Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

2014 may well be the year of the broker, or as they are referred to in MLS speak, the year of the Participant. If your MLS has adopted the National Association of REALTORS® template for MLS Rules and Regulations, you will find that brokers are Participants and agents are Subscribers. As a Participant in the MLS, brokers accept full responsibility to adhere to MLS rules and regulations. The MLS does a pretty good job of enforcing those rules. But who among you is making sure that the MLS is not running afoul? WAV Group MLS clients are traditionally the largest [...]

Top 5 Articles of the Week

5 Facebook Tips and 51 Status Updates for Real Estate Professionals It's easier to hate Facebook than admit we don't understand how to make it work for our business. The reality is when used effectively, Facebook can put you in front of hundreds or even thousands of people for little or not cost.  Three Simple Steps to Boost Your SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an easy (and free!) way to make sure your website appears at the top of a Google search. Improving your SEO means that you are taking specific steps to help get your website and listings [...]

Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

For the last half of a decade, the real estate industry has taken blow after blow. Through grace, we have recovered as an industry and that has a profound impact on homeowners and REALTORS® alike. The number of families losing their home to foreclosure has reset to reasonable levels. WAV Group facilitated nearly two-dozen strategic plans for some of our industry’s most significant market makers. In many cases, boards of directors are thinking pretty big. They are taking on difficult policy issues including syndication, data licensing, and data management. If these organizations accomplish half of what they have set as [...]

Broker Intellectual Property At Risk

Many real estate brokers are being asked to sign new MLS Participant Agreements. The cause for a new agreement is based upon the MLSs efforts to support real estate brokers to protect their intellectual property. This is a very important initiative that every broker should take very seriously. Every broker should also consult with their attorney to discuss ramifications and meet with the MLS in a forum to discuss the best path. There are a couple cases before state supreme courts (MD and MN) that are ruling on the ability for the MLS to defend the intellectual property rights when [...]

Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool!

Build Broker Support of your MLS Consumer Website with this FREE tool! MLS Consumer Facing websites collectively deliver millions of leads and thousands of inquiries for their subscribers every year.  In every market that I have evaluated the MLS delivers 2 to 3 times the number of inquiries that any other leading third party site does including Zillow and Trulia.  Sadly, most brokers and agents are not aware of this amazing value they receive from their MLSs. I solidly believe that if MLSs did a better job of communicating the amazing marketing value of these sites, brokers of all sizes [...]

Choosing the Right Right

Real estate business consulting firms wear a lot of hats. When we are hired, our goal is to serve our clients goals as master - never our own goals. It's a unique mindset. National Association of REALTORS® annual conventions are a keen reminder of this paradigm. In a single day, it was commonplace to speak strategy with technology companies; brokers; Associations of REALTORS® (National, State, Megaboard); Association governed MLS, broker governed MLS, broker owned and governed MLS. Perhaps the only oddity is that there is no example of a broker owned, Association governed MLS. Same Issue, Different Rights I think [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 18th, 2013|Main category|1 Comment

Jason Raya Joins RE Technology

Arroyo Grande, CA (December 16, 2013) – The real estate technology leaders at RE Technology (www.RETechnology.com) today announced the appointment of Jason Raya as Manager of Business Development. Raya will be maintaining the company's key relationships with advertisers and technology partners and onboarding new companies to the portal. "We're excited to have Jason on board," says Victor Lund, CEO of RE Technology. "It's challenging to find someone who is well-versed in our industry. Jason's real estate and communication expertise will only enhance our ability to support our technology vendor relationships." Raya brings six years of internet marketing and entrepreneurial expertise [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:21-07:00December 17th, 2013|Main category, Press Releases|1 Comment

MOVE and AOL Part Ways

This is probably snooze news, but the agreement between realtor.com and AOL that powers http://realestate.aol.com is going by the wayside. The two companies terminated their agreement mutually. Zillow jumped in and will not get that traffic - so if you publish your listings to Zillow today, they will also appear on realestate.aol.com. Here are the details that were just circulated to the media. When will this agreement end? ·         December 18, 2013 @8 am PST Why is this relationship ending? ·         AOL and Move have mutually decided to discontinue our relationship. In 2014, Move will be focused on connecting more directly with [...]

By |2017-12-27T12:56:09-08:00December 16th, 2013|Main category|1 Comment

Some Brokers Really Suck

LoserWAV Group is blessed to work with some excellent brokers. We have never worked for an agent unless it was through their broker. Regardless, we try to keep the agent in clear perspective because agent retention and recruiting are the mantra of the best brokerages in America. Yesterday, I ran across the path of a brokerage that really sucks. Here is the story. A young family with three children struggled with a stay at home mom who nurtured each babe through adolescence and into first grade. The mother was raised a dancer and supplemented her sanity and the family income [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:22-07:00December 16th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category|0 Comments

How Great Companies React To Feedback

AgentMatch from realtor.com  was a solution that was tested in two real estate markets – Boulder, CO and Las Vegas, TX. The pilot program was developed as a service to connect consumers with agents based on performance, interests and recommendation data. Putting aside the debate about the strengths or weaknesses of this form of rating an agent, there is plenty to learn from how it was rolled out, how feedback was generated, and how the company reacted to the feedback. Pre-roll Out Decisions With any new service, the first question should be opt-in or opt-out. WAV Group has always recommended [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:22-07:00December 13th, 2013|Broker-Agent Information, Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Top 5 Broker Website Trends for 2014

There is a significant gap in the depth of information found on listing portals vs. broker websites today. Aside from marketing acumen and marketing investment, the quality of the experience is simply better on many portal sites. A few years ago, portals dominated brokerages with map search. As brokers got a handle on that, portals evolved with the single, Googlesque search bar. Most good broker sites have gotten a handle on that now too. But the bar continues to move in new directions. The biggest gap seems to be the information contained on the listing detail page. I had a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:22-07:00December 11th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Support MLS Domains Association

WAV Group would like to share an update that was released today from the MLS Domains Association. If you are not familiar with the initiative, it is a collaboration of companies that seek to buy the domain extension of DotMLS. ICANN, which is the international group that determines domain extensions is in the business of licensing domains to legitimate parties. Determining what a Legitimate Party is can be quite a cumbersome (and expensive) task. .Com, .Biz, .Gov, and all of the county domains like.CA.IT and the like have already been issued. ICANN became widely known when they issued.XXX. ICANN is [...]