How to Market Yourself on Facebook WITHOUT Annoying Your Friends and Family

AGENTS! Join Marilyn Wilson for this exciting RETechinar™  where we will learn from special guest Realtor® Shaun Nilsson, the social media wizard behind CityBlast.com, as he diagrams his time-saving formula for attracting tons of new clients through social media while completely avoiding annoying your friends and contacts. In this 100% FREE online workshop, we'll show you exactly how to close more real estate commissions right now - using only your Facebook - while effortlessly projecting the confident business savvy of a seasoned professional. PLUS you'll learn how to outsource your online marketing to others and avoid wasting even one more [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:11-07:00May 20th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Marketing|0 Comments

Top 5 Articles of the Week

How to Market Yourself on Facebook WITHOUT Annoying Your Family Learn from special guest Realtor® Shaun Nilsson as he diagrams his time-saving formula for attracting tons of clients through social media whole completely avoiding annoying your friends and contacts. We'll show you exactly how to close more real estate commissions right now - using only your Facebook - while effortlessly projecting the confident business savvy of a seasoned professional. PLUS you'll learn how to outsource your online marketing to others and avoid wasting even one more minute of your valuable time each day on it!  4 Great Mobile Apps to [...]

Top Articles of the Week

 Beating Zillow at Their Own Game What if I told you that just about everything you find unfair about the way Zillow and Trulia display your listings can be changed? Guess what? An insider understanding of how these sites work has allowed thousands of listing agents to get hundreds of dollars worth of free marketing on these sites without paying a dime.   What is Email Drip Marketing? Chinese water torture is a way to drive someone insane by slowly dripping water on the person's forehead. Drop email marketing is a communication strategy that slowly drips email messages to prospects' [...]

California MLS Data Sharing Update

California Regional MLS and MLS Listings have reached an agreement to share MLS listing data. This is an important signal of MLS strategy in California for a number of reasons. These MLSs are planning to share data by sending data to each other for display in each other’s system and use by each other’s subscribers without the need to belong to both MLSs. Previously, CRMLS only pursued data sharing through CARETS™, a hub and spoke data share product developed by MRIS. Through this new sharing agreement with MLS Listings, CRMLS now has adopted three initiatives to create a statewide MLS [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 9th, 2014|Main category, Press Releases|1 Comment

RED Real Estate Digital and Cerulean Acquired by Nationstar

Real Estate Digital Acquisition In May, Solutionstar entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Real Estate Digital and its affiliate for $18 million in cash. RED, based in Aliso Viejo, California with 120 employees, is a fee-based real estate services company that provides online marketing, data, transaction management and digital media solutions. The acquisition price represents a 0.7x multiple on RED's estimated full year 2014 revenue. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014 at which time Solutionstar will assume RED's management team and employees. In online marketing, RED has [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 8th, 2014|Press Releases|0 Comments

Third Party Site or MLS? Why not both?

MLSs, with their consumer-facing websites, long to find ways to make their sites more engaging, attracting more visitors and ultimately more exposure to their member’s listings. The Houston Association of REALTORS®, arguably one of the most progressive and gutsy Associations in America today, has done it again.  They have become the first MLS consumer site in America to allow listings from brokers around the state of Texas via Listhub. Listing syndicator ListHub will feed listings to public-facing websites operated by multiple listing services, and the Houston Association of Realtors is the first to sign up for the new program, which [...]

The Right and Wrong of Broker Data

There is a lot of confusion about real estate listing data today. I believe that the confusion is the cause of agitation that pits technology companies, consumers, real estate agents, pundits, MLSs, Franchises, and Associations of REALTORS against one another. For many, there is a belief that the listing data is free and access should be provided to all. The reality is that the listing data is legally bound to the real estate listing broker who is the custodian and responsible party for that data. Being a custodian, or the responsible party has nearly boundless latitude and altitude. Today’s real [...]

Resourcefulness

If anything put fear back into the real estate industry lately, it was the sluggish first quarter performance. There are few valid explanations for it. Inventory is at a reasonable level and interest rates are low. People should be buying homes like they did last year. Rather than trying to figure it out, it is time to apply a healthy dose of resourcefulness into the business. The best way to do that is audit your expenses and your people. A typical story There are times when WAV Group finds significant problems in a business that management did not see. But [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|0 Comments

Professional “Standards” – Are we kidding ourselves?

We have had the pleasure of facilitating several strategic plans in the past few months with many of the nation’s leading Associations.  We have seen an important theme emerge in many of these discussions – Professional Standards. While most organizations feel as though they are doing a good job of maintaining current expectations for professional standards, some weaknesses have been revealed. When asked, most organizations will readily admit that there are agents and brokers that are NOT upholding the Code of Ethics and standards of conduct to the level that most members are. Even though boards regularly admit that there [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|0 Comments

Video Marketing – Becoming Mainstream

With all the marketing tools at your disposable, what should you use to stand out from the competition? Staying ahead of the curve allows you to maximize your marketing ROI and attract new clients. We are all looking for the secret sauce – the way to differentiate our business from the pack and gain a strong leadership position that none of our competitors will ever be able to match. While we can dream, we can never realize this goal unless we continually look for ways to re-invent our business. To be a star in real estate, we always need to [...]

Gurtej Sodhi Appointed Chief Strategy Officer of Crye Leike Group of Companies

Longtime chief information officer, Gurtej Sodhi has been appointed to the senior business leadership of the Crye Leike Group of Companies. His new title strings together Chief Information and Strategy Officer, and Corporate Executive Vice President. This new position at one of America’s leading brokers signals a new strategic direction for large firms. Sodhi’s responsibilities will reach over all of the Crye Leike companies including residential real estate, commercial real estate, mortgage, title, insurance and various other business units. “Information management is changing quickly in real estate and large firms with diverse business units require top level oversight to integrate [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:13-07:00May 6th, 2014|Main category, Press Releases|1 Comment

Austin Syndication News Flash

The Austin Board of REALTORS® and MLS made the historic move to turn off listing syndication with Listhub. The choir loft was full of tenored voices eschewing every possible angle of opinion on the strategy. Well, the saga continues with this latest news flash. Austin has entered into a direct syndication agreement with Trulia, governed by a contract that all parties have agreed to. Brokers are in control of their data, and the agreement protects and governs the use and display of that data. Here is the press release. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Austin Board of REALTORS® Partners with Trulia to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:13-07:00May 1st, 2014|Main category|0 Comments