MLS Policy for Days On Market

Depending on where you are, Days on Market could be a hot topic. Perhaps the most sensitive area to Days on Market is San Francisco. I had a chance to talk to Steve Mavromihalis of Pacific Union about this topic last week. Steve is one of the most productive agents in the nation. Every year, WAV Group watches the listing count for Pacific Union go down by two thirds starting just before Thanksgiving and lasting until March or April – that’s 5 months of the year. Clearly this has P&L implications and budgeting implications for the brokerage. The truth is [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 16th, 2015|Main category|1 Comment

Is there a hidden downside to lead generation?

Real estate lead generation research tells us only about 1 or 2 percent of all purchased online leads become transactions. Another way to say that is 98 out of 100 times, an agent fails to turn a lead into a client, or 98 times out of 100, they are being rejected. Yet, the conventional wisdom in real estate is that you only need to turn one lead into a transaction to pay for all the leads you’ve purchased this year many times over. But is there a problem with this logic? Is it looking at only one side of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 16th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment

Stop Buying Technology

It’s the season. WAV Group is fielding satisfaction surveys to determine how agents and brokers use or don’t use technology offerings. We even encounter a curious situation where we are measuring satisfaction with broker solutions and MLS solutions in the same market. Sometimes the easiest answer to a strategy is the simplest. What WAV Group sees today is that less is more. Too many technology solutions is real estate have feature creep. Regardless if it is a broker CRM or the MLS system – they are too complex.  In real estate technology, usability trumps functionality. Change is Hard The most [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 16th, 2015|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on Stop Buying Technology

Hire a Curator

A quick Google search brings up the definition of curator – it is a word derived from the Latin word curare – meaning, “take care.” A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally this word has a connotation of maintaining historical things because it is an official position in museums, but that is not the context intended here.  The role of a curator in today’s business is to keep things current. WAV Group Communications starts projects with an audit. We begin by understanding the variety of audiences that the company engages. We then take a look at how MLSs or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:27-07:00December 16th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on Hire a Curator

Millennials, Shmillennials: Why aren’t we marketing to the over 50 crowd?

Advertising contrarian Bob Hoffman gave a talk at Matt Beall's Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers' Worthshop 5 conference last week, which is a wake up call to real estate agents and brokers everywhere. Why are we spending so much time, energy and money marketing to 18-34 year olds when the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful spending group in the world in nearly every major product category is 50+ years old? Remarkably, Bob helps us answer that question and a more important one: How should we be marketing to the over 50 crowd? Full disclosure up front: The majority of the marketing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00December 16th, 2015|Main category|1 Comment

Pacific Union International seeks Vice President, Business & Digital Intelligence

WAV Group is leading an effort to help Pacific Union International (PUI) find a Vice President, Business & Digital Intelligence (VPBDI). The person in this position will lead PUI's work in market dynamics based analytics, business and digital intelligence and client demographics. This strategic role will be responsible for business and digital intelligence programs and models to drive market share, client retention and decision support for our regional executives, real estate professionals and related business units throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. This key role will lead the industry and our company as the “go to” authority for new technical and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00December 15th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on Pacific Union International seeks Vice President, Business & Digital Intelligence

Job Posting: Director of MLS for New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS

POSITION TITLE: Director of MLS REPORTS TO: Chief Executive Officer LOCATION: New Orleans, Louisiana ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION: New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS®, Inc. is seeking a new MLS and IT Director to run their MLS operations for their wholly owned subsidiary, Gulf South Real Estate Information Network, Inc. The Gulf South Real Estate Information Network Inc., New Orleans, LA., is seeking an MLS Director to lead its 5600 member Multiple Listing Service, GSREIN. The company is looking for someone to administer and direct the activities, operations and staff of the Multiple Listing Service of the Association and oversees its IT [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00December 8th, 2015|Main category|Comments Off on Job Posting: Director of MLS for New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS

Syndicate like you Facebook

By now, everyone has experienced social media. The pinnacle of social media is Facebook. One of the early criticisms of social media marketing is that it is essentially spamming your friends. Posting the same thing every day is not going to make it more interesting. There is a lesson to think about here...let's switch sites. Every month, MLS systems are estimated to send out 200 million emails to consumers notifying them of new and updated listings. I think most people refer to them as auto-alerts or auto-notifications. That number of 200 million grows larger when you include the number of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00November 20th, 2015|Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Syndicate like you Facebook

Visit the new HowardHanna.com!

PITTSBURGH, PA (November 18, 2015) - Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the 4th largest real estate company in the U.S.A., invites the public to try the new website for the first time today. Working collaboratively with 1000Watt, the leading agency focused on real estate and mortgage branding, marketing and innovation, the new HowardHanna.com is widely regarded as the most powerful real estate site in the entire industry. HowardHanna.com achieves new milestones in real estate brokerage navigation by combining active listings, recent sales and public records data for properties within a clean, modern design that highlights the strength of the Howard [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00November 18th, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off on Visit the new HowardHanna.com!

First Month Impact of TRID

TRID has caused a lot of concern for residential real estate. The high percentage of home sales that include purchase loans makes the relationship between mortgage and home sales vital to the health of the industry and the national economy. There was an enormous amount of preparation to adjust to the new TRID regulations that were implemented October 1st, and a clear belief that closing periods would be dramatically extended. We reviewed the performance of many of our brokerage accounts to see what happened. October was the kind of month that researchers like the WAV Group would prefer to remove [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00November 17th, 2015|Main category|Comments Off on First Month Impact of TRID

7 Surprising Facts from NAR’s Newest Research on Buyers and Sellers

Each year, the National Association of REALTORS releases a study of homebuyers and sellers, which is my favorite REALTOR research publication. The NAR Research Group publishes publishes excellent research  -- including its superb daily Economists' Outlook -- but this one is especially chocked full of golden statistical nuggets, which is ideal for a data junkie like me. These are the kinds of facts I love to pull from research because these data points are what help tell a story, and that’s a great way to earn the attention of a reporter who covers our industry. Here are seven facts from [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:28-07:00November 11th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|2 Comments

Solving for Technology-Confused Agents

WAV Group supports organizations (Brokers/MLS/Associations/Franchises) to develop support services for the technology applications used by agents. To kick off these programs we audit the systems that an agent has access to. This is an administrative process whereby we inventory all of the tools that they access from any source. 7 Sources of Real Estate Agent Technology (with one common example) National Association of Realtors – RPR State Association of Realtors – Forms Local Association of Realtors – Lockbox Multiple Listing Service – MLS system Franchise – lead management Brokerage - eMail Self – website The Big Problem: 7 different channels [...]

By |2016-07-02T04:32:55-07:00November 11th, 2015|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on Solving for Technology-Confused Agents