Is Email Volume Killing Your Company?

Lingchi is the roughly the word that the Chinese use to describe a form of torture whereby a person is executed by 1000 cuts. Dying the death of a thousand cuts has become a familiar business term that can have any range of meaning. WAV Group fielded a question from large brokerage firm – "how do we reduce email in our company?" Communication in a company is good, but too much communication as an adverse impact. What follows is my reply. Calculate the spoilage - If it takes each member of the company an hour to clean out their inbox [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00November 3rd, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment

WAKE UP BROKERS! Hablas Espanol?

Today, 85% of homebuyers are white, but that is changing rapidly in America. The new and growing homebuyer population is Hispanic or Latino, and most do not speak English well enough to have confidence in a real estate transaction written in a foreign language, with an agent who is not bilingual. Yikes or Opportunity? We think opportunity. From 2010 to 2012, the number of Hispanic homebuyers increased 38%! Today, only 20,000 of the nations’ 1.2 Million members of the National Association of REALTORS is Hispanic. By the way – all of the stats quoted here look at data collected in [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00November 2nd, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|0 Comments

Gavin Blair Named as New CEO of the Iowa Association of REALTORS®

The Iowa Association of REALTORS® (IAR) is pleased to announce the hiring of Gavin Blair as the next Chief Executive Officer of the 6,800-member association. Mr. Blair is the current CEO of the Dayton Area Board of REALTORS® in Ohio. Blair oversees the over 2,400-member organization and the Dayton Regional MLS with over 3,000 members. “We conducted a nationwide search and interviewed several excellent candidates. We felt Gavin Blair was the best fit for IAR with his background in government affairs and his track record of progress and innovation in his previous positions.” IAR President Jon Yocum stated. Prior to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00November 2nd, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Online Marketing is for Sellers, Recruiting, and Retention

It's November, the beginning of budgeting and planning for a successful 2016. WAV Group studies the online effectiveness of many of today’s leading brokers and provides audits and advisory services on optimizing these programs. The true measure of online effectiveness is closing a transaction. Unfortunately, we have observed that closing a transaction is coincidental to online marketing and not a direct correlation. The relationship between an agent and a consumer is akin to dating. Both parties must be attracted to one another. There needs to be a connection and the development of things like trust and confidence. It’s a dating [...]

DAMIEN HUZE JOINS W&R STUDIOS’ LEADERSHIP TEAM AS CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER

Damien Huze, founder of Wake Interactive, has joined W&R Studios to focus on design of W&R Studios’ products and services. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (October 29, 2015) – Privately held software company, W&R Studios, announced today that Damien Huze will be joining their leadership team as the Chief Design Officer. Damien has been involved with the company since 2008. He designed W&R Studios’ corporate identity as well as consulted on the UI/UX and identity of their flagship product, Cloud CMA. Damien grew up in Paris, France. Both his parents were in creative fields. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00October 29th, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

CoreLogic Extends Trestle RETS Server to other Systems for FREE

It is RESO week. The week when CIO and CTO types gather together in Austin, TX for the Annual Real Estate Standards Organization meeting. This year’s conference was sold out for the first time with a rumored count of more than 700 participants. Kevin Hawkins of WAV Group Communications says that the environment and buzz at the conference is amazing. You can follow Kevin's RESO updates on Twitter @RESO_RETS  or follow the RESO hashtag at #reso15 to listen to the conference chatter. One of the astonishing calls that I got today was from an MLS asking me if CoreLogic was [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00October 28th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Tech Helpline Now Available to Orange County Association of REALTORS®

Some 13,600+ Agents Get Unlimited Tech Support from “Friendly” U.S.-Based Staff  Orlando, FL., (October 28, 2015) – California’s Orange County real estate agents are more dependent on technology to help them buy and sell homes than ever before, and now when a computer crashes or a smartphone glitches out, they can get immediate assistance. Tech Helpline, the real estate industry’s #1 tech support service, is a new, included member benefit available to more than 13,600 members of the Orange County Association of REALTORS®. These Southern California agents and brokers join nearly 400,000 REALTORS® throughout the U.S. and Canada that have [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:31-07:00October 28th, 2015|Main category|0 Comments

Preparing for Success in the Coming Year

As we approach the end of another exciting year in real estate, now is a great time to sit back and reflect on the best ways to help prepare your members and organization for success next year. We have talked many times over the years about the importance of staying in touch with what is happening in the industry today. Here’s what can happen when an organization is out of touch: They can delay decisions because they seem difficult or controversial causing the organization to fall behind or lose its competitive advantage. Instead of responding to the waves of change, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|0 Comments

Lund and Cowen Discuss REDPLAN Prior Art and Forms Library

REDPLAN directors Victor Lund of WAV Group and Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of My Florida Regional MLS had a call to discuss REDPLAN’s new Prior Art and Forms Library. Lund: When did MFRMLS join REDPLAN? Cowen: MFRMLS joined REDPLAN a few years ago. I joined the Board of Directors shortly after. Lund: Why did MFRMLS join REDPLAN? Cowen: Our Board of Directors was motivated by the need that they see for this kind of non-profit entity. Among MLSs today, there is little education that delivers best copyright practices or collaboration for MLSs to fight patent trolls.  Our hope is that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category|0 Comments

WAV Group Partnering With MLSs On Zillow Survey

WAV Group is recruiting MLS and broker participants for a study to get an understanding of what these groups of people think about their relationship with Zillow. This study is funded internally at WAV Group. What do home buyers think of the service What do home sellers think of the service? What do renters think of the service? What do Property Managers think of the Service What do Premier Agents think of the service? What does Premier Mortgage think of the service? What do real estate brokers of all sizes think of the service? By participating in the study, you [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|3 Comments

Broker Public Portal Update – October 2015

Many participants in the Broker Public Portal project were in attendance at the Council of MLS annual meeting in Kansas City. It was an extraordinary event, and one could not walk away without a sense that brokers and MLSs are communicating and working together better today than ever before. The BPP, LLC leadership in attendance was able to have meetings with prospective and partner MLSs, providing status updates on our progress.  We also spent the day before the conference to make progress on two fronts – the data license workgroup and the technology workgroup. Data License Workgroup Update Representatives from [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category|0 Comments

Millennials and Home Buying Revisited

The great statistical debate continues on the impact of Millennials today on home buying. About a year ago, I wrote about the conflicting data (“Millennial Marketing Madness”) that argued Millennials were not going to drive the majority home sales in 2015 despite what marketers and self-interested parties were claiming. Fast-forward today, and it looks like the hardcore data was accurate and the marketers missed the mark. Today’s headlines have taken quite a turn from those we saw last year. Now those pundits who said Millennials would be driving today’s housing market are scrambling to explain why they are not or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category|1 Comment