What should we look for at NAR Midyear?

Real estate’s annual May pilgrimage begins in a couple of weeks. Its formal name is “REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo,” but I’ve never met anyone outside of NAR that doesn’t call it NAR Midyear. Even the url for the location on realtor.org labels it “midyear” (http://www.realtor.org/midyear.nsf). For several days – this year May 11-16 – local associations as well as state and regional associations leadership descend on Washington D.C. It’s a time largely filled with policy meetings, committee confabs and a full-court press for face-to-face meetings with legislative reps. Tucked in the middle of all this is a trade [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Our Services|1 Comment

Trend MLS Case Study On Excellence

I was at the Swanepoel T3 summit a week ago and battled the misanthropic attitude toward MLS that bubbles up from agents and brokers. My commentary was specific. Not all MLSs are alike. Most MLSs with more than 5000 subscribers are excellent. Some MLSs with more than 10,000 subscribers are constantly improving their service levels to brokers and agents. One of those MLSs is Trend MLS. Case in point – Mobile image uploader Mobile image uploading is no simple task. That is why so few MLSs have this service available today. There are plenty that offer the ability to add [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Main category, Marketing, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Trend MLS Case Study On Excellence

Coming Soon Listings Revisited

Last summer, the issue of Coming Soon listings hit a peek of interest among the nation’s MLSs. As our industry is naturally prone to do, the issue was well vetted for more than a year thanks in part to the efforts of Mountain View, CA based MLS Listings CEO James Harrison and his Chairman Robert Bailey. It was discussed at every MLS conference and forum and MLSs created a new status to handle Coming Soon listings. Leading MLSs understood the need for this field and brokers learned about the inherent concerns of this listing type. Today, most of the leading [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|Comments Off on Coming Soon Listings Revisited

Enabling an Ecosystem of Innovation for Real Estate

The MLS technology model has been relatively flat-footed for some time now. Many MLSs offer one MLS system, one Public Records system and other services like showing appointment software, document management, and they call it a day. In Part IV of his blog series last Thursday, Bob Bemis outlined a vision of a brand new way for MLS platforms to operate. A new program called AMP™ or Advanced Multi-List Platform™ that would leverage RPR is a very interesting and even scary concept to some. In its simplest definition, AMP would be the “back end” of an MLS. It would provide [...]

Size Matters

Bigger is better. At least that's what Apple discovered when it unveiled larger iPhones. The sales numbers stunned everyone: 74.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of release. That’s more than 34,000 phones an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even Tim Cook was taken aback, telling analysts the “Demand for iPhone was staggering,” adding, “This volume is hard to comprehend.” Every major smartphone vendor has discovered that when it comes to consumer preferences, they are turning to larger screens. The bigger story But what is happening here goes beyond record sales numbers for Apple, Samsung, Google, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 23rd, 2015|Main category, Marketing, Our Services, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Size Matters

Zillow/Trulia Executive to Headline San Diego REALTOR® Expo

Largest REALTOR® Event in San Diego County Explores Industry Changes SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - April 22, 2015) - With the recent Zillow-Trulia merger and changes to real estate listing syndication in San Diego, what is the future of online real estate search portals? That's the big question to be answered by a panel of real estate marketing heavyweights -- including Zillow/Trulia Vice President Curt Beardsley, WAV Group Consulting Partner Victor Lund, and Move/Realtor.com Vice President Russ Cofano -- at the annual San Diego County REALTOR® Expo & Conference on Friday, April 24. WHAT | The annual San Diego County REALTOR [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:46-07:00April 22nd, 2015|Main category, Marketing, Press Releases|Comments Off on Zillow/Trulia Executive to Headline San Diego REALTOR® Expo

Lone Wolf Scores Investment Capital

It is always welcome news whenever fresh capital comes into the real estate industry. It’s the fuel for innovation. Lone Wolf joins the list of private companies like DocuSign and others that are getting the support from investment capital. WAV Group partners Marilyn Wilson and Victor Lund had a phone interview with Lone Wolf CEO, Lorne Wallace to talk about the strategy of bringing on an investor. “We are in an unusual time in our company’s growth,” says Wallace. Through growing core products like Broker Wolf and strategic acquisitions, Lone Wolf has grown revenue to over $25 Million in sales. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 16th, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off on Lone Wolf Scores Investment Capital

RESO Announces Executive Director

Jeremy Crawford joins RESO from MLSListings, where he has been Chief Operating Officer since 2012. He was responsible for all aspects of Enterprise Information Technology, including infrastructure, design, development, implementation, and management for MLSListings, Inc. Crawford has more than 15 years of information technology experience in the real estate, financial services and education sectors. Since 2013, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Standards Organization. Crawford also serves on the DocuSign Executive Advisory Council, the Interop Advisory Board, and is the lead for the Council of MLS technology sub-council.  Crawford was awarded San Diego’s Information [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 15th, 2015|Main category, Our Services, Press Releases|Comments Off on RESO Announces Executive Director

Andy Rapattoni In Memoram

It is with great sorrow that Rapattoni Corporation announces that Andy Rapattoni died April 8, 2015, at age 75 at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California, after complications following lower back surgery. Andy Rapattoni, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Rapattoni Corporation, a national software firm located in Simi Valley, California, became an industry icon in the world of organized real estate in the 45 years he headed the company. In 1970, Andy and his wife, Niki, founded Rapattoni Corporation to provide cutting-edge technologies to the real estate industry. Beginning with just the two of them [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 9th, 2015|Main category|Comments Off on Andy Rapattoni In Memoram

Listing Syndication now Part of Broker Office Policy Manuals in Colorado

Loveland, CO — April 8, 2015 — Colorado Real Estate Commission Position 21 (CP-21) was officially revised this week to include Listing Syndication within office policy manuals. CP-21 is a long standing position statement that covers a variety of topics suggested for real estate office policy manuals such as handling earnest money, contract review and, as of April 7th, listing syndication. Timing is perfect considering the recent changes between listing syndication giant, Listhub, and consumer portals, Zillow and Trulia. As of April 7th, Listhub and Zillow Group ended their contract with one another, leaving brokers and agents wondering how their [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 7th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Listing Syndication now Part of Broker Office Policy Manuals in Colorado

Funny – Anti-Zulia Radio Campaign

WI Homes is the consumer facing website of Milwaukee Wisconsin based MLS, Metro MLS. The website is a regional powerhouse for providing consumers with access to search the MLS property search database. In an effort to advertise a differentiation between their website and websites that they call “Zulia and Trillow,” they created these rather humorous radio ads. The first ad talks about the two biggest events in a couple’s life – when they buy a home and when they have a baby.   In the second ad, they talk about a family buying a home of their dreams [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 2nd, 2015|Main category, Marketing, Our Services|1 Comment

Has Online Marketing Peaked?

In one of my favorite articles from 2008, WAV Group suggested that newspapers are like nursing homes. At that time, newspaper advertising was in a steep decline as a result of the emergence of more affordable online options that promised better reach. My argument was, “This obsolete technology sucks millions of dollars away from more cost-effective marketing tools while delivering less every year. There are better uses for your budget, especially if you market goods and services to people who don’t remember the Truman Administration.” Job seekers go online to Craigslist, Monster.com, or Careers.com to find employment. Consumers go to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:47-07:00April 1st, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Has Online Marketing Peaked?