Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

For the last half of a decade, the real estate industry has taken blow after blow. Through grace, we have recovered as an industry and that has a profound impact on homeowners and REALTORS® alike. The number of families losing their home to foreclosure has reset to reasonable levels. WAV Group facilitated nearly two-dozen strategic plans for some of our industry’s most significant market makers. In many cases, boards of directors are thinking pretty big. They are taking on difficult policy issues including syndication, data licensing, and data management. If these organizations accomplish half of what they have set as [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:20-07:00December 23rd, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off on Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

Choosing the Right Right

Real estate business consulting firms wear a lot of hats. When we are hired, our goal is to serve our clients goals as master - never our own goals. It's a unique mindset. National Association of REALTORS® annual conventions are a keen reminder of this paradigm. In a single day, it was commonplace to speak strategy with technology companies; brokers; Associations of REALTORS® (National, State, Megaboard); Association governed MLS, broker governed MLS, broker owned and governed MLS. Perhaps the only oddity is that there is no example of a broker owned, Association governed MLS. Same Issue, Different Rights I think [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 18th, 2013|Main category|1 Comment

SEM and VTs

SEM and VTs, sounds a little more than conspicuous. It's code for using some Internet strategies to do a little more with online marketing. There is a gaping area of unexploited territory available to cleaver brokers who understand how to leverage unbranded virtual tours in real estate. As WAV Group has discussed before, the unbranded virtual tour allows a broker to publish a Virtual Tour to other broker and agent websites. If done correctly, that virtual tour provides a link back to the broker’s website. It is not a link that the consumer sees or can even touch, but search [...]

Top 5 Articles of the Week

How to Lose a Listing My neighbors really like their original real estate agent, Agent One. They wanted to work with her again. But they tell me that they probably won't choose her to list their home. This is pretty catastrophic for her, whether she knows it or not, because repeat and referral business is a real estate agent's bread and butter. 4 NAR ® Member Benefits You Should Be Using The REALTOR® Benefits Program brings members of NAR discounts and special offers on real estate products and services. The value of the Program isn't just the financial savings; it [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:24-07:00November 22nd, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Top 5 Articles of the Week

IDX Reboot

This is a rather obscene notion, but sometimes the best way to innovate is to ask a bunch of questions about the status quo. For brokers and MLSs to innovate, they need to question the effectiveness of IDX. I would not question its value. Rather, I believe that it has uncompromising value to MLS participants and subscribers. I question how we can make it more valuable. Perhaps it is time for a reboot. A reboot is a process where you turn something off and turn it back on to stop routines from running that undermine the operation of the machine. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:25-07:00October 24th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|2 Comments

Brokers: Total Transparency of Agent Performance & Activity Is Here

Lead management services have been around in some format for years, of course, and many tech companies have been putting a lot of effort into delivering tools that tie the broker, office manager, and team leader.  Agents historically (and still today) are inconsistent at best with responding to online leads (and are usually worse at follow-up). Brokers need to fix this! CRM providers are responding to two trends we see emerging that are changing the landscape of lead management for brokers. The first one is confounding. Agents want syndication and online advertising but only respond to about 1 in 4 [...]

Leveraging The Browser

Many software solutions used in real estate today are offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), meaning that they are accessed through a browser or, in some cases, a mobile app. For most companies today, being cross-browser compliant is about as far as they have gone. Advanced companies, mostly those who have the luxury of products released in the past couple of years, have made their browser-based application “responsive” so as to fit naturally into any screen resolution on any browser. Cloud CMA just came out with a browser Bookmarklet that reminded me how many powerful browser features are not [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:26-07:00September 25th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Leveraging The Browser

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, [...]

Advertising in an Association Owned MLS Webinar- Don’t Miss This!

Join WAV Group for an informational webinar on advertising in an Association owned MLS! This webinar will feature a Q & A session with GLVAR, BNAR, and GEPAR - three leading Association-owned MLSs who have launched advertising programs to help generate non-dues revenue. If your Association or MLS is considering adding or modifying your advertising strategy, be sure to register today! You are encouraged to prepare questions and invite your leadership to attend this webinar as well. There is no fee for attendance but the capacity of the meeting room is limited to 1000. Register early to ensure your access. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:28-07:00August 30th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company|Comments Off on Advertising in an Association Owned MLS Webinar- Don’t Miss This!

Trulia To Collect More Agent Data

To optimize your online effectiveness in the real estate business, you need to think strategically. This is the kind of strategic thinking that WAV Group works with brokers and franchises on every day. When a company that does a great job at online marketing and search engine optimization focuses on a strategy like enhancing agent information, we pay attention. Typically, when Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, or homes.com makes a change, it is with intent to find improvement. It's the way everyone should think. Why Agent Profiles Are Important When consumers search, they use keywords. In our broker website effectiveness study, we learned [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:31-07:00August 5th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|Comments Off on Trulia To Collect More Agent Data

Share This Listing

WAV Group has gained the support of The Realty Alliance and The Leading Real Estate Companies of the world to revisit our Broker Website Effectiveness study performed in 2008. A lot has changed over the past 5 years, but much has remained the same. Our report will be published at the end of the month in advance of the Inman conference in San Francisco. As the MLS Issues and Policy Committee continues to debate a rule structure for Social Media, Here is an early insight that may forward the shape of what the rule is trying to solve for. Social [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:35-07:00June 10th, 2013|Main category, Marketing, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off on Share This Listing

HAR.com Keeps on Rolling

The Houston Association of REALTORS (HAR) hit a significant milestone this month. They supported their brokers and agents in eclipsing the mark of 1 million transactions representing $190 Billion in real estate sales. I really appreciate the way HAR keeps track of everything, with clear focus on where they started and the progress that they have made on behalf of their members over time. WAV Group partner, Victor Lund discussed this success with Houston Board Chairman, Danny Frank. To begin with, Danny Frank is one of the most genuine, humble, and sincere leaders of any large real estate organization that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:37-07:00May 8th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|1 Comment