Denver will be my fourth RESO Spring Tech Summit. Compared to many of the RESO leadership, who, like WAV Group, work for companies that are charter members, I’m still a newbie. Even so, RESO conferences have come a long way from the Chicago spring meeting I attended in 2015 at the NAR HQ.
Too often public relations activities rely on the “spray and pray” method these days. It’s just too easy. First, there’s the availability of cheap digital news wire services to blast out a news release for a few hundred dollars or less. If you want to get some quick online news cover and links to post to social media, it’s just a few clicks away. Second, creating email lists of reporters and bloggers has never been more accessibility. So much so, I would venture to guess reporters are suffering from unsubscribe fatigue.
When I interviewed Craig Newmark for California Real Estate magazine a dozen years ago, it struck me how down to earth and unassuming he was. After all, he had created one of the most pervasive and influential internet sites in the world. But Craig remained remarkably modest, humble and approachable. I called him the “Reluctant Internet Mogul.” Last year, Forbes wrote how Craig has now become the reluctant internet billionaire.
This Flashback Features series unearths profiles from the past of real estate and technology leaders. A version of this story was first published in California Real Estate magazine. This profile of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is from 2006. By Kevin Hawkins Craig Newmark, the Internet’s reluctant mogul, makes his daily visit to Café Reverie in the Cole Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. He has dog biscuits in his pockets and a ready smile for the next little child that he encounters.
Gabriels Technology Solutions (Gabriels or GTS) has been flying under the radar for literally more than 20 years. In that time, Manhattan real estate entrepreneur Michael Gabriel built the world's leading provider of internet technologies and services for the most prestigious Gabriels logonames in the news business: The New York Times, Boston Globe and 500 more media companies around the globe. GTS powered their real estate sections, including the creation of some of the most innovative multi-lingual web technology our industry has seen.
On the last day of Inman Connect, Managing Director of Bain Capital Matt Harris dropped this bombshell to the digital disruptors: financing is shifting away from the challengers to the facilitators, those that offer technology serving traditional Realtors and lenders. Harris said that the money is going to "next-generation listing marketplaces that serve Realtors, that serve the industry by facilitating traditional transactions.”
Industry effort ”blows the doors off estimates;” Should quiet critics, leaders say ROCKVILLE, MD, January 23, 2018 – Broker Public Portal (BPP) since its launch with Homesnap in January last year has grown from serving 45 Multiple Listing Services to more than 120 MLSs today, representing 800,000 real estate agents and brokers. As a result, Homesnap has become one of the nation’s most collaborative consumer real estate apps. Real estate agents have invited more than 19 million clients and contacts to access MLS listing data, and 8.5 million consumers have engaged with their agents through Homesnap. Broker Public Portal [...]
An unprecedented 73% of top real estate executives say the U.S. economy will improve or improve significantly. That’s the highest level of confidence real estate leaders have expressed since Imprev started its annual Thought Leader Economy & Housing Outlook Study in 2012. These numbers are simply stunning. Top real estate executives’ confidence in America’s economy has more than doubled since October 2016. Then just 32% said the U.S. economy would improve or improve significantly. The 2016 survey was conducted immediately prior to the U.S. presidential election. The highest confidence level prior to the current study was 54% in 2012. The [...]
Social media, mobile technology and marketing automation: those are the three ingredients that are changing real estate in a profound and everlasting way. And, unlike many skeptics, I believe it’s for the better. My proof is the emergence of a “HyperLocal Movement” in real estate that the confluence of these three has fueled. Now there is really nothing new about the “idea” of HyperLocal in real estate. No other industry has been more focused on being local than ours. Many agents have legitimately been practicing hyperlocalism for years, if not decades. What is new is what's happening NOW with hyperlocalism, [...]
For the last few weeks, I have been wearing the hat of a reporter. All I can say to the journalists whom I have worked with over the last couple of dozen years: I now feel your pain when it comes to unsolicited pitches from PR people. Moreover, I apologize on behalf of seasoned PR pros who would be as disappointed from this experience as I am. I now understand why many of you treat me with immediate suspicion and even an attitude of disdain if you have never worked with me before. It appears my chosen profession is still [...]
WAV Group and other consumer research have consistently shown that buyers want neighborhood expertise above all else. It's more important to consumers than an agent’s ability to negotiate or communicate. It’s often even more important to consumers than trust. So you would think that the most common agent business model would be designed to exploit that opportunity, right? But you would be wrong. Yet if you ask agents, they will tell you they indeed have deep local expertise – often they see themselves as being the “top” local expert. But if you look at what they do in their day-to-day [...]
No, my house has not been featured on “The Great Christmas Light Fight.” My thousands of lights are neither programmed nor synchronized to holiday music. The International Space Station can’t see my Bainbridge Island, Washington home from orbit. I am just a guy who every year, for the last 20-plus years, has found the time to squeeze in dozens of hours to brighten our home for the holidays. From climbing ladders and walking on our high-pitched (formerly wood-shake) rooftop, to donning lights, stars and a blazingly bright cross made by our then 8-year old son and his granddad, to blanketing [...]
