WAV Group Unveils New Website, Enhanced Resources for Real Estate Industry

The leading real estate consultants at WAV Group are unveiling a new, enhanced website. The new site will make their valuable content even more accessible to brokers, MLSs, and associations seeking to grow their business. For RSS subscribers, please renew your subscription by dropping the following link into your feed reader: feed://waves.wavgroup.com/feed/ WAV Group (www.wavgroup.com) has become the go-to resource for real estate industry insiders seeking guidance about strategy and technology. To make their valuable insights and information more accessible to readers, the thought leaders at WAV Group have redesigned their website. One look at the new site confirms that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:40-07:00June 2nd, 2011|Main category, Our Company, Our Services|Comments Off on WAV Group Unveils New Website, Enhanced Resources for Real Estate Industry

NAR Announces 2011 30 under 30 Award Winners

As a former winner of a “40 under 40″ award in Buffalo, New York I know what an honor it is to receive a “30 under 30″ award.  It’s a great way for the industry to recognize those that go above and beyond - the up and comers - the future of our business. Today, the National Association of REALTORS® announced its 2011 list of  “30 Under 30″ honorees. This group exemplifies the personal drive many Realtors® have to be the best and provide a high level of service to their clients, despite tough market conditions and a constantly evolving [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:25:40-07:00May 31st, 2011|Broker-Agent Information, Clients, Main category, Marketing, Our Company|Comments Off on NAR Announces 2011 30 under 30 Award Winners

Professional real estate websites are losing the battle for consumers online.

Professional real estate websites are losing the battle for consumers online. Todays real estate consumer has a dizzying array of websites that provide them with access to real estate listings.  There are numerous third party websites like Zillow and Trulia as well as national real estate Franchise sites and local real estate company websites.  Consumers likely assume that all of these sites offer the same quality of information. Unfortunately this isnt the case. This white paper from the WAV Group chronicles research findings on the consumer search experience.  WAV Group has calculated the differences between third party websites, franchise websites, and broker websites [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:02-07:00September 20th, 2010|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Virtual Office Website Series|Comments Off on Professional real estate websites are losing the battle for consumers online.

MLS System Branding- Take credit for your most valuable tool

MLS organizations many times suffer from branding confusion. When they are a division of the association, for example, yet they have their own identity members don’t know the name of the MLS entity. When regional MLSs deliver their services through local associations their brand recognition gets even more muddied. Here’s one area where there may be an opportunity to deliver a more clearly-branded service to build the strength of the MLS organization’s brand - the MLS system. WAV Group conducts member satisfaction research all over North America.  When we ask members what MLS organization they belong to they will often [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:05-07:00June 16th, 2010|Main category|Comments Off on MLS System Branding- Take credit for your most valuable tool

Divorce and Real Estate

WAV Group performs volumes of research for MLSs and Associations each year.  As part of collecting subscriber and member surveys, we also collect basic demographic data - Male or Female, Age, etc.  Much of this demographic information allows us to associate general age group trends of American demographics and apply them to our understanding of the culture within an MLS or Association.  We have never asked marital status, but I wonder what role that plays in understanding the mindset of today’s REALTOR. One of the research instutitions that we value for information is Pew Research Center.  Today they released a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:06-07:00June 8th, 2010|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Divorce and Real Estate

Rapattoni becomes Mac compatible

WAV Group performs dozens of strategic planning sessions for MLSs each year.  As part of our strategic planning sessions, we survey members on satisfaction with the MLS system.  One of the chief complaints among MLS Participants and Subscibers across all surveys is the desire to have Apple computers supported my MLS systems. LPS, Marketlinx, FBS, and now Rapattoni have all been focused on achieving this functionality.  Rapattoni issued a press release confirming their support of Mac based browsers this morning.  This is great news for MLSs who are delivering data services on the Rapattoni platform - a move that is sure [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:07-07:00April 29th, 2010|Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Rapattoni becomes Mac compatible

Real Estate and Microsoft Docs for Facebook

Real Estate has a love hate affair with documents. According to research performed by the WAV Group, The real estate industry has consumes about 1 Million trees per year in real estate transactions. There are a pile of companies offering transaction management and storage solutions adapted to the needs of real estate agents and brokers.  They are all fine products that can save hundreds of dollars a month in document storage fees while creating a better experience for the consumer in their transaction. In a move that smacks Google Docs in the face, Microsoft entered the fray of online document sharing with their [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:08-07:00April 28th, 2010|Main category|Comments Off on Real Estate and Microsoft Docs for Facebook

And the Hits keep Coming – REALTOR.com tops the Hitwise charts again!

And the Hits keep Coming - REALTOR.com tops the Hitwise charts again! When I reviewed the latest Hitwise results it reminded me again of a phenomenon that continues to  amaze me - Realtor.com. According to Compete.com REALTOR.com had over 6.4 million unique visitors last month and in the peak season will likely repeat last year’s performance with over 9 million unique visitors. That is an amazing amount of traffic - enviable by every major brand in America. Just for perspective, Ford.com receives only 1.3 million unique visitors. Coca-Cola.com receives less than 500,000 unique visitors per month according to compete.com and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:08-07:00April 26th, 2010|Main category|Comments Off on And the Hits keep Coming – REALTOR.com tops the Hitwise charts again!

Marketing 101 for Real Estate Companies

Do you have a marketing and advertising department?  For most MLS, Associations and Brokerages today, the answer is NO.  For the largest companies, the answer is Yes.  Marketing and Advertising is typically the first “Cut Back” made by an organization facing uncertain economic times - but is also the most fundamentally destructive place to try and reduce costs in your business, especially for real estate Brokers. Studies show this is the reason why large companies gain more market share durring cyclical economic recessions and small companies fade or disappear. If you are of the ilk to appreciate and agree with this position, here are a couple of solutions for [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:08-07:00April 26th, 2010|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|Comments Off on Marketing 101 for Real Estate Companies