Victor Lund Archives

REALTOR.Com Shoots across bow of Trulia and Zillow

The industry knows the dirty little secret. Many third party listing websites are full of garbage data. In a major online marketing effort, REALTOR.com is telling this story. Inaccurate listings are not appearing here and there, but more than half the "for sale" listings on many sites populated from syndication are duplicates, already sold, expired, pending, or bank owned homes that are not for sale at all. Bad real estate listing information is bad for the real estate industry. So many of these sites claim to be consumer centric, but they blatantly and knowingly allow data to be fed to their [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:06-07:00April 23rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|Comments Off

Non Dues Revenue for MLS

WAV Group Webinar Feb 15th at 10:00am PST This WAV Group webinar will focus on a panel discussion about the topic of non-dues revenue. Numerous MLSs around the country have launched or are in the process of launching these programs to provide lower cost business solutions to MLS subscribers. According to the recent CMLS survey - 54% of today's MLSs offer some form of non-dues revenue. "These companies are pushing the boundaries of their non-dues revenue programs," says Marilyn Wilson, WAV Group Partner. Topic: Why MLSs pursue non-dues revenue Different options for generating non-dues revenue How it is positioned to their [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:16-07:00February 6th, 2012|How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|1 Comment

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 Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:19-07:00January 6th, 2012|Main category, Press Releases, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

My Brief Nostalgia on Inman Conferences

As a consultant in the real estate technology industry, we go to a lot of conferences each year. The time leading up to a conference is always very busy for us. We leverage conferences to meet perspective clients, and deliver work to our existing clients. The effectiveness of having 8 to 10 “in-person” meetings per day is über-efficient. Conferences are the great gathering places of the industry. I was trying to think back to my first Inman Conference – it must have been sometime in the 2002 – 2004 era. Barry Diller was buying companies like crazy and selling leads [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:20-07:00December 14th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off

The Bigger LPS Paragon 5 Story

LPS, developers of the Paragon MLS system, announced that they have secured an agreement to replace a competitors’ MLS system with Paragon 5. This only happens about 12 times each year. The news is less about just getting a win, but tells a larger story about the future of MLS and how one MLS vendor is positioning for long term success. WAV Group performs upwards of 40 MLS customer satisfaction surveys each year to help MLSs understand what agents and brokers expect from their MLS. The number one complaint is Apple compatibility and Mobile compatibility. LPS knew this many years [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:21-07:00December 1st, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Great Vendors Embrace Rules

There has been a lot of conversational concern about companies that enter into new verticals of data management and service offerings. Four such instances were announced this year. REALTORS® Property Resource contracts with LPS for data services and LPS subcontracts to Real Estate Digital. Zillow purchased an IDX vendor, Diverse Solutions. MOVE purchased Threewide, the providers of the popular Listhub syndication service. CoreLogic launched a new appraisal tool leveraging MLS data. In every case, the vendor has been virtuous and adhered to contracts and data use rules. In each of these cases, many feared that data could be misused or [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 22nd, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|Comments Off

Is the technology bubble over?

In a report released on November 15th, we see that Technology spending may be getting worse this holiday season, but it is not as bad as other sectors. 14% of consumers plan to spend more on technology this year than they did in years past. Unfortunately, 29% intend to spend less on technology than in years past. The good news is that at 14%, Technology is the leading sector across all industries for increased spending. Books and Apparel come in a close second with 13% intention to spend more. Music and videos did not fair much better with 40% and [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 18th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off

Why MLS sold data is bad, and a note about the comma

Oversights are interesting. They are even more interesting when they are fixed. Let me explain a little bit about “reporting Sales to the (MLS) Service” in the model MLS rules. Up until the recent meeting of the MLS Issues and Policies Committee meeting at the NAR Annual Convention, agents were required to change the listing status to Sold when a transaction closed. This is a case whereby the rule did not clearly indicate the behavior. As written, the agent was required to update the status of the listing, not enter the sale price from the contract. This is a significant [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 16th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights, Virtual Office Website Series|Comments Off

Peter Shuttleworth Named First CMLS Hall of Fame Award Recipient

Morrisville, N.C. (October 21, 2011) – The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) recently inducted industry veteran and CMLS charter member, Peter Shuttleworth, into the Hall of Fame at the Annual Conference on October 6 in Tucson, Ariz. He became the first person to receive the CMLS Hall of Fame designation, which was established earlier this year to recognize outstanding individual contributions made through dedicated service to the association and the industry. “We are so very excited that Peter is our very first inductee into the CMLS Hall of Fame – the standard to receive this award has been set [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 22nd, 2011|Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off

First American Offers to Buy All or Part of CoreLogic

Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp. has offered to buy back all or part of neighboring data services and analytics company CoreLogic Inc., the title insurance company said on Thursday. The two companies were created last year out of the split of First American Corp., in one of Orange County’s largest-ever spinoffs. The split was an attempt to separate and better promote CoreLogic’s growing technology-focused business from First American’s dominant title insurance line of business. First American Financial still owns about an 11% stake in CoreLogic and is its largest shareholder, according to regulatory filings. CoreLogic counts a market value [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:26-07:00October 21st, 2011|Main category|Comments Off

It’s time for Gutsy Leadership – Marilyn Wilson’s observations of the CMLS conference

The CMLS Conference in Tucson was absolutely the BEST EVER in my view! First, there were over 550 attendees – the largest in conference history. The conference continues to grow in popularity year after year due to the relevant and timely content delivered coupled with well-organized and FUN events. This year was no different. The CMLS Board led by Merri Jo Cowen and the fabulous hosts at the Tucson Association of REALTORS® led by Phil Tedesco and Wes Wiggins, formerly of Tucson created a very memorable event. Jim Harrison, CEO of MLSListings was also elected as the latest board member [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:26-07:00October 13th, 2011|Main category|Comments Off

WAV Group Presenting at CMLS Conference in Tucson

WAV Group is proud to be a part of this year’s CMLS conference held on October 5th-7th in Tucson, Arizona. Partners, Marilyn Wilson and Victor Lund will be presenting on the important topics facing the Real Estate industry. WAV Group is renowned for its ability to deliver unbiased and objective research and insights and has been credited with providing advisory services that have helped countless organizations re-invent themselves to create growth by delivering relevant products and exemplary customer service to their customers. Marilyn Wilson will be participating in two panels “The Crystal Ball of Governance” and “What consumers think does [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:27-07:00September 23rd, 2011|Main category, Press Releases|Comments Off