National Broker Portal Launches Website

The national broker portal project continues to gain momentum as brokers and MLSs agree to participate in the formation of the company to explore the launch of a national MLS consumer facing website with broker governance. Although only a month into the funding period, the group is well on its way to raising the $250,000. After the holiday, the Council of MLSs hosted two online webinars on the topic. The Realty Alliance and The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World also hosted two webinars. This activity was followed by the delivery of information at the CEO Summit as part of [...]

MLS Syndication Rats Nest

Urban Dictionary is a hoot. It is also a helpful way for the father of a pre-teen to understand the contemporary meaning behind the terms used by kids. In this case, I refer to Urban Dictionary for their crowd-sourced definition of Rats Nest “Commonly used in the technol- ogy sector to refer to a software design or implementation that is hopelessly convoluted and difficult to understand....” Listing Syndication is a Rats Nest and it is about to get worse as firms like Zillow defect from Listhub-Point2. With Zillow pulling out, MLSs will need to offer different services or parallel services [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:50-07:00January 21st, 2015|Main category|2 Comments

MLS or Broker Technology Site License

Last year, WAV Group spent a lot of time measuring the effectiveness of MLS and Broker technology services with our clients. Our process typically includes one or all of the standard practices for measuring product adoption and satisfaction: surveys, focus groups, competitive analysis, adoption rate curves, true cost analysis, etc. The truth is, very few. . . Download full report MLS or Broker Tech Site License

By |2018-05-03T21:23:51-07:00January 21st, 2015|Main category|2 Comments

Are your services REALLY up to par?

Every company believes they offer the best to their customers. It’s the same way I believe my son is the best on his baseball team. When you spend so much time building something, working for something, you have to believe in it. But you need to take care not to let your passion cloud your objectivity. Of course I think my son is amazing, but I know he needs to practice, follow the coach’s suggestions, and we need to track his progress. How does your company know that your services really are meeting or exceeding customer expectations? With the ever-changing [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:51-07:00January 21st, 2015|Main category|Comments Off on Are your services REALLY up to par?

Bad Customer Service can WIPE OUT a LOT of goodwill away in minutes!

Every company SAYS they have good customer service, but we all know the truth – many companies believe they are customer-centric, but when it comes right down to it, they don't always live up to the promise. I am going to use my brand relationship with my most frequently travelled airline to illustrate this point. With this unnamed airline I have had a really good year. I travelled almost exclusively with them, helping to raise my status level to the point where I travelled more in free upgraded first class seats than not. I was privy to the attention of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:51-07:00January 12th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Bad Customer Service can WIPE OUT a LOT of goodwill away in minutes!

Help us Prioritize the Best Ways for IDX feeds to work Harder for Brokers

I have to tell you that every time I think about the MLS Policy Meeting at this year’s NAR Conference in New Orleans, it puts a big smile on my face.  For the first time that I’ve witnessed, four important, but fundamental changes were made to the IDX policy with absolutely UNIVERSAL acceptance.   Brokers, MLS Executives, Associations and Technology Companies also spoke from one voice about the relevance and importance of the changes that were proposed and approved. Check out my blog post from a few weeks ago to see the details about what was approved at that time.  In [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:52-07:00December 18th, 2014|Main category|Comments Off on Help us Prioritize the Best Ways for IDX feeds to work Harder for Brokers

Using your brand to build relevance for your MLS organization

I can’t tell you the number of times I have asked an agent what MLS they belong to and they tell me “Paragon”, or “Rapattoni” or “Matrix”.   They don’t even know the name of the MLS organization they belong to. How can you build value in your brand if your customers literally do not know even know your name? Some of the best organizations like TheMLS/CLAW have taken the time to create a naming convention.   First of all, check out this amazing list of products and services they offer to their members. Pretty impressive. Next I would like to draw [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:53-07:00December 17th, 2014|Main category|Comments Off on Using your brand to build relevance for your MLS organization

Beverly Faul

November 20,2014 Dear Friends and Partners, Our team is heartbroken to share the news that our colleague and dear friend, Beverly Faull passed away earlier this week after a brave battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. An accomplished real estate industry veteran, Beverly became a member of the Down Payment Resource team in 2009 and recently celebrated her fifth anniversary with the company. We have all admired her professional spirit and tenacity over the years. Beverly believed wholeheartedly in the company’s mission of helping homebuyers access down payment programs. She worked tirelessly to grow DPR to 21 MLSs and Realtor Associations. Prior [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:54-07:00November 20th, 2014|Main category|Comments Off on Beverly Faul

REALTOR(R) Productivity is stronger than expected

The world is looking up in real estate.  Cautious optimism abounds.  So now the real question is…how many REALTORS® are back in the game for real?  How many have captured the hearts of sellers?  How many have sold properties in the past 6 months?   We believe the information that we have just gathered is encouraging. It looks like the wealth is being spread around to more REALTORS® than expected. We thought the numbers would reflect the 80/20 rule – In reality, it looks like the 60/40 rule is running the day. Just under 60% of REALTORS have had a transaction [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:55-07:00November 19th, 2014|Main category|1 Comment

Waves of Change Are Coming…Are you Ready?

We all know that the floor is shifting in the real estate industry. There’s a general discomfort among brokers and Associations that the world as we know it could go away soon. So what can you do to prepare?   Are you staying close to the new players entering the real estate space? Are you listening closely to what today’s real estate customers are demanding and many times NOT getting from their agent?  Are you proactively talking about the ways that the industry is changing and how it is affecting your local real estate marketplace? Here’s what can happen when an [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:56-07:00October 31st, 2014|Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Our Services, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Waves of Change Are Coming…Are you Ready?

Brokers Out-Marketing Competitors

I attended Luxury Connect last week in Beverly Hills. If you are not familiar with the event, it was expertly delivered by the team from Inman News that is host to the Real Estate Connect conferences held annually in New York City and San Francisco. I don’t think that anyone really appreciates how difficult it is to put on a great event. This group does it with ease and grace even when pitted against seemingly insurmountable challenges. There was so much fanfare about this event, it is speculated that the original property selected for the event was sold! A week [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:56-07:00October 29th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|Comments Off on Brokers Out-Marketing Competitors

MLSListings in the Lead Pack of MLS Adopting Homesnap

Homesnap is approaching the Nation’s leading MLSs with one heck of a value proposition. The company optimizes all of the MLS data for mobile devices and delivers it through an app to agents…..for free. Well, its free for the first year. Homesnap is among a small handful of mobile solution providers that offer agent-only data.  The agents can access the full listing data along with showing instructions, commission splits, agent roster, and other confidential fields. The MLS data is organized and combined with census data, tax data, and geographic boundaries that are important to agents in the field. The solution [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:57-07:00October 16th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights|2 Comments