Listing Publishers Are Not Responsible For Your Bad Data

A crazy phone call came my way today from a large third party listing website. It does not matter which one. The person was very concerned that the industry is on a mission to stop brokers and agents from syndicating listings to them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marketing listings is a fundamental obligation that the listing firm delivers as a service to the seller. Certainly online advertising is a component of fulfilling that obligation. WAV Group has been very outspoken about problems with listing syndication. We have done countless studies that measure the percentages of inaccuracies on [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00January 5th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off on Listing Publishers Are Not Responsible For Your Bad Data
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The role of Scent Marketing in Real Estate

What does your brand smell like? Perhaps there is no better time than the holiday season to remember that humans have 5 senses (at least) that are used in interacting with all things in the world. As the smell of Christmas trees and holiday cookies linger in our homes and offices, there can be no argument that smell plays a role in marketing. Home Scenting It is not just folklore. Baking cookies and other scent tactics are effective at open houses. Victorian Homes should smell like baking. Ocean front homes should smell like the ocean. Modern city condos should smell [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00December 27th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on The role of Scent Marketing in Real Estate
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Inman Agent Survey

Inman News is running a survey right now to understand today’s real estate agent. It would be a good idea for you to share this survey with your agents so that you can benefit from the results. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/freeagent The survey collects baseline demographic data and transaction data to understand how age, location, years in the business, certifications and other profiles of an agent predict behavior, success, and excellence in real estate. Are there differences between NAR members and non-members? Are their differences between Franchises and independent brokerages? […]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00December 22nd, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Inman Agent Survey
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Impacts of browser Geolocation technology on real estate

Real Estate brokers invest a lot of time and money into maintaining and sustaining a strong relocation business. Franchise Organizations and broker networks like Leading Real Estate Companies of the World connect brokers across the country. Advances in technology have enabled location aware Internet browsers. This allows technologists to create predictable outcomes on user visits.  If you are a broker in Ohio, and a consumer visits your website from California – you can say “We welcome Californians! Leading websites like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com and Homefinder do this effectively. Why don’t broker websites do the same? Browser auto-detect allows website [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:20-07:00December 13th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Impacts of browser Geolocation technology on real estate
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Mobile Passes Print in Consumer Engagement

WAV Group joined the parade of consults declaring the death of print media in late 2006. Inman News confirmed its death during their conference in San Francisco in 2007 (one of my favorite events of all time). Believe it or not, print actually made a bit of a comeback in 2010. Nevertheless, the Internet is the place that consumers increasingly spend their media time. The new news is that people are actually spending more time on their mobile phones today than they are spending interacting with print media. According to eMarketer,  time spent on mobile devices is now an average [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:20-07:00December 12th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing|2 Comments
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Dot MLS May Face a New Opponent

Dot MLS Domains The United States Senate may be a new challenger to the successful bid by a group of MLSs (MLS Domains Association) to gain approval for a Top Level Internet Domain. A top level internet domain is .com, .net, .org, .XXX, or the curent application for the new .MLS. .MLS promises salvation for many of the ills that torment consumers and real estate brokers online. Notably – it suggests a rule set for displaying listings to consumers in order to qualify to purchase a .MLS domain. By subscribing to the rules of .MLS, publishers provide [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:21-07:00December 4th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Dot MLS May Face a New Opponent
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FSBO Sites Grow as Broker and Franchises Languish

One of the pleasures of working at the WAV Group is the barrage of business questions that we are tasked to answer on a regular basis. Often, the questions challenge conventional understandings about the effectiveness of strategies in real estate. A key strategy discussion among executives at large broker firms and at large franchise organizations surrounds listing syndication to FSBO websites. Syndication strategies that each firm chooses varies relative to local market competition and consumer behavior. I highlighted that last sentence because it is the most important statement in this blog post. Many brokers and franchises are looking at what appears [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:21-07:00November 30th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, Strategic Planning|1 Comment
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WAV Group 2011 MLS Technology Survey Results

From September 23, 2011 to October 21, 2011 WAV Group fielded the WAV Group 2011 MLS Technology Survey to participating MLSs.  66 MLSs, representing 33 different states and provinces participated in the survey at both staff and user level. 10,779 individual participants filled out the survey completely making it the largest survey of its kind. National survey information serves as a great foundation to show you how your system stacks up with other MLS systems and what users are saying about each of these systems.  Thirteen vendor MLS systems had enough responses to be represented in the survey at both [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 28th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Clients, Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|1 Comment
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Great Vendors Embrace Rules

There has been a lot of conversational concern about companies that enter into new verticals of data management and service offerings. Four such instances were announced this year. REALTORS® Property Resource contracts with LPS for data services and LPS subcontracts to Real Estate Digital. Zillow purchased an IDX vendor, Diverse Solutions. MOVE purchased Threewide, the providers of the popular Listhub syndication service. CoreLogic launched a new appraisal tool leveraging MLS data. In every case, the vendor has been virtuous and adhered to contracts and data use rules. In each of these cases, many feared that data could be misused or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 22nd, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Great Vendors Embrace Rules
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Nielsen credits HAR and Zillow among others

When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness, there is little argument that Nielsen is the leader. Nielsen believes that providing clients with a precise understanding of the consumer is the key to making the right decisions — decisions that can lead to profitable growth. At Nielsen, they are always innovating to keep pace with emerging market trends and the increasingly diverse, demanding and connected consumer. Joining Nielsen is the Houston Association of REALTORS, Zillow, a few dozen brokerages, and about 500 of the more than 1 Million REALTORS in America today. These REALTORS are the bold, the true, the transparant, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00November 7th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Nielsen credits HAR and Zillow among others
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CMLS reviews pending IDX policy changes

I am a big fan of CMLS, the acronym for the Council of MLS. The Council does more than any other organization to support best practices among MLS service providers. Today, CMLS hosted a member webinar that provided a 360-degree overview of the pending IDX rule change, a consideration that will be discussed and submitted to the NAR Board of Directors for approval at the NAR Convention in Anaheim. The suggestions to the NAR Board of directors from the call were simple. Cathy Holefelder of Heartland MLS provided a great summary of the call and suggested this synthesized overview. –       [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00October 31st, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on CMLS reviews pending IDX policy changes
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A New Perspective on Google+

Like so many other geeks, technos, and socialphiles – I jumped on the Google+ bandwagon as soon as it came out. I must confess, I did the same on Linkedin so may years ago. Remember Plaxo? In any case, I was not very impressed Google+ on first glance. I doubt anyone was. My first complaint was that the same people I connect with on Twitter and Facebook were on Google+. Why bother? As a result, I would not even think to look at Google+. Today, am beginning to see the +1 button show up on all of the blogs and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 29th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category|Comments Off on A New Perspective on Google+
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