Down on the Farm with Data

The most famous mash-up of valuation data and marketing applications was Zillow’s “Zestimate,” the centerpiece of Zillow’s national launch in 2006.  Zillow’s PR folks at the time positioned their new tool aggressively.  I was VP of Public Affairs at NAR at the time, and I will never forget the phone calls we received from national reporters suggesting that maybe now consumers would no longer need Realtors to sell their homes because they could find out their home values online. Though the early Zestimates needed further refinement, there’s no doubt that the launch was a tremendous PR success.  Automated valuation models [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:03-07:00October 19th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments
Read More

Schmooze vs. Substance – What are YOU using to make Technology Decisions?

Let’s face it. We operate in a very social industry.  We’re all a bunch of sales people. We love to go to parties, catch that final drink at the bar after dinner and attend swanky events sponsored by technology companies. In general, we just love to schmooze!  Its part of our real estate DNA! I definitely count myself on the list of schmoozers. We host at least three parties a year and countless dinners and events beyond that. They are a great way to get to know people and start new relationships. All of this networking is great, but we [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:04-07:00October 19th, 2016|Broker Technology Research|0 Comments
Read More

MLSs and Brokers Misunderstand RESO

Our industry is in the dawn of a new day. With some measure of struggle, the Nations’ MLSs and their Vendors have endeavored to adopt a set of standard fields for standardized data transportation from the MLS system to applications that support the real estate industry.  I consider this the dawn of the effort because, for the very first time, MLS adoption of the real estate standards are more strictly mandated by the National Association of REALTORS® MLS Policy. For years, the National Association of REALTORS® supported and funded the Real Estate Standards Organization, which is referred to by its [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:04-07:00October 7th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, MLS Insights|0 Comments
Read More

5 MUST HAVES for your 2017 MLS Budget

We’re getting to budget time again and  starting to think about what products and services that MLS’s should offer their members in 2017 and beyond. MLSs, of course, need to continue to offer their core MLS system, but there are a few other areas to consider as you move into your next budget planning cycle that will help your members.  WAV Group believes you should offer products and services that are designed to address a core need of your subscribers.  No MLS should offer a technology just because it’s exciting or new. They ALL need to address a fundamental challenge [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:04-07:00September 28th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, MLS Insights|0 Comments
Read More

What’s the Real Value of Portal Marketing?

A recent survey of over 120 broker-owners and senior leaders at some of the top real estate firms in the U.S. and Canada revealed an apparent disconnect between revenue goals and business strategies. According to the survey, 85% of brokerages focus their marketing investments on lead generation activities– despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of sales are the result of repeat clients and past client referrals. Clearly, agents and brokers are spending too much time and money marketing on portals when long-view strategies produce a better return-on-investment. While lead generation is an undeniably important tactic for targeting specific market segments, [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:05-07:00September 19th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Marketing, Product Management|0 Comments
Read More

3 Takeaways From The Florida Realtors Convention

In Orlando, Florida, the energy was electric, the attendance was impressive (several thousand) and the headliner was Jay Leno. Florida Realtors marked their 100th anniversary with a bash that will be long remembered, a hallmark salute to the accomplishments of one of the largest and most enduring state trade associations in America. For me, it was a return trip to a convention I knew well, having been an architect of a major sponsorship by my one time employer, Great Western Bank, many decades ago. The quick trip I took from Seattle to Orlando was well worth the investment, and it brought a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:05-07:00September 14th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments
Read More

How Do Top Homes.com and Realtor.com Compare?

Since internet is among the top three most important methods of generating real estate leads and online listing sites rank as one of the most valuable tools, every agent is challenged to leverage these resources for creating, capturing, and closing leads. But, how can agents effectively compare the value propositions of marketing on the most popular real estate sites? An analysis of online marketing solutions from Realtor.com and Homes.com show that their marketing tools stack up pretty solidly when compared side by side, offering a range of options to suit any agent’s CRM strategy, marketing budget, and revenue goals. Both [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:06-07:00September 8th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, Technology Evaluation|0 Comments
Read More

BHGRE Metro Brokers Shares Zap Story

WAV Group was very fortunate to spend time with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers (Metro Brokers) Chief Operating Officer, Craig McClelland to learn about their role out of the highly touted Zap platform. The Zap platform is the strategic technology brokerage solution developed by ZapLabs (formerly ZipRealty) that is being rolled out to all of the REALOGY® Franchise Group brands, ergo 250,000 real estate professionals. WAV Group was surprised by the Metro Brokers announcement that they were launching Zap this early in the roll out. Metro Brokers is a huge Atlanta, GA brokerage firm with 1930 agents and [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:06-07:00September 6th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Technology Evaluation|0 Comments
Read More

CoreLogic Earns Real Estate’s Top Award as “Most Innovative” Company

When you dominate an industry by market share as CoreLogic does in real estate, there are certain adjectives that become elusive. One of them is “innovative.” That’s because Conventional Wisdom in real estate says that when it comes to tech firms, it’s only the ones with the shiniest and newest objects – run by the new kids on the block – that are deemed innovative. Certainly, it’s not a word typically used to describe a company founded in the early 1990s. Yet about 10 days ago, something remarkable happened in the City of San Francisco, one of the bastions of [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:07-07:00August 17th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Press Releases|0 Comments
Read More

What Does Your Website Say About You?

Websites are the public faces of real estate professionals.  No other single marketing tool comes close to equalling the importance of a  website.  They deliver the first images and words about an agent or a brokerage that prospective clients and customers see. If a site doesn’t connect with  consumers in a matter of seconds; that first impression could be a real estate professional’s last chance to win a new account.  Sites that consistently fail to be compelling can do serious damage to a perfectly competent real estate practice. Yet hundreds of thousands of agents and brokers publish sites that miss [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:07-07:00August 16th, 2016|Broker Technology Research|0 Comments
Read More

Social Networks vs. Local Expertise: A New Challenge for Brokerages

The opinions and experiences of friends and acquaintances have always shaped the way people think about buying, owning and selling homes.  New research suggests that the social networks that influence attitudes towards real estate decision-making today are more likely to be national, not local, and the consequences could be serious.  Thus, consumers are making critical decisions about buying, selling, owning or renting in part based not on conditions in the markets where they live but on the experiences of friends who may live across the continent. The new way people think about real estate presents real challenges to real estate [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:08-07:00August 16th, 2016|Broker Technology Research|0 Comments
Read More

Impact of CoreLogic and Graphiq Deal

Earlier this month, Santa Barbara based Graphiq and CoreLogic announced an agreement between the two companies. As it turns out, Graphiq has been providing services to other areas of CoreLogic before expanding their relationship to the Real Estate Solutions group managed by Chris Bennett. Graphiq is a company that takes big data and turns it into something they call Visualizations (think graphs and charts). There are two features which make Graphiq unique. First is that Graphiq can handle CoreLogic’s volume of property data and second, they provide visualizations that are embeddable, update dynamically, and can be accessed using an API. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:08-07:00August 16th, 2016|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments
Read More
WAV Group | Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved.