Technology Evaluation Archives

Pilgrims vs. Portals

History tells many stories of long ago that reflect on the conditions of today. I came across a story about the Pilgrims that made me think that in some way, it is similar to the real estate industry and portals. In 1630, a Pilgrim court dealt a nasty blow to one of its settlers. They ordered him to be incarcerated, burned his house, confiscated all of his goods, then ultimately exiled him from America. The Pilgrim’s name was Thomas Morton, and they said that he was a danger to society. Morton went to England and pleaded with the English court, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:27-07:00September 20th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Technology Evaluation|7 Comments

It’s Time to Re-invent the Search

There’s a fundamental problem in the real estate business today. Since time immemorial real estate ‘searches’ have utilized a property-centric approach that ignores the other 50 percent of the business: the buyers. In the real estate industry, we focus so much on displaying listings hoping to attract a buyer without spending nearly enough time and resources to analyze and understand the market segment that are the drivers of the purchase. This is also symptomatic of the industry’s fundamental focus on the needs of agents, not consumers. Doesn’t it make more sense to focus on the needs of the consumer? The [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:27-07:00September 10th, 2013|MLS Insights, Reports, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

Last Call For WAV Group 2013 MLS Technology Survey

If you haven’t already signed up this is your last chance to have your MLS participate in the WAV Group 2013 MLS Technology Survey. Last year we had 75 MLSs participate with over 15,000 agents and staff taking part. This year we expect to have even more participate. Three Free Reports For Participating National Roll-up Report Every MLS that participates will receive the national roll up report, which provides a summary of the overall findings for all of the vendors reviewed. This will include comparisons to results in 2012, what users and staff like most about each system as well [...]

By WAV Group|2018-05-03T21:24:27-07:00September 10th, 2013|Main category, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation|1 Comment

FIND Offers Unique Reciprocal Data Sharing.

Before REALTORS® Property Resource (RPR) was conceived, the National Association of REALTORS® was working with their realtor.com partner, Move, Inc. to develop a library of information on every property in America. NAR selected another vendor and developed what we know as RPR today. MOVE took their prototype and developed a free product called FINDSM. FIND is proprietary software for MLSs that provides property centric data on more than 100 million real estate parcels in the United States, and offers agents and brokers access to timely, accurate and reliable listing information across MLS boundaries. Available as a link or a toolbar [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:28-07:00September 10th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

RE Technology Top 5 Articles of The Week

Each week, RE Technology publishes the top 5 most read articles. These articles may be republished by MLSs and Associations in newsletters or blogs for free. If you are not offering RE Technology as a member benefit, join more than 82 MLSs currently offering the service. There is never any charge. 8 Reasons You're Not Generating Real Estate Leads Through Social Media When using social media, there are so many pitfalls you can potentially befall an agent trying to generate leads for themselves online. In many cases, you see agents making the same mistakes online, then throwing their hands [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:28-07:00September 5th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Product Overview of BombBomb for Real Estate VMail

BombBomb is a video mail program. You can record yourself talking on your computer or mobile device and send that recording as an email. It is a streaming email, so you are not sending a large file. Beyond vMail, BombBomb allows you to vLog or video blog. You can publish the recordings you make in newsletters, on your blog, website, or social media page. Suffice it to say, once the video is created, you can ship it anywhere. Using BombBomb for the first time was quick and easy. I entered a little bit of profile information and was off creating [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:28-07:00August 28th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation|8 Comments

RE Technology Top 5 Articles of The Week

Each week, RE Technology publishes the top 5 most read articles. These articles may be republished by MLSs and Associations in newsletters or blogs for free. If you are not offering RE Technology as a member benefit, join more than 82 MLSs currently offering the service. There is never any charge. The top article of the week was submitted to RE Technology from listing syndication service provider Listhub, a product of MOVE, Inc. Agents Need To Leverage Marketing Remarks In The MLS More Effectively Since the information you enter in the MLS is the source of the marketing content that is [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:29-07:00August 24th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Call for MLS Technology Survey Participants

WAV Group will be fielding the third annual WAV Group MLS Technology survey in September. We are inviting all MLSs to take part. This is a free, non-sponsored survey we provide for the benefit of the industry. The more participation we have the more valuable the data will be for everyone. There is no cost to participate. Each participating MLS will in turn receive three reports: National Results for all MLSs Your Vendor Specific Results (i.e., All results from users of MLXchange); Your MLS Member results in a system generated report Your MLS will receive the reports prior to the [...]

By WAV Group|2017-12-27T16:47:54-08:00August 15th, 2013|Clients, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company, Our Services, Reports, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Improving Second Tier Help Desk Performance

The Help Desk experience has been a cornerstone of innovation in business over the past decade. An enormous amount of investment has been placed on every corner of allowing consumers to help themselves. WAV Group routinely consults with enterprise brokers, MLSs, and large real estate technology companies on streamlining help desk to improve customer service and reduce costs. We have developed a new paradigm around encouraging self-help that you may want to consider. The customer who uses automated self-help tools like product FAQs and video before calling for support is normally the most dissatisfied customer. About the self-helper The self-helper [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Leads are for Losers!
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Leads are for Losers!

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation

Leads are for Losers!

If America’s real estate agents and brokers had to build their business on online leads, they would be out of business. On all accounts, online marketing and lead generation tactics over the past decade have left brokerages with lighter wallets and little to show for it. Recently, the world’s largest real estate organization, REALOGY posted that they had generated 1.56 Million leads over the past 6 months for 239,000 agents. It is not really fair to double that number and annualize it to 3 million per year because November through January is a pathetic lead generation period. Regardless, even at [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Technology Evaluation|3 Comments

Not All eSignature Platforms are Created Equal Webinar

Are your electronically signed documents compliant with the laws governing electronic signatures? If you’re not sure, you MUST attend this webinar. While using eSignatures comes with many benefits such as saving the time, money and hassle of driving around town to obtain a signature it also requires that agents, brokers and MLSs be thoughtful about their choice of providers. In this webinar, you will hear from eSignature providers DocuSign and Authentisign, along with Russ Bergeron of MRED, on best practices, what you need to know and how important it is to do your homework. Not all eSignature solutions are the [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00August 5th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Company, Our Services, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

1 plus 1 Equals Video

Doing research like our 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study (BWES) helps WAV Group identify and measure a multitude of strategies that brokers may deploy to improve their online performance. One key trend today that is working very well is video. I am not sure how long video will help brokers gain an edge, but today it works. Some of the facts we gathered in the BWES included that Google is the #1 search engine by a significant margin, capturing 75% of all search traffic (see image) If you combine the predominance Google with an understanding of how search results [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00August 1st, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off