ListedBy.com Appoints Roger Noujeim as Vice President of Marketing

Former Point2 executive brings extensive industry experience to help guide ListedBy’s direction and growth NAPA, Calif. – May 31, 2012 – ListedBy (www.ListedBy.com), the real estate industry’s first free online marketplace and social network with integrated live bidding and auction functionality, today announced the appointment of Roger Noujeim as vice president of marketing, to lead the company’s global marketing and branding strategy. As member of the executive team, Noujeim will play a key role in guiding ListedBy’s direction and growth, with a focus on accelerating market penetration and adoption. “We are ecstatic to have someone of Roger's caliber join our [...]

Trulia Launches Mobile Agent App on Adroid Phones

Trulia and other online portals understand mobile very well. They clearly recognize that mobile will be the primary user experience of both consumers and agents today, and evermore in the future. In this latest announcment, Trulia provides a mobile solution aimed at engaging the mobile agent and connecting them with consumers in the best possible way. This is a great strategy; but it begs many questions. Where is the broker mobile strategy? Most brokers and franchises depend on telephone and email for connecting agents with inquiring consumers. It works, but mobile apps work better. I would expect to see franchises and [...]

Webinar: WAV Group Midyear Update

Looking for an easy way to provide your Board with an update on important industry trends and programs?  Don’t miss out on the big news that came out of the National Association of REALTORS® Midyear conference. The WAV Group team was on the spot in Washington, D.C., and they have prepared a webinar that shares all the must-know details, as well as analysis of the issues that are going to shape the future of your business and our industry. To register for the webinar on register for Midyear Industry Update on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM [...]

Edina Realty and Broker Syndication Choices

The news of Edina Realty pulling their listing from Realtor.com have been rippling through the industry since announced. There are probably a small handful of brokers who have done the same, but that is about it. This became newsworthy because Edina Realty is a big broker – really big. Moreover, the parent company, Home Services of America is second only to NRT in terms of being the largest brokerage in America. NRT has about 750 offices and 250,000 sides. Home Services have about 300 offices and does about 125,000 sides. There is a lot at stake for syndication and online [...]

Marketlinx launches Mobile with Search and Edit

Somehow, we missed a memo. With very little fanfare or promotion, Marketlinx has launched their mobile solution and it claims to do most of the things that WAV Group claimed many MLS apps fell short on. We have had a lot of debates about MLS mobile applications. Some of us believe that it should be a fully featured MLS experience - allowing users to do any task on mobile that they could do on a desk top. Critics of this belief claim that adding a listing on mobile is absurd. I would concede that for now. But all pundits agree [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:00-07:00May 24th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments

Texas Brokerages Go Paperless with the HAR-branded SureClose® Software

PRESS RELEASE:  HOUSTON (May 14, 2012) PropertyInfo Corporation®, a Stewart company, announced today the successful adoption by Heritage Texas Properties of the Electronic Transaction Solution (HAR-ETS), powered by SureClose, to go paperless.  Available only since January, Houston Association of REALTORS®'s HAR-ETS has already increased efficiencies for many of the organization’s 24,000 real estate professionals and their clients, and has enabled companies such as Heritage Texas Properties to remove paper from the closing process.  “Heritage Texas Properties is committed to providing our customers with the most efficient and economical solutions available, and HAR’s Electronic Transaction Solution powered by SureClose has enabled us to vastly [...]

Edina Realty Says Goodbye to Non-Broker-Controlled Websites

Edina, Minn. – May 22, 2012 –Edina Realty announced today that it will no longer send its property listings to Realtor.com. However, due to technical issues, the company advises that it could take 10 days or more for its entire listings database to disappear from Realtor.com. Last November, Edina Realty also made a strategic move to stop sending its real estate listings to Trulia.com, a non-broker-controlled real estate aggregator. Edina Realty is participating in a nationwide outcry against non-broker-controlled websites over concerns with data inaccuracy and consumer privacy. Another cause for concern is the fact that sales leads often go [...]

NAR Honors David Charron as Top Industry Leader

Charron is a 2012 Inductee to the National Association of REALTORS® Dr. Almon R. (Bud) Smith, AE Leadership Society  Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS) today announced that its President and CEO David Charron has been named to the National Association of REALTORS® Dr. Almon R. (Bud) Smith, RCE, AE Leadership Society (Smith Society) - one of the real estate industry’s most coveted awards for excellence in industry and professional leadership. Charron, along with the other 2012 winners, will be awarded the honor today at the NAR Midyear Conference in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the Smith Society is to recognize those [...]

By |2018-08-20T07:19:04-07:00May 22nd, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|0 Comments

DotLoop Announces Release of Freemium Product and New Round of Funding

DotLoop, a real estate technology company that assists agents, buyers and sellers through the transaction process, announced a new round of funding and the release of their Freemium version of their product. On the funding side, DotLoop announced a $7 million Series A round of financing from Trinity Ventures. The company will use the financing to accelerate sales and marketing, make strategic hires and open an office in San Francisco.  As part of the financing, Noel Fenton, general partner at Trinity Ventures, joins the DotLoop board.  "DotLoop has an opportunity to become an industry standard platform for conducting real estate [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 22nd, 2012|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the idea of App Stores in the real estate technology industry and it has raised a number of questions that I want to put out there to inspire a conversation with the industry. Let me say right up front that I am not neutral in this discussion, as I am one of the founders of RE Technology which has, as an option, the ability to create an eCommerce store which is different, but related to, an App store. My partner Victor did a great job of discussing the differences in his [...]

Mobile MLS

(This article ran previously in the WAV Group Newsletter released on Friday. We received feedback that despite our rant, some MLS iPad apps are quote good. If you would like to nominate an iPad app that is great, leave a comment below. It should, at a minimum, offer add/edit capabilities - adding photos would be a home run) Some MLS providers and Associations have heard just about enough excuses when it comes to mobile. Vendors have been dragging their feet on supporting full mobile MLS, and it is a real problem. Only one MLS vendor with more than a dozen customers [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 15th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

A Case of Concern Embedded Search and Display

IDX for Facebook There is some degree of discussion about the notion that the IDX rules may be expanded to support Embedded Search and Display on websites or displays not under the apparent control of the broker. I believe that this is too risky, too hard to control, and beyond the bounds of IDX as currently discussed. New thinking is needed and proposed herein. The foundation of new thinking is that MLSs may approve certain websites for embeddable display as a matter of local rule. Embedded Search and Display Defined Many real estate technology thinkers have discussed the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 14th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments