MLS executives Archives

Andy Rapattoni and Rex Marr Celebrate 45 Years in the Real Estate Industry

If the real estate technology industry had an Old Boys club, Andy Rapattoni and Rex Marr would most certainly be founding members. They have each contributed their life's work to the advancement of our industry. WAV Group would hope that you will join us in congratulating these industry pioneers and leaders on the celebration of their 45th year in our industry. Below is the announcement. Rather than clog up their email with congratulations, consider sharing a note on Facebook: Here is a link to their company page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rapattoni-Corporation/374152779313159 SIMI VALLEY, Calif., August 13, 2013 – Rapattoni Corporation (Rapattoni), a leader [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:30-07:00August 13th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|0 Comments

Former MLS Executives Open Keller-Williams Franchise in Montreal
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Former MLS Executives Open Keller-Williams Franchise in Montreal

Main category, Press Releases

Former MLS Executives Open Keller-Williams Franchise in Montreal

MONTRÉAL, Qc – June 24, 2013 Congratulations to Anne St. Dennis and Michel Beauséjour for moving from their executive positions in the MLS world to open their own Keller-Williams franchise! They have co-founded a Keller Williams francise in downtown Montreal under the name of KW Urbain. It’s an aggressive move for North America’s largest real estate franchise, a calculated move that took roughly three years as the Austin-based corporate head office familiarized itself with the language laws and Quebec brokerage act. “We saw the immense potential of opening a real estate franchise in Quebec that is completely broker-centric, learning [...]

By Marilyn Wilson|2018-05-03T21:24:32-07:00June 24th, 2013|Main category, Press Releases|3 Comments

The Future of Anything
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The Future of Anything

Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation

The Future of Anything

I would attribute the series of postures on The Future of the MLS to Saul Klein. He may not have been the first to coin the phrase, but he has embraced it and made it his own. It is with due respect that we leave that posturing behind and set forth on a new journey. Our industry is at an inflection point, and my fear is that we are too blinded by current affairs to look beyond the steps in front of us. This morning, I encountered a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery, a French writer, poet, and aviator [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:35-07:00May 30th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, Broker-Agent Information, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning, Suveys and Research, Technology Evaluation|0 Comments

Welcome Back Mr Foley

What do you do when your $6B company (Fidelity) has an extra $1.5B in cash languishing in your bank accounts? You buy back a company (LPS) that you spun out and you start all over again. If you ever doubted the value of providing software and data services to the financial industry, Mr. Foley just answered it. He is now officially back in the MLS business…. Almost. Deal is not quite done. But wait, there is more. Foley is a self made Billionaire who may perhaps be best known for his personal investing in the wine industry – having purchased [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:35-07:00May 29th, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

The MLS Battleground

The National Association of REALTORS® Midyear Legislative meetings may have reached a tipping point on the role of the MLS in real estate. To be sure, it is the battleground of our industry where brokers and associations struggle for power within the oversight of the Department of Justice. Competing MLS entities develop their operating philosophy that draws the boundaries of how everyone coexists without behaving like a monopoly. To be sure, the MLS is a common use term that takes on a lot of different definitions. Here are the top 5 governance models that define the operating philosophy. Association Owned, [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:35-07:00May 28th, 2013|Broker Technology Research, How to Make Strategic Planning Really Work in your MLS, Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments

Errol Samuelson promoted to Chief Strategy Officer at MOVE

MOVE published a release today announcing that Errol Samuelson has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer, expanding his role at the company. The full press release is below. You may not know that Errol was once part of the most powerful team in real estate. I call them the four horseman - Errol plus Marty Frame, Prem Luthra, Ben Grabowski. All four have gone on to great success. Marty Frame is a leader at RPR. Prem Luthra is a leader at Real Estate Digital. And, Ben Grabowski is a leader at CoreLogic. They play pivotal roles in four of the [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:38-07:00April 4th, 2013|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Indiana Regional MLS Is Born

In a press release yesterday, Indiana Regional MLS announced the selection of LPS as the vendor for consolidating 13 MLS systems into one. The effort was led by Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting. McQueen successfully managed to get 13 different MLSs serving an aggregate of 5000 subscribers to combine their MLS. The subscribers should be very excited about this. It is likely to reduce their costs and improve their services. There will be some bumps along the way as they accomodate change - but this is a great opportunity to advance the industry. Well done by all! There is [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:41-07:00February 23rd, 2013|Main category, MLS Insights|1 Comment

Larson Sobotka selected as general counsel for CMLS

Minneapolis, December 26, 2012: The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) announced that it has selected the law firm of Larson/Sobotka, PLLC, as its general counsel. Larson/Sobotka, led by managing member Brian N. Larson, brings substantial experience in MLS matters to the service of CMLS, the leading association representing multiple listing services in North America. "We are pleased to assist an important leader in the real estate industry," said Larson, who was chief staff officer of an MLS for nearly a decade and has served MLSs as outside counsel for more than a decade. "We have a unique set of skills and experiences," he [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:44-07:00December 26th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Press Releases|0 Comments

SFAR hires Association Vet Baczkowski from Point2

Congratulations to Walt Baczkowski as he returns to his roots in Association Leadership, taking the helm in San Francisco. Walt is departing his post at Point2 where he was VP of Marketing and wingman to division leader Saul Klein. San Francisco is a great Association and MLS - the crown jewel of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco covers about 49 square miles, pinched between BAREIS to the north and MLSListings to the south. East Bay and Contra Costa are in the East Bay. They share some data, and most agents are members of more than one Association or [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:45-07:00December 18th, 2012|Main category, Press Releases|0 Comments

Cindy Miller joins NTREIS

WAV Group had the opportunity to work with North Texas Real Estate Information Systems in 2012, facilitating the company's strategic plan. NTREIS is among the largest MLS service providers in the nation, and probably covers more square miles of real estate than anyone (not fact checked). It is a great organization with a popular governance model that establishes each Association of REALTORS® as the MLS Service provider to their members, powered by NTREIS. The Associations are the first line of support, training, and billing to the agents. During our project, we had the opportunity to work closely with Cindy Miller [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:46-07:00December 4th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

CMLS brainstorms new approach for MLS Rules

The CMLS meetings (Council of MLS) were held on Wednesday, November 7th. There were numerous presentations but one in particular seemed to engage the Nation's leading MLS executives in attendance - ReThink MLS. The question before the panel was "What If We Started from Scratch?" As we all know, MLS rules (including Broker Reciprocity) provides structure for how brokers and agents will behave when sharing listings with one another: Two problems have arisen since these rules were first crafted more than a dozen years ago. The MLS rules have become cumbersome in length and somewhat unwieldy to manage and enforce. [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:47-07:00November 12th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights, Strategic Planning|1 Comment

Black Sand Labs Launches MLS License Compliance Tool

Like all MLSes, Hawaii Information Service takes data licenses seriously. Aside from the natural investigation of reported violations, they wanted to find a way to crawl the Internet to find additional abuses of their data license agreements. After an unproductive effort to find a commercial solution to meet their needs, Hawaii Information Systems partnered with Falcon Technologies to build one. Now, the two cooperating companies formed a new startup called Black Sand Labs to deliver the service to other MLSs fighting the compliance battle. The new product is called APHIS – which may sound like a crawling insect, but was [...]

By Victor Lund|2018-05-03T21:24:49-07:00October 25th, 2012|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments