The role of Scent Marketing in Real Estate

What does your brand smell like? Perhaps there is no better time than the holiday season to remember that humans have 5 senses (at least) that are used in interacting with all things in the world. As the smell of Christmas trees and holiday cookies linger in our homes and offices, there can be no argument that smell plays a role in marketing. Home Scenting It is not just folklore. Baking cookies and other scent tactics are effective at open houses. Victorian Homes should smell like baking. Ocean front homes should smell like the ocean. Modern city condos should smell [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00December 27th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on The role of Scent Marketing in Real Estate

Impacts of browser Geolocation technology on real estate

Real Estate brokers invest a lot of time and money into maintaining and sustaining a strong relocation business. Franchise Organizations and broker networks like Leading Real Estate Companies of the World connect brokers across the country. Advances in technology have enabled location aware Internet browsers. This allows technologists to create predictable outcomes on user visits.  If you are a broker in Ohio, and a consumer visits your website from California – you can say “We welcome Californians! Leading websites like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com and Homefinder do this effectively. Why don’t broker websites do the same? Browser auto-detect allows website [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:20-07:00December 13th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Impacts of browser Geolocation technology on real estate

Mobile Passes Print in Consumer Engagement

WAV Group joined the parade of consults declaring the death of print media in late 2006. Inman News confirmed its death during their conference in San Francisco in 2007 (one of my favorite events of all time). Believe it or not, print actually made a bit of a comeback in 2010. Nevertheless, the Internet is the place that consumers increasingly spend their media time. The new news is that people are actually spending more time on their mobile phones today than they are spending interacting with print media. According to eMarketer,  time spent on mobile devices is now an average [...]

Dot MLS May Face a New Opponent

Dot MLS Domains The United States Senate may be a new challenger to the successful bid by a group of MLSs (MLS Domains Association) to gain approval for a Top Level Internet Domain. A top level internet domain is .com, .net, .org, .XXX, or the curent application for the new .MLS. .MLS promises salvation for many of the ills that torment consumers and real estate brokers online. Notably – it suggests a rule set for displaying listings to consumers in order to qualify to purchase a .MLS domain. By subscribing to the rules of .MLS, publishers provide consumers with a level [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:21-07:00December 4th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Dot MLS May Face a New Opponent

FSBO Sites Grow as Broker and Franchises Languish

One of the pleasures of working at the WAV Group is the barrage of business questions that we are tasked to answer on a regular basis. Often, the questions challenge conventional understandings about the effectiveness of strategies in real estate. A key strategy discussion among executives at large broker firms and at large franchise organizations surrounds listing syndication to FSBO websites. Syndication strategies that each firm chooses varies relative to local market competition and consumer behavior. I highlighted that last sentence because it is the most important statement in this blog post. Many brokers and franchises are looking at what appears [...]

Great Vendors Embrace Rules

There has been a lot of conversational concern about companies that enter into new verticals of data management and service offerings. Four such instances were announced this year. REALTORS® Property Resource contracts with LPS for data services and LPS subcontracts to Real Estate Digital. Zillow purchased an IDX vendor, Diverse Solutions. MOVE purchased Threewide, the providers of the popular Listhub syndication service. CoreLogic launched a new appraisal tool leveraging MLS data. In every case, the vendor has been virtuous and adhered to contracts and data use rules. In each of these cases, many feared that data could be misused or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 22nd, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Great Vendors Embrace Rules

Nielsen credits HAR and Zillow among others

When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness, there is little argument that Nielsen is the leader. Nielsen believes that providing clients with a precise understanding of the consumer is the key to making the right decisions — decisions that can lead to profitable growth. At Nielsen, they are always innovating to keep pace with emerging market trends and the increasingly diverse, demanding and connected consumer. Joining Nielsen is the Houston Association of REALTORS, Zillow, a few dozen brokerages, and about 500 of the more than 1 Million REALTORS in America today. These REALTORS are the bold, the true, the transparant, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00November 7th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Nielsen credits HAR and Zillow among others

News from Property Panorama and Trulia

Property Panorama as appointed real estate industry veteran Mike Barnet as its new CEO, and Trulia releases information about the source of inaccurate data on their website today. Property Panorama was not specific in outlining the reasons for changing their leadership, but a new captain is at the helm. Barnet joined the company as the CIO about a year ago, and has been working to lead the charge to take the popular virtual tour solution to a higher level. Property Panorama was a unique offering in the industry when it launched its MLS Data Powered automated virtual tour creation program. Today solutions [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:26-07:00October 4th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|1 Comment

Technology service providers should think spanish

When WAV Group was learning about Immobel’s multi-language IDX search strategy earlier this year, Janet Choynowski taught us a valuable lesson. Supporting multiple languages is less about making information legible and more about demonstrating your respect for a person’s culture and heritage. It had a profound impact on us. With this notion couched in our minds, we took note when My Florida Regional MLS announced the launch of CoreLogic Data Co-op to their members, and offered two training classes in Spanish. (http://www.mfrmls.com/member-benefits/mlxchange-benefits/data-co-op). WAV Group suspects that there are a number of MLSs across the country who have significant populations of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:28-07:00September 20th, 2011|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Technology service providers should think spanish

Trulia launches Trulia Estimates

WAV Group spoke to Trulia to gain a preliminary glimpse into the new product offering that launched today. The areas covered in the beta include five San Francisco Bay area counties including San Francisco County, Marin County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and Contra Costa County. Trulia indicates that they have been working on developing their property estimate algorithm from scratch internally, leveraging the strengths of their data team and property scientists. The company has been benchmarking the effectiveness and accuracy across multiple commercial and consumer AVM solutions for many months to gain confidence in the quality of the [...]

Communication Strategy for Real Estate

One of the fundamental core values of the MLS (beyond offers of compensation) is the organization and communication of property information database. The role of the MLS as a communicator is a hotly debated topic, because the communicator becomes the identity and spokesperson to a wide range of agents and consumers alike. The MLS as a communicator is largely predicated by the governance of the MLS, its bylaws, and the standards set by the MLS shareholders and board of directors. Today, most MLSs have one or more REALTOR Associations as their shareholders. The board of directors is typically appointed by [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:30-07:00August 30th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Communication Strategy for Real Estate

Market Leader Launches New Best-in-Class Product to Provide Home Buyers and Sellers With Local Market Data

KIRKLAND, WA — (MARKET WIRE) — 08/03/11 — Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR) (http://www.MarketLeader.com), a leader in online marketing and technology solutions for real estate professionals, today launched Market Insider, a comprehensive, powerful and innovative set of tools to brand agents as the neighborhood expert, keep prospects coming back to their website, and drive greater loyalty and sales from customers and referrals. Market Insider engages home buyers and sellers with customized, up-to-date reports of home sales, trends, demographics and side-by-side statistics on their favorite neighborhoods. This detailed, local market data is available for consumers to browse on the agent’s website, and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:33-07:00August 4th, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, Press Releases|Comments Off on Market Leader Launches New Best-in-Class Product to Provide Home Buyers and Sellers With Local Market Data