What is a VOW and how can it help you grow your business?
Part One of a five part series "Roadmap to using VOWs in Real Estate.”
MLSs can learn from the State of California Legislature
Many of you may have seen glimpses of the issues that the State of California legislature faced in passing their budget. They were faced with closing a $42 Billion budget deficit. The final budget recently agreed upon but some voter resolutions that will need to be passed in order for the budget to work. Funding levels will need to be cut that impact citizen benefits like education, health services, and other key areas. Furthermore, revenues will need to be increased in areas like vehicle registration fees and sales tax. These changes will not be popular, as they will touch everyone [...]
WAV Group’s ComScore Portal Results show Yahoo! in the lead
There has been a lot of chatter of Trulia vs. Zillow this past week. I did not see the results of the battle royal, but I think that brokers and agents should use both of them to have a comprehensive and effective online solution. The giant in the closet that seems to get lost in this discussion is realestate.yahoo.com - who passed REALTOR.com in traffic three months ago and continues to lead. WAV Group also reported this in our Listhub Syndication study last fall. Please note that REALTOR.com does hold a lead if you roll in MSN which is powered [...]
Good or Evil – Note to the Department of Justice – citizens are free to create their own MLS
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” Recently I was given an opportunity to share a summary of the settlement between the United States Department of Justice and the National Association of REALTOR regarding Virtual Office Websites. Before the meeting, we stood together with our right hand over our hearts and chanted the Pledge of Allegiance To the Flag of the United States of America. As I stood before the MLS Board, their shareholders, and broker [...]
Broker Website Effectiveness Study
Last year WAV Group was given access to many of the top broker websites in the country to view thier traffic statistics. The hope was that by sharing the aggregated data, many of the false myths of succeeding online would be dispelled. As it turns out, SEO is not a big deal (despite some websites spending more than $1MM over time on it). Listing Syndication is important for sellers, but also not a huge driver of traffic. REALTOR.com does not pass much traffic along to brokers. And there is more. Please download our whitepaper on the topic here. Or enjoy [...]
Victor Lund delivers VOW Session to NNRMLS Leadership
Virtual Office Websites or VOWs will be going mainstream in 2009 as a result of the Department of Justice settlement with the National Association of REALTORS. WAV Group has been delivering a series of talks to MLSs around the country to MLS Directors, Shareholders and Broker members to outline how VOWs. Please contact Victor Lund if you need support communicating the impact that VOWs will have on real estate websites to your membership. VOW Overview View more presentations from victorlund. (tags: virtual office)
Developing your global brand
Marilyn Wilson of the WAV Group prepared a dynamic presentation for the members of Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate who attended the recent international conference in Paris. Developing Your Global Brand View more presentations from victorlund. (tags: branding real)
Who should drive this real estate bus?
Attending the recent Real Estate Connect conference in NY City I heard a lot of very bright individuals speak about the future of MLS. There were some great opinions and observations a few semi- heated debates but more than anything, what really stood out for me, was how disjointed and dysfunctional our industry is in some regards. The other thing that struck me was how well our industry and in particular, MLSs, work in spite of that fact. Think of the different tracks we see being taken by influential, bright movers and shakers in our industry and tell me if [...]
European Model May Point to Future of U.S. Real Estate
Over the past 2 years I have been very involved professionally with a brokerage/franchise model that originated in Europe and recently came to selected areas of the U.S. The name of the company is Engel & Volkers. I have been helping this company understand the US real estate industry, our technology and how they needed to modify their system to successfully enter our market. They did just that in late 2006 in Florida, where they have about 30 licenses. Next they opened in NY and New England in 2007 where they now have about 12 licenses and most recently they launched [...]
WAV Group Speaks at Luxury Real Estate Conference – Paris, France
Last week the WAV Group partners, Mike Audet, Marilyn Wilson and Victor Lund had the opportunity to speak at the Luxury Real Estate Conference at the Hotel du Louvre, in Paris, France. LuxuryRealEstate.com brokers from around the world came together to learn and share their experiences on serving the international markets. Topics ranged from strategies on international marketing, branding and web strategy to how to value and sell your real estate company. All of the participants rated the conference a huge success both in content and, of course, locale! One of the LRE attendees, Olivia Hsu Decker, owner of Deker Bullock Southeby's [...]
Dwellicious lands deal with Realtor.com – code named Corona
Despite bloggers disparaging the Dwellicious founders for plying favor with Corona and taudry late night escapades - They have come to an agreement with the Crown of the REALTOR online establishment - The first 100 REALTORS who sign up for DWELLICIOUS PRO will be funded by REALTOR.com - allowing early adopter REALTORS to gain access to this breakthrough service, gratis. DWELLICIOUS is a service that enables consumers to bookmark thier favorite listings across many of the top search sites for free. If you have not checked out the service offering, you should. Here is the press release with all of [...]
The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Consumers today are demanding more and more transparency in every purchase they make. As a real estate professional you have a great chance to attract new clients simply by sharing all of the great relationships you have with your clients. You didn’t build that referral network you have without creating satisfied clients. Why not take advantage of all of the hard work you have done to earn the great reputation you have? Feedback websites have become popular because they allow a consumer to get information from peers about their satisfaction levels with products and services. Unlike traditional advertising that has [...]