Disneyland and MLS

A few weeks ago we took an RE Technology staff member to Disneyland for her birthday.  She is in her 30s and had never been.  We all had a blast, even in the cold and the rain. As a consultant and entrepreneur, I take note of excellence.  Everything we touched and everywhere we went, and everybody we encountered from Disney was excellent.  The trip to Disneyland was as much about learning how to provide awesome service as it was about celebrating a team member’s birthday.  I am sure that there are a thousand books about doing business the “Disney Way,” [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:13-07:00February 28th, 2010|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Facebook use by MLS

WAV Group has worked with many of the Nation's MLSs to develop their social media strategy.  I tend to follow a bunch of REALTOR Association and MLS fan pages to see examples of using social media to stay connected to members/subscribers (lets call them customers).  Now I celebrate whenever I see an MLS or Association using Facebook correctly. In general, the principal business component of a social media strategy is to publish information that connects with customers and redirects them to information that enhances the provider-supplier relationship.  The principal social component is to listen to your customers to better understand [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 25th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Palm may face obsolesce

WAV Group has been following the story of Palm Inc, the makers of the most popular handset among real estate professionals.  Palm raised private equity last year from a group led by U2 singer Bono in an effort to launch their competitor to the iPhone, Google Android, and the popular Blackberry devices that have taken significant market share away from the smartphone handset pioneer.  If you are considering a mobile phone today and a new two year contract, choosing a Palm may be a mistake. Palm rolled out its new Pre and Pixi phones in an attempt to regain lost [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 25th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Who will tie the data together in the MLS world?

If you have worked in the MLS world as long as I have you know how many moving parts there are in terms of technology to run the organization effectively.  With the creation of RETS, the so called “standard", the use of multiple modules to provide services has increased even more.  What has been obvious to me for many years looking at the industry’s technology, however, is that no one has done a good job of pulling all of the important data points together for the MLSs so they can run their organizations more effectively. Today, MLS systems do a [...]

A possible real estate mapping feature for MLS.

A new clue emerged today about the future of real estate mapping. The University of Washington and Cornell University are working together to build mathematical models that will use photos to dynamically build three-dimensional renderings of buildings, neighborhoods and potentially entire cities.  The name for this project is called PhotoCity. PhotoCity is a process whereby multiple two-dimensional photos are combined to generate mathematical scale to buildings.  Microsoft has commercialized this process with a product they call Photosynth.  Microsoft has failed in scaling their Photosynth service to cover any significant geographic region. PhotoCity has a plan that may be prime for [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 23rd, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Is your team working hard or just burning out?

Ellie Mirman from Ellie Mirman.com posted a great article about the rules for maximizing productivity of work teams.  I think there are some great lessons to be learned from a presentation from a blog called The Chief Happiness Officer. Working more than 40 hours leads to decreased productivity. You can get a short-term boost by working more hours, but the team will require a recovery period that counteracts the seeming short-term productivity boost.  Working on Sundays and evenings can be helpful in the short-term to provide support to a potential client, but the team will required to recover from long hours can [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 18th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Attention Mobile Application Developers – AT&T is here to help

AT&T announced a new program today to encourage better collaboration for building new generation mobile and wired broadband application. There could be interesting opportunities for the real estate industry to become part of building and deploying leading edge mobile technologies for real estate consumers. AT&T Announces Plans to Open Innovation Centers to Spur Development of New-Generation Mobile and Wired Broadband Applications, Devices Facilities to Support AT&T LTE Trials and Testing Beginning Later this Year AT&T Inc.* today announced plans to establish AT&T Innovation Centers to drive development of next-generation devices, applications and equipment that expand the capabilities of mobile and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 18th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Should MLSs change their business model and sell to google

Every now and then, you see a company get acquired for an absurd amount of money and wonder why.  In this case, we know very little, but let me frame something. According to the WSJ, vark was founded in late 2007 by two former Google employees and raised $7.5 million in venture capital.  The company has about 90,000 subscribers (think MRIS, MRED and MLSListings). It lets users create their networks by importing contacts from their email accounts and social profiles like facebook.  It says its search engine considers people’s profiles, connections, people’s favorite things and location when matching questions with [...]

By |2010-02-12T20:09:46-08:00February 12th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

Can an MLS provide data to third parties without broker consent

The law offices of Larson/Sobotka have written a very good article on their blog about the NAR policy that limits the actions of an MLS to redistribute or repurpose broker (participant) data without the consent of the broker.   Larson writes: “If your MLS is affiliated with NAR and subject to NAR policy, it is bound by NAR Statement of MLS Policy 7.85: Use of listings and listing information by MLSs for purposes other than the defined purposes of MLS requires participants consent. Such consent cannot be required as a condition of obtaining or maintaining MLS participatory rights. MLSs may presume such [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:14-07:00February 10th, 2010|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Sneak Peek of RE Technology in MRIS

As you may know from the August Press Release, RE Technology will soon be launching in MRIS, MRED and MLSListings.com.  RE Technology was created to allow an MLS to deliver a directory of technology vendors, product reviews, and product news to keep their members informed about the best tools and services available today. If you are a technology vendor, be sure to join the more than 400 companies who have registered for the free directory here. If you are an MLS or REALTOR Association - you may offer RE Technology subscriptions to your members too.  Just send a note or [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:15-07:00February 8th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments

2010 Real Trends 500 Applications are Due Soon! Don’t miss out!

It is time once again for the annual REAL Trends 500 Survey.  If your brokerage firm closed more than 500 transaction sides in 2009, you qualify to participate in this year's ranking.  Making this prestigious list can be a great marketing tool for your firm.  It's a great honor to be featured with the most progressive and successful firms in the industry. The REAL TRENDS 500 Survey highlights the companies that sold the most homes and the most dollar volume in the past 12 months. The deadline to submit an application is FEBRUARY 28th, 2010 so don't miss out! All [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:26:15-07:00February 5th, 2010|Main category|0 Comments