How A Top Agent Goes To The Next Level

A while back I did an interview with Justin Havre, who is a top real estate agent in Calgary Alberta working at CIR REALTY.  CIR is the largest independent firm in Canada with about 650 agents.  With his team, Justin Havre & Associates, he has been number one or two in his market for a number of years, (#1 team for 2011-2013) and to put things in perspective, at the time of the first interview he and his team were doing nearly 200 transactions a year. I sat down with Justin in our original interview to understand some of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00March 12th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on How A Top Agent Goes To The Next Level
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The Speed Of Need

We know that companies are created when they meet the needs of their customers. But, what we fail to understand is the nature and complexity of Need. Need is a singular thing that is driven by a vast array of attributes. The most common attributes are Price, Functionality, Customer Service, and Relationship. But there is a new attribute of need which I call the Speed of Need. Price is a fundamental attribute of need. Customers must be able to afford a product or service if it is ever going to fulfill the need. Functionality is another fundamental of need. Even [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00March 10th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on The Speed Of Need
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New Listing Alerts Favor Portals

Sometimes you really need to dig into the nitty-gritty details of something to understand how home shoppers behave and why they make choices when using online property information websites. For this particular case study, I am looking for a multi-unit residential complex in North Hollywood, CA. The Dynamics I am working with a REALTOR® - actually a team of REALTORS®. They “found me” through a sign call when I was driving neighborhoods. My needs – An investment property that is walkable to dance studios since parking is horrid. Parking. Cash-flow neutral with 25% down. Safe neighborhood. North Hollywood is part of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00March 10th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|1 Comment
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Association Standards – It’s definitely TIME!

Jeremy Conaway, Dale Stinton, and Bob Moline used the Swanepoel Trends report to push the real estate elephant into the spotlight in America. There are simply too many REALTOR® Associations not providing adequate service and support to their members. Today, 1100 of the 1400 REALTOR® Associations in America have fewer than 300 members. Many of these smaller organizations have a difficult time delivering the depth of services and training REALTORS® need to effectively serve the needs of their clients and stay relevant with all of the technology options available to today’s demanding consumers.  At the end of the day, real [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00February 11th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|8 Comments
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Hybrid Regionalization – Right For Your MLS?

We all know there are too many MLSs in the US and over the years the real market areas have expanded forcing agents to belong to multiple MLSs in many areas.  This means more costs, data inefficiencies and often the need to learn and operate multiple MLS systems.  It isn’t good for brokers, agents or consumers so why hasn’t their been more consolidation of MLSs more quickly? The answer, of course, is protectionism.   Even though consolidation would be in everyone’s best interest there is still a local desire to maintain control and identity at the MLS level.  Brokers also worry [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:17-07:00February 10th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Technology Evaluation|4 Comments
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Agent Responsiveness Study Reveals Critical Flaws in Real Estate Lead Response

A new whitepaper reveals that failure to respond to leads in a timely manner is a major problem for many real estate professionals. The whitepaper is the result of the collaboration between partners at leading consulting firm WAV Group and Weichert Lead Network, the Internet lead generation arm of Weichert, Realtors. What they uncovered was remarkable and could help real estate professionals achieve new levels of service and prosperity. Download the complete report here. In the whitepaper, WAV Group details lead responsiveness results from a sample of 384 different brokers across 11 states. Researchers posed as consumers and inquired about [...]

By |2025-03-04T13:42:57-08:00January 13th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Reports|9 Comments
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Swanepoel Publishes Power 200 List of RE Executives

Stefan Swanepoel is best known for his engaging conference lectures and the running line of Swanepoel Trends Reports that has published since 2006. This year, Swanepoel partnered with Rob Hahn, Chris Nichols, Kelly Mitchell, Michael McClure, Susan Browne, Michael Krisa, and Shannon Musgrove to produce a new publication called the Swanepoel Power 200, The most Powerful People In Residential Real Estate in 2013. These types of lists were made famous by Forbes Magazine, the publisher who releases 52 Top lists a year, including Rich Lists, Top Companies, People, Investing, Places, Sports, Technology, and Education. I spoke with Swanepoel for a [...]

By |2018-08-20T06:12:08-07:00January 9th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on Swanepoel Publishes Power 200 List of RE Executives
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Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool!

Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool! MLS Consumer Facing websites collectively deliver millions of leads and thousands of inquiries for their subscribers every year.  In every market that I have evaluated the MLS delivers 2 to 3 times the number of inquiries that any other leading third party site does including Zillow and Trulia.  Sadly, most brokers and agents are not aware of this amazing value they receive from their MLSs. I solidly believe that if MLSs did a better job of communicating the amazing marketing value of these sites, brokers of all sizes [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 19th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool!
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Choosing the Right Right

Real estate business consulting firms wear a lot of hats. When we are hired, our goal is to serve our clients goals as master - never our own goals. It's a unique mindset. National Association of REALTORS® annual conventions are a keen reminder of this paradigm. In a single day, it was commonplace to speak strategy with technology companies; brokers; Associations of REALTORS® (National, State, Megaboard); Association governed MLS, broker governed MLS, broker owned and governed MLS. Perhaps the only oddity is that there is no example of a broker owned, Association governed MLS. Same Issue, Different Rights I think [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 18th, 2013|Main category|1 Comment
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It’s Your Data – Make Sure You Can Use It!

I do a lot of work helping MLSs choose their next MLS technology vendor and I also work with brokers that use multiple real estate technology tools.  The one thing both sets of technology have in common is the fact that without good data the technology is worthless.  Numerous roadblocks exist today, however, on the data front that often derails the best software.  Some roadblocks come from within the MLS but some come from the technology vendors themselves. MLSs can serve as roadblocks to listing and sales data at the source, meaning they may put arbitrary restrictions on data use [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:23-07:00December 9th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on It’s Your Data – Make Sure You Can Use It!
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Fear of Agent Ratings

The real estate industry seems to want to avoid judgments and ratings of any and all kinds. It may be for good reason, or it may be for fear. The reality is that agents resist ratings for fear and reason. Most people react to change with emotion and justify that emotion with logic. Fear According to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat that causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:23-07:00November 25th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|8 Comments
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Is too much Agent- Centricity at the heart of the industry dysfunction?

A couple of months ago I wrote a post called the “Challenge for Positive Change” that highlighted many of the relationship dysfunctions we are experiencing in the industry today. We have the honor of working with large brokers as well as MLSs, Associations, technology companies and even title and home warranty providers. We see misperceptions and distrust running rampant between each of these groups. It’s clear that there are many that are feeling as though our industry could be working together much better than it is at the moment. Fast forward a few weeks and we get to CMLS and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:24-07:00October 24th, 2013|Clients, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Is too much Agent- Centricity at the heart of the industry dysfunction?
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