Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Cloud Streams’ listing alerts beat all major portals

2832655241372408853I wanted to publish a little more background on Andrea V. Brambila’s article this morning on Inman News.

“How quick and reliable are portal listing alerts?”

W&R Studios did an experiment in the later part of 2015. They registered on all major listing portals, set up a saved search, and turned on their listing alerts. They started with two different cities – one covered by CRMLS in Southern California (Huntington Beach), and another city in Washington state (Auburn), covered by NWMLS. They choose these markets because they were on the same MLS system (Matrix) and wanted to test how these alerts would be affected by MLS providers that have direct data agreements with major listing portals.

In the case of Redfin and Estately they are both brokers as well as portals, so both have the advantage of getting a direct feed from the MLS. They fared well in the test, but still not enough to beat Cloud Streams.

In CRMLS listing alerts sent out via Cloud Streams came in (on average) 1 hour and 4min faster than Redfin listing alerts. Over 5 hour and 20 minutes (on average) than Zillow.

Check out the other results below:

Fastest alerts in the west

Does having a direct data agreement with the MLS make a difference? You bet. Check out below:

alert speed vs direct agreements

Also, what about “auto-prospecting” systems on the MLS? Wouldn’t these always be the fastest? Nope. Since most MLS systems send out alerts on a “Daily” basis and Cloud Streams sends alerts out in “real-time”, Cloud Streams wins again.

Plus when you add that Cloud Streams listings alerts can be sent out via text, instead of a buyer sorting through multiple emails, this increases the speed of when a buyer sees the listing.

Why does this matter? Two big reasons.

1. Being the fist to know when new listings (or updates) hit the market is a huge advantage to buyers. Especially in markets with low inventory or desirable neighborhoods.

2. This helps agents leverage their best asset, access to real-time MLS data, and gives their buyers a clear reason to use an agent, faster (the fastest) access to market data.

Want to help your MLS members compete with major listing portals?

We already have 40 MLS providers up and running with Cloud Streams. Over 200,000 agents who receive Cloud Streams as a free member benefit. Katie and I will be at Clareity’s MLS Executive Workshop this week to answer any questions. See you in Scottsdale!

ShowingTime Acquires RBI

SHOWINGTIME ACQUIRES REALESTATE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (RBI) TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL ANALYTIC TOOLS FOR CUSTOMERS

“ShowingTime, the real estate industry’s leading showing management technology provider, announced today that it acquired RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI) to deepen its Analytics Group offering, enabling customers to gain a richer understanding of their local real estate markets.

RBI delivers local market statistics and trends to 142 MLS organizations and nearly 500,000 agents across North America. Its SmartCharts Pro and MARKETrends Premium products and services are used by another 30,000 subscribers.”

Keep in mind that ShowingTime recently acquired 10K Research. I believe that RBI was either partly or fully owned by MRIS. 10K Research was wholly owned by the Minneapolis BOR.

A few things to comment on.

1. Consolidation is happening.
2. Love to see a vendor like ShowingTime making moves like this. It shows the confidence they have in their team and a vision for its future.
3. MLS and associations discover that its hard out there being a pimp vendor.

CurbCall gets acquired

REAL ESTATE TECH FIRM CURBCALL ACQUIREDCurbCall Refocuses to Revolutionize Real Estate Lead Routing

Stephanie Sullivan, a long-time serial entrepreneur in the mobile high tech and real estate space, acquired CurbCall from founder and CEO Seth Siegler. With Sullivan serving as co-founder and CEO and Siegler remaining on as co-founder and CTO, the company is expanding product capabilities to be able to offer real estate brokerages and agents a real-time lead routing system that is significantly faster and less costly than the leading offerings.

“As former head of my own real estate brokerage, I am intimately aware of the problems with the way real estate leads are currently routed,” said Sullivan. “Leads are often delivered hours or even a whole day after they come in, with little to no vetting despite claims to the contrary, and providers charge a high cost per lead or even a percentage of the transaction. Inspired by the Uber model, I saw that we could use technology to connect buyers and agents instantly.”

I’ve always been intrigued by CurbCall. It will be interesting if this new team will help increase traction with larger brokerages.

Matrix users top 500,000

Matrix By CoreLogic Exceeds Half a Million Users

““This is a truly momentous milestone,” said Chris Bennett, general manager of Real Estate Solutions for CoreLogic. “Historically, the MLS industry has been fractured by many competing vendors, with no one system able to emerge as the dominant standard. Matrix has changed that.”

The 500,000 figure does not include accounts where Matrix operates in parallel with another multiple listing platform, nor does it include clients in the Matrix implementation queue, which represents more than 100,000 additional users.”

If I had to pick one of the smartest acquisitions in the modern MLS industry CoreLogic buying Tarasoft would have to be one of the top 3. Think about it. Where would CoreLogic be without it? A huge congratulations to Chris Bennett and his team, its easy to see why Chris is receiving many accolades, including being listed on Swanepoel’s POWER 200 of “The Most Powerful People in Residential Real Estate 2016”

New RESO elected officers announced

RESO Elects 2016 Officers, New Directors to Its Board

Newly elected Officers of the Board of Directors:
Art Carter, CEO of California Regional MLS or CRMLS, Chair
Rob Overman, Chief Technology Officer of Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies, Vice Chair
Richard Renton, Chief Executive Officer of Triad MLS, Treasurer
Rebecca Jensen, President & CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data LLC or MRED, Secretary

Newly appointed members to the RESO Board of Directors:
Cary Sylvester, Vice President of Industry Development of Keller Williams
Tom Flanagan, Vice President of Technology of Alain Pinel Realtors
Glenn Shimkus, VP Product of DocuSign

Newly elected member to the RESO Board of Directors:
Pace Davis, Owner/CEO of Bridge Interactive Group LLC

Re-elected members to the RESO Board of Directors:
Richard Renton, CEO of Triad MLS
Michael Wurzer, President of FBS (Flexmls)
Justin LaJoie, VP of Industry Solutions, Zillow (appointed)

Let’s do this!

BHHS Florida chooses Imprev for marketing automation solution

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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty Delivers Marketing Game Changer

“The new platform is powered by Imprev, real estate’s leading provider of automated marketing technology, and includes a complete Marketing Center for BHHS Florida Network Realty agents. “It’s the future of real estate marketing,” says the firm’s Creative Services Marketing Manager, Marisa Mariano. “The team at Imprev is very collaborative and understands our desire to provide highly customized materials that suit the individual needs of our agents in addition to providing a cadre of choices for the whole team. We love the flexibility!” Agents have access to a full menu of digital and print marketing services that are fully integrated with social media, including automated virtual tours, single property websites, newsletters, flyers, postcards, YouTube videos and much more.”

Hard not to be impressed with Imprev. Great solution and just flat out simple for any agent to use. Also it looks like Imprev recently updated their website and a cool new logo. Very well done. Congrats to Renwick and his team.

Diane Ruggiero joins Ann Bailey at Pranix

Diane Ruggiero to join industry consultancy firm Pranix

“In joining Pranix, Ruggiero leaves her role as CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS®, where she has served since 2001 and as CEO of the Heartland MLS (Kansas), a role she has occupied since 2007.
Throughout her career, Ruggiero has gained extensive experience in association strategic planning, financial management and organizational mergers. In 1993 she helped implement the merger of the Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County and other Maryland-based MLSs into what is now MRIS—one of the largest regional MLS in the country, serving more than 40,000 real estate professionals in the mid-Atlantic region.”

Good fit.

Property Panorama releases new broker solution.

Here are some numbers to chew on.

5.3 Million Tours published
753,000 agents
74 MLS providers
21 Million photos
The number one publisher of “non gaming” videos on You Tube.

Can you guess the company? I couldn’t. It’s Property Panorama.

When Mike Barnett took over as CEO of Property Panorama the company was facing some serious issues. Close to shutting down. Now 5 years later with the help of a super smart team, the company is releasing their new “Instaview Enterprise Broker Solution”. And with numbers like those it seems Mike and his team have been busy.

The product Is basically a marketing automation tool that ties in to MLS data. Once an agent lists a property a virtual tour is automatically created and published.

I spoke to Mike today and he said this is truly the only “set it and forget solution, the agent has to do nothing”. Brokers are saying the same thing:

Top Brokerages Launch Property Panorama’s Instaview Enterprise Broker SolutionNew Service Integrates MLS Data and Boosts SEO

“Northwood, the fastest-growing real estate firm in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio with 1604 active agents, has 2795 current listings spanning two MLSs.
“With the full program, our agents don’t have to do anything to receive these products for their sellers. Everything synchronizes automatically. They only need to add their listing to the mls and in about an hour the full program is up and running, and branded to both Northwood and the listing agent. Even updates or changes to the listing are automatic and quick,” said Tom Hosack, CEO/President/Broker at Northwood Realty Services.”

Although services like Matterport are the new hotness, they require $4,500 for the camera alone, plus hosting and other equipment costs InstaView is $1.99 and requires nothing to set up. No wonder brokers like it. : )

Congrats to Mike and his team on their latest release.

1000watt partners with Lion & Orb

Lion & Orb | 1000watt Partnership Logo 2Some of my favorite people in the industry are getting together to help real estate related business in the PR game.

Audie Chamberlain (former Director of Social Media Marketing at realtor.com) recently started, Lion & Orb, a public relations agency with a lot of big clients in the luxury real estate space. Brian, Joel, Marc and the rest of the team at 1000watt are great storytellers. They help brokerages and other real estate industry companies get their message out, above the noise.

1000watt partners with Lion & Orb to bring savvy public relations services to the residential real estate and mortgage industries

“1000watt has developed brand messaging for many companies, but has never offered public and media relations to its clients. The alliance with Lion & Orb enables 1000watt to extend its services in this area with a trusted partner. Lion & Orb will continue to maintain its own client roster, but will work closely with 1000watt.”

Broker Portal Project (BPP) chooses 1000watt

Broker Public Portal Selects 1000watt as Brand and Creative Agency

“We are genuinely excited to be moving forward with a strong and respected creative partner like 1000watt to bring our vision to life” said Merle Whitehead, Chairman of the BPP executive committee. “Their team understands real estate, they understand branding and they are uniquely skilled at communicating.”

“This project aligns with our experience perfectly,” said Marc Davison, a founding partner at 1000watt. “We’ve helped innumerable real estate companies strengthen and communicate their brands, and have also helped launch dozens of new technology applications in our space. We are committed to supporting this really important initiative.”

Smart move. Brian, Marc and Joel are the brightest in the business. So now we know they are going to have a cool logo, the rest should be easy.

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