WAV Group Consulting

Why Innovation Fails To Change Real Estate

Victor Lund — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:04:36 +0000

Every year, real estate sees the launch of beautiful products, offering awesome features, advantages, and benefits. Excellent marketing programs back them and the press creates a jubilee – Innovator of the Year! Then the product launches, and the industry shrugs its shoulder. It is the conundrum of new product development and innovation for real estate. Most of these companies are doing everything right. They are doing research, spotting trends, holding focus groups, testing usability, and modeling lovely financials. If they can only get 1% adoption [...]

MLS iPad apps have NOT gone far enough yet

Marilyn Wilson — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:09:07 +0000

Recently, WAV Group has completed several customer satisfaction surveys from around the country in the Southwest, Mid-West, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. In every case there has been a lot of discussion and requests for more MLS access via smartphones and especially for iPads and other tablet devices. While many MLSs think of their iPad application as a property search tool, agents want their MLS iPad apps to go much further than that. Even for those that have launched Tablet solutions, there are two major areas [...]

MLS Domains Association acknowledges likely competing bid for MLS Name

Mike Audet — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:27:19 +0000

MLS Domains Association acknowledges likely competing bid for .MLS Operator of real estate website MLS.com appears poised to apply to ICANN Minneapolis, February 20, 2012: MLS Domains Association announced today that at it will likely not be making the only application to ICANN for the new .MLS top-level domain on the Internet. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and is responsible for managing top-level domains worldwide. Its window for applications for new TLDs is open from now until April 12, 2012. “We know of [...]

MLS strategy to diversify revenue

Victor Lund — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:42:30 +0000

WAV Group, RE Technology, and Zuora sponsored a webinar on the topic of non-dues revenue on February 15th, 2012. Panelists for the webinar included Jeremy Crawford of MLSListings.com, Melissa Olson of Metrolist Colorado, John Heithaus of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Kevin Green of Real Estate Digital, and Travis Hutch of Zuora. Victor Lund of WAV Group was the session moderator. Overview Associations and MLSs have been in the business of offering non-dues related products for some time now. They have sold yard signs, closing documents, [...]

GLVAR hires longtime association leader Nelson Janes as CEO

Marilyn Wilson — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:30:54 +0000

LAS VEGAS – The Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® (GLVAR) announced today that it has hired seasoned real estate association executive Nelson Janes as its new chief executive officer. Janes, who previously ran the Sacramento Association of REALTORS®, expects to start work at GLVAR on May 7. He was hired after GLVAR leaders conducted a national search to replace Irene Vogel, who is retiring after guiding the association for nearly 30 years. Devin Reiss, chairman of GLVAR’s CEO Search Committee, said Janes “brings extensive [...]

Illinois Bans Real Estate Agents

Victor Lund — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:25:52 +0000

Catchy headline. What the State of Illinois is doing is similar to what Colorado, New Mexico and possibly other States have already done. All real estate agents will need to become real estate brokers to retain their license. Brokers who manage agents will need to become Managing brokers. Oh, and did I mention that the state licensing fees go up 83%. Many view this move simply as a way to tax professionals. Illinois real estate agents have until March 15th to complete the training (15 [...]

Keller Williams Family Reunion a Huge Success

Victor Lund — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:00:15 +0000

Give credit where credit is due. Keller Williams may not be the largest franchise organization in the US or the World – but they are working hard to get there, and are awfully close. They recruit like crazy. Keller Williams is a franchise organization whose core focus is on the agent. They consider themselves mentors, trainers, and solution providers to support the agent in reaching their potential. Moreover, they profit share. If the company makes money, the agent wins. Last year, they made a profit [...]

Bob Bemis Joins Zillow as VP of Partner Relations

Mike Audet — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:29:13 +0000

Zillow announced today (full press release below) that Bob Bemis, former CEO of the Arizona Regional MLS, has joined Zillow as the Vice President of Partner relations. This is a major event in our industry on multiple levels. Having known Bob personally and professionally for many years I congratulate Zillow for an outstanding hire, well done! As a consultant in the industry watching the march of Zillow this hire tends to fuel some of my concerns about where this is actually leading. In almost [...]

Howard Hanna Syndication Announcement

Victor Lund — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:53:27 +0000

Another shoe is going to drop today. Howard Hanna, one of America’s largest brokerages will announce their new listing syndication strategy. This is an important announcement because it brings forth a new chapter to the ongoing saga of finding an online advertising paradigm that balances the broker’s needs with the publisher’s needs, in the best possible way. Howard Hanna has spend the past 15 – 18 months studying. They study their website. They study the website of similar size brokerages. They have studied publisher websites. [...]

How Metrolist, MRIS, and MLSListings are wining with eCommerce

Victor Lund — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:18:16 +0000

Join us for this special webinar with some of America’s leading MLS system operators, John Heithaus from MRIS, Melissa Olson from Metrolist, and Jeremy Crawford from MLS listings. MLSs have abundant opportunities for delivering the best products to their subscribers for lower costs, but it is difficult. In this webinar, you will learn how MRIS, MLSListings, Metrolist and many other leading MLS are consistently amplifying the reach and effectiveness of their services to their subscribers with powerful new communications and eCommerce platforms. WAV Group partner [...]