More Brokers Offering More Services

WAV Group consults primarily with enterprise brokerages who offer full services. We frequently refer to full services as home services, not to be confused with the Berkshire Hathaway company of the same name. Home services refer to the variety of needs that a customer has during a real estate transaction and beyond. In the residential real estate, this may take the form of Mortgage Services, Homeowners Insurance, Title Insurance, Home Warranty. Some residential companies even offer contractor services, maintenance services, landscaping services. Resort areas have brokers who offer concierge services where they will clean your home before and after your [...]

RE Technology Top 5 Articles of The Week

Each week, RE Technology publishes the top 5 most read articles. These articles may be republished by MLSs and Associations in newsletters or blogs for free. If you are not offering RE Technology as a member benefit, join more than 82 MLSs currently offering the service. There is never any charge. The top article of the week was submitted to RE Technology from listing syndication service provider Listhub, a product of MOVE, Inc. Agents Need To Leverage Marketing Remarks In The MLS More Effectively Since the information you enter in the MLS is the source of the marketing content that is [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 24th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on RE Technology Top 5 Articles of The Week

Trulia To Collect More Agent Data

To optimize your online effectiveness in the real estate business, you need to think strategically. This is the kind of strategic thinking that WAV Group works with brokers and franchises on every day. When a company that does a great job at online marketing and search engine optimization focuses on a strategy like enhancing agent information, we pay attention. Typically, when Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, or homes.com makes a change, it is with intent to find improvement. It's the way everyone should think. Why Agent Profiles Are Important When consumers search, they use keywords. In our broker website effectiveness study, we learned [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00August 5th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on Trulia To Collect More Agent Data

1 plus 1 Equals Video

  Doing research like our 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study (BWES) helps WAV Group identify and measure a multitude of strategies that brokers may deploy to improve their online performance. One key trend today that is working very well is video. I am not sure how long video will help brokers gain an edge, but today it works. Some of the facts we gathered in the BWES included that Google is the #1 search engine by a significant margin, capturing 75% of all search traffic (see image) If you combine the predominance Google with an understanding of how search results [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00August 1st, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on 1 plus 1 Equals Video

Realogy has a great second quarter

There were times that I looked up at the largest brokerage in America and the largest Franchisor in America and wondered if it was built to last. They have been struggling through a rough patch with the rest of our industry, but they had the added pressure of managing the erratic public stock market and a challenging corporate lending environment. WAV Group does not have any broker clients that trade as public companies. WAV Group consulting has omitted Realogy franchise and NRT performance from benchmarks among brokerages over the past few years. They were fighting battles that private brokerage was [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00July 30th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on Realogy has a great second quarter

WAV Group Releases 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study

Contact:  Victor Lund, Author for: WAV Group 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study Phone & Fax. 805.709.6696 Email: victor@wavgroup.com Arroyo Grande, CA July 25th, 2013 – WAV Group (www.WAVGROUP.com), industry leaders of technology, strategic planning, research, business and product development, sales and marketing in the real estate industry, today released a whitepaper entitled “2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study.” The whitepaper, written by WAV Group, surveyed the Google Analytics accounts of broker websites representing 7,500,000 monthly visitors as the subject for insight on consumers accessing broker websites, and also garnered insights on the impact of social media, mobile, listing syndication and search [...]

New View of Broker Social Media Strategy

One of the key shifts in online marketing that has occurred over the past 5 years is the evolution of social media marketing. What is astounding is how far removed most broker websites are from executing baseline social media strategies effectively. Brokers have largely ignored developing a social media strategy. Only a few have a social media director. Agents are aimlessly running wild on social media in ways that diffuse the impact of a common voice. Social Media calls to action are poorly represented on listing detail pages of broker websites Social Media is poorly leveraged on agent profile pages [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:32-07:00June 26th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on New View of Broker Social Media Strategy

Imprev Roars with Mobile Marketing for Agents

Imprev has long been a behind the scenes type of company. Historically they partner with Giant franchises, Giant Brokers ,or Giant technology companies to deliver fully integrated and smart marketing solutions that agents access through their back office intranet. Imprev's solution includes a full suite of print marketing like flyers and postcards; and a full digital marketing suite which includes digital flyers, online campaigns, listing presentations, virtual property tours, and lots of other features. Recently, they have been in the industry eye for the release of their new system (developed with help from 1000WattConsulting) and plunging headlong into mobile. Today, Imprev gives agents [...]

A new tenor to integrated solutions for brokerage

I was in Seattle a few weeks ago visiting a broker when I encountered the Trulia team in the airport heading over to Market Leader. During the entire flight home my head spun with ideas about how these two companies would blend their talents to serve consumers and the real estate community better. We have clients who leverage these companies to their fullest, and others who don't. It has never been the providence of a consultant to champion one strategy over another. Helping others execute the strategy that is right for their business to maximize their opportunity is our charge. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:32-07:00June 25th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on A new tenor to integrated solutions for brokerage

The Future of Anything

I would attribute the series of postures on The Future of the MLS to Saul Klein. He may not have been the first to coin the phrase, but he has embraced it and made it his own. It is with due respect that we leave that posturing behind and set forth on a new journey. Our industry is at an inflection point, and my fear is that we are too blinded by current affairs to look beyond the steps in front of us. This morning, I encountered a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery, a French writer, poet, and aviator [...]

The MLS Battleground

The National Association of REALTORS® Midyear Legislative meetings may have reached a tipping point on the role of the MLS in real estate. To be sure, it is the battleground of our industry where brokers and associations struggle for power within the oversight of the Department of Justice. Competing MLS entities develop their operating philosophy that draws the boundaries of how everyone coexists without behaving like a monopoly. To be sure, the MLS is a common use term that takes on a lot of different definitions. Here are the top 5 governance models that define the operating philosophy. Association Owned, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:35-07:00May 28th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on The MLS Battleground

Contact Sync

Over the past few years, we have seen a shift in professional technology solutions for real estate that has been mostly characterized by “the move to mobile.” Generally speaking, applications that do not work on mobile devices, either using a mobile browser or using a mobile app, are being cast aside. But there are secondary realities about the shift that many software companies seem to have neglected, namely, contact record sync. Everyone who has a mobile device understands that contact records that are created on any device need to be synchronized across all devices. Having some contacts in one location [...]