MoxiWorks to deliver LeadingRE Cloud Data Services Ahead of Big Franchises

In an announcement made to their membership, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) have entered into a definitive agreement with MoxiWorks® to provide LeadingRE Cloud™ to their 565+ brokerage members. The solution is called LeadingRE Cloud. Franchises and networks like LeadingRE have been providing data services for their brokers over decades. No doubt, the most notorious version is the legacy CREST system at Realogy Holdings Corporation®. Keller Williams® CEO, Gary Keller has kicked off a Billion dollar investment in technology. RE/MAX® is in a process to buy a company or outsource to a vendor. Berkshire Hathaway Home Services® has [...]

By |2018-02-04T08:18:20-08:00February 4th, 2018|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, Product Management, Technology, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on MoxiWorks to deliver LeadingRE Cloud Data Services Ahead of Big Franchises

HAR Continues Success With Effective Consumer eMail Campaigns

The Houston Association of REALTORS® has long held the honor of celebrating success at the top of the MLS consumer facing website leaderboard. WAV Group has referenced this center of excellence in countless writings, research reports, and planning sessions. We turn once again to this well operated company to exhibit an example of how they are continuing to progress. One of the keynotes of driving consumer engagement is through email marketing campaigns. Today, RealInsights (the name of the HAR newsletter) is sent to an opt-in list of 800,000 consumers every two weeks! That is a vast consumer reach to promote [...]

By |2017-12-13T13:14:02-08:00December 13th, 2017|Broker Public Portal, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management|Comments Off on HAR Continues Success With Effective Consumer eMail Campaigns

Top 5 Ways to Transform Your Office Managers Into Sales Success Coaches

None of the brokers we’ve worked with believe that their office managers are doing what they are supposed to be doing — sales training. Instead, they act more like den mothers. When they could be working on sales coaching or recruiting, office managers are consoling agents who lost big deals, troubleshooting broken printers, or retrieving lost MLS passwords. It’s too easy for office managers to spend the day putting out a series of small fires. Its easy to use all of those daily tasks as excuses for not focusing on the most important roles that managers are responsible for. The [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:49-07:00May 25th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Wav of Change|Comments Off on Top 5 Ways to Transform Your Office Managers Into Sales Success Coaches

Snapchat for Real Estate – Probably Not – But Ideas Abound

If you have a teenager, you know all about Snapchat. Since the earliest days of social media, WAV Group has experimented with a host of social media platforms to discover opportunities for our clients. In lock step, I have been snapping away. Haven’t tried Snapchat for real estate marketing? Don’t bother. Unless you are trying to keep up with your child or other Snapchat enthusiast, there is no place on Snanpchat for the real estate business. However, there are some marketing thoughts that may spark some creative strategic thinking. Scarcity and Urgency Snaps expire after 24 hours. This is an [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:51-07:00April 27th, 2017|Marketing, Product Management|Comments Off on Snapchat for Real Estate – Probably Not – But Ideas Abound

Upstream is Already an Awesome Tool for Brokerage Firms

Brokerage firms and franchises across America are already in the data management business. There are 85,000ish firms in America and each of them struggle to manage their information in one fashion or another. Upstream may be most simply understood as a solution that harmonizes data management into a single solution that is 100% controlled inside the firm, like Google Drive. Given the fiduciary responsibility of firms to comply with real estate law and MLS business rules, Upstream takes special care to provide a platform that delivers assurances that a firms practices are supported. I was invited to participate in their [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:56-07:00January 31st, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Product Management|Comments Off on Upstream is Already an Awesome Tool for Brokerage Firms

Annual Strategy Planning and Management Retreat

There is a curious coincidence about the relationship between strategic planning and success. Large, successful companies always have strategic plans and management retreats to celebrate accomplishments and recognize opportunities for success. Interestingly enough, start ups do the same thing. Where is the middle ground? For whatever reason, companies that are in the middle of the pack typically do not have plans. Or, the plan they do have is stale – the product of a moment in time when the leadership or board of directors insisted to cobble something together which, in turn, was saved in a remote desktop folder or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:03-07:00October 19th, 2016|Product Management, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Annual Strategy Planning and Management Retreat

What’s the Real Value of Portal Marketing?

A recent survey of over 120 broker-owners and senior leaders at some of the top real estate firms in the U.S. and Canada revealed an apparent disconnect between revenue goals and business strategies. According to the survey, 85% of brokerages focus their marketing investments on lead generation activities– despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of sales are the result of repeat clients and past client referrals. Clearly, agents and brokers are spending too much time and money marketing on portals when long-view strategies produce a better return-on-investment. While lead generation is an undeniably important tactic for targeting specific market segments, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:05-07:00September 19th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Marketing, Product Management|Comments Off on What’s the Real Value of Portal Marketing?

MRED Takes Bold Step to Elect Outside Director

We are so excited to see how MLSs are starting to cross-pollinate talent across markets. Congrats to MRED in Chicago for electing Art Carter, CEO of the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, the nation’s largest MLS to their Board of Directors. We, at WAV Group often promote the idea of inviting diverse talent and perspectives to sit on MLS Boards. Boards in most industries elect participants with diverse backgrounds in finance, marketing, product development and management. MLSs generally only invite agents and brokers from their local region to participate. A move to elect a strategic manager from outside of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:12-07:00June 15th, 2016|Press Releases, Product Management, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on MRED Takes Bold Step to Elect Outside Director

Smart Home Certification for Residential Properties

Today, we had our Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home automation experience installed. From a single controller or mobile device, anyone in our family can controls connected lights, locks, thermostats, home entertainment devices, and even schedule when devices turn on or off. Everything is connected. Smart Homes May Add More Value This week, Coldwell Banker Real Estate and CEDIA announced a collaboration to develop a smart home curriculum for real estate sales associates. Coldwell Banker and CNET, the world’s largest and most trusted online source of consumer technology news and reviews, also developed the definition of a smart home which is illustrated [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:15-07:00May 18th, 2016|Product Management, Sales Advisory|Comments Off on Smart Home Certification for Residential Properties

Cheap MLS Systems

The results are in from the annual WAV Group MLS Technology Survey. We will be working on the report in the coming weeks. Last year’s report showed that there were not any MLS software solutions with super high ratings. This year’s survey showed that the ratings have dropped down for every vendor. What can be done about that? As you may know, WAV Group provides RFP services to MLSs who are facing a contract termination date. It is smart to shop around to see if there are solutions that are better shaped to meet the evolving needs of agents and [...]

Revenue Generation Emerges in MLS strategy

MLSs are for profit entities. They have investors and a board of directors and have a stated goal of providing returns. Normally, the investors in the MLS are the Associations of REALTORS® or brokers that put up the initial funding for the MLS. The MLS was the natural extension of sharing property listings between real estate professionals pre-dating the founding of NAR. When printed listings were replaced by the electronic MLS, the business model, payment per month by members continued. That model still exists today and is in line with how software as a service (SaaS) is typically delivered across [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 14th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management|Comments Off on Revenue Generation Emerges in MLS strategy

Monetizing Listing Data…Is it Possible? Let’s find out in 2013

To Syndicate or not to Syndicate, that is NOT the question! WAV Group Response What an exciting day in real estate media. 1000Watt Consulting is having a spirited discussion blog to blog with Dale Ross of NAR's RPR. And, in an exciting development, Zip Realty did a data accuracy study that somewhat mirrored the WAV Group data accuracy research performed for brokers, Redfin, Windermere, and Long and Foster. They concluded that 30% of the listings on Zillow and Trulia are not on the market. To keep things rolling along, my friend Saul Klein from Yardi published a spirited article about [...]