Press Release from Neilson:  Women and people between 35 and 54 are most apt to perform social networking activities via mobile device, according to data from The Nielsen Company.  Since Women are a core audience for REAL Estate Marketing, it would seem that social mobile networking would be a good strategy for agents and brokers today.

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If you have worked in the MLS world as long as I have you know how many moving parts there are in terms of technology to run the organization effectively.  With the creation of RETS, the so called “standard", the use of multiple modules to provide services has increased even more.  What has been obvious to me for many years looking at the industry’s technology, however, is that no one has done a good job of pulling all of the important data points together for the MLSs so they can run their organizations more effectively.  

Today, MLS systems do a great job of helping brokers and agents look and use property data. Accounting and membership systems manage member information and allow for billing while call tracking systems, if in place, allow MLSs to track user interactions.  MLS websites reach out to consumers and may provide valuable analytics on search behavior.  But, with few exceptions, these systems and products really don’t share data.  Yes, accounting systems can push some data over to the MLS system and there are other examples of simple data sharing but it is really not being done the way it should be.

Imagine this….

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Since the announcement made by NAR on the formation of RPR and their public rollout at the NAR conference in San Diego, RPR and their proposed business model has been a major topic of conversation in MLSs across the U.S.  Some MLSs seem to think this is an idea long overdue while others have expressed “no interest” while most seem to be somewhere in between with a “wait and see” attitude.

c planning session we facilitated for a major MLS the topic of RPR participation was, of course, discussed.  Our approach to the discussion, as with any business issue, is to try to take the hype and emotion out of the discussion to look at it for what it is, a business decision.  To that end, we believe there are several points each MLS might consider as they decide whether RPR makes sense for them or not.  This is not intended to serve as a full review of the RPR opportunity but we hope it at least presents some questions to stimulate your MLS discussions. Click on the following link to download the paper.

Download RPR - Paper

Brokers are facing new challenges in today’s economy.  Traditional firms have often focused on advertising or co-op advertising as a primary benefit to agents who join their firms.  The new broker model is different.  Brokers are turning more and more toward training agents and the offering of technology services that are vital to the success of real estate professionals today.  When brokers look at implementing technology services today, they face pricing challenges from vendors who are slow to understand the broker’s business model.  Companies who offer CMA products charge monthly fees per agent rather than bulk service fees - making that key technology a challenge for brokers to offer as an agent benefit.

A short list of technology services that should be provided by all brokers to their agents includes the following:

• Robust broker website with lead distribution and management
• Listing Syndication to third party consumer websites like Trulia, Zillow, REALTOR.com, Yahoo, Cyberhomes and AOL
• Co-branded agent websites with IDX and lead generation
• Virtual Tours on every listing with quality photography
• Yard sign services up and down with direct response mobile property information
• Uniform listing presentation materials that articulate seller services and agent experience
• Uniform CMA

For brokers to offer these services, they need access to bulk pricing that is cost effective and reflects the fixed costs of the vendor offering services

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The Supreme Court made a significant ruling today that says the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.  It is a great victory for the National Association of REALTORS’ lobby group. They can spend as much as they want now.

The case brought to the court was a residual of the McCain-Feingold Law that banned the broadcast, cable, or satellite transmission of ‘electioneering communications’ paid for by corporate or labor unions from their general funds in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before the general elections.  The Supremes ruled that it is a company’s First Amendment Freedom of Speech to support candidates.

In a rather interesting detail, Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion also said that there was ‘no principled way to distinguish between media corporations and other corporations.’  I would assert by extension that this is the detail that would crush the determination by NAR that ‘indexing property listings by search engines’ is acceptable.  Arguably, there is no principled way to distinguish between search engines and other corporations. In my opinion, Trulia, Zillow, and Yahoo are all search engines.

Furthermore - there is no principled way to distinguish between indexing and scraping either.

Given this appreciation or opinion.  I believe that anyone can index real estate listings from websites today.  I believe that the brokers’ copyright of listings has been seriously invaded, and I believe that NAR can simply scrape any data they want from public websites to power the RPR.  I am not a lawyer - this is just a conspiracy theory.  It would be great if a real lawyer would issue an opinion.  Perhaps the courts will need to decide.