Data Only Brokers

There are lots of brokers who subscribe to MLS services. They are called participants, and as participants they are provided data rights beyond agents, and way beyond vendors or third parties. Moreover, participants are the nucleus of reciprocal offers of compensation, an agreement that if one broker represents a willing buyer and the other broker represents a willing seller, they will share compensation. There is a new brokerage model that has entered the MLS sphere, and I am not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I will call this type of brokerage a "Data Only Broker" or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 20th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|9 Comments
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CMLS brainstorms new approach for MLS Rules

The CMLS meetings (Council of MLS) were held on Wednesday, November 7th. There were numerous presentations but one in particular seemed to engage the Nation's leading MLS executives in attendance - ReThink MLS. The question before the panel was "What If We Started from Scratch?" As we all know, MLS rules (including Broker Reciprocity) provides structure for how brokers and agents will behave when sharing listings with one another: Two problems have arisen since these rules were first crafted more than a dozen years ago. The MLS rules have become cumbersome in length and somewhat unwieldy to manage and enforce. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 12th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|1 Comment
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Listhub expands publisher filtering

With listing syndication expanding to 50 or more websites, brokers are challenged to keep up with the features, policies, and display rules of each site. In an effort to help brokers understand the differences between publisher websites, Listhub provides a broker dashboard that spells out the differences and enables brokerages to filter out websites that the broker does not like. Listhub expanded their filtering based upon feedback that they received from their customers including MLSs, Brokers, and Franchise Organizations. The new features are: Refreshes Daily: The publisher posts new or updated listing information at least once a day. No For Sale By [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 8th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on Listhub expands publisher filtering
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Attention Brokers – Learn how to take back the web from third parties!

While brokers have lots of technology tools at their fingertips today, a high impact website is still a critical tool driving success for any size real estate company.  Third parties continue to gain traction and traffic with consumers because they know what consumers are looking for and they deliver on their needs consistently!  If brokers want to become THE source for real estate consumers, they need to find ways to enhance and re-invent their own web presence. Brokers also need to learn about how to use their online presence to nurture new customer relationships for their agents. RED and RE [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 1st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category|Comments Off on Attention Brokers – Learn how to take back the web from third parties!
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Your Real Estate Website is Illegal

It is November, that time of year when you need to schedule the update on your copyright to © 2013 before January 1st. But there is more that you should be considering, a revision to the way that you handle the terms of use. Most real estate websites place their terms of use conspicuously down deep in the footer of their website, along with their privacy policy. This is the way that it has been done for years. However, a court case involving Amazon.com subsidiary, Zappos just changed all of that. In the Zappos case, 24 million consumer email addresses [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00November 1st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|3 Comments
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Point2 encourages publishers to play nice

Yardi subsidiary, Point2 is changing its data distribution policies to align with what it believes to be the interests of MLSs, Associations, Brokers and agents in the US, similar to what it has introduced in Canada with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Since Yardi purchased Point2, they have renewed determination to protect the data rights of agents, brokers, and their partner Associations of REALTORS(r) and MLS. In the past, the default distribution setting for Point2 has been broker-opt out rather than broker opt-in.  WAV Group has never been in favor of Broker Opt-out programs. Broker opt-out means that unless notified [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00October 31st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment
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How MLSs and MLS vendors are failing brokers

Let me begin by saying that the remarks that follow do not apply to all MLSs. There are many that do an excellent job at servicing the data needs of brokers. The focus of this article is to talk about some of the common failures seen by WAV Group consultants trying to help brokers fix complex data problems. There is a fundamental understanding of the MLS which has been lost. Although MLS systems provide excellent services through the MLS software, many are failing at providing data services to the brokers and agents to power the many applications that live outside [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00October 31st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on How MLSs and MLS vendors are failing brokers
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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Today, a new brand was born - Berskshire Hathaway Real Estate. Brookfield, Real Living and Prudential have combined forces with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices to create our industry’s newest national brand. This seems to be the first time the Berkshire Hathaway brand will be used in a consumer facing industry. I am pretty sure that this network of brokerages has a significant market share in every metropolitan city in America. Why this is important: Some of the Prudential Franchises were a little disturbed when they learned about the Sunset of the Prudential Real Estate brand - they are smiling ear to ear now. Moreover, some of the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:48-07:00October 30th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases|2 Comments
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Zillow brings 1.2M listings out of the shadow

Since the housing market crash, there has been lots of discussion about shadow inventory. These are properties that are in bank foreclosure or pre-foreclosure that are making their way onto the market. Up until now, this inventory has been slowly released - perhaps strategically by banks who want to contain loss exposure - but more likely as a result of the slow process for foreclosure across America. The only thing slower than a bank's decision making process is the US Court system. Last week, Zillow - one of the three leading search portals in America began to display 1.2Million listings. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 29th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|3 Comments
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Black Sand Labs Launches MLS License Compliance Tool

Like all MLSes, Hawaii Information Service takes data licenses seriously. Aside from the natural investigation of reported violations, they wanted to find a way to crawl the Internet to find additional abuses of their data license agreements. After an unproductive effort to find a commercial solution to meet their needs, Hawaii Information Systems partnered with Falcon Technologies to build one. Now, the two cooperating companies formed a new startup called Black Sand Labs to deliver the service to other MLSs fighting the compliance battle. The new product is called APHIS – which may sound like a crawling insect, but was [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 25th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Black Sand Labs Launches MLS License Compliance Tool
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MLS Listings to host Broker Summit

Broker Symposium: Engaging the New Consumer Techmart Santa Clara  |  November 2, 2012 When:  Friday November 2, 2012 from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM PDT   Where: Techmart Santa Clara 5201 Great America Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95054 Get Driving Directions Add to my calendar   Dear Myra, Please join us Friday, November 2 for a series of panel discussions centered on the new consumer, featuring local real estate media, top producing brokers and leading industry best practices consultants and of course, the target market itself. Event emcee: Robert Bailey, Bailey Properties 2012 Chairman, MLSListings Inc Hear directly from buyers [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 22nd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off on MLS Listings to host Broker Summit
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How A Top Agent Views Technology

Justin Havre is a real estate agent in Calgary Alberta working at CIR Realty.  CIR is the largest independent firm in Canada with about 650 agents.  With his team, Justin Havre & Associates, he has been number one or two in his Brokerage over the last three years.  To put it in perspective, in 2011 they were number 1 and closed 171 sides with an average price in Calgary of about $430,000.  I sat down with Justin recently at a Technology Conference put on by his web technology provider, Real Estate Webmasters, to find out how technology fits into his [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 22nd, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on How A Top Agent Views Technology
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