zillow Archives

Are my listings going everywhere – Zillow Front Door

Whenever an announcement like the Zillow-Front Door announcement is made, brokers have questions about their data and where it is going. We call this the issue of re-syndication, and whenever an announcement is made made about one party sending data to another party - brokers should know. Zillow is not re-syndicating to HGTV's Frontdoor.com website. The first thing that I would suggest to any broker providing data to any publisher is to have a contract with the publisher that defines what they can or cannot do with your data. Most of the franchisors like REALOGY, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and others have such [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:41-07:00February 13th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing|2 Comments

Zillow to power HGTV

I have always been a fan of HGTV’s strategy to marry their television audience and content with property search. I do not watch TV much, but I do tune into HGTV from time to time and have run some analysis on the comprehensiveness of the listing data on their site. From our point of view, HGTV did not go far enough to put timely calls to action into programming to drive the television audience to search for homes on their property search portal. This is my opinion, not grounded in any facts. Suffice it to say that Zillow is going [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:42-07:00February 8th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Zillow expands rental offering with Hotpads acquisition

Market leading real estate publisher Zillow expanded their footprint by entering into an agreement to purchase Hot Pads today. The strategy behind the acquisition seems squarely aimed at conquering a larger audience of real estate consumers, namely consumers interested in rental properties. In October, Hotpads had nearly 2.8 Million Unique Visitors. Depending on how you add up traffic to Zillow and their other sites like realestate.yahoo.com, it adds up to less than a 5% increase in traffic. Moreover, Zillow picks up highly skilled staff that understand the real estate portal business, and how to manage data. Although Zillow already has [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 26th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Zillow brings 1.2M listings out of the shadow

Since the housing market crash, there has been lots of discussion about shadow inventory. These are properties that are in bank foreclosure or pre-foreclosure that are making their way onto the market. Up until now, this inventory has been slowly released - perhaps strategically by banks who want to contain loss exposure - but more likely as a result of the slow process for foreclosure across America. The only thing slower than a bank's decision making process is the US Court system. Last week, Zillow - one of the three leading search portals in America began to display 1.2Million listings. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 29th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|3 Comments

ListHub’s API and Golden Ruler Report Helps a Broker

There are all kinds of reasons why a company wants analytics on the performance of their online marketing. Listhub provides this service to brokerages that use their syndication services. The fee for the service is typically just a few dollars per month per agent, but it will track where your listings appear online – for better or for worse. WAV Group has gained an appreciation for the reporting by reviewing MLS level reports that show a federated view of all listings syndicated in the market through Listhub. I will be using these reports in my upcoming talk at the Colorado [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:50-07:00October 5th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Suveys and Research|0 Comments

WAV Group Publishes Study Showing that Local Real Estate Brokerage Websites Offer the Most Complete, Accurate and Timely Information About Homes for Sale

October 3, 2012—The WAV Group today published the results of an independent study of 11 major markets that found local real estate brokerage websites give consumers the most complete, accurate and timely information about homes for sale. The study evaluated sites from three local brokerages with real estate agents who help consumers buy and sell homes, comparing listing search results to those found on two national portals, Trulia and Zillow, which operate almost exclusively online. In the markets analyzed, the study concluded: Local real estate brokerage sites display 100% of the agent-listed homes for sale compared to about 80% for [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:51-07:00October 3rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases, Reports|25 Comments

Leveraging Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics

I am a big fan of client servicing portals that leverage full MLS data rather than IDX data. The key here is that the consumer can see the full compliment of business intelligence powered by the MLS. Clearly, days on market, price changes over time, and recent sales history in the area are the fundamental elements of understanding listing price. Market Analytics are really helpful in informing predictions on what will happen in the near term for hyper local markets and hyper refined property attributes. If days on market for a 2 bedroom condominium in a building in San Francisco [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:51-07:00October 1st, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|5 Comments

The funny economics of public companies

Zillow has a market valuation of over $1B. They are authorizing 3.5 Million more shares and raising north of another $140 Million-ish in cash (they can sell up to 4 million shares if they have heavy demand, and their stock is around $42 to $42 per share). It is amazing stuff. Smart stuff. With that kind of cash, Zillow can take strong positions in any area of the real estate industry that interests them: Buy a national brokerage, buy a national MLS vendor, buy leading companies that provide any number of agent or broker services, etc. Cash is King - [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:52-07:00September 10th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category|2 Comments

Great Companies Execute Effectively

Marilyn Wilson's post yesterday set off a storm. The DMV, known for its historically horrid service experience has changed their ways. They do a good job, at least here in San Luis Obsipo, CA. When WAV Group is providing strategic planning support to an MLS, Association, Technology company, or broker - we measure stuff. There is usually a comparison chart created that shows a checklist of features or service offerings that compares company or product A vs. company or product B, C, and D. This is an important exercise and the information drawn from this type of benchmarking is helpful [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:54-07:00August 16th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Zillow brings battle to Listhub

Zillow launched a preemptive strike against Listhub yesterday by requesting IDX feeds from the nation's MLS providers. Zillow Executive Bob Bemis sent an email to all MLS CEOs and Executives titled "Why two data feeds when one will do." In the email, Bemis admits that Zillow.com is focused on improving data accuracy and timeliness. The note goes on to explain that Zillow's IDX service, Diverse Solutions, already has the data, why not allow Zillow to use it for Zillow.com so Zillow can circumvent their reliance on Listhub data feeds. A battle ensued when Listhub got word that Zillow was calling them out on [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:56-07:00July 3rd, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|6 Comments

Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?
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Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation

Are App Stores the Next Zillow or Trulia?

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to the idea of App Stores in the real estate technology industry and it has raised a number of questions that I want to put out there to inspire a conversation with the industry. Let me say right up front that I am not neutral in this discussion, as I am one of the founders of RE Technology which has, as an option, the ability to create an eCommerce store which is different, but related to, an App store. My partner Victor did a great job of discussing the differences in his [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:25:01-07:00May 16th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights, Product Management, Technology Evaluation|3 Comments

Onboard Targets ListHub Reports with New Product

In a press release found below, Onboard announced the launch of Listings 360 insight Advisor. This product is a reporting solution like Listhub Reports, and FREE! However, Listings 360 does not include syndication at this time. The first customer in line to release the product is Chicago multiple listing service provider, Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). Connecticut MLS (CTMLS) and Metropolitan Regional MLS (MRIS) have also licensed the solution for their subscribers. WAV Group spoke to MRED CEO, Russ Bergeron to understand the strategy behind the launch. Bergeron indicated that MRED likes to offer more than one product option when [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:03-07:00May 9th, 2012|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights, Press Releases|3 Comments