Broker Technology Research Archives

“Full Service” Starts With Serving Your Agents

Agents need help. I guess that I did not truly understand how much until a series of events collided this week. The first lob was the announcement that Century 21 is launching a new program that allows agents to subscribe to a "Marketing Assistant" program for $300 per year. The marketing assistant will be fully trained on all of the services offered on the brand's Century21Online portal. In launching the portal, Century 21 CMO made a prophetic statement: "The last thing that agents need today is another tool." She is right. Outside of core technology solutions, agents can be heavily [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00March 25th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|2 Comments

What MRED Teaches Us About Mobile

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is the MLS of the Chicagoland area. It encompasses Chicago and the surrounding region. It is among the largest MLSs in the nation. As you know, here at WAV Group, we love data and charts. Any ability to track trends in our industry that are supported by data lends credence to the strategic planning efforts across our industry. Let's take a closer examination of this graph. Copyright 2014 Chicago Agent magazine, reprinted with permission Adoption Curve The first thing you'll notice is that mobile adoption is not a hockey stick. It was in 2011 [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00February 14th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Invitation to Participate in the 2014 WAV Group Broker Technology Adoption Survey

As real estate agents and brokers strive to develop a process to improve every area of their trade, technology supports them. However, with so many solutions, it is difficult to understand what solutions count the most and to whom. Think of the long list of solutions – website, lead management, CRM, drip marketing, email marketing, CMA, email, transaction management, document management, online advertising, SEO, listing syndication, tax systems, mobile solutions for everything, scheduling software, accounting systems, market stats, digital signatures, forms software, recruiting tools. It is quite a list. The goal of the Broker Technology Adoption Survey is to understand [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:17-07:00February 5th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Our Services, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Cartavi Adds Gusto to Version 3.3

Since being acquired by DocuSign, Cartavi has been working away at developing the golden triangle of the real estate document management echo system: Forms, Signature, and Storage. Better yet, they focus on making it happen on mobile first. Before this new release, signing a document was kind of clunky. You had to open your document in DocuSign, add signatures, sign it, then pull the completed document back into Cartavi. Now, you can sign any document right inside of Cartavi using DocuSign Ink. New Integrations They took a complicated workflow and narrowed it down. When you look at a document today [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:18-07:00January 20th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Agent Responsiveness Study Reveals Critical Flaws in Real Estate Lead Response

A new whitepaper reveals that failure to respond to leads in a timely manner is a major problem for many real estate professionals. The whitepaper is the result of the collaboration between partners at leading consulting firm WAV Group and Weichert Lead Network, the Internet lead generation arm of Weichert, Realtors. What they uncovered was remarkable and could help real estate professionals achieve new levels of service and prosperity. In the whitepaper, WAV Group details lead responsiveness results from a sample of 384 different brokers across 11 states. Researchers posed as consumers and inquired about listings on broker websites, Zillow.com, [...]

By Victor Lund|2019-06-20T05:10:35-07:00January 13th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Reports|9 Comments

Howard Hanna and William E Wood Join Together

In a press release today, Howard Hanna and William E Wood have reached an agreement whereby Howard Hanna has purchased William E Wood. The Hanna family of companies now reaches from Michigan through Ohio, down through Pennsylvania extending into Virginia and the Carolinas. Following their successful acquisitions of the past with Smythe Cramer, Realty One, Edward Surovell Realtors and others. They do not have any plans to make changes at William E. Wood. The executive team will remain in place along with the brand. William E Wood is a great company and the Hanna's intended to work hard to keep [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 9th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

MRIS Tackles Coming Soon Listings

MRIS is among the few multiple listing services in the country that manage their own listing input system. Keystone, developed, owned and operated by MRIS, gives MRIS the ability to respond directly to subscriber needs for innovative listing management tools. Often, third party vendors have a difficult time responding to local market needs, in particular when it comes to listing input solutions. Based on market research, MRIS has been, and continues to, progressively update and enhance Keystone using a phased approach. Keystone provides an easy to use intuitive user experience to input and maintain listing data and facilitates the easy [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

NAR REach Program Accepting New Applicants

Here is a note from Constance Freedman, Managing Director of NAR's venture capital arm, Second Century Ventures. If you have a business that would benefit from NAR support, be sure to submit your application. It is an online process at www.narreach.com On 01/06/14 12:42 PM, Constance Freedman wrote: -------------------- Friends, Applications for NAR’s 2014 REach™ class are now open - please help us spread the word! REach™ is a strategic accelerator launched last year in conjunction with the National Association of Realtors® to help great technology companies gain access to the $1 trillion real estate industry. The opportunity for companies to [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off

Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

2014 may well be the year of the broker, or as they are referred to in MLS speak, the year of the Participant. If your MLS has adopted the National Association of REALTORS® template for MLS Rules and Regulations, you will find that brokers are Participants and agents are Subscribers. As a Participant in the MLS, brokers accept full responsibility to adhere to MLS rules and regulations. The MLS does a pretty good job of enforcing those rules. But who among you is making sure that the MLS is not running afoul? WAV Group MLS clients are traditionally the largest [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 30th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year
Gallery
Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning

Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

For the last half of a decade, the real estate industry has taken blow after blow. Through grace, we have recovered as an industry and that has a profound impact on homeowners and REALTORS® alike. The number of families losing their home to foreclosure has reset to reasonable levels. WAV Group facilitated nearly two-dozen strategic plans for some of our industry’s most significant market makers. In many cases, boards of directors are thinking pretty big. They are taking on difficult policy issues including syndication, data licensing, and data management. If these organizations accomplish half of what they have set as [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 23rd, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Broker Intellectual Property At Risk

Many real estate brokers are being asked to sign new MLS Participant Agreements. The cause for a new agreement is based upon the MLSs efforts to support real estate brokers to protect their intellectual property. This is a very important initiative that every broker should take very seriously. Every broker should also consult with their attorney to discuss ramifications and meet with the MLS in a forum to discuss the best path. There are a couple cases before state supreme courts (MD and MN) that are ruling on the ability for the MLS to defend the intellectual property rights when [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 20th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool!

Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool! MLS Consumer Facing websites collectively deliver millions of leads and thousands of inquiries for their subscribers every year. In every market that I have evaluated the MLS delivers 2 to 3 times the number of inquiries that any other leading third party site does including Zillow and Trulia. Sadly, most brokers and agents are not aware of this amazing value they receive from their MLSs. I solidly believe that if MLSs did a better job of communicating the amazing marketing value of these sites, brokers of all sizes [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 19th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off