Nearly 80% of Large Brokers are Expanding and They’re Demanding Standardized Data

If you believe that brokers are not engaged with RESO or data standards, think again. According to the recently published 2018 RESO Broker Survey, nearly 80% of brokers are either considering expansion or are in the midst of expanding into new regions. 

By |2018-09-17T14:37:35-07:00September 10th, 2018|Uncategorized|0 Comments

MLS of Choice is in Effect! Now What? A Poll

Effective July 1, 2018, a licensee may subscribe to the MLS of his or her choosing, providing their broker participates in that MLS too. Under this new policy, the MLS must offer no-cost waivers to licensees who currently subscribe to another MLS.

By |2018-08-27T13:36:42-07:00August 27th, 2018|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Moxiworks Refutes Compass’ Claims Regarding Technology and Market Share

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 [...]

You Can Beat the National Portals With This Strategy Today

Imagine a world where every real estate agent, broker and franchise in the nation promoted their real estate mobile app to consumers. The app is white-label branded to the agent, broker, and franchise offering direct access to every MLS listing without any competitive ads. That is the way it would need to work. Guess what, we have it. You have it. Our industry has it. Today.

MLS Terms of Use Changes and Copyright FAQ

This post is the result of a collaborative effort amongst the Council of Multiple Listing Services, The Realty Alliance, The National Association of REALTORS®, and Larson Skinner PLLC.  Many MLSs have been making changes to the way they file copyright applications and their MLS terms of use. Those changes have raised some questions from participants and subscribers. This FAQ is intended to answer some of those questions and emphasize that the MLSs are not forcing participants or subscribers to give up ownership of listing content.

By |2018-03-27T06:00:37-07:00March 27th, 2018|Broker-Agent Information|0 Comments

Are You Passionate About Building Software That is Built for the Way Agents Really Work?

Are you passionate about building software that is easy to use and provides really powerful information to help real estate professionals prospect more effectively and provide better information to their clients? Do you wake up at night thinking about ways to help REALTORS® be more successful?   Do you LOVE to find new ways to display real estate data to make it more actionable? Do you believe your experience has uniquely prepared you to understand the practical workflows of agents and the REAL informational needs that agents will actually USE? If so, we have a really exciting position to tell you about!

By |2018-03-13T10:32:37-07:00March 13th, 2018|Recruiting|1 Comment

NAR Gets Serious About RESO Compliance

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 [...]

By |2018-02-02T10:21:56-08:00February 2nd, 2018|IDX, MLS Insights, NAR, RESO|0 Comments

Inside Real Estate Acquires Circlepix

Circlepix has sold everything. They operated an extensive network of photographers that they sold to VHT Studios in January. Now they have sold the rest of their company to Inside Real Estate. If you have not followed Inside Real Estate lately – pay attention. Inside Real Estate is the incredible company that recently landed Keyes – one of the largest firms in South East Florida among others. They are taking a piecemeal approach to purchasing world class software providers to complete their suite of an end-to-end solution for brokers, teams, and agents. At the heart of Inside Real Estate is [...]

HAR Continues Success With Effective Consumer eMail Campaigns

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 [...]

One Simple Tip for MLSs to Take Credit for Their Lead Generation Power!

This year I am proud to say that through our member satisfaction survey efforts with our MLS partners we have been able to survey over 250,000 real estate agents and brokers. We have learned a lot about where the real perceived value of an MLS is derived. While many respondents are very satisfied with the technologies, training and support offered by their local MLS, few appreciate or even understand the marketing power that a multiple listing service delivers to them. Just think about it, MLSs offer a myriad of ways to help brokers succeed and yet get VERY LITTLE credit [...]

By |2017-12-12T08:00:39-08:00December 12th, 2017|Main category|0 Comments

FBS Acquires Solid Earth

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 [...]

Consolidation: What PR Tactics Can Help?

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 [...]

By |2017-11-29T14:27:53-08:00November 29th, 2017|Main category, MLS Insights|0 Comments