MLS Insights Archives

IRES MLS “Lightens Up”

Lauren Hansen, CEO of IRES MLS in Colorado would agree with Charlie Chaplin when he said, "A day without laughter is a day wasted," for she and her team came up with some great ideas to "lighten up" their MLS website. Imagine this: You are an IRES MLS customer, and you hurriedly type in your username-incorrectly. Instead of receiving the usual boring error message "Username or Password Invalid", you get a different message; it reads: "Going incognito today? We aren't sure who you are!" "When I type in my password too quickly and I get the 'are you going incognito?' [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:57-07:00June 11th, 2012|Clients, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Attention Real Estate Professionals

WAV Group Webinar: Midyear Update Staying in touch with critical industry issues is essential for today’s real estate leaders whether they are managing an MLS or running their own real estate company and it isn’t easy. To help you better understand these key issues essential to your organizations, WAV Group founding partners and industry experts Marilyn Wilson, Mike Audet and Victor Lund will be sharing valuable on-the-spot insights gained while attending the annual Midyear NAR Conference held in Washington D.C. from May 15th – 19th, 2012 via two webinars on June 5th & June 7th, 2012 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:59-07:00June 4th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs
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New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services

New, simple way to keep your Board of Directors up to date on key issues facing MLSs

When we facilitate strategic plans for MLSs across the country, we often hear that board members would like their MLS to do a better job of keeping them up to speed on the key issues facing MLSs today. With today’s budget crunches it is virtually impossible to send all of a MLSs leadership to conferences and workshops. We thought that maybe there’s a way for WAV Group to bring the conference to MLS boards so that each board member can stay up to speed without having to spend the time and money attending conferences all over the country. That’s why [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:59-07:00June 1st, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services|Comments Off

Marketlinx launches Mobile with Search and Edit

Somehow, we missed a memo. With very little fanfare or promotion, Marketlinx has launched their mobile solution and it claims to do most of the things that WAV Group claimed many MLS apps fell short on. We have had a lot of debates about MLS mobile applications. Some of us believe that it should be a fully featured MLS experience - allowing users to do any task on mobile that they could do on a desk top. Critics of this belief claim that adding a listing on mobile is absurd. I would concede that for now. But all pundits agree [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:00-07:00May 24th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments

NAR Honors David Charron as Top Industry Leader

Charron is a 2012 Inductee to the National Association of REALTORS® Dr. Almon R. (Bud) Smith, AE Leadership Society Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS) today announced that its President and CEO David Charron has been named to the National Association of REALTORS® Dr. Almon R. (Bud) Smith, RCE, AE Leadership Society (Smith Society) - one of the real estate industry’s most coveted awards for excellence in industry and professional leadership. Charron, along with the other 2012 winners, will be awarded the honor today at the NAR Midyear Conference in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the Smith Society is to recognize those [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-08-20T07:19:04-07:00May 22nd, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|Comments Off

Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?
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Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation

Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the idea of App Stores in the real estate technology industry and it has raised a number of questions that I want to put out there to inspire a conversation with the industry. Let me say right up front that I am not neutral in this discussion, as I am one of the founders of RE Technology which has, as an option, the ability to create an eCommerce store which is different, but related to, an App store. My partner Victor did a great job of discussing the differences in his [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 16th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation|3 Comments

Mobile MLS

(This article ran previously in the WAV Group Newsletter released on Friday. We received feedback that despite our rant, some MLS iPad apps are quote good. If you would like to nominate an iPad app that is great, leave a comment below. It should, at a minimum, offer add/edit capabilities - adding photos would be a home run) Some MLS providers and Associations have heard just about enough excuses when it comes to mobile. Vendors have been dragging their feet on supporting full mobile MLS, and it is a real problem. Only one MLS vendor with more than a dozen customers [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 15th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

A Case of Concern Embedded Search and Display

IDX for Facebook There is some degree of discussion about the notion that the IDX rules may be expanded to support Embedded Search and Display on websites or displays not under the apparent control of the broker. I believe that this is too risky, too hard to control, and beyond the bounds of IDX as currently discussed. New thinking is needed and proposed herein. The foundation of new thinking is that MLSs may approve certain websites for embeddable display as a matter of local rule. Embedded Search and Display Defined Many real estate technology thinkers have discussed the [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 14th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments

Rapattoni and iHomefinder Partner on VCCAOR Website

Rapattoni has long offered Association websites and MLS consumer property search solutions in the markets that they serve. I believe Rapattoni may have been among the pioneering MLS vendors at offering such a solution. Having said that, there has been little attention paid toward innovating the search component of that platform. In the deployment of the new website, Rapattoni and iHomefinder collaborated to deliver an elegant solution. This week, the California based Ventura County Coastal Association of REALTORS (VCCAOR) debuted their new website powered by iHomefinder. Board President Cindy Diaz-Telly spoke with the WAV Group about the site. According to [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:02-07:00May 14th, 2012|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off

MLSs and the Marketing Center
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MLSs and the Marketing Center

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights

MLSs and the Marketing Center

MLSs have long been a marketing center in some small way. Agents working with buyers and sellers create reports that are organized to provide listing information to clients. The reports are very useful, but aside from the ability to insert a broker logo, agent photo, and contact information, the design of these reports often falls short of achieving the goal of a well-branded and unique marketing piece. Some MLSs have begun to partner with providers to enhance or augment this MLS system functionality, and offer marketing systems that have full feature functionality. MRIS, Metrolist Colorado, MLSListings, MLSLI, and a handful [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:02-07:00May 14th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off

PWR Launches 10K Reports

The Minneapolis Association of REALTORS developed a company called 10K a few years ago. The mission of the company is to offer REALTORS outstanding market analytic reports. They have been canvasing the country offering the product through MLSs and REALTOR Associations. Pacific West Association of REALTORS (PWR) is a large and recent new customer for 10K. WAV Group had a Q&A session with Lalaine Castillo, PWR VP Marketing and Communications to understand the strategy behind their vendor selection. Question:What differentiated 10K from other stats vendors? Answer:10k understands the business of REALTOR associations and our members, having deployed similar solutions for [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:02-07:00May 13th, 2012|How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|Comments Off

Syndicator Trademarks MLS Brand

Point2 announced the granting of a US Trademark for "MLS Certified™". This comes at a rather interesting time. The Council of MLS is in the midst of doing some branding of its own, but has not announced or launched the program yet. It is on the agenda for the meetings next week in Washington DC. At the last Council of MLS meeting on this topic last year, there were numerous ideas discussed about branding MLS data. Homes.com offered their ideas, Point2 offered theirs, and Trulia offered theirs. They were all very interesting, but none captured the enthusiasm of the CMLS members. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:02-07:00May 11th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off