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Google launches real estate search portal

Google has expanded their search strategy by adding in a new search option: Real Estate. As you may recall, Google first launched their property search solution by placing a quick search bar above the search results for key words like 'san francisco real estate.' That search functionality was always demarked with the term 'beta' and now seems to have gone away. We suspect that it may have deminished advertising revenues. Here is a video demonstrating Google's new strategy. Map based search and natural language search seem to be providing better results than typical form based searches - something to keep [...]

By WAV Group|2009-08-10T16:42:11-07:00August 10th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

California Association of REALTORS launches Mobile Products Company

At noon today, Real Estate Business Solutions (REBS) announced a partnership with Seek Mobile to form a new company called Real Estate Mobile Technologies. The new company will develop consumer and REALTOR mobile applications. REBS, a subsidary of the California Association of REALTORS will be the majority shareholder of the new corporation, and the current applications like MyCAR will be rolled into the new company according to CEO, Alan Arora.

By WAV Group|2009-08-04T16:37:54-07:00August 4th, 2009|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

WAV Group Releases Edutizing for Real Estate White Paper
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WAV Group Releases Edutizing for Real Estate White Paper

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights

WAV Group Releases Edutizing for Real Estate White Paper

The Advertising Age has Ended, the Edutizing Era has Begun Consumers simply do not want to be “sold” anymore. They have become cynical about advertising claims and “its all about me” advertising. They dont want to hear an agents claims of greatness. They want to understand what you can do for them. They want to know that your claims are backed up by legitimate experience and insights you can bring to them. They want you to prove why you are the best agent or broker for them. Simply making promises of greatness is not enough to attract consumers anymore. Customers [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 24th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

ChaCha close to “cracking” mobile voice search

As reported on MobileMarketer, MSearchGroove recently evaluated three mobile voice search tools for the iPhone- Google, Yahoo and ChaCha. The researchers from MSearchGroove evaluated the overall performance of the voice-enabled mobile services from ChaCha, Google and Vlingo for iPhone with Yahoo by asking a series of 18 queries from six typical mobile search categories such as navigation, direction, local information, general information, social and long-tail. In the category of queries asked as questions, ChaCha accurately interpreted 94.4 percent of the tests and delivered accurate search results in 88.9 percent of cases. Google’s results on the other hand were pretty dismal. On the other hand, Googles voice [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 23rd, 2009|Main category|Comments Off

Don’t forget about Video when you are edutizing

I have been writing a lot about edutizing lately and have been offering several methods for attracting new customers with educational pieces containing relevant, timely information consumers are interested in. We talk a lot about how it is very important to share local market statistics to consumers to help them understand the ins and outs of the marketplace. Importantly, by sharing this imformation agents and real estate associations can reinforce their position as local experts. […]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 22nd, 2009|Main category|Comments Off

MyCAR iPhone application goes live – Another great example of Edutizing
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MyCAR iPhone application goes live – Another great example of Edutizing

Main category

MyCAR iPhone application goes live – Another great example of Edutizing

A few weeks ago we announced the launch of the MyC.A.R. application from the California Association of REALTORS. Today the application went live in the iPhone App Store. The MyC.A.R. is another great example of how agents can use Edutizing to position themselves as experts. The application allows an agent to share monthly market statistics for 21 regions in California along with current loan information and highlights from C.A.R.’s “Market Matters” newsletter. it is a great “cocktail party” tool to answer the question that inevitably gets asked - How’s the Real Estate market doing? It is a great mobile lead capture [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 21st, 2009|Main category|Comments Off

Morgan Lane Marin to acquire Pacific Union Real Estate

Bucking the odds in a highly volatile, recession-stymied real estate market, Morgan Lane Marin has grown meteorically, from just $52 million in sales in 2006 to $315 million in 2008. Combined, the two entities will have 17 offices, more than 430 real estate professionals and 2009 sales volume projected to be $2.2 billion, according to Mark A. McLaughlin, CEO of Morgan Lane. The goal of the combined operations is to become the Bay Areas leading luxury real estate brand an objective McLaughlin said will be achieved by retaining and recruiting the industrys top-producing professionals and leveraging resources and international marketing [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 20th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off

ESPN wins where real estate portals fail

There was significant debate about the concept of Localism in Real Estate on the heals of our whitepaper on the topic. The paper pointed out that a web strategy that links together hyperlocal websites with a central hub site will draw more traffic than a mega-portal. Not content with being a sports colossus with broadcasts in 200 countries, ESPN is taking aim at hometown sports coverage, threatening one of the last strongholds of local newspapers and television stations. And it is working! After a promising test run in Chicago, ESPN is adding local offshoots to three more cities. On Monday, ESPN, which [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:23-07:00July 20th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Google Voice for Real Estate

Reprint:Updates to Google Voice By DAVID POGUE It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Google Voice. To refresh your memory, I quote myself: “Google Voice began life in 2005 as something called GrandCentral. It was intended to solve the headaches of having more than one phone number (home, work, cellphone and so on). GrandCentral’s grand solution was to offer you a new, single, unified phone number, in an area code of your choice. Whenever somebody dialed your new uni-number, all of your phones rang at once. (perfect for real estate agents) Continue reading… “No longer did people have [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:24-07:00July 17th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Real Estate Magazines are a leader in print advertising

At the beginning of each quarter, I sit down with our Broker clients and review the advertising plan and media slotting. In our last meeting, there was plenty of discussion about newspaper advertising given our posts like Newspapers are like Nursinghomes, and Will the Last Newspaper please shut off the lights. It is pretty well known that we do not believe that the current rates newspapers charge for advertising represent a good return on Broker advertising dollars. Agents may need to advertise in the newspaper strategically to meet business committments to sellers, but it does very little for Broker Brand Advertising - [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:24-07:00July 15th, 2009|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off

A great example of Balanced, Relevant Edutizing

I ran across a terrific example of edutizing today from Prudential Georgia REALTY. The company offers a series of videos describing the state of the national real estate market, local real estate market, and several other topics. What really impressed about these videos is the tone. They are balanced and honest using a variet of credible third party sources to discuss market trends and future projections. While the videos clearly depict the true state of the real estate market they also leave the viewer with a hopeful perspective on the future of the Atlanta real estate market. The video production [...]

By WAV Group|2009-07-15T16:15:16-07:00July 15th, 2009|Main category|Comments Off

Gaining an Edge with Edutizing

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about moving from Advertising to Edutizing. The whole idea is that consumers are interested in working with agents who clearly demonstrate indepth knowledge of all facets of the real estate industry and the local community. The concept of Edutizing is really taking off around the country. The California Association of REALTORS has put together a 3 hour session to help agents take advantage of this new communications phenomenon. The session called Gaining An Edge with Edutizing will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 pm on August 4th, immediately before the Inman conference. The [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:26:24-07:00July 14th, 2009|Main category|Comments Off