Technology Game Changers

There were two announcements made this week that I think will have some pretty significant impacts on real estate. Wolfnet announced that they are now fully live on the national IDX data feed for Canada. Moreover, every application that Wolfnet offers has now been tailored to the needs of Canadian real estate. Wolfnet has long been a leader in property search solutions in America, notably serving search solutions to every Keller Williams agent in addition to many other brands. Now Wolfnet’s Canadian customer will have access to the same benefits. The second announcement came from W&R Studios, makers of Cloud [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:13-07:00April 17th, 2014|Broker Technology Research, Main category|0 Comments

Top 5 Broker Website Trends for 2014

There is a significant gap in the depth of information found on listing portals vs. broker websites today. Aside from marketing acumen and marketing investment, the quality of the experience is simply better on many portal sites. A few years ago, portals dominated brokerages with map search. As brokers got a handle on that, portals evolved with the single, Googlesque search bar. Most good broker sites have gotten a handle on that now too. But the bar continues to move in new directions. The biggest gap seems to be the information contained on the listing detail page. I had a [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:22-07:00December 11th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Pilgrims vs. Portals

History tells many stories of long ago that reflect on the conditions of today. I came across a story about the Pilgrims that made me think that in some way, it is similar to the real estate industry and portals. In 1630, a Pilgrim court dealt a nasty blow to one of its settlers. They ordered him to be incarcerated, burned his house, confiscated all of his goods, then ultimately exiled him from America. The Pilgrim’s name was Thomas Morton, and they said that he was a danger to society. Morton went to England and pleaded with the English court, [...]

1 plus 1 Equals Video

  Doing research like our 2013 Broker Website Effectiveness Study (BWES) helps WAV Group identify and measure a multitude of strategies that brokers may deploy to improve their online performance. One key trend today that is working very well is video. I am not sure how long video will help brokers gain an edge, but today it works. Some of the facts we gathered in the BWES included that Google is the #1 search engine by a significant margin, capturing 75% of all search traffic (see image) If you combine the predominance Google with an understanding of how search results [...]

5 Ways to End the “MLS/Broker Stand-off”

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called the “Challenge for Positive Change” that highlighted many of the relationship dysfunctions we are experiencing in the industry today. At Inman Connect in San Francisco I was invited to be part of a panel called the MLS/Broker Stand-off.  It’s clear that there are many that are feeling as though our industry could be working together much better than it is at the moment. I’ve been thinking a lot about what is causing this stand-off and trying to find suggestions about ways to fix it. Here’s what I’ve come up with so [...]

Hotel Industry is Trying to Put the “Horse Back in the Barn”

The concept of Listing Syndication is just as prevalent in marketing hotel rooms as it is with real estate inventory today.  There are many syndication sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Hotwire and hundreds more.  In theory, these sites were set up, in theory to HELP hotels, especially with last minute inventory to maximize their ability to sell room nights. Sound familiar?  The Theory failed. What actually happened though was that these sites have disintermediated consumers from corporate hotel sites like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and others. It changed the way consumers shop and eroded hotel price points. Moreover, it eroded the ability for hotels [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:32-07:00June 27th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Company|1 Comment

Imprev Roars with Mobile Marketing for Agents

Imprev has long been a behind the scenes type of company. Historically they partner with Giant franchises, Giant Brokers ,or Giant technology companies to deliver fully integrated and smart marketing solutions that agents access through their back office intranet. Imprev's solution includes a full suite of print marketing like flyers and postcards; and a full digital marketing suite which includes digital flyers, online campaigns, listing presentations, virtual property tours, and lots of other features. Recently, they have been in the industry eye for the release of their new system (developed with help from 1000WattConsulting) and plunging headlong into mobile. Today, Imprev gives agents [...]

Contact Sync

Over the past few years, we have seen a shift in professional technology solutions for real estate that has been mostly characterized by “the move to mobile.” Generally speaking, applications that do not work on mobile devices, either using a mobile browser or using a mobile app, are being cast aside. But there are secondary realities about the shift that many software companies seem to have neglected, namely, contact record sync. Everyone who has a mobile device understands that contact records that are created on any device need to be synchronized across all devices. Having some contacts in one location [...]

In Search Of A Perfect Broker VOW

WAV Group is conducting research to discover if there is any broker in the United States who has pulled out of IDX and only offers a Virtual Office Website to consumers. Presumably, it would be a large enough broker who would display their listings publicly without the need to register to the site. If consumers wanted to see other broker listings, they would need to register. No other broker would be able to display that brokers listings to the public. If you know of such a site here in America, please direct me to it and you will be handsomely rewarded. My loving relationship [...]

It is all about schools

The most active group of home buyers in sellers in America have one thing in common - school age children.  Traditionally, real estate has ducked the consumer by avoiding the laborious and somewhat liability producing task of informing consumers about schools. Our industry has largely taken the stance that if a consumer wants to know about schools, they will provide the phone number to the school district. Good luck with that. This is not true of all brokers or MLSs. Some have invested heavily in procuring the most accurate school data available. You will often find the information somewhere down below the [...]

Attention Brokers – Learn how to take back the web from third parties!

While brokers have lots of technology tools at their fingertips today, a high impact website is still a critical tool driving success for any size real estate company.  Third parties continue to gain traction and traffic with consumers because they know what consumers are looking for and they deliver on their needs consistently!  If brokers want to become THE source for real estate consumers, they need to find ways to enhance and re-invent their own web presence. Brokers also need to learn about how to use their online presence to nurture new customer relationships for their agents. RED and RE [...]

WAV Group Publishes Study Showing that Local Real Estate Brokerage Websites Offer the Most Complete, Accurate and Timely Information About Homes for Sale

October 3, 2012—The WAV Group today published the results of an independent study of 11 major markets that found local real estate brokerage websites give consumers the most complete, accurate and timely information about homes for sale. The study evaluated sites from three local brokerages with real estate agents who help consumers buy and sell homes, comparing listing search results to those found on two national portals, Trulia and Zillow, which operate almost exclusively online. In the markets analyzed, the study concluded: Local real estate brokerage sites display 100% of the agent-listed homes for sale compared to about 80% for [...]