Blog - Page 175 of 256 - WAV Group Consulting

QM QRM Shock Wave Set for January 1st

The National Associaton of REALTORS® and companies like Down Payment Resource have been sending information to real estate brokers for years now about the impact of QM and QRM in real estate. These new regulations are about to hit in January and they are are going to hurt. In all seriousness, I do not think that brokers or agents are prepared. The lending restrictions are going to impact the number of buyers who will qualify to purchase a home, significantly truncating demand. Moreover, the requirement that banks keep more loans in-house will restrict lending capital to fund loans. QM - [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 21st, 2013|Main category|Comments Off

RE Technology Buying Guide

RE Technology published a Technology Buyers guide. Brokers, Associations, and MLS are welcome to pass it along to agents. 2013 Technology Guide! The 2013 Technology Guide provides information on leading technology companies and products, and is designed to assist real estate professionals in selecting the best technology solutions for their businesses. The guide is available in two formats–as a PDF for download and as a web based flip book. The web version offers extra functionality by giving users the option to create and download a custom version of the guide containing only the products that interest them most. Guide readers [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 21st, 2013|Main category|Comments Off

MLS – It’s All About The Community by Carl DeMusz

If you know anything about the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) you know they are communities and they are better when they are more inclusive than exclusive. A more inclusive MLS will generally have more members, more listings to share with its members and more opportunities for those members to make sales. That makes members happy but it also makes their consumers happy. It would be hard to make the case that less members and less listing content would make an MLS better than a MLS with more members and more listing content looking at it from either the member or [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 19th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|1 Comment

RE/MAX, One Step Closer To An IPO

RE/MAX, one of the world's leading franchisors of real estate brokerage services, today announced that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. According to the press release from the company, the RE/MAX brand name has held the number one market share in the U.S. and Canada since 1999. The timing, number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. RE/MAX intends to apply to list its common stock on the [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 19th, 2013|Main category|Comments Off

Top 5 Ways to Become More Relevant with Consumer Research

The real estate industry suffers from what I call the “lowest common denominator” phenomenon. Every one of the business models in the industry – associations, MLSs and brokerages are built on attracting and retaining as many agents as possible. Many real estate entities collect monies every month from every participant – regardless of their productivity. While these models each have their own reasons to exist, they have created a major problem in my view. Real estate organizations are so busy attracting sales professionals that many ignore the needs of the most important group – the customer. It’s no wonder that [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 16th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|Comments Off

Call for MLS Technology Survey Participants

WAV Group will be fielding the third annual WAV Group MLS Technology survey in September. We are inviting all MLSs to take part. This is a free, non-sponsored survey we provide for the benefit of the industry. The more participation we have the more valuable the data will be for everyone. There is no cost to participate. Each participating MLS will in turn receive three reports: National Results for all MLSs Your Vendor Specific Results (i.e., All results from users of MLXchange); Your MLS Member results in a system generated report Your MLS will receive the reports prior to the [...]

By WAV Group|2017-12-27T16:47:54-08:00August 15th, 2013|Clients, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services, Reports, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Revenue Generation Emerges in MLS strategy
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Revenue Generation Emerges in MLS strategy

Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management

Revenue Generation Emerges in MLS strategy

MLSs are for profit entities. They have investors and a board of directors and have a stated goal of providing returns. Normally, the investors in the MLS are the Associations of REALTORS® or brokers that put up the initial funding for the MLS. The MLS was the natural extension of sharing property listings between real estate professionals pre-dating the founding of NAR. When printed listings were replaced by the electronic MLS, the business model, payment per month by members continued. That model still exists today and is in line with how software as a service (SaaS) is typically delivered across [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 14th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management|Comments Off

Top Digital Budgeting Mistakes Brokers Make
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Top Digital Budgeting Mistakes Brokers Make

Main category, Our Company, Our Services, Strategic Planning

Top Digital Budgeting Mistakes Brokers Make

As summer draws to a close and fall sets upon us, it is incumbent upon all businesses to build their budgets for 2014. The old adage rings true, failure to plan is a plan to fail. Too many brokerages in America are guilty of this. Here are a few tips that will improve the planning process in your company. It is a good idea to print this out and provide it to your team as a reminder. Look at data first. Many brokerages fail to take a close look at the effectiveness of digital marketing programs. Dig deeply into your [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 14th, 2013|Main category, Our Company, Our Services, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Improving Second Tier Help Desk Performance

The Help Desk experience has been a cornerstone of innovation in business over the past decade. An enormous amount of investment has been placed on every corner of allowing consumers to help themselves. WAV Group routinely consults with enterprise brokers, MLSs, and large real estate technology companies on streamlining help desk to improve customer service and reduce costs. We have developed a new paradigm around encouraging self-help that you may want to consider. The customer who uses automated self-help tools like product FAQs and video before calling for support is normally the most dissatisfied customer. About the self-helper The self-helper [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Leads are for Losers!
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Leads are for Losers!

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation

Leads are for Losers!

If America’s real estate agents and brokers had to build their business on online leads, they would be out of business. On all accounts, online marketing and lead generation tactics over the past decade have left brokerages with lighter wallets and little to show for it. Recently, the world’s largest real estate organization, REALOGY posted that they had generated 1.56 Million leads over the past 6 months for 239,000 agents. It is not really fair to double that number and annualize it to 3 million per year because November through January is a pathetic lead generation period. Regardless, even at [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|3 Comments

Andy Rapattoni and Rex Marr Celebrate 45 Years in the Real Estate Industry

If the real estate technology industry had an Old Boys club, Andy Rapattoni and Rex Marr would most certainly be founding members. They have each contributed their life's work to the advancement of our industry. WAV Group would hope that you will join us in congratulating these industry pioneers and leaders on the celebration of their 45th year in our industry. Below is the announcement. Rather than clog up their email with congratulations, consider sharing a note on Facebook: Here is a link to their company page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rapattoni-Corporation/374152779313159 SIMI VALLEY, Calif., August 13, 2013 – Rapattoni Corporation (Rapattoni), a leader [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off

FBI Overstates Mortgage Fraud

President Obama's administration released a report from a year long mortgage fraud initiative conducted by the FBI. This probably hits home with many MLS who have been cooperating with FBI investigators who are using MLS data to detect potential fraud. Sadly, the report was found to be way, way out of line, overstating the scope of the problem by significant margin. According to the initial report, the FBI indicated that they had criminally charged 530 people. The restated report indicated that they only charged 107 people. According to he initial report, the FBI indicated that total losses from the fraud [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 12th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off