Real Estate’s First HyperLocal White Paper Discovers A “Movement”

Social media, mobile technology and marketing automation: those are the three ingredients that are changing real estate in a profound and everlasting way. And, unlike many skeptics, I believe it’s for the better. My proof is the emergence of a “HyperLocal Movement” in real estate that the confluence of these three has fueled. Now there is really nothing new about the “idea” of HyperLocal in real estate. No other industry has been more focused on being local than ours. Many agents have legitimately been practicing hyperlocalism for years, if not decades. What is new is what's happening NOW with hyperlocalism, [...]

By |2018-01-19T12:00:23-08:00January 19th, 2018|Main category|Comments Off on Real Estate’s First HyperLocal White Paper Discovers A “Movement”

Brokers Need to Know that Bitcoin has an Economic Flaw

But the biggest gains may be ahead. If you took economics class in college, you understand that currencies of any type have a relationship between four very important metrics: MV=PQ. M is the total amount of money supply in circulation. V is the velocity of money and the frequency that it is being circulated. P is the price level Q is the inflation adjusted index of goods and services. The economic flaw with Bitcoin is that you cannot buy much with it. Sure – we hear these isolated discussions about people buying houses with Bitcoin, but those are isolated one-offs. [...]

By |2018-01-10T10:00:53-08:00January 10th, 2018|Cyber, Main category|Comments Off on Brokers Need to Know that Bitcoin has an Economic Flaw

Google Tag Manager – A Broker’s Best Friend

Real Estate brokers need to leverage reporting to know what is working in their digital marketing assets. The good news is that Google Analytics can provide answers to the performance of your website pages and campaigns if you train it. The tool to deliver these reports is called Google Tag Manager, and if you are not using this utility in your brokerage today, you need to start. Google Tag Manager (GTM). Brokers now have more accessibility to track usage for all their Internet assets. GTM easily installs on your website and intranet, and is available for native mobile applications on [...]

By |2018-01-08T13:00:41-08:00January 8th, 2018|Main category|Comments Off on Google Tag Manager – A Broker’s Best Friend

Collateral Analytics Sues Nationstar and Xome for Stealing IP

Real Estate brokers and MLSs are pretty familiar with Collateral Analytics®. Collateral Analytics provides real estate brokers with a variety of tools including market trends, market share, and AVMs. Collateral Analytics is particularly interesting to real estate brokers because of the unique blend of MLS data and Public Record data. Brokers believe that MLS data introduces a level of accuracy and timeliness to analytics products, making them profoundly more accurate than Zillow Group’s® Zestimates®. Many of America’s top real estate firms also participate in the Collateral Analytics network of firms that provide Broker Price Opinion(BPO) services to the capital markets.  [...]

By |2018-01-08T12:45:02-08:00January 8th, 2018|Main category|Comments Off on Collateral Analytics Sues Nationstar and Xome for Stealing IP

RESO: Fairy Tale or the Future?

It’s hard to argue that standardized input, distribution and display of real estate information is not the desired path for our industry to follow. There aren’t many technology companies that would PREFER to map nearly 700 individual MLS data sets if they have the data and a choice. The Real Estate Standards Organization has set out on a path to remove millions of dollars in cost to real estate technology development and deployment while encouraging more innovation.   Download the results of the study here: When you get past the obvious technical advantages what does it really MEAN to have data [...]

By |2018-01-08T12:00:38-08:00January 8th, 2018|Main category|1 Comment

What Real Estate Needs To Know About Cryptocurrency Like Bitcoin

As a real estate broker or MLS executive who is reading headlines like “Man Buys Texas Estate with Bitcoin,” you may be scratching your head to understand what this stuff is all about. Here is a primer that may help you to understand it. First of all, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency. It is not a coin or a bill. It is not backed by any nation’s treasury. It has a theoretical value that can be used for the exchange of goods and services. Bitcoin is only one of the digital currencies. There are many. In fact, anyone can [...]

By |2018-01-08T11:35:48-08:00January 8th, 2018|Cyber, Main category|4 Comments

Associations Rethink Forms Licensing Policy

If you were in the real estate business before the days of email, you may recall the experience of driving to the local Board of REALTORS® to pick up a forms packet for a transaction. Alternatively, your brokerage may have had a forms file with every type of printed form that you might need. Simply stated, forms were printed until pioneering State Associations of REALTORS® learned to share them electronically. Today, electronic forms management is a member benefit for all Realtors® as a member benefit of The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). When Realtor Associations learned about this policy and [...]

By |2017-11-29T20:02:42-08:00November 29th, 2017|Main category|1 Comment

Consolidation: What PR Tactics Can Help?

2018 could very well be the “Year of Consolidation” in the MLS industry. With the recent NAR move towards an “MLS of Choice” policy, we are likely to see a huge momentum build towards consolidation, especially in the second half of next year. That’s because smaller MLSs are going to find profitability under their current pricing model impossible. The simplest (and most often the best) solution will be to merge. By failing to plan for the role communications and PR plays within a consolidation, you are planning to fail. That’s because an effective communications and PR plan is vital to [...]

By |2017-11-29T14:27:53-08:00November 29th, 2017|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Consolidation: What PR Tactics Can Help?

What is a Brand?

A brand is the difference between a pair of running shoes and a pair of Nikes. A brand is what people feel about you your product, the service you provide, or your organization. It's part rational but mostly emotional. People will forgive a strong brand if it makes a mistake. likewise people won't forgive a weak brand if it makes a mistake, remember Gateway computers? We thought so. WAV Group is not a branding agency – we leave that to leading firms like 1000 Watt. But WAV Group starts every project with an understanding of your brand. Marilyn Wilson, former [...]

By |2017-11-22T12:00:20-08:00November 22nd, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on What is a Brand?

IRES & REcolorado Sign Binding Merger Agreement

Approval from Shareholder Boards is Next Step to Form One MLS for Denver and Northern Colorado IRES and REcolorado have taken another step toward creating a single MLS that will serve 26,000 real estate professionals in northern Colorado and the greater Denver Metro Area. Lauren Hansen, CEO of IRES, and Kirby Slunaker, president and CEO of REcolorado, today announced the commitment between the two MLSs has now gone from a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU), as announced in September, to a binding merger agreement. The merger agreement has been signed by Hansen and Slunaker and has received approval from both [...]

By |2017-11-13T09:45:01-08:00November 13th, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on IRES & REcolorado Sign Binding Merger Agreement

Communications and Public Relations are not Advertising

About four years ago, WAV Group expanded its consulting services to include Public Relations and Communications. Like everything at WAV Group, this service is an extension of our core Strategic Planning services. In our planning experiences, we learned that companies are not doing enough research to measure customer and employee satisfaction. So we started WAV Group Research. We learned that many companies have a hard time recruiting and hiring the right people, so we started WAV Group recruiting. WAV Group communications help companies develop and implement great communications and PR strategies. Kevin Hawkins is our leader in this segment of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:35-07:00November 2nd, 2017|Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off on Communications and Public Relations are not Advertising

Love HELPING REALTORS® succeed? Have we got a job for you!

We’re excited to announce that WAV Group is working with Carolina Multiple Listing Service (CarolinaMLS) to find a Help Desk Support Manager. Carolina MLS CarolinaMLS is an 11,000 member organization which is a subsidiary of the Charlotte Regional REALTOR® Association.  This progressive organization is one of the largest associations in the U.S. and CarolinaMLS is experiencing significant growth.  In addition to providing wholesale service to North Carolina Mountains MLS and adding 3,519 users, it is in the process of onboarding over 600 more users by providing wholesale service to the MLS of Catawba Valley, bringing subscriber numbers to 15,000+.  Additional [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:35-07:00November 2nd, 2017|Main category|Comments Off on Love HELPING REALTORS® succeed? Have we got a job for you!