MLS Listings to host Broker Summit

Broker Symposium: Engaging the New Consumer Techmart Santa Clara  |  November 2, 2012 When:  Friday November 2, 2012 from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM PDT   Where: Techmart Santa Clara 5201 Great America Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95054 Get Driving Directions Add to my calendar   Dear Myra, Please join us Friday, November 2 for a series of panel discussions centered on the new consumer, featuring local real estate media, top producing brokers and leading industry best practices consultants and of course, the target market itself. Event emcee: Robert Bailey, Bailey Properties 2012 Chairman, MLSListings Inc Hear directly from buyers [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 22nd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on MLS Listings to host Broker Summit

Short on Inventory? How about forming stronger relationships with Homebuilders?

WAV Group saw this news release come across the wire today.  What we would like to see is a much stronger collaboration between home builders and REALTOR organizations. Just about every area in the country is low on inventory right now. Why not partner with homebuilders to offer up their inventory. The industry can work with the homebuilders to be sure that REALTORS are getting adequately compensated for the work they do with builders.  Associations can also provide training to agents to teach them how to work effectively and professionally with homebuilders.  Homebuilders have been forced to go it alone to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:50-07:00October 15th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

ListHub’s API and Golden Ruler Report Helps a Broker

There are all kinds of reasons why a company wants analytics on the performance of their online marketing. Listhub provides this service to brokerages that use their syndication services. The fee for the service is typically just a few dollars per month per agent, but it will track where your listings appear online – for better or for worse. WAV Group has gained an appreciation for the reporting by reviewing MLS level reports that show a federated view of all listings syndicated in the market through Listhub. I will be using these reports in my upcoming talk at the Colorado [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:50-07:00October 5th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|Comments Off on ListHub’s API and Golden Ruler Report Helps a Broker

WAV Group Publishes Study Showing that Local Real Estate Brokerage Websites Offer the Most Complete, Accurate and Timely Information About Homes for Sale

October 3, 2012—The WAV Group today published the results of an independent study of 11 major markets that found local real estate brokerage websites give consumers the most complete, accurate and timely information about homes for sale. The study evaluated sites from three local brokerages with real estate agents who help consumers buy and sell homes, comparing listing search results to those found on two national portals, Trulia and Zillow, which operate almost exclusively online. In the markets analyzed, the study concluded: Local real estate brokerage sites display 100% of the agent-listed homes for sale compared to about 80% for [...]

The funny economics of public companies

Zillow has a market valuation of over $1B. They are authorizing 3.5 Million more shares and raising north of another $140 Million-ish in cash (they can sell up to 4 million shares if they have heavy demand, and their stock is around $42 to $42 per share). It is amazing stuff. Smart stuff. With that kind of cash, Zillow can take strong positions in any area of the real estate industry that interests them: Buy a national brokerage, buy a national MLS vendor, buy leading companies that provide any number of agent or broker services, etc. Cash is King - [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:52-07:00September 10th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|2 Comments

Homes.com partners with newspapers

Following in the path of Homefinder, Trulia, and Zillow, the Nation's 4th largest portal - Homes.com has announced that they are seeking to partner with Newspapers to offer online property search. Moreover, they are offering this service to Newspapers for free, in line with others. The new twist is that Homes.com seeks to leverage the relationship that Newspapers have with advertisers to develop a sales channel for their other products. The announcement of the new strategy is coupled with the launch of their first newspaper partner. In this case, it is actually an announcement of a partnership with 50 newspapers [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:53-07:00September 9th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Homes.com partners with newspapers

Contagion is a New Word for Brokers

If you spend much time around me, you would know that I get attached to words like “curate,” and use them so frequently that it annoys the good people who are around me every day. I am working on that. I have been a student of the effort to develop, to launch, and to save the Euro. A currency sharing standard among nations is more serious, and more important than a data sharing standard. However, in many ways real estate data sharing standards are analogous. I love some of the terminology used by economists and leaders to talk about the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 17th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Contagion is a New Word for Brokers

Brokers pulling out of IDX

Game changers happen when businesses test radical strategies. When a company breaks from the pack they learn things that none of their competitors learn. They understand a strategy that nobody else as any experience with. They grow their business wisdom and often find new ways to edge out the competition. By studying the impacts of strategies like withdrawing from listing syndication; launching single listing websites or virtual tours; and, withdrawing from IDX, marketers can learn volumes about how these strategies impact their online strategy. Listing Syndication Strategies that work WAV Group has been studying listing syndication strategies for more than [...]

Scott Dixon and Partner buy The Real Estate Book

WAV Group congratulates our friend Scott Dixon and his colleague Stewart Christian for purchasing The Real Estate Book and affiliated publications. Scott and WAV Group partner Victor Lund have been friends for years. Lund has always admired Dixon's vision for the role that highly targeted and well produced print publications play in real estate. "Certainly, The Real Estate Book has done a great job working with their national footprint of publications. We are excited to see the next chapter of the company development under its new ownership," says Lund. The new company name is NewPoint Media Group. Here is the press release [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00July 12th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off on Scott Dixon and Partner buy The Real Estate Book

Zillow brings battle to Listhub

Zillow launched a preemptive strike against Listhub yesterday by requesting IDX feeds from the nation's MLS providers. Zillow Executive Bob Bemis sent an email to all MLS CEOs and Executives titled "Why two data feeds when one will do." In the email, Bemis admits that Zillow.com is focused on improving data accuracy and timeliness. The note goes on to explain that Zillow's IDX service, Diverse Solutions, already has the data, why not allow Zillow to use it for Zillow.com so Zillow can circumvent their reliance on Listhub data feeds. A battle ensued when Listhub got word that Zillow was calling them out on [...]

RE Technology Releases 2012 MLS Technology Guide

MLSs seeking to educate themselves and their members about technology, as well as discover sources of non-dues revenue, can leverage this easy-to-use guide. Arroyo Grande, CA (June 2012) – MLSs and real estate Associations face myriad challenges in today’s changing technology landscape. A new guide from leading real estate technology media site, RE Technology, aims to assist them in overcoming these challenges with descriptions of leading tech companies and products. Interested organizations can download the 2012 MLS Technology Guide for free at RETechnology.com. Information in the guide is presented in a clear, concise format. Product categories covered include agent ratings, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00June 27th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on RE Technology Releases 2012 MLS Technology Guide

Last Day for Midyear Webinar!

Tomorrow we will bring attendees up to date on critical industry issues and trends via our last Industry Update Webinar, including: Economic forecasts for the real estate industry in 2013. Hot NAR topics and policy issues like the new proposed IDX rules. CMLS updates on new industry initiatives. Broker topics like syndication and online marketing effectiveness. Emerging technology trends for brokers and agents. MLS technology update. Promising non-dues revenue for MLSs to offset declining membership...and much more WAV Group founding partners and industry experts Marilyn Wilson, Mike Audet and Victor Lund will be sharing valuable on-the-spot insights gained while attending [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:58-07:00June 6th, 2012|Main category|Comments Off on Last Day for Midyear Webinar!