Join the WAVes of Change Today

When conducting strategic plans we hear from brokers and board members that their organization strives to stay current with industry best practices. There are many industry wide initiatives today, spanning areas like MLS Consolidation, New NAR Policy, Broker Public Portal, Upstream, Real Estate Standards Organization, Data Licensing, and more. It’s hard to keep track. WAVes of Change WAV Group has launched a Quarterly Webinar Series to update you and your leadership on all of these trends. The webinar spans one hour, and is delivered by WAV Group partners who are often involved, or close to these industry developments. You get [...]

By |2018-11-08T04:03:20-08:00February 15th, 2017|Wav of Change|0 Comments

Is it really is possible to love your MLS?

Every Valentine’s Day, you can smell the roses, taste the chocolates and almost feel that love is in the air. It made me think of how so many companies attempt to “love” their customers, but often few customers actually love them back. In fact, from my own experience, it’s rare when a company consistently gets love letters – and rarely hate mail – from its customers. Over the last couple of decades, I’ve worked in the real estate and technology sectors, with dozens and dozens of companies that include several of the most well known brands, from hot startups to Fortune 500 [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:22:55-07:00February 14th, 2017|MLS Insights|0 Comments

About MLS Client Portals

This afternoon I was able to enjoy a delightful conversation between two very bright, very experienced real estate CEOs – Greg Robertson of W&R Studios – makers of CloudCMA and CloudStreams, and Michael Wurzer, CEO FBS Data Systems, makers of FlexMLS (America’s second largest MLS vendor). The discussion centered on speed, design, delivery, among other things. It all went down on Twitter. If you love real estate technology - @gregrobertson and @mwurzer are must follows. Bigger Considerations? Stakeholders in the MLS client portal services are a combination of broker interests, agent interests, and by extension a consumer interest. I wonder [...]

Four Brokerage Leaders Join RESO Board of Directors

For the past three years, the most impactful development in real estate technology has been driven by the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO). This nonprofit entity defines how MLS information is formatted for use by agents and brokerage. For years, this board of directors was mostly led by a combination of MLS executives and technology vendors. However, with today’s announcement you can see that brokerage involvement has reached its highest level. But that’s not all, other new executives from many of America’s largest and finest MLSs have also volunteered to step up and participate in guiding RESO into 2017. Executive [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:00-07:00December 15th, 2016|Press Releases|0 Comments

The Power of Sharing

Today, many leading news sites and blogs welcome by-lined posts and articles from respected professionals willing to share valuable knowledge and insights with their readers.  Good, free content helps boost their SEO, readership, and prestige. For companies who sell to brokers, agents, lenders, and consumers, the explosion of real estate blogs locally as well as nationally creates unprecedented opportunities to build brands, advance careers and position products and services.  The only cost involved might be the time of a professional writer experienced in the residential real estate to turn concepts into great copy. The publishers who operate these sites make [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:01-07:00November 17th, 2016|Marketing, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Homes Portal Jumps Into Responding To Consumers

The top online real estate search destination Homes.com recently announced a new lead conversion tool that solves one of the industry’s most puzzling weaknesses—timely consumer responsiveness. More than half of real estate consumers consider response time before selecting their agent. Yet, research by WAV Group indicates that 48 percent of buyers never receive a response and those that do wait an average of 15 ½ hours. The Instant Response Technology (IRT) by Homes.com, comprised of a fresh Lead Concierge service and a location-based application TalkNow, aims to boost REALTORS’ ability to successfully capture those leads by enabling faster direct communication with [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:01-07:00November 17th, 2016|Broker Technology Research|0 Comments

WAVES OF CHANGE: FINAL DAY FOR SAVINGS – DON’T MISS OUT ON OUR SPECIAL PRICING!

Our WAVes of Change™ Series means we attend the events so you don’t have to. Four times a year we present a live webinar which includes exclusive looks at WAV Group research, emerging technology trends, broker challenges, and policy discussion. Many successful MLSs and Associations already understand the value of this stimulating and cost-effective way to keep their members up to speed on industry initiatives that make an impact. Will YOU benefit? Does this sound like something your Association or MLS could benefit from in 2017? It’s the perfect way to boost your board members education without ever having to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:02-07:00October 31st, 2016|Wav of Change|0 Comments

What’s the Real Value of Portal Marketing?

A recent survey of over 120 broker-owners and senior leaders at some of the top real estate firms in the U.S. and Canada revealed an apparent disconnect between revenue goals and business strategies. According to the survey, 85% of brokerages focus their marketing investments on lead generation activities– despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of sales are the result of repeat clients and past client referrals. Clearly, agents and brokers are spending too much time and money marketing on portals when long-view strategies produce a better return-on-investment. While lead generation is an undeniably important tactic for targeting specific market segments, [...]

How Much Does It Cost to Recruit an Agent?

The National Association of REALTORS® hosted a Power Broker Roundtable and their recent topic was about agent recruiting and training. What I really like about the large broker roundtable is that you typically get some relatively pure information. I think that is the case here. The roundtable members for this discussion included representatives from some of the finest brokerage operators in America – Nick D’Ambrosia, Broker of Record, The Long and Foster Companies; Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate Seattle; Chad Ochsner, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Alliance Denver; and Linda Sherrer, President and CEO of BHHS Florida Network. [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:11-07:00July 20th, 2016|Broker-Agent Information, Marketing|1 Comment

How MLSs Stand To Benefit From Upstream

The pessimist MLSs among you will look upon the title of this article with raised hairs. The lens that we have adopted here is for a single focus. Namely, to search for specific context within the databases of Upstream that may be of value to MLSs. Remember, Upstream does more than manage listings, but it does  start with the MLS destination in mind. The MLS does not need to change their business rules, or modify their data schema. They need only disclose to their brokers what their rules and schema are and accept a broker load as is common among nearly [...]

What’s Your Loyalty Program?

A loyalty program is such a simple thing to construct, and they work. I buy from Amazon because I get Amazon Prime – free shipping – a loyalty program. I fly with American or United because they give me priority boarding, upgrades, and other perks – a loyalty program. In the latter example, I continue to use American and United even though I am not delighted with their service or price. But the perks have more meaning to me than other options. It is really hard to break free of loyalty programs. For years, we consolidated our hotel preference to [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:14-07:00May 26th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

Don’t Make The Biggest PR Mistake

The number one mistake I’ve most often encountered through the many years I’ve spent working in communications and public relations, is a CEO who calls back a reporter and tries to “wing it.” While I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several exceptionally media savvy CEOs throughout the years, they were the ones that never called back a reporter without being prepared. Russell Wilson, the NFL quarterback for the Seahawks, delivers the best practice for CEOs when it comes to calling back a reporter: “The separation is in the preparation.” CEOs that provide the best interviews for reporters are able [...]

By |2018-05-03T21:23:14-07:00May 18th, 2016|Main category, Our Company|0 Comments