Main category Archives

CoreLogic Executive Seain Conover provides insight

WAV Group partner Victor Lund interviewed CoreLogic® executive Seain Conover to learn his view of the MLS software business. Mr. Conover founded, and along with his dedicated partner, built up an MLS software development company called Tarasoft®. Last year, Tarasoft® was acquired by CoreLogic®. MatrixTM, Tarasoft’s flagship MLS platform brand continues to be offered globally. Why did you sell Tarasoft® to CoreLogic®? It is always fun to get the conversation started with a challenging question. If you know Seain, you know that he is a fairly reserved person with a kind heart, great work ethic and a big smile. He [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 24th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

REALTOR.Com Shoots across bow of Trulia and Zillow

The industry knows the dirty little secret. Many third party listing websites are full of garbage data. In a major online marketing effort, REALTOR.com is telling this story. Inaccurate listings are not appearing here and there, but more than half the "for sale" listings on many sites populated from syndication are duplicates, already sold, expired, pending, or bank owned homes that are not for sale at all. Bad real estate listing information is bad for the real estate industry. So many of these sites claim to be consumer centric, but they blatantly and knowingly allow data to be fed to their [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 23rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

MLS Innovation from DiscoverMLS and iMapp
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MLS Innovation from DiscoverMLS and iMapp

Main category

MLS Innovation from DiscoverMLS and iMapp

DiscoverMLS, the company in large part responsible for driving significant innovation in the MLS industry, and iMapp, the company that pioneered the concept of advertising inside the MLS system, are at it again. The two companies have paired up and have announced a new initiative that creates an alternative to the traditional model of purchasing an MLS system separate from a Tax system. Whenever we at WAV Group conduct agent and broker research we hear pleas for better ways for MLSs to integrate all of their core tools to make them easier to work with. This initiative answers one of [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 20th, 2012|Main category|1 Comment

MRIS providing aid to Homeless Shelter

I caught this article this morning on the Property Portal Blog. MRIS provides this inspiration to other MLSs around the nation. If there was ever a cause that the MLS and Associations of REALTORS should support - it has got to be helping the homeless. Print this article and bring it to your next board of directors meeting. Get approval to help out your local homeless shelter. Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), one of the largest MLS portals in the US serving the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area including Maryland, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, has announced that it has entered into a title [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 19th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Century 21 touches franchises with 2012 plan

Century 21 is cool. And that is a new thing for a 40-year-old real estate brand. I purchased my primary home from a Century 21 agent because of the agent, not because of the brand. However, in the past few years, Century 21 started looking cool. Being a cynic and a skeptic, I did not really believe that they were cool. Sotheby’s is luxury, Coldwell Banker is business, BH&G is lifestyle, ERA is old school, and Century 21 is Middle America. None of those brands are cool. That changed for me today. WAV Group works with lots of brokers. They [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 12th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|1 Comment

Where have all of the leads from MLS Consumer Websites gone?
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Where have all of the leads from MLS Consumer Websites gone?

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Reports

Where have all of the leads from MLS Consumer Websites gone?

Every time we conduct a survey with agents they tell us how little they know about the number of leads or listing exposure they are receiving from their MLS Consumer Websites. Some agents know the sites exist-some don’t even know that much. It is pretty much universal that agents are not getting regular reports telling them how valuable their MLS consumer website is to their business. When asked how interested they would be in getting a lead generation report from their MLS, there is pretty much unanimous interest in receiving this valuable information. In the most recent Member Customer Satisfaction [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 9th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Reports|4 Comments

Set your plans now for CMLS

This year, the most exciting and fulfilling conference will again be the CMLS by the Council of MLS. It is a conference like no other, dedicated fully to excellence in providing Multiple Listing Services to real estate professionals. This year, the CMLS conference will be in one of America’s greatest cities – Boston! Our hostess for the event will be Kathy Condon and her team at MLS Property Information Network or MLSPIN. Men have hosted the conference the past couple of years and done a respectable job, but we all know that women rock in organizational skills. Thanks to Kathy, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 8th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

WAV Group Partner Mike Audet to Speak at Michigan Association of REALTORS® Broker Summit

The real estate industry is going through a number of significant “shifts” today that will change the way our industry operates in the future. These shifts are the result of natural pressures building up. The pressure occurs slowly over time but when it reaches a critical point change has to happen and we believe we are seeing this on a number of fronts in our industry today. Mike Audet, founding partner of WAV Group, will be the keynote speaker at the Michigan Association of REALTORS® "Broker Summit" event being held in Detroit, Michigan on April 25th. Mike will talk about these key [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 6th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

MLS Wins Mobile, or Fails the Agent

If you have been to a real estate conference in the past three years, you may have heard a session about mobile technology. Those strange phones that every person in America carries with them everywhere they go is also a computer. Only a few hundred million people know this secret today. MOBILE IS A CORE MLS SERVICE Sorry for shouting and pardon my sarcasm. Today’s MLS providers are failing to support agents (and consumers) with a mobile solution. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. We have surveyed agents everywhere in America, and at best, MLSs get a [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 6th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Does the Conflicted and Cynical Consumer even need an agent anymore?
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Does the Conflicted and Cynical Consumer even need an agent anymore?

Main category, MLS Insights

Does the Conflicted and Cynical Consumer even need an agent anymore?

I had a fascinating conversation with a friend of mine who was describing her hellacious experience purchasing and ultimately foreclosing on a home. Since we, at WAV Group, solidly believe that we do not listen to consumers enough, I thought it would be fun to share her story, word for word, uncut, to help all of us understand what, at least one consumer, is thinking these days. Sobering words….I hope it inspires every one who reads this to think about ways we can “make it up” to those consumers that we let down… Enjoy….. I don’t know a lot about [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 4th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Award-winning Joomla web site featured by Apple in the new iPad campaign

As you may know, RE Technology is built on an open source content management solution called Joomla. Joomla competes with WordPress and Drupal in this category. Choosing a platform is never an easy task and I am sure that a debate among strong willed patriots from each of the open source camps would end in a draw. You can pick any one of them and have great success. Today, RE Technology has been averaging about 1.7 Million visits a month and we have not had any down time! That is awesome performance, especially contrasted against this site, which is built [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 3rd, 2012|Main category, Marketing|1 Comment

AFIRE’s 2012 Conference Heats Up – Marilyn Wilson to speak

We know you’ve been to your share of boring real estate conferences, filled with lackluster speakers tackling the same topics you’ve heard a dozen times before. Breakout sessions, if available, offer the same-old, same-old. That’s not what AFIRE is all about. We’re just 9 weeks from the opening of our AFIRE conference, Courageous Leadership, in Scottsdale, Arizona...and we can’t wait! As a member of the AFIRE Advisory Board, I can't wait to share all of the exciting news about this year's event! AFIRE is a dynamic event created by women who are leaders in our industry. It's been created for [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:07-07:00April 2nd, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off