Shady Discount Broker

As a consumer, I seek to keep myself aware of services offered by brokerage firms across the county. It’s a bit of a passion of mine. A story run byNBC caught my eye: “New Real Estate Technology from Homecast Empowers Home Sellers to Sell Without An Agent.” As I browsed through it, my stomach began to churn a bit. First off, they seem to talk about being a technology company, but most the article talks about how they advertise listings on third party listing websites – specifically Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia, but also on the MLS. They offer to represent [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:07-07:00August 16th, 2016|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments
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Zillow Group Buys Bridge to Go Upstream

Zillow Group announced the purchase of Bridge Interactive, making them the provider of listing input in a number of MLSs, and the data distribution manager in many others. In some ways, Bridge Interactive is like Upstream, but not a competitor. Bridge is about helping brokers solve data problems and may become a conduit that more easily permits Upstream to allow brokers to deliver listing content to MLSs. Throughout the process of developing the Request for Proposal for Project Upstream, the technology workgroup evaluated many technology offerings. At the end of the day, there were three pieces to the Upstream puzzle that [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:08-07:00August 16th, 2016|MLS Insights, Press Releases|0 Comments
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Will Zillow Win The MLS Data Aggregation Wars

A new war over data management has broken out among America’s largest technology firms, and no clear winner is in sight. To begin, it may be best to level set around what data aggregation is. For brokerage firms or technology companies that leverage MLS data in software, they are pulling MLS data feeds. When you are pulling more than one feed, you are aggregating MLS data. Brokerage firms and software companies that have hired WAV Group to streamline their data aggregation systems know that we have always focused on the three leading firms that have been aggregating MLS data for [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:11-07:00July 21st, 2016|Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|0 Comments
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This is YOUR Year!

Doesn’t it seem like life just keeps getting faster and faster?  It forces us to put our head down and just DO all the time.  We’re not always thinking about where our organization is focused or why they are even focused on it.    We’re so busy surviving the day to day that sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees! So how do you get yourself back to a place where you’re focused on continual improvement in your business?   Who has time to do strategic planning anyway, right?  While every business suffers from these thoughts on occasion, it IS [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:13-07:00June 14th, 2016|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments
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Backed by Google, Zillow Set to Become Online Brokerage

Real Estate is not just an online thing. It’s a global thing. People buy houses all around the globe, and in many nations – the notion of online real estate is hot.  In the small nation of England, companies valued at £312m, or £40m Housesimple along with easyProperty and eMoov are all trying to make a go of it with significant venture backing. Online real estate is ripe for the taking. Zillow Group will not need to go out for additional funding to pivot to online real estate.  The company is valued at over $5B and is operating at a run [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:13-07:00June 14th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments
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Broker with 357 Listings Gets No Leads From Trulia Last Week

WAV Group provides brokers with consulting on online marketing. One of our services includes benchmarking the effectiveness of listing syndication strategies. We have been tracking the performance of a real estate broker’s listings dating back to 2006 by publishing channel. As these reports show, Trulia effectiveness has decreased to a remarkable volume of no leads per week on 367 listings. The same report in 2013 showed between 12 and 25 leads per month. It begs the question “If a third party consumer website is not delivering value, should a broker continue to syndicate?” One thing is for sure, we can [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:13-07:00June 14th, 2016|Main category, Marketing|0 Comments
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Risk-Taking is Back and so is Rampant Innovation

My wife woke up this morning to the voice of Alec Baldwin telling her “Wake up Sunshine. Let me tell you something, I’ve been up since the crack of dawn…” before I shout out “off” and silence Alec in midsentence. No, Alec isn’t in our bedroom. Alec’s voice is an alarm option in Alexa, our household’s digital assistant that’s built into both our Amazon Echo and Dot. It’s simply the coolest – and most practical – innovation I’ve seen in decades. Alexa is a vibrant example of the rampant innovation emerging today. Life-changing stuff: self-driving cars, VR immersion technology, drones, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:14-07:00May 18th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments
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The Best Kept Secrets for Agent Retention

There is nothing more devastating to a brokerage than losing a top performer. Many times these departures come as a total surprise that leaves the company scrambling to find ways to get them to change their mind and to stop more top producers following them out the door. So what can brokerages do to stop this painful bleeding that happens all too often? Here are a few suggestions that have proven to be successful. Ask for Anonymous Feedback We have worked with brokerages fielding surveys to get their agents’ input for everything from the technologies offered, the quality of yard [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:15-07:00May 18th, 2016|Broker-Agent Information, Wav of Change|0 Comments
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I Didn’t Hire FOUR Listing Agents!

There’s nothing like becoming an ACTUAL customer of a product to give you a different perspective. I have looked at Zillow and other third party sites a gazillion times in my career as a consultant, but it took actually selling a home to really open my eyes. We held onto our home in Buffalo, New York for a long time after moving to California. This year we finally decided to sell it. Once the home was live on third party sites, I became very interested in the agents who were featured on the property. I called each one to experience [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:21-07:00March 16th, 2016|Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments
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WAV Group Partnering With MLSs On Zillow Survey

WAV Group is recruiting MLS and broker participants for a study to get an understanding of what these groups of people think about their relationship with Zillow. This study is funded internally at WAV Group. What do home buyers think of the service What do home sellers think of the service? What do renters think of the service? What do Property Managers think of the Service What do Premier Agents think of the service? What does Premier Mortgage think of the service? What do real estate brokers of all sizes think of the service? By participating in the study, you [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:32-07:00October 27th, 2015|Main category, Our Services|3 Comments
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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 [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:36-07:00August 19th, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|5 Comments
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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 [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:38-07:00July 23rd, 2015|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, Our Services|3 Comments
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