MLS Insights Archives

Who Has Better Service – Real Estate or the DMV?

So here’s a good one for you…isn’t the DMV one of those organizations that everyone just loves to hate? These bureaucratic organizations have been the brunt of many jokes over the years. They’re known for their rude and inefficient people and processes, right? I say, not so fast, though. We love to criticize them, but guess what? The DMV in California now sends customer satisfaction surveys out to their recent “guests”. In the California DMV they have implemented a ticketing system that makes it easy to get in and out of the office quickly. Why? Because they listened to their [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 13th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|3 Comments

RE Technology weekly traffic

In a way, RE Technology is a sand box for WAV Group. We get the opportunity to look at patterns of behavior and communications among real estate agents and brokers on a macro level and a micro level. Recently, we began to modify activities to determine how it may impact RE Technology readership. Our latest test was to change the time that the RE Technology daily digest goes out. The RE Technology daily digest is an interesting communication tool. Only agents who opt into getting the RE Technology newsletter receive it. Most agents choose to access RE Technology content through the message [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 10th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

WAV Group White Paper: Brokers Missing Their Customers

Many real estate brokers believe that search engine optimization is a key tactic to master in their online strategy. There is a tendency to use statistics to make assumptions about your search engine optimization strategy that can lead you astray and have you investing your efforts and marketing dollars ineffectively. We all know the NAR research. 35% of buyers and 40% of sellers start their home search online. This is a totally misunderstood statistic. It does not tell us where the consumer starts their search online. Do not assume that it is a search engine like google, MSN, AOL, or [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:55-07:00August 9th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Defense of Commissions

American business is founded on the principal that pricing for a product or service is based upon what a willing seller will accept, and what a willing buyer will pay. This happens on an individual basis with each transaction, and price fixing is not allowed. Recently, Casey William Hyland who purchased a home from a Home Services of America brokerage, Semonin REALTORS brought a suit challenging the 6% commission rates on real estate transactions. His claim indicated that the 6% rate was price fixing and is a Sherman Anti Trust Act Violation. When there are multiple transactions of commerce, pricing [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:55-07:00July 27th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Zillow brings battle to Listhub

Zillow launched a preemptive strike against Listhub yesterday by requesting IDX feeds from the nation's MLS providers. Zillow Executive Bob Bemis sent an email to all MLS CEOs and Executives titled "Why two data feeds when one will do." In the email, Bemis admits that Zillow.com is focused on improving data accuracy and timeliness. The note goes on to explain that Zillow's IDX service, Diverse Solutions, already has the data, why not allow Zillow to use it for Zillow.com so Zillow can circumvent their reliance on Listhub data feeds. A battle ensued when Listhub got word that Zillow was calling them out on [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00July 3rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|6 Comments

Dot MLS on Hold?

The Los Angles Times reported today that ICANN, the international non-profit that manages internet top level domains has indicated that they will not be releasing any new TLDs at this time. If you believe the article, this will stall the efforts of the MLS Domains Associationand the Canadian Association of REALTORS who were hopeful that they would be successful at securing the .MLS domain extension for real estate. (MLS Domains and the Canadian Associaton of REALTORS announced that they are working together). But alas, the news sometimes gets it wrong. Which may be the case here according to MLS Domains [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00June 29th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

RE Technology Releases 2012 MLS Technology Guide

MLSs seeking to educate themselves and their members about technology, as well as discover sources of non-dues revenue, can leverage this easy-to-use guide. Arroyo Grande, CA (June 2012) – MLSs and real estate Associations face myriad challenges in today’s changing technology landscape. A new guide from leading real estate technology media site, RE Technology, aims to assist them in overcoming these challenges with descriptions of leading tech companies and products. Interested organizations can download the 2012 MLS Technology Guide for free at RETechnology.com. Information in the guide is presented in a clear, concise format. Product categories covered include agent ratings, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00June 27th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

WAV Group MLS Technology Adoption Survey Invitation

WAV Group is conducting a national research project to help MLSs better understand adoption rates of the myriad of technology services now being offered by MLSs. Many MLSs provide products such as tax/public records, showing appointment software, document management, forms and so on. It is important to understand how many of your active members are actually using each of these tools to understand whether the costs are justified. Many MLSs have asked us to help them better understand their success in gaining adoption relative to other MLSs around the country. There are many dynamics to consider when evaluating adoption rates. [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00June 15th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Suveys and Research|Comments Off

IRES MLS “Lightens Up”

Lauren Hansen, CEO of IRES MLS in Colorado would agree with Charlie Chaplin when he said, "A day without laughter is a day wasted," for she and her team came up with some great ideas to "lighten up" their MLS website. Imagine this: You are an IRES MLS customer, and you hurriedly type in your username-incorrectly. Instead of receiving the usual boring error message "Username or Password Invalid", you get a different message; it reads: "Going incognito today? We aren't sure who you are!" "When I type in my password too quickly and I get the 'are you going incognito?' [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:57-07:00June 11th, 2012|Clients, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Attention Real Estate Professionals

WAV Group Webinar: Midyear Update Staying in touch with critical industry issues is essential for today’s real estate leaders whether they are managing an MLS or running their own real estate company and it isn’t easy. To help you better understand these key issues essential to your organizations, WAV Group founding partners and industry experts Marilyn Wilson, Mike Audet and Victor Lund will be sharing valuable on-the-spot insights gained while attending the annual Midyear NAR Conference held in Washington D.C. from May 15th – 19th, 2012 via two webinars on June 5th & June 7th, 2012 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:59-07:00June 4th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs
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New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services

New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs

When we facilitate strategic plans for MLSs across the country, we often hear that board members would like their MLS to do a better job of keeping them up to speed on the key issues facing MLSs today. With today’s budget crunches it is virtually impossible to send all of a MLSs leadership to conferences and workshops. We thought that maybe there’s a way for WAV Group to bring the conference to MLS boards so that each board member can stay up to speed without having to spend the time and money attending conferences all over the country. That’s why [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:59-07:00June 1st, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services|Comments Off

Marketlinx launches Mobile with Search and Edit

Somehow, we missed a memo. With very little fanfare or promotion, Marketlinx has launched their mobile solution and it claims to do most of the things that WAV Group claimed many MLS apps fell short on. We have had a lot of debates about MLS mobile applications. Some of us believe that it should be a fully featured MLS experience - allowing users to do any task on mobile that they could do on a desk top. Critics of this belief claim that adding a listing on mobile is absurd. I would concede that for now. But all pundits agree [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:00-07:00May 24th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments