MLS As A Communication Tool

Years ago, real estate agents gathered for breakfast with wrinkled sheets of paper culled from notes that took at listing presentations. Of course, they were not listing presentations at the time. It was more like a walk around the place. Someone in the area, often a relative or a neighbor, was trusted for selling property. There were not a lot of transactions then. Many families homesteaded their land, like my great grandfather. Today the decedents of that family occupy that property, subdivided as necessary to provide homes for grown children. Real estate information is something that people knew long before [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:34-07:00October 6th, 2015|Main category, MLS Insights|4 Comments

WAVes of Change Update

Our third installment of our quarterly webinar series called WAVes of Change is set for October 21st. The purpose of the WAVes of Change Series is designed to help Associations and MLSs across North America make well-informed decisions that will help propel their organizations forward. It is designed to keep your team up to speed without having to travel to multiple events around the country spending significant time and money. The primary topic for this session will be a wrap up of the Council of MLS meetings along with updates on new benchmarking strategies and industry projects like Upstream and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:34-07:00October 6th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|0 Comments

Brokers Partner On Technology

Long and Foster and Windermere are both brokerages that are family owned and operated. They are large firms and they struggle with build vs. buy whenever they consider a technology solution for their companies. Windermere supports 7000 agents across 300 offices. Long and Foster has over 200 offices supporting 11,000 agents. There are a number of technology solutions that each company builds and supports. Moxi Works, the technology company founded by the Jacobi family of Windermere, builds a plethora of core technology solutions used by Windermere. Moxi Works provides the Windermere broker website, co-branded agent websites, lead management, drip marketing, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:35-07:00September 30th, 2015|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments

NAR REACH Panel Slings 8 New Products at REALTORS®

The NAR Reach program is interesting. It establishes a gateway where companies who wish to express their products and services to the REALTOR® family pay fees and often equity to the National Association of REALTORS®. Access Avenue is a loan finder product that is primarily aimed at helping Realtors introduce loan products to the investor community. As I went through the presentation, the first place I got stuck was the statement “Competitive rates as low as 7.99%.” The product shops property loans to institutional investors rather than traditional mortgage banks. I think that the product would be superior if it [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:35-07:00September 29th, 2015|Main category|0 Comments

Earnest Money Spoils The Online Transaction

The Inman Connect conference does not often have many brand new ideas. But if you look hard enough, they are there.  A year or so ago I met a company that was focused on transforming home prices to Total Cost Of Living prices (TLC Engine). This year, I met Lynn Leegard who co-founded a company called TrustFunds, with the tag line of Earnest Money Made Easy. Coincidentally, both TLC Engine and TrustFunds are both services offered through NorthstarMLS, based in Minneapolis, MN. Northstar CEO John Mosey seems to have a knack for launching very unique services that solve significant problems [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:36-07:00August 26th, 2015|Main category|1 Comment

DotLoop and Zillow

As far as I know, DotLoop customers were happy enough with the product and service until the announcement that the company was being purchased by Zillow. That news, along with the $108M price tag of the acquisition was the fundamental buzz at Inman Connect conference last week. About the price of $108 Million. Typically companies’ sell for a multiple of profit – 6x to 10x profit is not bad. The last acquisition of this type was the Real Estate Digital deal, which sold for a much lower multiple than DotLoop. In the case of DotLoop, it looks like Zillow paid [...]

Broker Members of The Enterprise Network Hit Mobile Milestone

We have been talking about mobile in real estate for far too long now. Two years ago Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com all announced that mobile was passing other methods of accessing their site. As brokers began to adopt mobile solutions, the debate about mobile browser vs. mobile app went on for an eternity until everyone put down their guns and agreed that the answer is both. One of the broker website service providers that we have been tracking is Booj or The Enterprise Network. They offer a good benchmark because of their unique client base. If you are not familiar, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:37-07:00August 19th, 2015|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments

CoreLogic Purchases LandSafe Appraisal

I always thought that it was a bit incestuous for Bank of America to own LandSafe Appraisal. I could never understand how they could use their own appraisal company and insure an arms length loan transaction. Soon, LandSafe will be part of CoreLogic. LandSafe is an appraisal management company that employs about 500 appraisers and operates a Qualified Appraiser Network of independent appraisers. LandSafe was a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America and providing services to Bank of America mortgage. CoreLogic will now be the vendor to Bank of America. The size of the transaction is reported to be [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:37-07:00August 10th, 2015|Main category|0 Comments

REDPLAN™ Announces New Board Members

Scottsdale, Ariz. (July 30, 2015) - REDPLAN™, Inc., the real estate information industry data protection association, announced today that two more industry leaders have joined its Board of Directors: Chris Galler, Chief Executive Officer of the Minnesota Association of REALTORS®, and Victor Lund, founding partner of WAV Group and CEO of RE Technology. REDPLAN’s Board of Directors is now comprised of: Gregg Larson, Clareity Security Claude Szyfer, Strook, Strook & Lavan John Mosey, Northstar MLS Merri Jo Cowen, My Florida Regional MLS John Leonardi, Buffalo Niagara Association of REALTORS® Martin Scrocchi, Instanet Solutions Ira Luntz, SolutionStar Brian Mushaney, RealtyTrac Victor [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:37-07:00July 30th, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Is Zillow A Great Broker?

Zillow is not a broker. Well, technically they are registered as a brokerage in many states and hold brokerage licenses, but they do not market themselves as a brokerage. The point is that they provide a lot of broker-like support for agents that are noteworthy and remarkable. There are plenty of brokers who can take a page out of their book and improve their business. Specifically, brokers can learn from the way that Zillow provides technology tools and communicates and trains agents. Wth the acquisition of of a transaction management solution they complete a broker-like set that includes agent websites [...]

Broker Public Portal Retains Larson Skinner PLLC

Arroyo Grande, CA – July 14th, 2015 – The Broker Public Portal (BPP) today announced that it has retained the Minneapolis law firm of Larson Skinner PLLC to assist in developing a broker-friendly and MLS-friendly content license agreement for BPP’s projects. BPP continues its progress to bring a national MLS consumer-facing website to market.  As with any other portal, multiple listing services that will be participating in the Broker Public Portal will need to enter into data license agreements that allow MLS-participant listing information to be displayed on the site. One of the founding covenants of the Broker Public Portal [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:39-07:00July 14th, 2015|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

FREE Webinar Tomorrow: Building & Managing Relationships that Fuel Business

Does finding information in your database become more of a chore with each passing day? If so, you’re not alone! Between new business, existing business, past business and referrals, your database can quickly grow out of hand and become unmanageable. Even though every client is unique, when you narrow it down, you have three key relationship types to manage at any given time: New Leads/Prospects, Current Clients and Past Clients/Referrals. How you manage these relationships is the key! On Wednesday July 15th at 10 am pacific/1pm eastern, WAV Group founding partner Victor Lund will talk with three top producing agents about [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:39-07:00July 14th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|0 Comments