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Dave Rifkin was promoted to Vice President of Agent Services for eNeighborhoods

Michael Hayes was promoted to Director of Enterprise Services for eNeighborhoods

I wanted to say a few things. Dominion Enterprises showed a lot of smarts promoting these guys. Dave Rifkin has been in the real estate technology business since the mid 90s. He’s negotiated contracts with large MLS providers, help design product and more recently started an inside sales team from scratch at eNeighborhoods. He and Andy Woolley were the two biggest forces driving growth and my first company IRIS, LLC. IRIS would not have been a success without Dave.

Rick Sherwood, also an IRIS alum, is the whole package. Rick is very smart, has a great feel for the game, a good eye for product functionality design, and very tenacious. Rick lasted through (survived) all the bullshit at what began as Moore Data and is now FNRES MLS. You don’t go through that experience without being an A player and having a deep understanding of the MLS real estate technology industry.

Michael Hayes, a Wyldfyre alum, is another A player in the game. It’s a well known fact that Michael’s charisma can be tracked from space. People in the International Space Station see two things when look down at earth, the great wall of China and a bright white light coming from Los Gatos, California. When eNeighborhoods acquired WyldFyre Technologies from HomeStore (Move), we realized right away that the best thing we could do is give a smart and creative guy like Michael anything he needed. And what he has accomplished has been amazing.

Here’s the story from our friends at RIS Media.

eNeighborhoods Announces Promotions in Enterprise, Agent Services Divisions

RISMEDIA, May 19, 2008-eNeighborhoods, a division of Dominion Enterprises, announced the promotions of key staff members to further the company’s real estate technology and marketing initiatives. eNeighborhoods, says the company, delivers real estate technology to more than 400,000 desktops around the world.

Peter Ill, president of Dominion Enterprises real estate businesses, announced the promotion of David Rifkin to vice president of eNeighborhoods Agent Services. Rifkin’s new role includes agent sales and marketing as well as working with multiple listing services (MLS) organizations.

Joining Rifkin’s team as manager of Dominion Data Services is Wendy McDaniel. McDaniel will be responsible for the continued growth of the company’s Internet Data Exchange (IDX) program, and maintaining relationships with MLS organizations. eNeighborhoods operates the industry’s largest network of IDX websites, compiling more than 3.8 million IDX listings from over 450 MLS organizations on behalf of their broker and agent customers.

“The growth in our Agent Services division continues moving forward under Dave Rifkin’s leadership,” Ill said. “These actions will ensure that we continue to deliver relevant products and services for agents competing in today’s tough markets. Dave Rifkin is a real estate industry and eNeighborhoods veteran. We’re happy to welcome him to the senior management team, and to bring Wendy McDaniel aboard to manage Data Services.”

eNeighborhoods Vice President of Enterprise Services Andy Woolley also announced the promotions of Michael Hayes and Rick Sherwood. Both Hayes and Sherwood will become directors in eNeighborhoods’ Enterprise Services division.

“eNeighborhoods delivers marketing, lead generation, and data-sharing tools to leading MLS and broker organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia,” Woolley said. “Few people have the marketing, technology and real estate industry expertise that Michael and Rick bring to the team in supporting our large enterprise customers.”

More fill in the blanks fun for your reading pleasure!

Are _____ and ______ freaking crazy for leaving their fat gigs at _________________?

Did you hear that _____ _________ is going to buy an NHL franchise?

Is it a requirement to be over 6ft tall to work for _______?

How does _____ get all these women to fetch him drinks and sit on his lap?

What’s up with _______ doesn’t he get enough _______ in Texas?

Was that Dave ______? I haven’t seen him at Mid-year in over 5 years.

________ thinks she’s so hot. If this was any other industry she’d be a “not”.

The Real Estate Channel? Archive? What kind of ______ is _______ smoking?

WTF? The new lounge/euro vibe of the lobby bar at the Wardman Park sucks. It reminded me of the SNL sketch of “The Schoeners” with their weird furniture. The seats are very uncomfortable and, to be honest, the layout makes it almost impossible to cruise the area and stop for a quick chat. Patrons I talked to kept sliding off the plastic cushions that were velcroed on to the seat backs, not cool.

While I did like the new placement of the longer bar the seating area was just plain a disaster area.

Greg Robertson and Dan Woolley leave eNeighborhoods.

You can read it all here.

Thanks for all the great comments and good wishes, keep ‘em coming, Dan and I will need all the encouragement/love/help/karma we can get!

I’m in D.C. at the NAR Midyear show. I’ve reactivated my twitter account, twitter.com/VendorAlley

See you there!

Calling all vendors! Calling all vendors!!

New product? After-party location? Inside tip? Shameless plug?

If you got something to announce send it us and we’ll will post it.

Vendor.Alley@gmail.com

Let’s make this the “BEST NAR EVER!!”

Looks like the RETS geeks will decend on Philly this week. Although is pretty Greek to me, here’s what I can translate from their posted agenda.

After a looking at each other “schemas” they will attend a party hosted by NAR where they will hold a “RETS exhibition” where they will “debug” themselves and end the night in a giant “plugfest”.

The next day the debauchery continues, when they will hold a “certification” ceremony so they can “transport” themselves for “syndication”. Then one more giant “plugfest”.

Like I said, it sounds more Greek, than Geek.

Vendors, NO SOUP FOR YOU!

I was asked today to list 3 value propositions about CMLS from a vendor’s perspective. Here’s what I came up with..

1. CMLS is a great way for me to stay informed about the issues effecting the MLS industry.

2. CMLS is a perfect networking environment for me to meet the decision makers of the MLS industry.

3. CMLS has created an environment where vendors engage and become part of the conversation about the MLS industry.

The third point is really the distiction between CMLS and Connection. CMLS engages vendors, Connection forbids vendors.

Sad.

It also reminded me about this cartoon….

If only the Consultant Custers of Connection would see that mabye, just maybe, those pesky sales people might be able to add something to the equation.

If not, no worries. CMLS 2008 is being held in Minneapolis this October. Hosted by John Mosey and Northstar MLS. Check out www.CMLS2008.com for more details, and, of course, vendors are welcome.

I believe that CMLS realizes something that Connection doesn’t…

We’re in this together.

Well, we didn’t get much time to report from the show, it is Vegas after all. So we’ll just hit you with a wrap up.

RE/MAX International put on a good show at its 35th anniversary convention in Las Vegas this year. Dave Liniger dropped from the ceiling in a basket with Las Vegas showgirls at the convention’s general session. Attendance reports were mixed. We heard they had close to 6,000 attend. This was much better attendance than all other franchise shows, so the “Vegas factor” was in full effect.

Once surprising stat I heard at the show was that a full third of RE/MAX attendees were “international”. Meaning if your product was in English and only worked in the U.S. then you didn’t do too well. So, you do the math.

One of the many great things about RE/MAX is how they treat their vendors. This event is no different, whether its access to agents, reasonsable booth policies or free ice cream they really go out of their way to make sure everyone feels welcome.

We’re here covering all the sites and sounds of thousands of RE/MAX agents decending upon Las Vegas. It’s a big show so check here for regular updates.

Got a few reports from vendors who participated in the Keller Williams show this week in Atlanta. Attendance was at 6,000, which was way down from Las Vegas. The drop in turn out was expected since previous annual “Family Reunions” were held in Las Vegas. The convention staff at KW has always been very vendor friendly, and does their best to make sure everyone has a good show.

Crowds were enthusiastic (gotta love those KW agents!), and most vendors I spoke to reached about 85% + of their sales targets for the show.

Also, we got some big shows coming up

Realogy- Gaylord Palms: Orlando, FL

Coldwell Banker
February 21-24

ERA
February 25-28

Century 21
February 28 – March 2

RE/MAX International Convention: Las Vegas, NV
March 3-6

Prudential Sales Convention: New Orleans, LA
March 16-18

Last year these shows were really set the tone for the year. It will be interesting to see what the vibe is out there. Good luck everyone!