About WAV Group

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far WAV Group has created 608 blog entries.

Paperless Process Comes of Age in Real Estate

WAV Group has been tracking the adoption of online transaction processing software for several years.   In the 2005 WAV Group Transaction Management Adoption Study, we identified a number of factors that were inhibiting adoption of transaction management solutions and recommended steps to improve adoption.  We are seeing encouraging adoption increases throughout the country. The WAV Group 2009 Transaction Management Adoption Study surveyed over 1700 brokers and agents from 22 different MLSs.  In addition, we worked with major Transaction Management vendors to look at their product adoption trends over the last few years.  The result is a much clearer picture of where online transaction processing stands [...]

Go Green and Be Safer too!

The EPA has just released a study that confirms it is safer, not to mention cheaper to drink tap water than bottled water.  There is less scrutiny placed on health standards and reporting for bottled water than tap water. Now here’s a great way to be safer, save money and Be Green in your real estate office all at the same time. Instead of buying cases of bottled water for your office, why not buy a Camelbak water bottle for all of your agents and encourage them to be healthy and hydrated with their very own branded water bottle. You can purchase [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:21-07:00August 13th, 2009|Main category|Comments Off on Go Green and Be Safer too!

MRIS and MRED to launch RE Technology product portal

In a move to facilitate quality product information about real estate software and services to thier subscribers, MRIS and MRED have selected the portal solution from RE Technology.  By offering the RE Technology portal to thier subscribers, MRIS and MRED will allow thier members to gain access to product vendors by category, product reviews, user product ratings and product comparisons all in one location. Technology vendors are invited to submit thier products for display in the portal by visitingretechnology.com   installed into MLS systems allowing agents and brokers to gain access to information, reviews and product ratings of real estate [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00August 13th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on MRIS and MRED to launch RE Technology product portal

Big turn around at Move

In 2008, Move, Inc reported $61.4 Million in sales and reported a net loss of $2.1 Million.  This year, under the strong leadership of former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz - Move, Inc is now posting $3.2 Million in profit in the second quarter of 2009 against lower revenues of $54.6 Million.  Sales are down, but profits are up! “During the quarter, we continued to make solid progress toward both our short term business objectives and our long term growth strategy,” said Steve Berkowitz, Move’s CEO. “While we remain focused on improving the financial and operational performance across our product lines [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00August 10th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Big turn around at Move

Google launches real estate search portal

Google has expanded their search strategy by adding in a new search option: Real Estate. As you may recall, Google first launched their property search solution by placing a quick search bar above the search results for key words like 'san francisco real estate.'  That search functionality was always demarked with the term 'beta' and now seems to have gone away.  We suspect that it may have deminished advertising revenues.  Here is a video demonstrating Google's new strategy.  Map based search and natural language search seem to be providing better results than typical form based searches - something to keep [...]

By |2009-08-10T16:42:11-07:00August 10th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Google launches real estate search portal

California Association of REALTORS launches Mobile Products Company

At noon today, Real Estate Business Solutions (REBS) announced a partnership with Seek Mobile to form a new company called Real Estate Mobile Technologies.  The new company will develop consumer and REALTOR mobile applications. REBS, a subsidary of the California Association of REALTORS will be the majority shareholder of the new corporation, and the current applications like MyCAR will be rolled into the new company according to CEO, Alan Arora.  

By |2009-08-04T16:37:54-07:00August 4th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on California Association of REALTORS launches Mobile Products Company

WAV Group Releases Edutizing for Real Estate White Paper

The Advertising Age has Ended, the Edutizing Era has Begun Consumers simply do not want to be “sold” anymore. They have become cynical about advertising claims and “its all about me” advertising. They dont want to hear an agents claims of greatness. They want to understand what you can do for them. They want to know that your claims are backed up by legitimate experience and insights you can bring to them. They want you to prove why you are the best agent or broker for them.  Simply making promises of greatness is not enough to attract consumers anymore. Customers [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 24th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on WAV Group Releases Edutizing for Real Estate White Paper

ChaCha close to “cracking” mobile voice search

As reported on MobileMarketer, MSearchGroove recently evaluated three mobile voice search tools for the iPhone- Google, Yahoo and ChaCha. The researchers from MSearchGroove evaluated the overall performance of the voice-enabled mobile services from ChaCha, Google and Vlingo for iPhone with Yahoo by asking a series of 18 queries from six typical mobile search categories such as navigation, direction, local information, general information, social and long-tail. In the category of queries asked as questions, ChaCha accurately interpreted 94.4 percent of the tests and delivered accurate search results in 88.9 percent of cases. Google’s results on the other hand were pretty dismal. On the other hand, Googles voice [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 23rd, 2009|Main category|Comments Off on ChaCha close to “cracking” mobile voice search

Don’t forget about Video when you are edutizing

I have been writing a lot about edutizing lately and have been offering several methods for attracting new customers with educational pieces containing relevant, timely information consumers are interested in. We talk a lot about how it is very important to share local market statistics to consumers to help them understand the ins and outs of the marketplace. Importantly, by sharing this imformation agents and real estate associations can reinforce their position as local experts. […]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 22nd, 2009|Main category|Comments Off on Don’t forget about Video when you are edutizing

MyCAR iPhone application goes live – Another great example of Edutizing

A few weeks ago we announced the launch of the MyC.A.R. application from the California Association of REALTORS.  Today the application went live in the iPhone App Store.  The MyC.A.R. is another great example of how agents can use Edutizing to position themselves as experts.  The application allows an agent to share monthly market statistics for 21 regions in California along with current loan information and highlights from C.A.R.’s “Market Matters” newsletter. it is a great “cocktail party” tool to answer the question that inevitably gets asked - How’s the Real Estate market doing?  It is a great mobile lead capture [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 21st, 2009|Main category|Comments Off on MyCAR iPhone application goes live – Another great example of Edutizing

Morgan Lane Marin to acquire Pacific Union Real Estate

Bucking the odds in a highly volatile, recession-stymied real estate market, Morgan Lane Marin has grown meteorically, from just $52 million in sales in 2006 to $315 million in 2008. Combined, the two entities will have 17 offices, more than 430 real estate professionals and 2009 sales volume projected to be $2.2 billion, according to Mark A. McLaughlin, CEO of Morgan Lane. The goal of the combined operations is to become the Bay Areas leading luxury real estate brand an objective McLaughlin said will be achieved by retaining and recruiting the industrys top-producing professionals and leveraging resources and international marketing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 20th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on Morgan Lane Marin to acquire Pacific Union Real Estate

ESPN wins where real estate portals fail

There was significant debate about the concept of Localism in Real Estate on the heals of our whitepaper on the topic.  The paper pointed out that a web strategy that links together hyperlocal websites with a central hub site will draw more traffic than a mega-portal.  Not content with being a sports colossus with broadcasts in 200 countries, ESPN is taking aim at hometown sports coverage, threatening one of the last strongholds of local newspapers and television stations.  And it is working! After a promising test run in Chicago, ESPN is adding local offshoots to three more cities. On Monday, ESPN, which [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 20th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on ESPN wins where real estate portals fail