I am so excited to share some exciting merger news with you! MLSLI, the largest MLS in New York State has merged with Hudson Gateway MLS becoming one of the largest MLSs in the country with approximately 40,000 members.
In any market, the transactions that define market trends are evident in MLS data more clearly than any other data source. However, third party companies like portals and public record firms have become the de facto source of market information to the major media outlets. A number of years ago, the Council of MLSs (CMLS) explored hiring a Chief Economist and a PR firm to position MLSs as the most valued source of market data. For a number of reasons, CMLS did not pursue the strategy, but did create a focus on establishing best practices for MLSs to effectively communicate [...]
Wow, just saw this and just HAD to comment. It’s rare that we see brokers go at each other so publicly about their competitive claims, but I have to say this letter is pretty interesting. The real estate industry is rife with hyperbole and marketing claims. Our industry’s preference of opinion over fact is one of the main reasons I started a research practice within WAV Group. The birth of business intelligence is allowing brokerages new ways to substantiate or refute claims like the article from Moxiworks shown below. Moxiworks is using MLS data married with BI tools to refute [...]
The role of a member of an MLS Board of Director is multifaceted, but divided in part to areas around voting control, and in part around strategic guidance. A trend emerging at the largest MLSs in the nation is to invite outside directors into the board room.
Congratulations to our friends at eXp REALTY for achieving yet another important milestone. In addition to doubling the size of their agent count in less than 1 year, they have been able to do it while keeping their employees very happy - not an easy thing to do! What’s the their secret? Here’s the secret sauce from where I sit. 1. Unique business model that focuses the money where it should be - in the hands of those creating value for the company - the agents 2. Consistent training and coaching because of centralized management support 3. Passion - [...]
The National Association of REALTORS® Chief Executive Officer, Bob Goldberg has been making some impressive moves this week. The first move is to send threatening letters to about 90 MLSs who have not adopted the RESO Standards or are not adhering to the MLS Policy required to maintain NAR affiliation. Some of the MLSs are being cited for not being certified with the RESO Data Dictionary and some do not yet have availability with the RESO Web API. While many MLSs still believe that RESO is not critical to their business, we hear from brokers regularly that they are requesting [...]
We’re starting to see the impact of a new leadership team at the National Association of REALTORS® led by Bob Goldberg, a strategic, yet practical leader that is SERIOUS about making the industry function more effectively. He also seems to be critically evaluating every investment in technology and making some bold moves to re-focus efforts. NAR announced yesterday that is shutting down development on its Advanced Multilist Platform, or AMP. AMP was under development for a few years at a burn rate of $6 Million per year. The concept behind AMP was solid – consolidate MLS data into a single [...]
Realtors Property Resource® (RPR) offers a feature called RPR View™ which is now the largest MLS data share in the U.S. Since its initial Residential Platform launch in 2010, MLSs licensing their information to RPR have a choice to display their active and sold records “only to their subscribers,” or to a wider audience like “statewide,” or “all REALTORS® nationwide.” MLSs can also selectively opt into sharing with specific markets. All 1.2 million REALTORS® have access to RPR and over 700,000 REALTORS® have accounts. RPR also has over 665 licenses with MLSs and Associations, with the majority having a policy [...]
The Houston Association of REALTORS® has long held the honor of celebrating success at the top of the MLS consumer facing website leaderboard. WAV Group has referenced this center of excellence in countless writings, research reports, and planning sessions. We turn once again to this well operated company to exhibit an example of how they are continuing to progress. One of the keynotes of driving consumer engagement is through email marketing campaigns. Today, RealInsights (the name of the HAR newsletter) is sent to an opt-in list of 800,000 consumers every two weeks! That is a vast consumer reach to promote [...]
Eric and Janelle Boyenga are a husband and wife real estate team working with buyers and sellers in one of the most technology focused markets in the world for two decades. California’s Silicon Valley is not only the epicenter of global technology, but also real estate technology. To position their company, the Boyenga Team comfortably promotes themselves as Property Nerds. They aim to deliver the best digital experience to their clients with an abundance of software applications. They target their services to engineers and other employees of online companies like Google, Facebook, Sun Microsystems, Apple, and the many leading technology [...]
If 2018 does indeed turn out to be “The Year of Consolidation” in the MLS world, then the stage was set today in the MLS technology world by FBS. One of the most respected and innovative tech firms serving the real estate industry just helped with the consolidation trend. Michael Wurzer, who heads up FBS, creators of Flexmls System and the API that started it all (Spark Platform), announced today the acquisition of Solid Earth’s Spring software platform and the hiring of the Spring team, including its CEO Matt Fowler. This marks FBS first acquisition. Ever. Considering the company was [...]
2018 could very well be the “Year of Consolidation” in the MLS industry. With the recent NAR move towards an “MLS of Choice” policy, we are likely to see a huge momentum build towards consolidation, especially in the second half of next year. That’s because smaller MLSs are going to find profitability under their current pricing model impossible. The simplest (and most often the best) solution will be to merge. By failing to plan for the role communications and PR plays within a consolidation, you are planning to fail. That’s because an effective communications and PR plan is vital to [...]
