Meet Tungle – a great new product

Every now and then, you experience a product that stops you in your tracks.  As a technology consultant who works with companies to create these experiences, I am usually not very surprised, very often.  But yesterday I was delighted by a simple, easy to use product that is free, and very helpful – its called Tungle. I spend a lot of my time arranging meetings – in person or by phone.  Tungle made scheduling meetings for the upcoming Inman conference really simple and easy.  I just tell people on the phone to visit http://tungle.me/victorlund.  My availability is open for anyone [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:18-07:00January 8th, 2010|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Meet Tungle – a great new product

CARETS Takes a Break on New Members!

WAV Group learned today that Mike De Leon, the current Chair of CARETS for 2010 announced they will not be accepting any new members for the next six to nine months to get their house in order and to develop the necessary infrastructure to insure new members are brought onto CARETS without issue! Mike explains they want to insure that future growth is done in the right way with appropriate documentation as well as operations and procedure manuals. With over 100,000 current subscribers he points out that they still want to “…work with all potential new members toward a timely [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:18-07:00January 8th, 2010|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Reports|Comments Off on CARETS Takes a Break on New Members!

2009 CMLS Benchmarking Survey Results

In September 2009 the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) and WAV Group reached out to the entire MLS community for the second year to gather insights about a variety of elements of MLS operations.  The goal of the survey was to provide each MLS with a benchmark to compare its operation to. When considering the addition of new services or programs, MLSs throughout North America can refer to the report to help evaluate service offerings relative to MLSs around the country. The survey was completed by 115 MLSs around North America representing approximately 750,000 REALTORS.  The respondents represent a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:19-07:00November 30th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|Comments Off on 2009 CMLS Benchmarking Survey Results

Listing Syndication – Be sure to read the fine print

After CMLS, there was a groundswell of discussion about the rights brokers are giving up when they send their listings to third party websites.  WAV Group went to school on the terms and conditions of several of the leading third party websites.  We were specifically focused on the rights to display, distribute and maintain listing data. We learned that in some cases the the broker is transferring the irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, royalty-free license to use, retain, transmit, copy, create derivative work of, sell, or distribute the broker’s listing data to other parties or sub-licensees.  Bottomline, brokers are giving [...]

New CDS Data Share aims to give consumers more listings on Agent and Broker Websites

Real Estate Agents and Brokers have long been subjected to unfair competition from thrid party listing websites that are able to aggregate listing data across multiple MLS markets.  The rules for displaying MLS listings on Agent and Broker websites require the Agent or Broker to be a member of each MLS to acquire the IDX data feed.  Progressive thinking among Brokers and MLSs along the Southeastern Seaboard of America led to the creation of the Carolina Data Share or CDS.  This service paves the way for a member of any of the participating MLS to enjoy data from all of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:20-07:00November 3rd, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on New CDS Data Share aims to give consumers more listings on Agent and Broker Websites

10K Partners with the Greater Capital Association, NY

10K Partners with GCAR Minneapolis, MN (October 30, 2009). 10K Research and Marketing is pleased to announce a Market Reporting Partnership with the Greater Capital Association of REALTORS®, Inc. (GCAR). GCAR has elected to roll with our Monthly Indicators, Local Market Updates, Housing Supply Outlook, and Skinny Video, and this thrills us. Said James Ader, Chief Executive Officer of GCAR, “GCAR decided to partner with 10K Research and Marketing because our Board of Directors feels the products they provide will further advance our membership as the primary source for real estate information in the Capital Region. We are confident the [...]

By |2009-10-30T17:15:54-07:00October 30th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Press Releases, Reports|Comments Off on 10K Partners with the Greater Capital Association, NY

Industry Vet Joins Instanet to Lead Sales

Instanet Solutions, based in London, Ontario recently announced the addition of industry veteran Steve Mapes as their new Vice President of Sales.  Joe Kazzoun, who previously ran the sales group has taken on the position of Vice President, Business and Product Development.  Martin Scrocchi, CEO and owner of Instanet Solutions tells us that growth throughout their product line mandated the change.  “With our growing customer base, the increasing interest in Transaction Management products and businesses wanting to go “Green", the timing to bring Steve on was perfect.  We are also excited because this addition means Joe can focus on customer [...]

By |2009-10-23T12:46:19-07:00October 23rd, 2009|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Industry Vet Joins Instanet to Lead Sales

MLSs and Transaction Management – Take Small Steps First

Should your MLS provide Transaction Management services? In our recent study on Transaction Management Adoption, it is clear that many of the component parts of full Transaction Management are being used successfully today by a growing number of real estate professionals. The key point is that they are adopting this technology step-by-step.  Some vendors today offer the different component parts of Transaction Management separately, including: Internet Fax Document Management Online Forms/Contracts Transaction Scheduling/Managment Digital Signature Transaction Management technology makes sense for many reasons.   It provides better service to consumers, reduces risk and helps the environment. The problem, however, is that [...]

MRIS and MRED to launch RE Technology product portal

In a move to facilitate quality product information about real estate software and services to thier subscribers, MRIS and MRED have selected the portal solution from RE Technology.  By offering the RE Technology portal to thier subscribers, MRIS and MRED will allow thier members to gain access to product vendors by category, product reviews, user product ratings and product comparisons all in one location. Technology vendors are invited to submit thier products for display in the portal by visitingretechnology.com   installed into MLS systems allowing agents and brokers to gain access to information, reviews and product ratings of real estate [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00August 13th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on MRIS and MRED to launch RE Technology product portal

Big turn around at Move

In 2008, Move, Inc reported $61.4 Million in sales and reported a net loss of $2.1 Million.  This year, under the strong leadership of former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz - Move, Inc is now posting $3.2 Million in profit in the second quarter of 2009 against lower revenues of $54.6 Million.  Sales are down, but profits are up! “During the quarter, we continued to make solid progress toward both our short term business objectives and our long term growth strategy,” said Steve Berkowitz, Move’s CEO. “While we remain focused on improving the financial and operational performance across our product lines [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00August 10th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Big turn around at Move

Google launches real estate search portal

Google has expanded their search strategy by adding in a new search option: Real Estate. As you may recall, Google first launched their property search solution by placing a quick search bar above the search results for key words like 'san francisco real estate.'  That search functionality was always demarked with the term 'beta' and now seems to have gone away.  We suspect that it may have deminished advertising revenues.  Here is a video demonstrating Google's new strategy.  Map based search and natural language search seem to be providing better results than typical form based searches - something to keep [...]

By |2009-08-10T16:42:11-07:00August 10th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Google launches real estate search portal

California Association of REALTORS launches Mobile Products Company

At noon today, Real Estate Business Solutions (REBS) announced a partnership with Seek Mobile to form a new company called Real Estate Mobile Technologies.  The new company will develop consumer and REALTOR mobile applications. REBS, a subsidary of the California Association of REALTORS will be the majority shareholder of the new corporation, and the current applications like MyCAR will be rolled into the new company according to CEO, Alan Arora.  

By |2009-08-04T16:37:54-07:00August 4th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on California Association of REALTORS launches Mobile Products Company