Main category Archives

Is the technology bubble over?

In a report released on November 15th, we see that Technology spending may be getting worse this holiday season, but it is not as bad as other sectors. 14% of consumers plan to spend more on technology this year than they did in years past. Unfortunately, 29% intend to spend less on technology than in years past. The good news is that at 14%, Technology is the leading sector across all industries for increased spending. Books and Apparel come in a close second with 13% intention to spend more. Music and videos did not fair much better with 40% and [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 18th, 2011|Main category|0 Comments

My Florida Homes MLS presents their Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Carolina Panthers My Flyaway Giveaway

MyFloridaHomesMLS.com launched their My Flyaway promotion giving people a chance to win a VIP Flyaway to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Carolina Panthers game on December 11th. The Grand prize includes flight tickets to Jacksonville, in-flight meal, VIP transportation to and from the game, pre-game hospitality, and 2 tickets to the game. MyFloridaHomesMLS.com is also offering 5 Second Place Prizes which include 4 tickets to the December 4th Buccaneers home game vs. the Carolina Panthers. […]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 17th, 2011|Main category|4 Comments

Why MLS sold data is bad, and a note about the comma

Oversights are interesting. They are even more interesting when they are fixed. Let me explain a little bit about “reporting Sales to the (MLS) Service” in the model MLS rules. Up until the recent meeting of the MLS Issues and Policies Committee meeting at the NAR Annual Convention, agents were required to change the listing status to Sold when a transaction closed. This is a case whereby the rule did not clearly indicate the behavior. As written, the agent was required to update the status of the listing, not enter the sale price from the contract. This is a significant [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:22-07:00November 16th, 2011|Main category, MLS Insights, Virtual Office Website Series|0 Comments

RatedAgent Provides Ear to Ear Smiles

What’s More Painful: A Root Canal or Finding a Real Estate Agent? With RatedAgent.com, It’s Now Ear-to-Ear Smiles With the Launch Today of the First-of-its-Kind Website, Consumers Can Now Access Objective, Customer Satisfaction Scores from Actual Home Buyers and Sellers Traditionally, finding a real estate agent to help buy or sell a home has been a hit or miss proposition at best. No longer. Beginning today and at no cost, consumers can get honest, unfiltered reviews about agents written by actual home buyers and sellers — and then even select an agent — using the nation’s first-ever objective real [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00November 8th, 2011|Main category|0 Comments

Nielsen credits HAR and Zillow among others

When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness, there is little argument that Nielsen is the leader. Nielsen believes that providing clients with a precise understanding of the consumer is the key to making the right decisions — decisions that can lead to profitable growth. At Nielsen, they are always innovating to keep pace with emerging market trends and the increasingly diverse, demanding and connected consumer. Joining Nielsen is the Houston Association of REALTORS, Zillow, a few dozen brokerages, and about 500 of the more than 1 Million REALTORS in America today. These REALTORS are the bold, the true, the transparant, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00November 7th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, Marketing, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Metrolist Names Interim COO Following Bybee Resignation

Metrolist, Inc.®, the largest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serving Colorado, today announced that Kirby Slunaker has been named the company’s interim COO following Patricia Bybee’s resignation as CEO. Mr. Slunaker brings over 20 years of experience in leading information technology for a broad range of top companies, including Pendum LLC, MDC Holdings, eBags, FedEx, and VISA USA. He is a former Chairman of and currently serves on, the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee for the Colorado Technology Association (formerly CSIA), Colorado’s premier technology trade association. In his new role with Metrolist, Mr. Slunaker will be assisted in the [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00November 3rd, 2011|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

CMLS reviews pending IDX policy changes

I am a big fan of CMLS, the acronym for the Council of MLS. The Council does more than any other organization to support best practices among MLS service providers. Today, CMLS hosted a member webinar that provided a 360-degree overview of the pending IDX rule change, a consideration that will be discussed and submitted to the NAR Board of Directors for approval at the NAR Convention in Anaheim. The suggestions to the NAR Board of directors from the call were simple. Cathy Holefelder of Heartland MLS provided a great summary of the call and suggested this synthesized overview. – [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:23-07:00October 31st, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Technology Evaluation|0 Comments

A proposal to work together and create a national MLS Consumer site
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A proposal to work together and create a national MLS Consumer site

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A proposal to work together and create a national MLS Consumer site

We recently received an interesting white paper/article from the CEO of the CTMLS, Cameron Paine, on the rationale for creating a national MLS consumer website. Cameron raises some very interesting ideas in his paper which you can read in its entirety on this post. This article highlights something WAV Group brings up at every strategic planning meeting and every conference we attend…we spend too much time in our industry working against each rather than cooperating. Separate agendas are being pushed at every level from national to state to local. There is an urgent need for our industry to work together [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 31st, 2011|Main category|3 Comments

A New Perspective on Google+

Like so many other geeks, technos, and socialphiles – I jumped on the Google+ bandwagon as soon as it came out. I must confess, I did the same on Linkedin so may years ago. Remember Plaxo? In any case, I was not very impressed Google+ on first glance. I doubt anyone was. My first complaint was that the same people I connect with on Twitter and Facebook were on Google+. Why bother? As a result, I would not even think to look at Google+. Today, am beginning to see the +1 button show up on all of the blogs and [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 29th, 2011|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments

Change hurts

Perhaps there is a new chief executive, a new business strategy, an MLS conversion, a new product launch, a merger, a new data share, or a dramatically altered competitive landscape, in the real estate world, big change means big risk. In other words, company performance may rise like a rocket or fall like a rock. The only thing it’s not likely to do is stay the same. Change may be inevitable, but big change is scary, nevertheless. And how you deal with it plays a big role in the outcome. In just the past few weeks, we’ve seen big change in the works [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 28th, 2011|Main category|0 Comments

Rhode Island State Wide Multiple Listing Selects Bridge RETS IQ Contact Server

Rhode Island State-Wide MLS announced this week that they have chosen to work with the Bridge Interactive Group to manage their RETS data process. Mike Letendre, Chief Information Officer at State-Wide MLS, noted they chose Bridge Interactive for “…its advanced reporting tools, ability to control access to our listing database, ease of use, and affordability”. Bridge offers solutions for listing syndication control, RETS data usage and monitoring, account management and billing, and add/edit functionality via its RETS IQ product suite. Bridge technologies are used by MLS System Vendors, MLSs, Brokers, and more than 280,000 agents. Press Release [...]

By THE WAV GROUP|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 26th, 2011|Main category|0 Comments

Peter Shuttleworth Named First CMLS Hall of Fame Award Recipient

Morrisville, N.C. (October 21, 2011) – The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) recently inducted industry veteran and CMLS charter member, Peter Shuttleworth, into the Hall of Fame at the Annual Conference on October 6 in Tucson, Ariz. He became the first person to receive the CMLS Hall of Fame designation, which was established earlier this year to recognize outstanding individual contributions made through dedicated service to the association and the industry. “We are so very excited that Peter is our very first inductee into the CMLS Hall of Fame – the standard to receive this award has been set [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:25:25-07:00October 22nd, 2011|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments