Strategic Planning Archives

Running an Association does not have to be a “Life Sentence”
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Running an Association does not have to be a “Life Sentence”

Main category, Strategic Planning

Running an Association does not have to be a “Life Sentence”

Association Executives serving a 'Life sentence" At WAV Group we work with leading associations and MLSs around the country helping them to find world class talent to continue an organization’s growth and evolution. We are lucky enough to be able to observe board dynamics, internal operations and CEO-led initiatives. As an industry, we are blessed with loyal leaders and followers who value the tradition of real estate and the process of governing the industry as well. They clearly understand the unique needs of REALTORS® and are passionate about nurturing the real estate industry. Many of them have [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:09-07:00March 13th, 2012|Main category, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Is the MLS responsible for the Syndication Mess?
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Is the MLS responsible for the Syndication Mess?

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation

Is the MLS responsible for the Syndication Mess?

I give a lot of credit to the Council of MLS for their commitment to understanding the issues with listing syndication and formulating an effort to fix it. In the first place, the failure of many MLSs to understand listing syndication has been the cornerstone of the problems that exist today. Here is a little history lesson. In the beginning, only a few brokers with their own IT staff were able to supply a feed of their listings to publishers. When a broker has hundreds of listings or tens of thousands of listings like Howard Hanna, Prudential Fox and Roach and [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:10-07:00March 9th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

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

Century 21 CMO Bev Thorne Joins Zillow Advisory Board

Zillow is smart. They are building their Board of Advisors with key decision makers in the industry. Zillow is well aware that franchises are contractually required to submit listings to the franchisor, and in most cases, the franchisor can syndicate listings whereever they want. The data feed from franchisors like REALOGY Brands, Keller Williams, and RE/MAX are vital for long term assurance of listing count on Zillow. This also demonstrates Zillow’s disposition to surround itself with stakeholders in their mutual success. It also may deflect some of the local broker’s choice in syndicating listings to publishers. Century 21 has a [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:13-07:00March 5th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|3 Comments

Why Innovation Fails To Change Real Estate

Every year, real estate sees the launch of beautiful products, offering awesome features, advantages, and benefits. Excellent marketing programs back them and the press creates a jubilee – Innovator of the Year! Then the product launches, and the industry shrugs its shoulder. It is the conundrum of new product development and innovation for real estate. Most of these companies are doing everything right. They are doing research, spotting trends, holding focus groups, testing usability, and modeling lovely financials. If they can only get 1% adoption of this, or 3% of that, revenues will be awesome. There are 1 Million real [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:14-07:00February 21st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation|9 Comments

Howard Hanna Syndication Announcement

Another shoe is going to drop today. Howard Hanna, one of America’s largest brokerages will announce their new listing syndication strategy. This is an important announcement because it brings forth a new chapter to the ongoing saga of finding an online advertising paradigm that balances the broker’s needs with the publisher’s needs, in the best possible way. Howard Hanna has spend the past 15 – 18 months studying. They study their website. They study the website of similar size brokerages. They have studied publisher websites. They became experts. Howard Hanna has been testing. Howard Hanna ran lots of experiments with [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:15-07:00February 13th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|8 Comments

Syndication as in insolent teen
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Syndication as in insolent teen

Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning

Syndication as in insolent teen

I received a call yesterday from a sage MLS executive. He saw the article in RE Technology about Sandicor adding a new syndication field into their MLS. We had discussed this a few years ago after some broker focus groups. At the time, the brokers did not seem to care too much about syndication, so the idea did not go anywhere. That changed. Adding the field is on the agenda at their next board meeting. He is probably not alone. Aside from that, he shared with me his vision for how syndication is going to play out in the long [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:15-07:00February 10th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|11 Comments

Integrating MLS tools into Agent Browsers

Until today, MLSs have been walled Internet gardens. The MLS is accessed through the browser, but is entirely separated from the rest of the open Internet. iMapp just released an innovation that may begin a trend to change all of that. With iMapp, real estate agents with accounts may install a search plugin into their browser. This plugin puts a layer of MLS tax data on top of any website. With the search plugin, agents can look up tax on any property address found on any website – this includes the MLS, Agent and Broker Property Search Websites, Consumer property [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:15-07:00February 6th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|4 Comments

How Listhub’s Real Estate Network Works

It is not uncommon for detailed questions to arise whenever there is major change afoot in the real estate industry regarding data. Listhub’s announcement of the launch of the Real Estate Network precipitated many questions regarding a broker’s ability to manage and control websites that display their data. The Listhub Real Estate Network includes the opportunity for any broker to publish listings on Century 21, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX, and the Realty Executives websites. WAV Group has researched this topic of the Real Estate Network with executives from Listhub and we have great news to report. They did it right the [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:17-07:00January 17th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|5 Comments

Real Estate Digital to build new MLSLI Consumer Website

Although Real Estate Digital is a new brand in the real estate industry, the management and owners of the company are industry vetrans whose consumer website prowess dates back to the first consumer property search solutions. Real Estate Digital was formed when former LPS company executives formed the new company with assets acquired from LPS early in the fourth quarter of 2011. Since Real Estate Digital began standing on its own, they have shown a remarkable, albeit somewhat predictable ability to transition customers over to the new company and continue the growth of the products under their new brand (THINK [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:17-07:00January 11th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|1 Comment