If you did not have an opportunity to attend the Inman News conference, Connect - you missed a great session titled The Future of the MLS. The video of that session is reprinted here courtesy of Inman News
Part Five of a Five part series “Roadmap to using VOWs in your business.” In this fifth of a series of five articles about Virtual Office Websites or VOW’s we are going to discuss the ways to use a VOW to work more effectively with past clients. Many REALTORS fail to stay connected to clients they have already done transactions with. Evidence of this is borne out in NARs 2008 Homebuyer and Seller survey. 9 out of 10 consumers would use their agent in a future transaction but only 1 in 10 use the agent again for buying and only [...]
AEI Presentation View more presentations from RealEstateZebra.
As a consultant we are afforded the opportunity to look deeply into the life of technology companies. WAV Group has structured sales departments, restructured help desks, co-authored product roadmaps and evaluated code bases. Even with the best product and the best people in the industry, the biggest challenge to running a software company is setting goals and staying on track. Project Management is the cornerstone of this endevor and among the best products is At Task. I read this press release this morning with interest when learning that Real Estate Technology supplier Wolfnet, developers of MLSfinder IDX and other products [...]
Part Four of a Five part series “Roadmap to using VOWs in your business.” In this fourth of a series of five articles about Virtual Office Websites or VOW’s we are going to discuss the ways to use a VOW to work more effectively with home sellers. The value of a home is exactly equal to the amount a willing seller and a willing buyer agree to at a given point in time. It can sometimes be difficult or impossible to convince a seller of a realistic asking price, especially if they purchased their home within the past few years. [...]
I have always been inspired by TED talks and make a point of watching 6 - 10 a month. Today I reviewed a TED talk from Tim Berners-Lee - the inventor of the world wide web in 1989. He drafted the first standards for HTML, HTTP, URL structures, etc. Here we are, 20 years later (incidentially I graduated from Shattuck-St.Mary's highschool in 1989). My how things have changed. Tim's first vision was for sharing documents (web pages or web paper) on the internet. His new vision is for sharing RAW Linked Data. In the wake of the NAR/DOJ settlement that [...]
The MLS industry is in an extremely tenuous position today, feeling pressures from 3rd party vendors, state associations, neighboring MLSs and declining membership. Like any business channel, multiple entities in the MLS world are competing for a finite number of customers and business space. To make things even more difficult, a percentage of MLS leadership changes from year to year with election of new officers and directors. MLS staff has to adjust to different leadership styles while often having to re-educate the new regime on where things stand. It can be a difficult scenario for staff and the elected leadership. How can an MLS establish continuity [...]
$8000 Tax Credit to First Time Home Buyers. - Called The American Recovery Reinvestment Act. There are some interesting details to the plan. Available for purchases made from Jan. 1, 2009 to December 1, 2009. 10% of the cost of the home up to $8000. Buyers claim the credit on thier federal tax return to reduce their liability. If the credit is more than their total tax liability that year, the buyer will get a refund check for the balance. A first time homebuyer is defined under the tax credit as an individual who has not owned a home in [...]
Part Two of a 5 part series “Roadmap to using VOWs in your business.”
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., February 26, 2009 - Rapattoni Corporation announced today that Goomzee Corporation, the text message marketing solution provider, has successfully completed their integration of the Single Sign-On (SSO) standard. With the SSO feature in place, MLS users can log on to the Rapattoni MLS system once and access Goomzee’s marketing and lead generation platform without requiring separate logons. Goomzee is the first mobile solutions provider to implement SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) with their system. SAML technology is the backbone upon which SSO is built. SSO and SAML allow the establishment of “trust” relationships between the Rapattoni MLS [...]
Part One of a five part series "Roadmap to using VOWs in Real Estate.”
Many of you may have seen glimpses of the issues that the State of California legislature faced in passing their budget. They were faced with closing a $42 Billion budget deficit. The final budget recently agreed upon but some voter resolutions that will need to be passed in order for the budget to work. Funding levels will need to be cut that impact citizen benefits like education, health services, and other key areas. Furthermore, revenues will need to be increased in areas like vehicle registration fees and sales tax. These changes will not be popular, as they will touch everyone [...]
