Midyear Recap: CMLS Brings It to the Table

CMLS is an acronym for the Council of MLS. It is an organization that allows MLSs to share best practices in their pursuit of delighting the brokers and agents that subscribe to MLS services. A few years ago, they began the successful practice of having a primer conference the Tuesday before the NAR Midyear Legislative meetings. This year’s meetings were held at the City Club of Washington D.C. with 130 in attendance. Diamond sponsors for the event included MLS vendors Black Knight Financial and CoreLogic. They were joined by Homes.com, realtor.com, Zillow.com, and Trulia.com, all of whom overtly recognize and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:45-07:00May 12th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Midyear Recap: CMLS Brings It to the Table

Rapattoni is First MLS System Offering Integration with ListTrac Nationwide

New Tracking Tool Shows Where Real Estate Agents Get Their Most Leads San Diego – May 8, 2015 – ListTrac, known as the “Google Analytics for real estate listings,” today announced that Rapattoni Corporation (Rapattoni), a leader in providing software and services for real estate associations and MLS organizations, is the first MLS system provider to offer ListTrac integration nationally for MLS customers who subscribe to the ListTrac analytics service. The move allows real estate agents and brokers using participating MLS systems powered by Rapattoni to track consumer engagement and measure online performance for properties listed across the Internet. With 100-plus MLS [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:45-07:00May 8th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Rapattoni is First MLS System Offering Integration with ListTrac Nationwide

MLS Not Ready for Direct Syndication

In no small way, the impact of Zillow and Trulia being disconnected from ListHub has caused troubled waters for many MLSs. Although ListHub continues to manage syndication to a wide number of sites, they no longer support two of the top five. What’s the plan? MLSs are scrambling in every direction today. The biggest issue has been the data license agreement to Zillow. Everything was neat and tidy when ListHub had one agreement with each portal. Now Zillow is faced with hundreds of MLS agreements all with different terms. According to MLS executives, that is Zillow’s choice. Efforts by legal [...]

Major Changes In Real Estate

Behold, changes are taking place in real estate. We are seeing significant efforts like Project Upstream, RPR AMP, Broker Public Portal, Fair Display Guidelines, and RESO mandates that are shaping the future of our industry. It makes you wonder what is driving this explosive cocktail of industry wide initiatives. At the heart of many of these developments are brokers. When they survey the world around them, they rue the existence of poor data management and profit taking by others. Poor Data Management I believe that it was MRIS CEO, David Charron who coined the term Overlapping Market Disorder. He was [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 28th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off on Major Changes In Real Estate

Coming Soon Listings Revisited

Last summer, the issue of Coming Soon listings hit a peek of interest among the nation’s MLSs. As our industry is naturally prone to do, the issue was well vetted for more than a year thanks in part to the efforts of Mountain View, CA based MLS Listings CEO James Harrison and his Chairman Robert Bailey. It was discussed at every MLS conference and forum and MLSs created a new status to handle Coming Soon listings. Leading MLSs understood the need for this field and brokers learned about the inherent concerns of this listing type. Today, most of the leading [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off on Coming Soon Listings Revisited

Enabling an Ecosystem of Innovation for Real Estate

The MLS technology model has been relatively flat-footed for some time now. Many MLSs offer one MLS system, one Public Records system and other services like showing appointment software, document management, and they call it a day. In Part IV of his blog series last Thursday, Bob Bemis outlined a vision of a brand new way for MLS platforms to operate. A new program called AMP™ or Advanced Multi-List Platform™ that would leverage RPR is a very interesting and even scary concept to some. In its simplest definition, AMP would be the “back end” of an MLS. It would provide [...]

Listing Syndication now Part of Broker Office Policy Manuals in Colorado

Loveland, CO — April 8, 2015 — Colorado Real Estate Commission Position 21 (CP-21) was officially revised this week to include Listing Syndication within office policy manuals. CP-21 is a long standing position statement that covers a variety of topics suggested for real estate office policy manuals such as handling earnest money, contract review and, as of April 7th, listing syndication. Timing is perfect considering the recent changes between listing syndication giant, Listhub, and consumer portals, Zillow and Trulia. As of April 7th, Listhub and Zillow Group ended their contract with one another, leaving brokers and agents wondering how their [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 7th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Listing Syndication now Part of Broker Office Policy Manuals in Colorado

Association MLS Service Provider Controversy

WAV Group is a leading provider of satisfaction research to a large number of MLSs in the United States and Canada. This type of research is often performed annually by mid-sized MLSs and quarterly by large MLSs. Our satisfaction research is unique in that we support MLSs to benchmark off of their prior performance along with benchmarks against their peer group. WAV Group does not ever share another MLS’s data with any other MLS. But we do extract observations about what strategies are most effective at improving satisfaction in areas where MLSs are weak. As we have voiced on many [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:48-07:00March 26th, 2015|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Our Services, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Association MLS Service Provider Controversy

The Powerful Magic of Telling Your Story via Video

Sometimes your children really can teach you meaningful things about how to be more successful in your life. In our case the lesson of the power of telling your story via video came from our daughter Alexandra AKA “Sparkles” Lund. As many of you know “Sparkles” is engaged in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. About four months ago, she set out on a path to build her following among casting directors, agents, choreographers and producers. She deployed three powerful tools. First, she blogs regularly so her voice is being heard. Second, she creates “vlogs” or video stories talking about [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:48-07:00March 26th, 2015|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Struggling with your Direct Feeds?

Direct to portals, syndication platforms, virtual tour companies, online marketing products…the options for brokers to distribute listings seem endless. They all offer varying features, benefits and service levels, making it hard to determine what will give their businesses a competitive edge. Many brokers are at the mercy of agents using services that distribute listings without their knowledge; creating inaccuracies and liabilities, and eroding their brands. MLSs are in the unique position to offer brokers unmatched listing distribution services through strong data licensing agreements. A key benefit that only MLSs can offer is faster listing updates. When listings are not delivered [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:48-07:00March 17th, 2015|MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Struggling with your Direct Feeds?

Five Ways to Make a Thoughtful Decision about Direct Feeds

I had the honor of working with the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® today. They hosted a Town Hall asking for input on whether or not their brokers would like them to negotiate a Direct Feed from the Zillow Group on their behalf.  Michael Bustamante did a great job of framing the issues that need to be discussed and ultimately decided upon. While the issue is anything, but clear cut, there were interesting questions posed that may be helpful for you to use in your market as you try to think your way through your market’s decision about direct feeds. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:49-07:00March 16th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|4 Comments

Direct Feeds to Zillow Group

MLS RETS servers are designed to deliver IDX, VOW, and Full Data feeds to brokers and their vendors. With few exceptions, they were not purpose built for sending listing syndication feeds to publishers. Syndication feeds are the domain of Listhub. With Listhub’s support of Zillow Group’s websites going away, you must act now to determine what your plans are. MLS RETS Servers are emerging with new features that blend in Syndication support for Direct Feeds to Publishers like the Zillow Group. The defining difference between Listhub and direct feeds may be complex or simple. The complex path is considered by [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:49-07:00March 7th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|3 Comments