Agent Responsiveness Study Reveals Critical Flaws in Real Estate Lead Response

A new whitepaper reveals that failure to respond to leads in a timely manner is a major problem for many real estate professionals. The whitepaper is the result of the collaboration between partners at leading consulting firm WAV Group and Weichert Lead Network, the Internet lead generation arm of Weichert, Realtors. What they uncovered was remarkable and could help real estate professionals achieve new levels of service and prosperity. Download the complete report here. In the whitepaper, WAV Group details lead responsiveness results from a sample of 384 different brokers across 11 states. Researchers posed as consumers and inquired about [...]

How to Combat Misinformation About the Real Estate Market

Every day real estate agents and brokers have to battle a consumer who has built their beliefs about trends in the market, from prices to home value, on misinformation. The only way to combat this is to be more vocal with the correct information for today's home buyers. Previously there have not been tools available, but CoreLogic has tied together MLS data with the public record information to create a better forecast of the real estate market. WAV Group founding partner, Victor Lund is set to moderator an upcoming webinar to educate on the topic. This webinar invites Ed Finlan [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 13th, 2014|Main category, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on How to Combat Misinformation About the Real Estate Market

Your MLS Technology Business Rules – Bet You Don’t Know Them!

I have worked with hundreds of MLSs around the world and been personally involved in over 100 installations and/or conversions and one thing I have discovered over the years is a little-known fact.  MLSs don’t know the business rules that are built into their MLS systems to control their data, member access and overall permissions and MLS vendors have never created a way for you to see them! When you consider the complexity of our MLS systems today this is both understandable on one level and really inexcusable on another.  Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge usually comes to light when [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 12th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Your MLS Technology Business Rules – Bet You Don’t Know Them!

Howard Hanna and William E Wood Join Together

In a press release today, Howard Hanna and William E Wood have reached an agreement whereby Howard Hanna has purchased William E Wood. The Hanna family of companies now reaches from Michigan through Ohio, down through Pennsylvania extending into Virginia and the Carolinas. Following their successful acquisitions of the past with Smythe Cramer, Realty One, Edward Surovell Realtors and others. They do not have any plans to make changes at William E. Wood. The executive team will remain in place along with the brand. William E Wood is a great company and the Hanna's intended to work hard to keep [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 9th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Howard Hanna and William E Wood Join Together

Swanepoel Publishes Power 200 List of RE Executives

Stefan Swanepoel is best known for his engaging conference lectures and the running line of Swanepoel Trends Reports that has published since 2006. This year, Swanepoel partnered with Rob Hahn, Chris Nichols, Kelly Mitchell, Michael McClure, Susan Browne, Michael Krisa, and Shannon Musgrove to produce a new publication called the Swanepoel Power 200, The most Powerful People In Residential Real Estate in 2013. These types of lists were made famous by Forbes Magazine, the publisher who releases 52 Top lists a year, including Rich Lists, Top Companies, People, Investing, Places, Sports, Technology, and Education. I spoke with Swanepoel for a [...]

By |2018-08-20T06:12:08-07:00January 9th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on Swanepoel Publishes Power 200 List of RE Executives

Going Paperless Book Review

Today is Back to Work Monday. The holiday break is over and everyone is back in the ‘grind’ as they say. It is also the evening of the college National Championship Game and I have relatives in Florida and Alabama. With all of that said, there was a lot of competition for my attention today, the day I received a book written by Tyler Smith titled Going Paperless, Taking Real Estate into the 21st Century. I cracked the book to read a few pages and planned to get back to it, but it was a page-turner and 98 pages later, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 6th, 2014|Main category|Comments Off on Going Paperless Book Review

MRIS Tackles Coming Soon Listings

MRIS is among the few multiple listing services in the country that manage their own listing input system.  Keystone, developed, owned and operated by MRIS, gives MRIS the ability to respond directly to subscriber needs for innovative listing management tools.  Often, third party vendors have a difficult time responding to local market needs, in particular when it comes to listing input solutions.  Based on market research, MRIS has been, and continues to, progressively update and enhance Keystone using a phased approach. Keystone provides an easy to use intuitive user experience to input and maintain listing data and facilitates the easy [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on MRIS Tackles Coming Soon Listings

NAR REach Program Accepting New Applicants

Here is a note from Constance Freedman, Managing Director of NAR's venture capital arm, Second Century Ventures. If you have a business that would benefit from NAR support, be sure to submit your application. It is an online process at www.narreach.com On 01/06/14 12:42 PM, Constance Freedman wrote: -------------------- Friends, Applications for NAR’s 2014 REach™ class are now open - please help us spread the word! REach™ is a strategic accelerator launched last year in conjunction with the National Association of Realtors® to help great technology companies gain access to the $1 trillion real estate industry. The opportunity for companies to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on NAR REach Program Accepting New Applicants

The December Slump

In the final hours of the year, real estate hits the skids. Even in 2013, when the threat of newly imposed mortgage regulations gave consumers strong reason to buy before year-end. The WAV Group index measures month-to-month changes in online performance across its brokerage clients. Given that the traffic is in the millions, it is probably statistically relevant, but you may want to use this data more as a benchmark to contrast against your data. Listing counts are down about 30% between November and December. This is a common reality. Many sellers living in their home have little interest in [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on The December Slump

Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

2014 may well be the year of the broker, or as they are referred to in MLS speak, the year of the Participant. If your MLS has adopted the National Association of REALTORS® template for MLS Rules and Regulations, you will find that brokers are Participants and agents are Subscribers. As a Participant in the MLS, brokers accept full responsibility to adhere to MLS rules and regulations. The MLS does a pretty good job of enforcing those rules. But who among you is making sure that the MLS is not running afoul? WAV Group MLS clients are traditionally the largest [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 30th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

Top 5 Articles of the Week

5 Facebook Tips and 51 Status Updates for Real Estate Professionals It's easier to hate Facebook than admit we don't understand how to make it work for our business. The reality is when used effectively, Facebook can put you in front of hundreds or even thousands of people for little or not cost.  Three Simple Steps to Boost Your SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an easy (and free!) way to make sure your website appears at the top of a Google search. Improving your SEO means that you are taking specific steps to help get your website and listings [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 23rd, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Top 5 Articles of the Week

Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

For the last half of a decade, the real estate industry has taken blow after blow. Through grace, we have recovered as an industry and that has a profound impact on homeowners and REALTORS® alike. The number of families losing their home to foreclosure has reset to reasonable levels. WAV Group facilitated nearly two-dozen strategic plans for some of our industry’s most significant market makers. In many cases, boards of directors are thinking pretty big. They are taking on difficult policy issues including syndication, data licensing, and data management. If these organizations accomplish half of what they have set as [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 23rd, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year