Victor Lund Archives

Calculating ROI on Syndication to Publishers
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Calculating ROI on Syndication to Publishers

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services

Calculating ROI on Syndication to Publishers

WAV Group provides enterprise brokers with a monitoring service to measure their listing syndication strategy. It is a thorny and emotional topic where risks and rewards are balanced delicately. Undoubtedly, this week brokers who do syndicate to publisher websites are reviewing their reports from last month. Here are a few things you should look at. Listing Views Obviously, you want to know the number of times that your listing was viewed on each publisher website. The easiest way to view listings by the publisher is to look at reports from your listing distributer – like Listhub, Point2, reDataVault, etc. If [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00April 9th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|3 Comments

Protect Broker Data with Anti-Scraping

If you are a broker or an MLS, you must treat your data as an asset. By and large, our industry does a great job of protecting the front door of data access, but the back door of data scraping is wide open. It begs the question, if you care about data protection, why are you only scrutinizing the legitimate data users without hunting for the nefarious and illegitimate data thieves? Thieves that want to steal data send robots out onto the internet to do their pickpocketing, and they do it quite well. Reviewing Distil Networks’ reports with Matt Cohen [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00April 9th, 2014|MLS Insights|Comments Off

Transaction Management Update

WAV Group performed Transaction Management research in 2005 and in 2009. The goal of the research was to survey trends in Transaction Management adoption. On Wednesday of this week, RE Technology will be hosting a candid conversation with DocuSign’s lead Transaction Management Vice President, Glenn Shimkus. There will be a 30 minute discussion of today’s Transaction Management challenges and a 15 minute overview of their new enterprise solution (They have had an agent solution for some time now). Here is the webinar information – please join us! Brokers: Accelerate Your Business with DocuSign for Real Estate RE Technology invites you [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:14-07:00March 24th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

How Data Killed The REALTOR

If you look at the demise of Encyclopedia Britannica, you see a clear roadmap of how history will repeat itself to cause the demise of the REALTOR®. Up until 1994, the Britannica sales associates sold about 120,000 hard copies. Salespeople consumed the most amounts of profits from the transaction. The salespeople at Encyclopedia Britannica protected their data. The three or four thousand pages of the books were protected by copyright. Then came the Internet, and more importantly, Wikipedia. The Britannica sales person was disrupted by a price point of free. The cost of data was disrupted by user-generated content. Adapt [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00March 13th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|7 Comments

The Speed Of Need
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The Speed Of Need

Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning

The Speed Of Need

We know that companies are created when they meet the needs of their customers. But, what we fail to understand is the nature and complexity of Need. Need is a singular thing that is driven by a vast array of attributes. The most common attributes are Price, Functionality, Customer Service, and Relationship. But there is a new attribute of need which I call the Speed of Need. Price is a fundamental attribute of need. Customers must be able to afford a product or service if it is ever going to fulfill the need. Functionality is another fundamental of need. Even [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:16-07:00March 10th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Swanepoel Trends Report Book Review
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Swanepoel Trends Report Book Review

Main category, Press Releases

Swanepoel Trends Report Book Review

If you buy one book this year, make it the Swanepoel Trends Report. It is excellent. Swanepoel took a different approach to his annual report this year and its brilliant. Swanepoel outlines 10 topics and invites industry leaders to write a page or two about their impression. At the end of the chapter, he wraps it all up into a summary. Gary Keller on Change and Innovation states that there ”is a battle over who will provide the public with their listing data….brokerages are beginning to realize that if they don’t step up and become the solution they will at [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:17-07:00February 4th, 2014|Main category, Press Releases|2 Comments

Leveling the Playing Field Leads to Disaster
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Leveling the Playing Field Leads to Disaster

Broker-Agent Information, Main category

Leveling the Playing Field Leads to Disaster

I read a story today about a social studies professor who engaged his students in an experiment to demonstrate the long-term effects of socialism or leveling the playing field. This is a topic that is so dear to the hearts of today's real estate brokers that I could not resist sharing the story. The day of the first test, the teacher advised the students that he would average the score of each student and issue the average grade to everyone. The students took the test. The average was a B, and everyone was given a B. As you can imagine, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:17-07:00January 31st, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off

Brokers Should Update Their Contracts Now!
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Brokers Should Update Their Contracts Now!

Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights

Brokers Should Update Their Contracts Now!

Brokers and agents can protect their online reputation with a small change in their contracts with consumers and terms of use on their websites. If you have not taken a look at the HomeActions newsletter recently, you should. They write consumer articles that brokers or agents can send as newsletters or blog posts to their customers. It is one of my favorites. In today's issue, they talk about the potential liability that a consumer may face if they publish a negative review about a service provider. In essence, companies are requiring customers to agree not to publish any negative remarks [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:18-07:00January 23rd, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Why Brokers Get Upset With Their MLS

Some of our time at WAV Group involves supporting brokers and their technology vendors at problem solving. Yesterday we encountered an issue with the data feed to a vendor. The vendor claimed that everything was working. The broker knew this was not the case. So we got on a call and did a screen share to match the listings in their system to the listings in the MLS. The marketing staff member for the broker is not a savvy expert of using the MLS. But the broker does pay associate fees every month so she has access and she goes [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:18-07:00January 22nd, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|1 Comment

The December Slump
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The December Slump

Broker-Agent Information, Main category

The December Slump

In the final hours of the year, real estate hits the skids. Even in 2013, when the threat of newly imposed mortgage regulations gave consumers strong reason to buy before year-end. The WAV Group index measures month-to-month changes in online performance across its brokerage clients. Given that the traffic is in the millions, it is probably statistically relevant, but you may want to use this data more as a benchmark to contrast against your data. Listing counts are down about 30% between November and December. This is a common reality. Many sellers living in their home have little interest in [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00January 6th, 2014|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|Comments Off

Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

2014 may well be the year of the broker, or as they are referred to in MLS speak, the year of the Participant. If your MLS has adopted the National Association of REALTORS® template for MLS Rules and Regulations, you will find that brokers are Participants and agents are Subscribers. As a Participant in the MLS, brokers accept full responsibility to adhere to MLS rules and regulations. The MLS does a pretty good job of enforcing those rules. But who among you is making sure that the MLS is not running afoul? WAV Group MLS clients are traditionally the largest [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 30th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off