Great Companies Execute Effectively

Marilyn Wilson's post yesterday set off a storm. The DMV, known for its historically horrid service experience has changed their ways. They do a good job, at least here in San Luis Obsipo, CA. When WAV Group is providing strategic planning support to an MLS, Association, Technology company, or broker - we measure stuff. There is usually a comparison chart created that shows a checklist of features or service offerings that compares company or product A vs. company or product B, C, and D. This is an important exercise and the information drawn from this type of benchmarking is helpful [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 16th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Great Companies Execute Effectively

RE Technology weekly traffic

In a way, RE Technology is a sand box for WAV Group. We get the opportunity to look at patterns of behavior and communications among real estate agents and brokers on a macro level and a micro level. Recently, we began to modify activities to determine how it may impact RE Technology readership. Our latest test was to change the time that the RE Technology daily digest goes out. The RE Technology daily digest is an interesting communication tool. Only agents who opt into getting the RE Technology newsletter receive it. Most agents choose to access RE Technology content through the message [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 10th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on RE Technology weekly traffic

RE Technology Releases 2012 MLS Technology Guide

MLSs seeking to educate themselves and their members about technology, as well as discover sources of non-dues revenue, can leverage this easy-to-use guide. Arroyo Grande, CA (June 2012) – MLSs and real estate Associations face myriad challenges in today’s changing technology landscape. A new guide from leading real estate technology media site, RE Technology, aims to assist them in overcoming these challenges with descriptions of leading tech companies and products. Interested organizations can download the 2012 MLS Technology Guide for free at RETechnology.com. Information in the guide is presented in a clear, concise format. Product categories covered include agent ratings, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00June 27th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on RE Technology Releases 2012 MLS Technology Guide

Explaining an MLS App Store

I am not sure if anyone is allowed to use Apple's famous App Store name, but lets suffice it to say that the term App Store is familiar to most - so lets use that anyway. The key components of an App Store are Instant delivery, Platform Specific, eCommerce enabled. This is really important to understand because FBS truly is launching the first real MLS App Store. This is different from the RE Technology Success Store, which we call an App Store, but it is really an eCommerce solution. Let me explain: Instant Installation The key component of [...]

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

iPad Listing Presentation Apps are hot for 2012

If you appreciate research, you will enjoy some of these statistics. They point to the prioritization of tools that agents and brokers are seeking to improve the effectiveness of their marketing. The survey conducted by Imprev was presented to agents and brokers attending the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World conference. Keynote: They want iPad Listing Presentation Apps. With Apple selling more than 250,000 iPads a week - it is clearly a game changer that professional real estate agents are adopting. RE/MAX in concert with Imprev is the first company to launch a franchise-wide listing presentation tool for the [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:08-07:00March 23rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Marketing, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on iPad Listing Presentation Apps are hot for 2012

Top MLS trends for 2012

WAV Group is among the ranks of consulting and research firms dedicated to the success of the Nation’s MLSs. Given the company’s involvement at the strategic planning level, there are several developing themes being nurtured.     The top six trends are: Listing Syndication Premium Service Offerings MLS Consumer Websites Online Signatures Data Licensing Data Sharing […]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:13-07:00March 1st, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Top MLS trends for 2012

Why Innovation Fails To Change Real Estate

Every year, real estate sees the launch of beautiful products, offering awesome features, advantages, and benefits. Excellent marketing programs back them and the press creates a jubilee – Innovator of the Year! Then the product launches, and the industry shrugs its shoulder. It is the conundrum of new product development and innovation for real estate. Most of these companies are doing everything right. They are doing research, spotting trends, holding focus groups, testing usability, and modeling lovely financials. If they can only get 1% adoption of this, or 3% of that, revenues will be awesome. There are 1 Million real [...]

Syndication as in insolent teen

I received a call yesterday from a sage MLS executive. He saw the article in RE Technology about Sandicor adding a new syndication field into their MLS. We had discussed this a few years ago after some broker focus groups. At the time, the brokers did not seem to care too much about syndication, so the idea did not go anywhere. That changed. Adding the field is on the agenda at their next board meeting. He is probably not alone. Aside from that, he shared with me his vision for how syndication is going to play out in the long [...]

Frugyl launches with great buzz and fanfare

A new company launched yesterday called Frugyl. It is the child of Jimmy Mackin and Chris Smith, creators of the “What should I spend My Money On?” Facebook Group. This will be of interest to those with analyst careers. The goal of Frugyl is to crowd source information and satisfaction on real estate tools and services used by real estate agents. Additionally, Frugyl will endeavor to provide group discounts on products purchased as a group. The Frugyl site had a great start yesterday when they announced the launch on Facebook. They exhibited excellence in social media marketing that many technology companies would be well [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:16-07:00January 27th, 2012|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|2 Comments

RE Technology Plans Joomla 2.5 Launch

Real estate technology portal, RE Technology (www.RETechnology.com) is working to utilize the benefits provided by the Joomla community to develop their second generation website on the new Joomla 2.5 platform. RE Technology, a business education and product research portal for the real estate industry is among the most visited Joomla websites in the world. Other major companies developing on the Joomla include Tesco, the third largest retailer in the world, Avis, Nikon, Citibank (intranet), and Harvard University. ‘The new Joomla 2.5 is being released this January” says Chris Murtagh, lead developer on the RETechnology.com website. “We are excited to deploy [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00January 6th, 2012|Main category, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on RE Technology Plans Joomla 2.5 Launch

Inman ICNY Conference Preview

Inman News has been gracious enough to extend a $450 discount to their New York conference coming up in three weeks. If you have not already purchased your conference pass, you can buy one on this special webpage for $650. The conference is January 11th-13th, 2012 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. WAV Group will be arriving on the 10th. They had a schedule change and Brad Inman and other keynotes are speaking on the morning of the first day of the conference. Here are some other sessions I am excited about Bill Lublin – Whose Brand am I building? [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:20-07:00December 20th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off on Inman ICNY Conference Preview