Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Rapattoni

My thanks to Rapattoni for sponsoring another year of Vendor Alley. Their ad appears on the right.

Rapattoni has been “Setting the Standard” for association management and MLS software for over 42 years. Recently they just signed a multi-year deal with the Nevada County Association for Rapattoni MLS.

Founded by Andy and Niki Rapattoni they have been offering the real estate industry with technology solutions under the same name since 1970. 1970! Quite an accomplishment. I am grateful for their support and wish them further success in the years to come.

Katie England Joins W&R Studios

Katie EnglandI’m very excited to announce Katie England has joined W&R Studios. Katie came from well respected property records company, CRS Data, where she was the Customer Experience and Education Specialist. Dan and I are super thrilled to have Katie join our growing team.

Katie will start on January 21st and will be primarily responsible for the east coast and help us grow and expand our Cloud CMA/Nudge product line. We have some exciting things lined up with year and looking forward to her being part of our success. Please join me in congratulating Katie on her new gig.

Goomzee opens the kimono

Mike Sparr, CEO of Goomzee
I’ve been traveling on the east coast and have a lot I want to talk about (including the kick-ass tech fair hosted by MLSLI that I just attended.) But, first I wanted to write a post on the WAV Group post I just read this morning. It cites a press release from Goomzee titled “GOOMZEE GOES PUBLIC; OFFERS TRANSPARENCY IN MLS PRICING”. It lays out it’s site license pricing (oddly I couldn’t find the press release on Goomzee’s site). Here’s a snippet:

“Traditionally, site license pricing has been more of a behind-the-scenes negotiation but Goomzee appears to be breaking out from the norm and is publicizing it’s pricing model, and incentive opportunity. The company is offering MLS clients 25 percent and 50 percent discounts respectively based upon a $10,000 or $25,000 initial deposit prior to the rollout of the product, coining it as it’s “sponsorship plan”.

Also included in the press release is a pricing matrix:

Click to enlarge

Wow. I have to say this is a bold move by Goomzee and something I applaud Mike Sparr, Goomzee’s CEO, for doing. He even cites myself and W&R Studios as an influencer.

“We decided to offer early adopters a financial incentive to chip in now, and save considerable expenses in providing these solutions to their clients,” adds Sparr. “Furthermore, I felt it was important to follow in the footsteps of folks like Greg Robertson of W&R Studios who promotes more transparency in the industry, and what could be more transparent than sharing our pricing model.”

To be clear W&R Studios gives our MLS and broker clients a dashboard where they can see real time sign up and usage stats of Cloud CMA. If they are a revenue share partner, they also see their quarterly rev share pipeline. You can read more about the program in an earlier Vendor Alley post, “Improving Vendor Transparency”

While Goomzee’s move of disclosing its pricing is indeed bold, and I’m sure will have a few of us sharpening our pencils, let’s be honest, we all have a “rate card”. As we all know, prices on that “rate card” immediately go out the door when negotiations begin.

But, the transparency trend is upon us. MLS providers will, and should demand, real time reporting of third party app sign ups and usage. I can see consultants adding “real-time reporting” as a must have feature to their checklists when helping MLS providers choose third party products. Third party vendors should live and die by these numbers. Any third party vendor not providing these types of metrics makes one wonder, what are they hiding?

The return of Sparky

A long time ago I co-founded a software company called IRIS. Our flagship product was an MLS access app called “Lightning“, we later added (after acquiring J.Williams) a CMA app called Lightning CMA Plus.(Pardon me for calling software applications “apps”, that’s what I’ve been calling them for 20 years).

During that time Microsoft introduced what they termed “Office Assistants“. Many of you may remember “Clippy“. These “assistants” could give you a tutorial of your app or appear when you asked for help.

All of us at IRIS thought these little characters were the bees-knees and Windows had a way where you could customize the characters for your own apps. We did this with Lightning but I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted our own character (because that’s how I roll). So I called Microsoft.

Microsoft referred me to David Christianson. An animator who worked on many of the Office Assistant characters. We got to talking and we came of of a little Lightning bolt character. I’m not sure who picked the name, maybe we had a company vote, but we dubbed him “Sparky“. Sparky always held a special place in anyone’s heart who worked at IRIS during that time.

Long story short we sold IRIS, the assets transferred to one company after another. We had a rough year after selling IRIS (that’s another post, but I’ll give you a hint, the year was 1999). Sometimes around the office I would see written on white boards the words “Free Sparky”.

The “Lightning” assets now belong to RED -Real Estate Digital. So I called up John Hensley, now one of the owners of RED, and asked if it would be possible for Dan and I to reacquire the trademark and image and begin using Sparky with our new company. John was very gracious and agreed.

I wanted a new drawing of Sparky made, something to celebrate his return, so I Googled David Christianson (Sparky’s animator), I didn’t find him, but I did get in touch with his daughter, and she put me in touch with him. Turns out David is still animating and agreed to the commission.

Cloud CMA just topped 40,000 active users. I have many people to thank, many of those people read this blog. So let me take this moment to thank all of you who supported Dan and I. And special thank you to Lauren Hansen of IRES who did a site license for Cloud CMA before it was ever released, thanks Lauren! After saying this I can’t think of a better time to bring Sparky back!

So, ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy to announce, Sparky Lives!

Sparky!

W&R Studios introduces Cloud CMA Broker Edition

If any of you are going to Inman and want a demo. Send me an email.

—————————————————–

W&R Studios announces new Cloud CMA Broker Edition.
Includes innovative “Broker Dashboard” to track agent activity and property reports.

Huntington Beach, CA (July 18, 2012) –W&R Studios, a web software company, announced today that they will introduce a new version of Cloud CMA for brokers. The Cloud CMA Broker Edition will be launched at the Inman Real Estate Conference in San Francisco.

Cloud CMA is an online report generator for real estate professionals. Real estate agents using Cloud CMA have the ability to create custom comparative market analysis (CMA) reports, buyer tours, property reports and flyers.

“Over the past several months we’ve been working with top residential firms to come up with a solution that fits the needs of today’s brokers. Cloud CMA Broker Edition gives brokers the ability to deploy a custom solution of Cloud CMA to their brokerages,” stated Greg Robertson, co-founder of W&R Studios.

“Our agents love Cloud CMA,” states Michael Quick, Regional Manager –eMarketing Coldwell Banker SW (NRT). “It’s a fast and simple way for them to make a great impression with reports we can customize.”

“The new Cloud CMA Broker Dashboard provides brokers with business intelligence into who is making reports, the type of reports being generated, and when they’re being created. This information can be used to monetize or track pipeline activity. Support tools are also integrated, and the Dashboard can also be accessed on any mobile device such as an iPad” continued Mr. Robertson.

W&R Studios is a sponsor of the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference, in San Francisco from August 1st thru 3rd, where it plans to launch the product by offering private demos to interested brokers.

“With listings once again becoming a priority, we think Cloud CMA is perfectly positioned to help brokerages with recruitment by attracting agents with modern tools,” concluded Mr. Robertson.

For more information on Cloud CMA Broker Edition please visit: http://CloudCMA.com/brokers.

Brokers interested in a private demo at the Inman Real Estate Conference should contact Greg Robertson at greg at wrstudios dot com. Private demo times must be reserved, and space is limited.

About W&R Studios

Founded in 2008, W&R Studios (http://wrstudios.com) is a privately held web software company co-founded by Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson. W&R Studios focuses on creating simple yet focused web application for the real estate industry. By providing a “less is more” approach to software design, elegant user interfaces, and using the latest in agile programming, W&R Studios’ software applications are at the same time powerful, yet accessible to everyone. W&R Studios’ products include Cloud CMA and Nudge (http://getnudgeapp.com), an easy way to share real estate knowledge and stand out.

For more information please contact:

Greg Robertson

greg at wrstudios dot com

(714) 240-3895

¡Viva Cloud CMA!

Super excited to announce that Cloud CMA now allows agents to publish reports in Spanish! It’s a free enhancement to existing Cloud CMA customers. You can find out more here.

We put together this “behind the scenes” video to show how we did it. : )

Full Press Release Below:
____________________________________________________________
Cloud CMA reports now available in Spanish.
New feature in Cloud CMA allows select reports to be generated in Spanish.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – June 4, 2012 – W&R Studios, a web software company, announced today that select Cloud CMA reports are now available in Spanish.
Cloud CMA is an online report generator and offers real estate professionals the ability to create custom comparative market analysis (CMA) reports, buyer tours, property reports and flyers.
“Spanish currently ranks as the second most frequently used language in the United States. According to a recent study put out by NAHREP (National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals), during the third quarter of 2011, Hispanic homeownership rose to a rate of 47.6 percent, growing by 288,000 units, accounting for more than half of the total growth in homeownership (53 percent) in the nation,” stated Greg Robertson, co-founder of W&R Studios.
This new feature is a free enhancement for existing Cloud CMA subscribers. A drop down menu appears during the customize step of CMA and Buyer Tour reports. Language selection defaults to English.
“Being able to create a CMA in Spanish is just one example of how we keep Cloud CMA customers ahead of the pack, more innovations are on the way,” concluded Mr. Robertson.
For more information about Cloud CMA please visit http://CloudCMA.com

About W&R Studios
Founded in 2008, W&R Studios (http://wrstudios.com) is a privately held web software company co-founded by Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson. W&R Studios focuses on creating simple yet focused web application for the real estate industry. By providing a “less is more” approach to software design, elegant user interfaces, and using the latest in agile programming, W&R Studiosʼ software applications are at the same time powerful, yet accessible to everyone. W&R Studiosʼ products include Cloud CMA and Nudge (http://getnudgeapp.com), an easy way to share real estate knowledge and stand out.

For more information please contact:
Greg Robertson
greg at wrstudios dot com
(855) 977-8834
###

Great Cloud CMA review…

Sorry for the shameless plug but wanted to point out a great Cloud CMA review on GeekEstateBlog. The reviewer is Daniel Beer who is an active agent at Santaluz Real Estate, he focuses on real estate in San Diego. Here’s an excerpt…

“Cloud CMA is by far my favorite new toy I have come across, not just this year, but in the last several.

Why? Because it gives me two things I desperately want. Efficiency (time) and professionalism. In an industry that sometimes stinks of cheese, Cloud CMA reports look great, professional, and best of all, they take only minutes more than printing out a sad little basic CMA from your MLS. The extra minutes look like hours to your clients, making you look like a superstar.”

You can read the whole post here:

How Cloud CMA Helped Me Win Over A Home Seller

Why FBS’ new Spark platform matters

I just had to say something about the new Spark platform that FBS announced earlier this week. Often the word “game changer” is used but in this case I think it’s truly warranted.

As a 3rd party software developer in the real estate space I can attest its not easy. I see 3 points of friction to get products in to the hands of real estate professionals.

1. Data standards
2. Permissioning
3. Awareness

Credit card processing and billing is also a huge factor, and new entrants are going to appreciate an e-commerce solution. For the purposes of this post I’m going to focus on the challenges listed above.

Data standards and Permissioning.

At a recent Inman Conference I sat in on a session moderated by Mike Wurzer and Rebecca Jensen. The topic swirled around data standards. I raised the issue that even if we had a single data standard for all MLS systems in the country 3rd party data developers would still have the issue of Permissioning to deal with. As an example we can get Cloud CMA up and running with a proper RETS feed from an MLS in less than 48 hours, but it sometimes takes months to go thru the approval/permissioning process.

I’m not saying that MLS providers should just open its data to all 3rd party developers. They have the responsibility to the safeguard that data. But that problem needs to be solved. After reading FBS’ post on Spark their new Spark API looks to have the ability to manage and streamline the permissioning/approval process. This is HUUUGE.

I’m super excited knowing that our next app could realistically launch and be available to hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals, DAY ONE!

Awareness

I’m flattered that at most events I go to Cloud CMA seems to be the poster child for 3rd party MLS apps. We’ve been working hard with many MLS providers to integrate Cloud CMA in to their online stores. You can see some examples of these stores below:

Metrolist Marketplace
MLSListings PERKS
MRIS Products
Coastal Carolinas Storefront

I think all these MLS providers/vendors have done an excellent job with these sites. And I love the fact we can tailor the message to each market. But there is a fundamental issue with all of them. For the most part, they stand alone and don’t get much traffic. Little traffic means little sales. Not good for me or my revenue sharing partner (the MLS provider). The Spark Platform looks to be a way to bridge this gap.

My belief is the best solution would be to have a direct link to an MLS App Store from the MLS system itself. Not a link buried somewhere, but visible at all times. The Spark Bar solves seems to solve this issue in a very innovative and elegant way.

This is why I’m so excited about this news. With the Spark platform, Spark API and Spark Bar the whiz kids at FBS have really studied these issues and come up with what appears to be a winning solution.

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that this will be an overnight success. They will have a lot of work to do. But, the framework and thought process is solid. And it looks like the big MLS providers are jumping in.

The only problem is…. I want it now! Hell, I wanted it 20 years ago. Imagine being in Stellar and downloading Lightning. Boom.

Nudge ’em!

We just finished a project I’m excited to talk about. 1000watt Consulting had started working an app for real estate agents last year. During that process they had some creative differences with their developer and decided to part ways. That’s when they approached us (W&R Studios) and asked if we would like to partner up on finishing the app. We’ve always respected Brian, Marc and Joel and jumped at the opportunity to work together. Well, last week we formally launched the app dubbed, Nudge, so we threw a party. : )

What’s Nudge?

An image and some words. It doesn’t get any simpler. What is Facebook but a way to share your photos with some text? Same with Instagram, an image and a caption. Simple. That’s the idea around Nudge. It’s a simple way for agents to grab their clients attention with a short targeted message about the market. Even better Nudges can be delivered via email, Facebook, Twitter, a blog, whatever.

Lani Rosales over at AGBeat did a great job of highlighting the use cases for Nudge.

The response has been great. One idea came up during some feedback session that Nudge would be a great way for an MLS or large brokerage to communicate to their members important stats about the market. The Nudge could include a link to a more comprehensive report (something like 10K Research provides). Cool idea. It’s hard to get agents to read anything and an image with some short text might just do the trick.

If any MLS exec (or large broker) would like a free demo account just send me an email by clicking on the link below:

Free Nudge Demo Account.

Cloud CMA launches in Metrolist Marketplace

Two great things about this news. It brings Cloud CMA’s total coverage to over 500,000 real estate professionals around the country (a big milestone for W&R Studios). And I love the trend of these “app portals”. Metrolist Marketplace is a great example of this. I’ve listed other examples where Cloud CMA is featured along with other app portals in which Cloud CMA is featured.

Metrolist Marketplace
http://marketplace.metrolist.com/Cloud-CMA

Coastal Carolina Storefront
http://ccar.lpsmlsstorefront.com/cloudcma/

MLSlistings PERKS
http://portal.mlslistings.com/perks/?p=875

We are in the early stages of these sites but they can be a great win for third party vendors and MLS providers alike. But I would like to see tighter MLS integration to really make them take off.

Full Press Below:
_____________________________________________________________________________

Cloud CMA launches in Metrolist® Marketplace
Award winning tool now offered to members of Colorado’s largest MLS provider.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (March 26, 2012) – Web-software company, W&R Studios, announced today that its flagship product, Cloud CMA, is now available through Metrolist Marketplace, a new e-commerce platform Metrolist launched late last year.

Cloud CMA is an online report generator designed for real estate professionals to easily create property reports for their buyers and sellers. Reports include a comparative market analysis (CMA), buyer tour, property profile and flyers. These report sets can easily be created and presented on a PC, Mac, iPad or via smartphone.

“We are excited to add Cloud CMA to our growing list of vendor’s products now available through Marketplace.” stated Kirby Slunaker, President/CEO of Metrolist]. “With Marketplace we continue to accelerate the ways third-party vendors, that utilize integration MLS data, can streamline the purchase process of their customers.”

The property reports created by Cloud CMA blend MLS data and photos with content from top websites like Google, Education.com, Walk Score, Panaramio, and Yelp. These property reports are unique and unlike any available in the industry today. Additionally, all report sets in Cloud CMA can be created by just sending an email.

“We are super excited to have Cloud CMA available in the Denver market. We think Metrolist Marketplace is a perfect way for vendors to reach MLS members”, stated Greg Robertson, co-founder of W&R Studios.

For more information about Cloud CMA please visit http://marketplace.metrolist.com/Cloud-CMA

About W&R Studios
Founded in 2008, W&R Studios (http://wrstudios.com) is a privately held web software company co-founded by Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson. W&R Studios focuses on creating simple yet focused web application for the real estate industry. By providing a “less is more” approach to software design, elegant user interfaces, and using the latest in agile programming, W&R Studiosʼ software applications are at the same time powerful, yet accessible to everyone. W&R Studiosʼ products include Cloud CMA a simple online property report generator for real estate professionals.

About Metrolist
Metrolist is the largest MLS in the state of Colorado, supporting the largest network of Realtors with the most comprehensive database of real property listings throughout the Front Range. Realtor-owned since 1984, Metrolist provides leading technology solutions to real estate agents and brokers to better serve buyers and sellers. More information about Metrolist is available at www.metrolist.com. Metrolist provides a broad database of real property listings for real estate brokers to better serve buyers and sellers. Metrolist serves five Realtor® associations: Aurora Association of Realtors, Douglas/Elbert Realtor Association, Mountain Metro Association of Realtors, South Metro Denver Realtor Association, and the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Contact:
Greg Robertson
greg at wrstudios dot com
855-977-8834 Ext 2

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