MLS Insights Archives

LPS automates court cases

I guess that if you are a technology company that has been spending a lot of time in court rooms, you may as well make the best of it, and fix the court system while you are there. Just kidding. In all seriousness, LPS and CoreLogic have largely escaped all damages for thier role in supporting the bad decisions of lenders. That is a good thing. But LPS did just land a huge deal in their courthouse management systems. They were awarded the contract for managing documents on 425,000 court cases that roll through the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller’s office each year. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:09-07:00March 15th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off

Best Days to Reach Agents

There is an old pubic relations myth that indicates that the best day for issuing PR is on Tuesday. This opinion is likely formed from the days when media was printed on paper or broadcast on TV. Tuesday is not the top day anymore. For today’s MLS, Association, or any other company that supports real estate agents, communication is very important. The timing of that communication is also very important. Despite the nay-sayers that preach “REALTORS don’t read,” we have learned that they do. They read a lot. In fact, the problem with communicating to real estate professionals may not be [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:10-07:00March 13th, 2012|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Figuring Out The Non-Dues Revenue Equation

As membership numbers have declined, many MLSs and Associations are feeling more and more pressure to reduce their dependence on dues based revenues. At the same time, the cost of running an MLS is increasing. Members are more demanding for the scope of services they expect while they expect the pace of improvements and enhancements to keep up with the ever-increasing speed of technology innovations available today. Third, members are under increasing pressure to offer better service and information to their customers, putting even more pressure on the MLS to deliver comprehensive, accurate data and seamlessly integrate to third party [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:10-07:00March 8th, 2012|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Product Management, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Scenic Coast – America’s First Hybrid MLS

Established in 1969 in slumbering Morro Bay, California, Scenic Coast Association of REALTORS (SCAOR) has established an amazing MLS Offering – Two MLS memberships for the price of one. This new solution is called the MLS Hybrid, and may be the first of it’s kind in the nation. SCAOR participates in the Central Coast MLS (CCRMLS). I have not reviewed their governance, but CCRMLS behaves like a data share among 7 Associations serving 2500 agents offering Rapattoni MLS, Realist Tax, Listhub, and REALTORS Property Resource (RPR is offered in some but not all AORs in CCRMLS). On February 10th, 2012, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:10-07:00March 8th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|3 Comments

A Brief Quiz: What Type of Executive Are You?

When you are confronted with potential change to your organization, do you believe you are a “big picture” thinker or a wall builder? True leaders understand how resisting necessary change is never the right option. What type of leader are you? I recently had a conversation with an MLS/Association executive that made me realize how strong some of our leaders are, as well as how short sighted others are. This particular MLS executive who oversees a fairly good-sized organization with over 5,000 members brought up the issue of sharing data with another MLS. It really wasn’t the specific reason we [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:25:10-07:00March 8th, 2012|How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|1 Comment

NAR Will Face Its Greatest Foes

Our industry, and every industry faces foes. Some foes that challenge industries are ideological, some economical, some ethical, and some natural. Certainly, the real estate industry faces each of these foes today. Who will be the leader that guides the people, the agents, the brokers, the association executives, the mls executives? Remember this leadership statement? “Let every nation know… that WE shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” More than any political speech, this was the voice of a committed leader. In [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:11-07:00March 8th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

NAR and Ann Bailey saved us with CIVIXX

Real Estate agents, brokers and MLSs have plenty to complain about today. Real Estate is in a challenging cycle representing a blend of customary challenges with economic cycles that are beyond our control. When the National Association of REALTORS announced the CIVIXX settlement at Convention for the healthy sum of $7.5 Million to settle the patent lawsuit, the industry was a bit surprised. Many thanks to the nation’s league of MLSs who participated in funding the $7.5M bounty. Most MLSs also received significant contributions from their MLS vendors like LPS, Corelogic, FBS, Rapattoni and others. We all owe gratitude to [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:11-07:00March 6th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

MLS and Brokers need community managers

Like many others in real estate, I’ve spent the last few days devouring the new brand timelines launched for Facebook pages. This new medium is the focus of this article, but consider other publishing requirements in business today as you read this: website publishing, youtube publishing, twitter, etc. My expectations were sky-high but after several hours I realized that Facebook timeline is going to be a lot harder to implement than most real estate professionals think. As it stands now, there is a clear divide between brands that have adopted the timeline feature set full on and those that have [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:11-07:00March 6th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Sami Inkinen step up to Trulia Board of Directors

When Sami Inkinen and Pete Flint founded Trulia – they had a great vision. One that has been realized, perhaps beyond their expectations. Now that the company has established itself, it is morphing into a different kind of company. Today, Trulia announced that co-founder Sami Inkinen will step aside from his day-to-day role of President (Operations) and join the Trulia Board of Directors. They have brought on a strong management team over the past under the leadership of CEO Pete Flint. In the wake of the announcement, the Executive Team at Trulia will look like this. […]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:13-07:00March 1st, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Top MLS trends for 2012
Gallery
Top MLS trends for 2012

Main category, MLS Insights

Top MLS trends for 2012

WAV Group is among the ranks of consulting and research firms dedicated to the success of the Nation’s MLSs. Given the company’s involvement at the strategic planning level, there are several developing themes being nurtured. The top six trends are: Listing Syndication Premium Service Offerings MLS Consumer Websites Online Signatures Data Licensing Data Sharing […]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:13-07:00March 1st, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

MRED sends data directly to Trulia

Midwest Real Estate Data LLC or MRED is the MLS of the Chicago region of Illinois. They are the MLS Provider to around 40,000 real estate professionals. In a press release today, Trulia announced that MRED will feed listings directly to Trulia, bypassing Listhub, Point2 and other listing syndicators. “Listing syndication has contributed to a mess on Trulia and all other sites who get their data second hand, on behalf of our brokers, MRED is going to fix it” says Russ Bergeron, MRED CEO. There has been a great deal of discussion in the real estate industry about syndication to publishers. Today, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:13-07:00February 29th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

CoreLogic not breaking into pieces

If you are a stock watcher of the leading companies supplying services to the real estate industry, you have been watching CoreLogic. Since the spin out from First American, the company has been tremendously successful in terms of overall revenue and cash position, but the stock has underperformed. At one point, the stock was as low as $7.64 per share over the past 52 weeks. The high was $19.20, and the target is around $16. The company currently trades at $14. For a company that has $250 Million in cash, a market cap of $1.53B is really low. Some of [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:14-07:00February 28th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment