WAV Group

In response to: What is a VOW and how can it help you grow your business?

@ Chris - Check with your MLS. If Listingbook is not available, let them know that they can offer it as a member benefit for free. In the interim, try mlsfinder.com by wolfnet technologies. Ask them for the VOW-IDX combo product.

In response to: What is a VOW and how can it help you grow your business?

Hi, I'm a somewhat tech-savvy newbie realtor and interested in implementing an IDX site, but VOW sounds worth comparing. Listing Book is only available in a few states it seems? How can we find a Virtual Office vendor in our own market? Interesting stuff...

In response to: Housing Economic Summary from Jim Welsh

All Good Points Chris. I hate to spread the bummer information, but real estate brokers and vendors need to manage their cash flows accordingly. Tight credit markets make it difficult to raise capital to buoy businesses that may be in trouble during this economic downturn. Hold your cash tight to your vest.

In response to: Housing Economic Summary from Jim Welsh

Well aren't you and Jim just a couple rays of sunshine today :-D

Unfortunately, I hope we're all wrong too, but don't think we will be proven so. The unemployment numbers out today, showing it at 9.5%, are further going to add downward pressure on home prices. It is just hard to see past the simple math that many of those nearly 10% will not be able to keep paying their mortgages.

Jobs are the fuel for the economic fire and until the bleeding stops there, I do not see our economy nor housing turning around. Hiring is the indicator on my radar.

In response to: Replacing your Palm Treo - choose Blackberry

I still am using my old reliable Palm Treo, not for the IR lockbox but for the very easy texting and use of all features. I tryed to replace my Treo 2 years ago with a Blackberry Pearl thinking it would be wonderful. I can never text or even type happly.

The Email is great, the navigation is good when it works. Too many calls to the help desk makes me not trust it anymore. I was thinking of trying the new Palm Pre or IPhone so that I can get back to just one phone.

What blackberry are you using to recommend?

In response to: Would Brokers get better conversion on thier website with advertising?

When I was at (company named removed) we acquired (company name removed) which is a lead aggregator for the moving vertical. Their site historically did not accept 3rd party advertising for fear of cannibalizing their conversion of consumers completing a lead form. The day the deal closed our company introduced an ad footprint averaging 3 ads/page. We experienced nearly a 30% increase in lead conversions with 3rd party ads on the page.

In response to: Bing goes bonkers to Google dismay

Bing and Google are both great tools, but they do not encompass all the tools that a true real estate seeker needs. For the last 2+ years we have been developing a full real estate search engine, complete with a interactive map and home comparable engine.

Bing and Google can spider and log the results but the true power is in being able to analyze the data. That is where is become complex, being able to deliver the data in a user friendly way where people can easily get the data they need. That is what we hope to deliver at www.homeprodigy.com.

In response to: Our ugly little secret called Days on Market

Days on Market (DOM) is a subjective measurement that will always have shades of grey associated with it. In an industry that is increasingly driven by real-time alerts and "hot sheets", the impetus to re-mint a listing as New, is also increased.

Simply relisting a property accomplishes this in many cases.
When do you say that a listing went on the market? In the Houston MLS we have put together a system that places an asterisks * next to the DOM if the property has been previously listed in the last 12 months. This alerts any Realtor in the MLS that they might want to take a look at the Property Archive Report (PAR) to see the listing and sales history of that property.

DOM is more a measure of how well a property was initially priced and professionally marketed in the first place rather than an indication of overall market conditions. It would be a mistake to attempt to turn it into an important market metric. It is inherently unreliable.

Implementing restrictive policies on the sale and relisting of properties could result in the unintended punishment of the initial broker by giving the seller a reason to switch brokers, if that was the only way to "refresh" a listing and call it "New".

DOM is a field that can be useful to an trained professional with access to a Property Archive Report. The asterisks * alerts that professional to the additional information in the PAR, so they can help their client assess market conditions for that property.

The PAR is only as accurate as the MLS data is. Addresses need to be standardized and TAX IDs verified in order to correctly report on the history of each MLS listed property.