Association/MLS Leadership Doesn’t Always Allow for a Consensus

Association and MLS leaders have it tough today.  The best leaders are staying on top of the latest trends, considering how emerging ideas affect their subscribers and proactively making changes to keep their organizations relevant.  Sounds like the kind of leader we all want to be right? So if this is what all leaders strive for, why is it so hard to create sustainable change? I have recently run across a few examples where the Board of Directors believed they knew the path that was best for their constituents yet they were not able to implement the path that made [...]

The Lasting Value of Knowing What Your Customers Are Looking for 

The Case for Measuring Customer Satisfaction Regularly MLSs are monopolies right?  They OWN their territory so they don’t have to worry about customer satisfaction.  Few in the industry would ever agree to this statement but in reality, many act as though they are a monopoly – not paying close attention to what their customers are asking for.  Can you honestly say you know what your MLSs strengths and weaknesses are?  Do you know what frustrates your customers or how you might hinders them from selling real estate as effectively as they could?   Do you occasionally get a board member that [...]

Allre Causes Brokers To ReThink Strategy

The FSBO dam just sprouted another leak, and brokers better pay attention. If you have not heard about Allre, you better watch the video below right now. It is a collaboration between banks like Prime Lending, Home Insurance providers, home warranty companies, and even a lock box vendor to facilitate FSBO sales. The fee to the consumer is ZERO – nothing. There are no brokerage services at all, so they completely surpass all RESPA regulations. It is 100% FSBO. The only thing that will sit between Allre and success is venture capital. If they attract enough venture capital to attract [...]

Another Broker-Governed MLS Gets RESO Certification

Perhaps its just because, or happenstance, or not. But MLSListings, based in the heart of the Silicon Valley in California, is the second MLS in the nation to join MRIS in RESO Server Certification. Like MRIS, MLSListings is a broker governed MLS. In truth, the title of the article was drafted to get you to read this article. The fact is that MRIS and MLSListings, along with many of the COVE Group MLSs repeatedly lead the industry in adopting best practices. Its in their DNA. And yes, Anne Bailey does a great job facilitating the COVE group and both of [...]

What is Your Lead Conversion Strategy?

This is a guest post sent to us by Carl DeMusz of NORMLS - https://www.linkedin.com/pub/carl-demusz/4/749/249 Real estate markets are cyclical and change with the economy. They tend to be closely linked to employment which is also impacted by the economy. We have often observed times when the housing market can lead the economy out of recession. One thing that helps improve the housing market is a well-informed consumer who realizes that while housing markets are cyclical they always recover. They know that if they buy a home and hold on to it, the value will rise over time simply because people [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:04-07:00July 9th, 2014|Main category, Marketing, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Increase Home Listings By 27 Percent

  How would you like to increase your business garnered from your website by 27%? That’s right, 27%. I had to say it again because people often do not believe in testing or research to determine what works best for their business. In fact, many companies today “take the high road” and completely ignore trends and tactics that can improve their business because they get stuck with their fondness for what they have and stop moving ahead. Here is the example of how research and testing can drive improvements in company online effectiveness. Thankfully, the company the largest broker in [...]

NAR Publishes Paper On Lead Management

The National Association of REALTORS® is not necessarily the first place that REALTORS® would turn to get advise on Internet Lead Management, but they have stepped up to the plate as a resource. Quite nicely I would add. In a paper published this week, Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of the Data Analytics Group at NAR, published a paper titled The Intelligent Internet Lead, Providing Context, Coaching & Confidence to Web Source Leads. Click Here for Download http://crt.blogs.realtor.org/2014/05/27/crt-white-paper-the-intelligent-internet-lead/ WAV Group has performed a lot of research on online marketing, mostly for the purpose of providing MLSs and brokers with good research [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:10-07:00May 29th, 2014|Main category, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Resourcefulness

If anything put fear back into the real estate industry lately, it was the sluggish first quarter performance. There are few valid explanations for it. Inventory is at a reasonable level and interest rates are low. People should be buying homes like they did last year. Rather than trying to figure it out, it is time to apply a healthy dose of resourcefulness into the business. The best way to do that is audit your expenses and your people. A typical story There are times when WAV Group finds significant problems in a business that management did not see. But [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|0 Comments

Professional “Standards” – Are we kidding ourselves?

We have had the pleasure of facilitating several strategic plans in the past few months with many of the nation’s leading Associations.  We have seen an important theme emerge in many of these discussions – Professional Standards. While most organizations feel as though they are doing a good job of maintaining current expectations for professional standards, some weaknesses have been revealed. When asked, most organizations will readily admit that there are agents and brokers that are NOT upholding the Code of Ethics and standards of conduct to the level that most members are. Even though boards regularly admit that there [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:12-07:00May 7th, 2014|Main category, MLS Insights, Our Services|0 Comments

How to Combat Misinformation About the Real Estate Market

Every day real estate agents and brokers have to battle a consumer who has built their beliefs about trends in the market, from prices to home value, on misinformation. The only way to combat this is to be more vocal with the correct information for today's home buyers. Previously there have not been tools available, but CoreLogic has tied together MLS data with the public record information to create a better forecast of the real estate market. WAV Group founding partner, Victor Lund is set to moderator an upcoming webinar to educate on the topic. This webinar invites Ed Finlan [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:24:19-07:00January 13th, 2014|Main category, Press Releases, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Brokers Should Audit Their MLS

2014 may well be the year of the broker, or as they are referred to in MLS speak, the year of the Participant. If your MLS has adopted the National Association of REALTORS® template for MLS Rules and Regulations, you will find that brokers are Participants and agents are Subscribers. As a Participant in the MLS, brokers accept full responsibility to adhere to MLS rules and regulations. The MLS does a pretty good job of enforcing those rules. But who among you is making sure that the MLS is not running afoul? WAV Group MLS clients are traditionally the largest [...]

Will 2014 Be a Break Out Year

For the last half of a decade, the real estate industry has taken blow after blow. Through grace, we have recovered as an industry and that has a profound impact on homeowners and REALTORS® alike. The number of families losing their home to foreclosure has reset to reasonable levels. WAV Group facilitated nearly two-dozen strategic plans for some of our industry’s most significant market makers. In many cases, boards of directors are thinking pretty big. They are taking on difficult policy issues including syndication, data licensing, and data management. If these organizations accomplish half of what they have set as [...]