and adoption by brokers, team, and agents looking to grow their top-line business income and serve customers more effectively. His success at DocuSign shows a stellar track record in bringing transformational technology tools to real estate brokerages [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:16-07:00May 5th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Press Releases|Comments Off on BUYSIDE Ramps Up Nationwide Adoption and Engages Industry Veteran to Lead Expansion Initiatives

Don’t Switch Software Vendors

WAV Group constantly tries to educate MLSs and brokers to stay with their current vendor. We have long preached that making a change costs a lot more than you think and sets the company’s goodwill back years. We see this in user satisfaction research gathered from both agents and consumers. Unless your vendor is impossible to work with, stick with them. Recently, I was directed to research published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) that substantiates this issue even more. The article is titled Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers : Understanding the Psychology of New-Product Adoption. The article starts out [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:16-07:00May 2nd, 2016|Broker Technology Research|Comments Off on Don’t Switch Software Vendors

Consumer Questions a Broker Website Must Answer

There are less than 2% of the homes for sale around the nation today. Typically, that number is 3.5%. Hence we are in a sellers’ market. So the consumer thinks – “Where am I in the market?” What Home Can I Buy? Over 90% of consumers looking to purchase a home have one to sell. The rest are currently renters or second home purchasers. Buying a home is never about buying what you want. It is always about buying what is right for you. The old story of Location, Location, Location is a bit lost on me today, unless it [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:17-07:00April 25th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on Consumer Questions a Broker Website Must Answer

Blow Away Your Broker Profit Goals

Top 5 Reasons to Leverage MLS Listing Data in Your Brokerage Today MLS data can make a lot of the systems in a brokerage work more smoothly and can create new ways to serve the needs of your clients while helping your brokerage be more competitive. I have been working a lot recently with brokers who are finding new ways to provide better service to their agents, sellers and home buyers by integrating their systems with MLS data in new and meaningful ways. Here are five benefits of integrating your systems with MLS data and how they can help your [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:17-07:00April 20th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Blow Away Your Broker Profit Goals

Be Uncomfortable

It is pretty well known that Google is now Alphabet – a re-imagined company that is comprised of a variety of businesses around the focus of organizing the world’s information to make it universally accessible and useful. Building a new brand on top of Google was an uncomfortable decision, but there is much to be learned from it. The Alphabet Companies (full list here) Google – Search Engine, Android, Gmail, and YouTube Calico – Healthcare company aimed at extending life Verily – Smart contact lenses X Labs – Research and Development Deep Mind – Artificial Intelligence Access – high-speed internet Jigsaw [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:17-07:00April 20th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Be Uncomfortable

A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Wish

A French writer wrote this line – “a goal without a plan is just a wish.” It often pops into my head when I read a trade story about a hot new real estate tech company that upon closer inspection, isn’t a company at all, but an idea in search of a business plan. I also find myself thinking about the same thing when I walk through a conference where startup firms are lined up. I pay a game in my head call “product or product feature.” It seems that so many tech startups in real estate are really just [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:17-07:00April 20th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|Comments Off on A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Wish

Fox and Roach Reports Success With Buyside

There are a lot of technology applications that look promising, none more so than the recent launch of their Home Valuation System on foxroach.com powered by Buyside™. Fox and Roach is the largest Berkshire Hathaway Home Services company. Their offices cover many regions including Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware. In WAV Group broker website effectiveness studies, BHHS Fox & Roach ranks in the top 10 for the most traffic of any broker in America. Last month, they launched the Home Valuation System, built by Buyside™ that created a landing page for every off- market property and IDX listings [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:17-07:00April 20th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Fox and Roach Reports Success With Buyside

3 Ways for MLSs to Frustrate and Alienate Brokers

SOLDS, VOWS and the RESO Data Dictionary are NOT Optional for MLSs Some MLSs are creating unnecessary and even illegal challenges for their brokers as well as for the technology suppliers that support their brokers, by not complying with NAR rules…some of which that have been in place for YEARS! I hear regularly from brokers and technology vendors that they run into roadblocks all the time when they try to access SOLDs for their IDX feed, a Virtual Office Website (VOW) data feed and most recently, the RESO Data Dictionary dataset. I’m going to start with a little history lesson [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:18-07:00April 20th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|Comments Off on 3 Ways for MLSs to Frustrate and Alienate Brokers

Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Going Away?

A new paper issued by a robust group of government and economic leaders in the real estate economy have outlined a proposal to merge Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a new government-owned corporation.  Currently both organizations are government-regulated, but privately owned. According to the paper the goal of the proposal is to overhaul the mortgage lending process to accomplish the following: “This would facilitate a deep, broad and competitive primary and secondary mortgage market; limit the taxpayer’s risk to where it is absolutely necessary; ensure broad access to the system for borrowers in all communities; and ensure a level playing field [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:18-07:00April 1st, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Going Away?

The New Process for RFPs in Real Estate

This change was caused by a quiet revolution. During the Y2K surge that transitioned software from mainframe to browser, there was recognition that the old process of software development was too bureaucratic, slow, and overly regimented. An alternative to traditional project management that emerged in the early 2000s is called Agile software development. They use terms like Scrum, Extreme Programing, Dynamic System Development Method, Feature-Drive Development and many others. The overarching focus of all of these methodologies is to deliver frequent, high quality working software, delivered in “sprints,” which are measured in weeks, not months. The result is continuous improvement. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:19-07:00March 30th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|Comments Off on The New Process for RFPs in Real Estate

Crye-Leike, Realtors® Recognized For Outstanding Website Marketing: Recipient Of Coveted SEO Strategy Award

Nashville, Tenn. (March 9, 2016) – Crye-Leike, REALTORS®, the nation’s fourth largest privately-held residential real estate firm, was named the winner of the 2015 Most Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy Award for outstanding website marketing of its Crye-Leike.com website. This coveted SEO award was presented by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE), a global community of more than 500 high-quality independent real estate firms. Crye-Leike.com was recognized for its website marketing strategy in making it easy for consumers to find its website, with competitive positioning on popular search engines, unique content focusing on key markets, effective incorporation [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:20-07:00March 25th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Press Releases|Comments Off on Crye-Leike, Realtors® Recognized For Outstanding Website Marketing: Recipient Of Coveted SEO Strategy Award