Upstream Adjusts and Improves

WAV Group has played a humble role in the evolution of Upstream from a concept to where it is today. The effort has been shaped by the deep involvement of leading technologists from across the brokerage and franchise community. This week, we have been pummeled by questions arising out of their recent announcement during the 2017 Midyear REALTORS LEGISLATIVE MEETINGS & TRADE EXPO in Washington D.C. Upstream is a bright concept for improving data management in real estate today. If you understand the laws of America, you understand that Licensed Real Estate Brokers supervise agent and consumer real property transactions [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:47-07:00May 31st, 2017|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|0 Comments

The Problem With Real Estate Is That Nobody Cares About Quality

As a Founding Partner at WAV Group consulting, I have the opportunity to talk to fund managers about their investments in real estate. Some investors are focused on supporting public companies such as Realogy, RE/MAX and others are betting against them with short positions. The truth is that we do not ever know the position of the investors when they ask questions. We just answer them as best we can. On a call this morning, I was asked a profound question about customer experience in two parts. Part 1. What brand has the highest customer satisfaction rating? Part 2. What [...]

HomeSmart Acquires Large Colorado Brokerage in Exponential Growth Move

HomeSmart has acquired Cherry Creek Properties, a large real estate brokerage serving the Denver, Colo., metropolitan area, the company announced Wednesday. The acquisition makes HomeSmart the No. 1 real estate firm in the state based on agent count, according to the company. The addition of Cherry Creek Properties’ 1,500-plus agents brings the firm’s total agent count to over 13,000, and widens its reach to 123 offices in 16 states. HomeSmart and its franchises’ closed sales volume, combined with Cherry Creek Properties’, totaled more than $14.6 billion in 2016, with more than 53,000 in closed transactions, according to RISMedia’s Power Broker [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:47-07:00May 31st, 2017|Broker-Agent Information, Press Releases|0 Comments

Highlights and Lowlights at NAR Midyear

The REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo is a mouthful, so we all just call it NAR Midyear. This one was a scorcher: both inside, as Upstream was the hot topic, and outside, as the temperatures were in the 90s in mid-May and the humidity made me remember why everyone leaves D.C. in August (except the tourists). CMLS Brings it to the Table For me, this was the highlight of the conference and it really isn’t even officially part of Midyear. It’s a tangential track that the Council of Multiple Listing Services hosted at American University, about 15 minutes north [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:47-07:00May 25th, 2017|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Putting Storytelling Back Into a News Release

The art of storytelling is celebrated today as one of the most effective ways to communicate. When I first started practicing public relations, the most effective news releases were the ones that told a story. They were called feature news releases. I’m not sure what happened to them, but over the years, that term has all but disappeared from the PR vernacular. In fact, Google yields a paltry 5,700 search results for the term, which makes me very sad, as it once was the most effective way to get a reporter or editor’s attention. It was a great way to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:49-07:00May 25th, 2017|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

New! FREE RESO Marketing Toolkit!

Help brokers understand how RESO standardized data delivered via the RESO Web API will help them bring new technology solutions to market and differentiate their messaging, lead gen, market statistics and green marketing. Thanks to MLSs across the country who have done a great job of embracing the Real Estate Standards Organization, the RESO Data Dictionary and RESO Web API. Today, 93% of all REALTORS® in America work with MLSs that are RESO Certified. Congratulations! In practical terms that means that brokers can now improve their ability to capture leads, save searches across multiple devices, promote green properties and take [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:49-07:00May 25th, 2017|Broker Technology Research, Marketing|0 Comments

Your MLS is a Lead-Generation Machine – But Do Your Members Know That?

Think about this for a second: The more highly qualified leads that an MLS generates all represent clients who are serious about buying or selling a home. It makes sense. If those buyers are smart enough to be looking at an MLS or brokerage website instead of combing a portal at 2 a.m. for a home, then they’re probably a more serious buyer or homeowner looking at whether the time is right to sell their home. So why do MLSs insist on selling their ability to generate serious business opportunities short?  MLSs are lead-generation machines that give brokers a bounty [...]

Pacific Union Delivers On International Reach

WAV Group has been studying broker website effectiveness for more than a decade. One area of interest is global reach. When we look at Google Analytics, we study traffic to understand the level of visibility that brokers are achieving for their websites internationally. Over the past 12 months, Pacific Union International has been living up to their name by expanding their international reach. Driving International Reach International reach has largely been a listing tool in real estate. Even in global cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, we see that 85% of buyers come from the immediate [...]

Top 5 Ways to Transform Your Office Managers Into Sales Success Coaches

None of the brokers we’ve worked with believe that their office managers are doing what they are supposed to be doing — sales training. Instead, they act more like den mothers. When they could be working on sales coaching or recruiting, office managers are consoling agents who lost big deals, troubleshooting broken printers, or retrieving lost MLS passwords. It’s too easy for office managers to spend the day putting out a series of small fires. Its easy to use all of those daily tasks as excuses for not focusing on the most important roles that managers are responsible for. The [...]

ELM STREET TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC ACQUISITION OF CONSOLIDATED KNOWLEDGE

May 23, 2017 – Greensboro, NC – Today, Elm Street Technology (EST) announced the acquisition of Consolidated Knowledge, a technology platform provider to the residential real estate and multi-family industries. This acquisition is the next step in EST’s ongoing efforts to consolidate the real estate industry’s leading technology and marketing service providers. Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of strategic moves EST has made in recent months to create a portfolio of marketing and technology products and services that, when integrated, offer a single technology solution providing lead generation to client retention services for agents, teams, brokers and [...]

CRMLS Agrees to Offer Remine to its 82,000 Subscribers

by MARILYN WILSON on MAY 16, 2017 Remine is at it again!  In recent months, the company has forged partnerships with several of the nation’s largest MLSs. CRMLS will be launching the product to its 82,000 members according to the press release issued today.  Remine is taking the industry by storm.  Every MLS I work with across the country seems to be looking at this exciting new product. Remine is an intelligent service marrying social media profiles with home ownership factors to help agents identify prospects and then use social media to advertise to them.  The company has deep expertise in [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:49-07:00May 16th, 2017|MLS Insights, Press Releases|0 Comments

Metro Market Trends, Inc. Welcomes Brenda Carnegie

Metro Market Trends, Inc. (MMT), a subsidiary of RealtyWEB.Net, is pleased to announce that Brenda Carnegie has joined the MMT team as a Business Development Consultant. Brenda has served in the real estate industry for over 25 years starting as an MLS Director in Clearwater, Florida.  She has held positions with Interealty (now part of CoreLogic), Realist, and Coldwell Banker Residential. Brenda was responsible for managing MLS system installations, sales and member support, as well as developing and implementing Broker-based solutions. Brenda was part of the realtor.com® Industry Relations Team from 2009-2015 as Director of Industry Relations, providing support to Associations/MLSs in [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:50-07:00May 16th, 2017|Marketing, Press Releases|0 Comments