MLS Insights Archives

Euro Net Privacy Calls Brokers to Action

I have often been heard shouting about consumer privacy in real estate. Brokers and agents toss listing content onto the web with little care for their ability to take it down. If you ask a seller if they want their home advertised online with a dozen or a hundred photos of every quaint nook and cranny of their home – they shout a jubilant YES! If you ask a home buyer if they want the photos of their daughter’s new bedroom published on 200 real estate websites, they scream a resounding NO! Brokers have not faced any legal action regarding [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:09-07:00June 13th, 2014|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Technology Self Audit For Real Estate Companies

If you are a mega broker, with thousands of agents, you will have an IT department that watches over your software and technology infrastructure. If you are a small or medium size broker, that chore usually falls to you, much like it does for us, in our consulting company. We watch real estate technology on a daily basis and advise some of the best technology companies in the business on how to improve their product’s user interface, how to put together marketing and communication plans and many other services, and even for us, this is a daunting task. Every time [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:24:09-07:00June 13th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

A New Way for MLSs to look at Mobile

You know the old expression, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”? Well, MRIS has taken that to heart and created a new approach for mobile that may be worth taking a look at. Their key goal with any of their online marketing efforts is to generate leads and listing exposure for their customers. They work hard with their site MRIShomes.com to do that and they work hard to make sure their prospecting solutions within their MLS system are effective, too. Now one of the largest MLSs in the country has added a new mobile tool to their quest to [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:09-07:00June 13th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

The Triad of Consumers, People, and REALTORS

There were a few very interesting articles in the Washington Post this week. Unlike industry commentary about the Zestimate, this one took place in public. The Washington Post stirred the pot a bit, as only the politically divided would do so naturally. The battle was epic. At 5:30 AM, David Howell of McNearney Associates published a piece titled “How Accurate is Zillow’s Zestimate? Not very, says one Washington-area agent. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/wp/2014/06/10/how-accurate-is-zillows-zestimate-not-very-says-one-washington-area-agent/ At 5:31, Stan Humphries, Zillow Chief Economist responded in his article titles “How Accurate is the Zestimate? Zillow says the tool is helpful when used the right way.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/wp/2014/06/10/how-accurate-is-the-zestimate-zillow-says-the-tool-is-helpful-when-used-the-right-way/ You [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:10-07:00June 12th, 2014|MLS Insights, Press Releases|2 Comments

FBS To Support MLS With Listing Syndication

Since listing data feeds came into existence, they have been the providence of MLS vendors like FBS and their peers. There are also controls that go down to the listing detail level that enables listings to be opted out of things like IDX (with written seller approval in most markets). In a blog post today, FBS CEO Michael Wurzer discusses this functionality that is delivered through a standard feature in FlexMLS called Listing Export. Arizona Regional MLS serving the greater Phoenix, AZ area is among the first FBS clients to use this functionality for a wide range of syndication to [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:11-07:00May 28th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Third Party Site or MLS? Why not both?

MLSs, with their consumer-facing websites, long to find ways to make their sites more engaging, attracting more visitors and ultimately more exposure to their member’s listings. The Houston Association of REALTORS®, arguably one of the most progressive and gutsy Associations in America today, has done it again. They have become the first MLS consumer site in America to allow listings from brokers around the state of Texas via Listhub. Listing syndicator ListHub will feed listings to public-facing websites operated by multiple listing services, and the Houston Association of Realtors is the first to sign up for the new program, which [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

The Right and Wrong of Broker Data

There is a lot of confusion about real estate listing data today. I believe that the confusion is the cause of agitation that pits technology companies, consumers, real estate agents, pundits, MLSs, Franchises, and Associations of REALTORS against one another. For many, there is a belief that the listing data is free and access should be provided to all. The reality is that the listing data is legally bound to the real estate listing broker who is the custodian and responsible party for that data. Being a custodian, or the responsible party has nearly boundless latitude and altitude. Today’s real [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|3 Comments

Resourcefulness

If anything put fear back into the real estate industry lately, it was the sluggish first quarter performance. There are few valid explanations for it. Inventory is at a reasonable level and interest rates are low. People should be buying homes like they did last year. Rather than trying to figure it out, it is time to apply a healthy dose of resourcefulness into the business. The best way to do that is audit your expenses and your people. A typical story There are times when WAV Group finds significant problems in a business that management did not see. But [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off

Professional “Standards” – Are we kidding ourselves?

We have had the pleasure of facilitating several strategic plans in the past few months with many of the nation’s leading Associations. We have seen an important theme emerge in many of these discussions – Professional Standards. While most organizations feel as though they are doing a good job of maintaining current expectations for professional standards, some weaknesses have been revealed. When asked, most organizations will readily admit that there are agents and brokers that are NOT upholding the Code of Ethics and standards of conduct to the level that most members are. Even though boards regularly admit that there [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off

Protect Broker Data with Anti-Scraping

If you are a broker or an MLS, you must treat your data as an asset. By and large, our industry does a great job of protecting the front door of data access, but the back door of data scraping is wide open. It begs the question, if you care about data protection, why are you only scrutinizing the legitimate data users without hunting for the nefarious and illegitimate data thieves? Thieves that want to steal data send robots out onto the internet to do their pickpocketing, and they do it quite well. Reviewing Distil Networks’ reports with Matt Cohen [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00April 9th, 2014|MLS Insights|Comments Off

Early Success Can Be Tricky – Take Care!

We work with all types of companies and organizations and have the opportunity to see many different approaches to successfully delivering products and services. Successful companies have many similarities and when you look into them closely you see certain constants. These companies almost always have strong leadership, values and a clear vision that is understood by everyone that works there. When you look back at their evolution you see a company that stayed on track to their core mission. You’ll see a company that understood the basics and paid attention to detail, their customers, what the market was asking for [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00April 9th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off