Brokers Welcome

When I was a young kid traveling in the car with my family, I would always see these signs “Truckers Welcome”. I didn’t understand why there was this special invitation to truckers. Wouldn’t everyone be welcome? As I grew older, I quickly realized the sign was to inform truckers there was ample parking space for their large rigs. Truckers had a big use case! As a trucker, if I wanted to visit a diner for a nice sit-down warm meal, I must have space large enough to safely park my rig. Diners caught on fast to this requirement and realized they could enjoy the revenue by creating a space for them to park. Once the parking problem was solved, they needed a method to entice truckers to use their parking and stop for a meal. Therefore, the signs!

By |2018-05-14T06:00:05-07:00May 14th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information, RESO|0 Comments

Florida Realtors Tech Helpline: Sleeper Success Story

It’s real estate tech’s best sleeper story of super success. Tech Helpline, created and owned by Florida Realtors, is the real estate industry’s number one tech support service. By a county mile. I will bet you can’t even name who is ranked number two. Or three, or four, or any of their direct competitors for that matter. I can’t, and I am a consultant for them. Where else in real estate tech or proptech can you make that claim?  Where does a real estate related tech firm dominates a category so profoundly? Tech Helpline is currently available to nearly half [...]

MLS Terms of Use Changes and Copyright FAQ

This post is the result of a collaborative effort amongst the Council of Multiple Listing Services, The Realty Alliance, The National Association of REALTORS®, and Larson Skinner PLLC.  Many MLSs have been making changes to the way they file copyright applications and their MLS terms of use. Those changes have raised some questions from participants and subscribers. This FAQ is intended to answer some of those questions and emphasize that the MLSs are not forcing participants or subscribers to give up ownership of listing content.

By |2018-03-27T06:00:37-07:00March 27th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments

Keller Williams Betting $1 Billion on Voice

Keller Williams had another great family reunion, their annual convention in Anaheim drew more than 17,000. Perhaps the most remarkable information conveyed is that they have hit a lot of their ambitious targets for growth, and are now re-targeting to leverage data and technology as their next conquest. According to Teresa Metcalf, their big bet is on the underlying framework and Platform – and the AI component is on top of that.

By |2018-03-20T05:00:03-07:00March 20th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments

Brand Refresh Creates Big Opportunities

I will always vividly remember riding to a meeting with a large broker in Marin County, California back in 2002ish. We were discussing the brutal competition among brokers in Marin County. At the time, Keller Williams did not have much of a presence in San Francisco or Marin. I was wondering why Keller Williams had failed to grow as they have in other markets. Moreover, Century 21 was conspicuously missing from the market altogether. Coldwell Banker was huge, along with Pacific Union. A bunch of independent brands like Frank Howard Allen and Melissa Bradley Real Estate were performing well in upper Marin. Decker Bullock held their own with the large firms in Southern Marin.

By |2018-03-05T10:45:29-08:00March 5th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|0 Comments

Why do so Many Brokers Think TECHNOLOGY is the Way to WIN?

It seems like every week we’re hearing about a new announcement from a large brokerage or franchise telling us they are spending millions on technology and re-positioning their brand story around their technology suite.

New Thinking Can Create a MUCH Stronger Board

You’re sitting in your board room thinking through a tough decision that needs to be made.  Many of the board members are passionate, engaged real estate professionals who have lived in the local area for their entire careers. 

By |2018-02-28T09:33:24-08:00February 28th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information, Press Releases|0 Comments

Upstream Fixes Many Problems, Not Just One

As a leading consulting firm, WAV Group operates deeply inside the complex technology stacks of MLSs, Brokerages, Franchises, REALTOR® Associations, and technology firms. From this experience, we recognize the pain that these groups face because of the lack of connection between the systems and applications that agents and consumers need. Upstream aims to deliver a better data management foundation for the data that brokers are entrusted for safe handling.

By |2020-01-27T15:05:03-08:00February 27th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|7 Comments

myPlanit Receives First Ever 5-Star Product Rating from Inman

WAV GROUP has gotten acquainted with myPlanit and it's CEO Adrienne Meisels. Adrienne is a fantastic person who is super smart and developing a very creative application that lets agents look at a map to see the places they have gone (like listing appointments, open houses, etc) and visualize their journey on a timeline. It's a lot more than that, but you can appreciate how this example would benefit an agent. Adrienne uses the term The Internet of You. myPlanit does the work for you by privately and securely tracking the things that you do, for you. Inman News gave [...]

HUNT Real Estate Buys Large Boston Brokerage

Another member of The Realty Alliance is kicking up activity on the acquisition trail. As Real Trends CEO Steve Murray has spotted, large firms are getting larger. HUNT Real Estate, the second largest ERA franchise in the world has expanded from the Upstate New York market into the Boston, MA market by acquiring ERA Key Realty. WAV Group congratulates the Hunt family and the Taylor family for opening another major demographic market area. I would expect that HUNT Mortgage and other affiliated companies in commercial, property management, insurance, and title will get added to the Boston market area. HUNT will [...]

eXp Realty Named a Best Place to Work in Glassdoor’s 2018 Employees’ Choice Awards

I just love to see great companies in our industry get recognized BEYOND the real estate industry for their hard work and dedication to building a strong corporate culture.  eXp REALTY’s growth over the past year has been unprecedented, They have grown from 1000 agents to over 5000 agents in less than 18 months.   Revenue growth, according to their Q3 earnings report was up. Revenue increased 203% to a record $48.1 million from $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2016. This represents 22% growth quarter-over-quarter, from $39.6 million in the second quarter of 2017. Gross margin grew 96% year-over-year for [...]

By |2017-12-06T14:15:58-08:00December 6th, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, Marketing|0 Comments

Redfin Offers Method To Modernize IDX

“Let’s modernize IDX by linking to the listing broker!” IDX or Internet Data Exchange is a thesis that was developed by the collaboration between Brokers and MLSs that outlines a set of display rules for listings on broker websites. The idea behind IDX is that of cooperation among brokers. Fundamentally, the IDX policy states that a broker allows all other brokers participating in an MLS to display their listings on any broker (and usually Agent) website. Over the years, the IDX policy has evolved. And today, Redfin CEO, Glenn Kelman suggests a radical new change. Kelman would like the IDX [...]