Victor Lund, Author at WAV Group Consulting

Constellation Web buys Birdview and Z57

Constellation Web has been on a buying spree, acquiring two of the nation’s longest standing agent and broker web solutions providers – Birdview and Z57. The Z57 transaction closed on December 3rd. The Birdview transaction closed back in May, but we missed that. Constellation has largely been thought of as a mega broker solution – providing services to many of America’s largest brokerage companies like Howard Hanna, Coldwell Banker Burnett, Shorewest, RealtyUSA and Many others. Here is the Z57 press release TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec 3, 2012) -Constellation Software Inc. ("Constellation") (CSU.TO) today announced that its wholly-owned division, Constellation Homebuilder [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:46-07:00December 13th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Press Releases|1 Comment

Technology Tools Used by Great Office Managers

All too frequently companies focus on broker tools or agent tools, losing sight of the tools used by great managers. Brokers who truly understand the value of office managers dedicate resources to deliver manager tools that drive company success and agent productivity. These tools fold into three categories: Market Analysis, Sales Analysis, and Agent Effectiveness. Market Analysis Tools Market Analysis involves using tools like Terradatum Broker Matrix or Trendgraphix. These tools give office managers access to two specific measurements that are key to success: Competitor Sales Volume and Agent Sales Volume relative to market pace. The first is a competitive [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:46-07:00December 10th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, Sales Advisory, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Cindy Miller joins NTREIS

WAV Group had the opportunity to work with North Texas Real Estate Information Systems in 2012, facilitating the company's strategic plan. NTREIS is among the largest MLS service providers in the nation, and probably covers more square miles of real estate than anyone (not fact checked). It is a great organization with a popular governance model that establishes each Association of REALTORS® as the MLS Service provider to their members, powered by NTREIS. The Associations are the first line of support, training, and billing to the agents. During our project, we had the opportunity to work closely with Cindy Miller [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:46-07:00December 4th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Watch Your Widgets

There is great leadership thought around the possibilities that may exist for real estate widgets or apps. Very small teams of developers may be able to invent fantastic software that fills a diverse set of niche needs across the real estate industry. One cannot help but to be amazed at the explosion of applications for the iPhone or the Android or other mobile devices. Bringing that type of creativity to the Million-strong real estate community is very viable. Real Estate has the benefit of the economy of numbers – outpacing any other industry beyond teachers (who do not buy anything). [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 28th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Adding Broker and Agent Branding to Syndication

The gray skull of shame is the single most tarnishing factor of an agent’s online reputation. Yet today, more than 30% of listings on leading third party websites are missing photos or display incorrect contact information about the agent. There is absolutely no reason for this to happen. Today, listing syndication service providers and MLSs can fix this with ease. In truth, no change in real estate data is easy. Unless there is profit motivation, change takes place at a very sluggish pace. In order for agent and broker branding to be added to syndication, standards need to be developed. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 28th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off

Zillow expands rental offering with Hotpads acquisition

Market leading real estate publisher Zillow expanded their footprint by entering into an agreement to purchase Hot Pads today. The strategy behind the acquisition seems squarely aimed at conquering a larger audience of real estate consumers, namely consumers interested in rental properties. In October, Hotpads had nearly 2.8 Million Unique Visitors. Depending on how you add up traffic to Zillow and their other sites like realestate.yahoo.com, it adds up to less than a 5% increase in traffic. Moreover, Zillow picks up highly skilled staff that understand the real estate portal business, and how to manage data. Although Zillow already has [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 26th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Data Only Brokers
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Data Only Brokers

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights

Data Only Brokers

There are lots of brokers who subscribe to MLS services. They are called participants, and as participants they are provided data rights beyond agents, and way beyond vendors or third parties. Moreover, participants are the nucleus of reciprocal offers of compensation, an agreement that if one broker represents a willing buyer and the other broker represents a willing seller, they will share compensation. There is a new brokerage model that has entered the MLS sphere, and I am not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I will call this type of brokerage a "Data Only Broker" or [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 20th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|9 Comments

CMLS brainstorms new approach for MLS Rules

The CMLS meetings (Council of MLS) were held on Wednesday, November 7th. There were numerous presentations but one in particular seemed to engage the Nation's leading MLS executives in attendance - ReThink MLS. The question before the panel was "What If We Started from Scratch?" As we all know, MLS rules (including Broker Reciprocity) provides structure for how brokers and agents will behave when sharing listings with one another: Two problems have arisen since these rules were first crafted more than a dozen years ago. The MLS rules have become cumbersome in length and somewhat unwieldy to manage and enforce. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 12th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|1 Comment

Listhub expands publisher filtering

With listing syndication expanding to 50 or more websites, brokers are challenged to keep up with the features, policies, and display rules of each site. In an effort to help brokers understand the differences between publisher websites, Listhub provides a broker dashboard that spells out the differences and enables brokerages to filter out websites that the broker does not like. Listhub expanded their filtering based upon feedback that they received from their customers including MLSs, Brokers, and Franchise Organizations. The new features are: Refreshes Daily: The publisher posts new or updated listing information at least once a day. No For Sale By [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 8th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off

Attention Brokers – Learn how to take back the web from third parties!

While brokers have lots of technology tools at their fingertips today, a high impact website is still a critical tool driving success for any size real estate company. Third parties continue to gain traction and traffic with consumers because they know what consumers are looking for and they deliver on their needs consistently! If brokers want to become THE source for real estate consumers, they need to find ways to enhance and re-invent their own web presence. Brokers also need to learn about how to use their online presence to nurture new customer relationships for their agents. RED and RE [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 1st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category|Comments Off

Your Real Estate Website is Illegal

It is November, that time of year when you need to schedule the update on your copyright to © 2013 before January 1st. But there is more that you should be considering, a revision to the way that you handle the terms of use. Most real estate websites place their terms of use conspicuously down deep in the footer of their website, along with their privacy policy. This is the way that it has been done for years. However, a court case involving Amazon.com subsidiary, Zappos just changed all of that. In the Zappos case, 24 million consumer email addresses [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 1st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|3 Comments

Point2 encourages publishers to play nice

Yardi subsidiary, Point2 is changing its data distribution policies to align with what it believes to be the interests of MLSs, Associations, Brokers and agents in the US, similar to what it has introduced in Canada with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Since Yardi purchased Point2, they have renewed determination to protect the data rights of agents, brokers, and their partner Associations of REALTORS(r) and MLS. In the past, the default distribution setting for Point2 has been broker-opt out rather than broker opt-in. WAV Group has never been in favor of Broker Opt-out programs. Broker opt-out means that unless notified [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00October 31st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment

About Victor Lund