This was one of my projects over the weekend. Robert Drummer of iMapp and I worked together on creating a site that would have all the major real estate events listed. The best way to make this happen was involve all of Vendor Alley readers. So we have two ways to enter events:
1. A form. Just fill out the form and we will update the calendar with these events on a daily(ish) basis.
2. Bulk upload. If you have a bunch of dates for your events you can also fill out an Excel file we provide and email it to us.
If you have any ideas on making it better please feel free to comment. Click the link on the top of this page or just click the link below to check it out:
Looks like Bob Hale and the HAR boys have put together a great line up next week for the “MLS Cloud” conference. Both Alex Perriello from Realogy and Craig Cheatham from Realty Alliance will be there so I’m sure the Franchisor IDX issues will be discussed.
Plus from a look of some of the attendees it will be a crazy lobby bar.
It was one of the most talked about NAR Midyear Conferences in recent history. Decisions were being made that effected how listings were displayed on the internet and how much money REALTORS would have to pay to “survive”, ($40.00 per year, it turns out.) Now that the dust has settled I’ve put together a mixed bag of my thoughts and observations.
CMLS Listing Syndication Workshop
Sold out in less than 24 hours this event was a huge success. I may be biased but CMLS really put together an outstanding event, so look for more of this type of stuff in the future. Congrats to Merri Jo Cowen and the entire CMLS Board of Directors for pulling this off. See photos here.
IDX listings, Franchisors, and RSS.
“Repeal”, “Rescind”. “Suspend”, “Franchisor”, “Broker Network”, WTF?. I’m not going to do any deep analysis, so many other people have done a great job writing about this topic. It’s just becoming so ridiculous I’m getting bored with it. PREDICTION: NAR will punt on these issues again in November.
CIVIX Patent. Anytime NAR calls an emergency meeting and has industry consultants, with big names coming up to the microphone one by one to tell you how great something is, you better watch your back. NAR thinks it’s doing the industry a huge favor by making the MLS vendors pay up. Me thinks these MLS vendors (especially the two largest) might have something to say about this. PREDICTION: NAR won’t be able to pony up the 7 million to settle this thing (without major modifications to the deal), which means it’s everyone for themselves.
Inman News
I gotta say Tim Smith, CEO of Inman News, and his team is killing it lately. Two big moves announced at NAR Midyear, Chris Smith aka “Tech Savvy Agent” has left MOVE to become Inman’s Chief Evangelist, they announced a recent deal with LPS Real Estate Group to handle there online advertising, and a new “invitation only” Data Summit is going to be held a couple days before the Connect Conference in SF this year. Plus I really like some of the changes they’ve made to conferences, and their Agent Reboot roadshow has been a huge success. Looking forward to Connect in July to see what else Tim has in store for us!
Dominion Enterprises Reorg
This was announced a few days before NAR Midyear began. I’m writing a 3 part series about Dominion Enterprises and what I see the challenges and opportunties may be. Part I is already available to Vendor Alley Private Newsletter subscribers, and I’ll be posting it later next week.
and the the category you’ve all been waiting for….the award for Best Dressed Vendor goes to Ohan Antebian from RPR. Best Dressed Vendor NAR Midyear 2011
So I’m at a trade show today. To ensure that all attendees visit all the vendor’s booths they created a Bingo Card (See image). I don’t blame the organizers, they think they are doing a good thing.
I’m not sure about you but I hate, HATE, HATE these things. You just get a ton of people lined up waiting for you to stamp or intial the card. Sometimes interupting when you are talking to a real prospect!
Shane McCarthy, who is with me today, put it this way. “I don’t need to see everyone. I just want to see people who are interested.”
This Wednesday Inman’s Agent Reboot Tour will hit Orange County at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. I haven’t yet attended this event but I plan on checking it out this week.
They’ve done a good job of getting some great national sponsors. Zillow, Lowes, Realtor.com and a couple Realogy brands.
Nicole Nicolay – Very popular on the circuit. Chris Smith – This guy is getting rave reviews, It will be interesting to see what the hype is about. Stacey Harmon – She runs a great newsletter service all about Facebook you sign up for here.
Galen Ward of Estately is also going to be on a panel, “Plug In: Tools and Technologies You Need to Know About.”
Looks like there is a pre-party the night before (tomorrow night) at Pablos Cantina @ The District at Tustin Legacy (6PM-9PM).
I wanted to mention and thank N-Play for sponsoring this month’s Vendor Alley. Looks like a lot of you may get to see this new concept in action next week a the RETechSouth conference in Atlanta.
The concept is deceptively simple. It will be interesting to hear the feedback from the event.
Full Press Release Below:
———————————–
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Kristi Bolton
N-Play RE LLC
904.680.1283
904.564.1023
www.N-Play .com
Kristi at N-Play dot com
N-Play Hosts Groundbreaking, Interactive Presentation at REtechSouth Attendees are in for an eye-opening experience on the future of real estate negotiations
Jacksonville, FL – N-Play is gearing up as Elite Sponsor for one of the largest real estate technology conferences in the country. RETechSouth (RETSO) hosts the most powerful conversations in the real estate industry and is about delivering the technological tools and knowledge to help Agents, Brokers and their referral network partners become more effective in their business. This is a Can’t Miss Event in Atlanta!
N-Play is hosting a featured session on Friday, April 1st at 11:20 a.m. Brokers and agents will experience first-hand how changing their traditional approach to the market will open up new buying and selling opportunities previously thought not possible or nonexistent. Through audience participation, N-Play will demonstrate how engaging consumers online in a real-time offer and negotiation process will ultimately deliver more and better opportunities to agents and with less hassle, stress and overhead.
Attendees will leave the session knowing that when the market thinks there are no buyers, there are. And, when one thinks they have the best price for a property, they don’t. The technology solution is here today and it’s an innovative approach every agent needs to know about.
For more information about the conference please go to www. Retechsouth.com
N-Play RE LLC
N-Play is the residential real estate industry’s first online offer management service where buyers shopping for homes can make and view non-binding, online offers on MLS properties. N-Play partners with real estate brokers and agents to offer the service through their Web sites via The Offer Centersm, N-Play’s featured search widget. The company uses full RETS feeds to keep all properties, agents and offices in sync with their Multiple Listing Service and all information is current. Buyers can also access N-Play through the company’s own search portal at www.n-play.com. N-Play is partnered with top brokerages in Atlanta, GA, Las Vegas, NV and South Florida offering over 100,000 searchable listings.
Gregg Larson and crew have certainly come up with a winning formula for Clareity’s annual MLS Executive Workshop. Last week was Clareity’s 10th anniversary for holding the event and it was sold out almost as quickly as the announcement was made. I’m sure they have 10 more years ahead, here’s why:
1. Location. While most of the country is freezing, the event is held in Scottsdale and the weather was absolutely perfect this past week, just beautiful.
2. Don’t skimp. They are great hosts. Premium booze. No drink tickets, and good food. ‘Nuff said.
3. Prizes. Gregg is very generous with the prizes too. I don’t think you will ever find an event where so many high tech prizes are given away.
4. Inclusion. Vendors and MLS executives are both featured in panels.
5. Good content. Matt Cohen keeps the sessions relevanat and topical to today’s issues.
6. Audience participation. Seems like you get more Q&A than other meetings I’ve attended.
7. MLS Satisfaction Survey. They announce the results at this event. Pure genius.
Highlights for me include the listing syndication discussions. Feels like there is a change in the air on this topic. Also every year it seems like Gregg puts two industry vets on stage who may be on opposite ends of a topic. This year it was Sami Inkinen from Trulia and Errol Samuelson from MOVE. It’s great theatre to watch both participants answer questions and be cordial to one another. Even though you might sense they would rather the other one not exist.
The theme of the event was innovation. Two of my favorite presentation were the one given by Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBS and another by John Heithaus of MRIS. Mike has been talking a lot about the concept of an “MLS App Store” and the possibilities are very exciting to a 3rd party vendor like myself. John Heithaus is relatively new to this crowd but not real estate, his fun quirky presentation was informative, provoking and entertaining. Tough mix.
But my favorite presentation was by Art Carter. Art spoke of the need for standards and how everyone in the room was responsible for helping this effort. Yes I know this is a old topic, but somehow Art made it fresh. Part of it was the message he was delivering, most of it was the fact that he was something to you don’t see a lot of nowadays; Genuine.
My thanks to Gregg and Matt and the rest of the Clareity crew for a truly awesome event. See you next year!
Check out the Vendor Alley Flickr Photostream for photos from the event:
It’s convention season. Many of your are making the rounds at this year’s real estate franchise trade shows. Just like you I’ve been to a few already. I’ve been talking to a lot of other vendors and executives at major franchisors and have begun to better understand some of the issues facing them. I hit on this a little of this on my post “Inside Trulia’s Boiler Room”. I can break it down in to 2 different bits:
SEO is a BFD.
Due to the complexities, various display rules, MLS policies and procedures most modern day real estate franchisors contract with a vendor to handle their IDX services. But a few MLS providers still have rules that require a certain URL structure. To pass the MLS “smell test”, you must have the broker’s name, such as:
www.abcrealty.bigdaddyfranchisor.com
Well this totally sucks for SEO and long tail search. I won’t go in to details but by adding a sub-domain you really hurt the ability for the franchisor to grab any real SEO juice. And I have to say many MLS provider recognize this and do allow national franchisor sites some leeway, and some do not (I’m looking at you H.A.R.)
After a push last year from Realogy, NAR’s MLS policy committee changed its policy to allow national franchisors the ability to index IDX listings on their national home pages. This is a HUGE step in the right direction. But that brings me to my second point, because they added a certain restriction: No advertising around these listings.
Fighting with one hand tied behind their back.
When you break down Zillow and Trulia’s business model it comes down to two factors:
Great SEO drives traffic. Traffic equals more dollars from advertising.
Sound familiar? These two things are exactly the same things that many MLS providers and NAR are restricting. WTF?
The recent restriction by NAR’s MLS Policy Committee to not allow advertising surrounding the indexed IDX listings seems a bit expansive. Most franchisors and their vendors know there a smart ways of implementing advertising around these listings. These methods don’t effect the integrity of the site but do provide much needed revenue.
I think competition is a great thing. But let’s have a fair fight. MLS providers and NAR need to give real estate franchisors a fighting chance.
I’ve got to hand it to the folks at KW. I was super impressed at the recent 2011 Keller Williams Family Reunion in Anaheim, CA.
To start off with in order to participate in the event you must first compete a Approved Vendor Application. Here’s a list of some of the requirements:
You have to be in business for at least 3 years.
5 letters of recommendation from KW agents using your product.
3 business letters of references
1 letter of reference from you bank.
I would love to see more of this type of vetting in the industry. Although the requirement for being in business for 3 years could be shortened. This might limit their agents to new technology.
Tom While setting up our booth an announcement went over the PA requesting Vendors to come to demo theatre. At that point Tom Freireich, director of business development for Keller Williams introduced himself and thanked all of for supporting KW and for our business (imagine that!!) Tom told us how many agents were expected (what? no spin? an actual number?) He also invited us to participate in the general session and other events. In fact the show hours were designed to allow this. Tom explained to us that he wanted everyone to particpate and understand their culture. And a quick note about the show hours, the earliest they started was 11AM. So just in case you didn’t listen to me and “went big” the first night you didn’t have to stress to get to the booth at some ungodly hour. Plus you also got a voucher you could use to buy something to eat. Boom!
The inclusive vibe KW set the tone for was a welcome surprise from someone who has attended and paid for a lot of trade shows. To me Keller Williams has set the bar on how to run a trade show and the respect their vendors. Bravo.
Wanna buy a curling iron?Many of you may have read that Dan and I released our first non-real estate web app this past weekend. If you haven’t, you can read it here. Basically the app is designed for businesses who’s income is derived on high frequency recurring customers. This can be anyone from a golf pro to a hair stylist. The app is a simple way for these types of businesses to remind their clients to come back. We call it Heads Up!
Since one of the largest hair dressers show was here locally (International Salon and Spa Expo [ISSE] 2011, pronounced “Ice”) we decided to launch at this event. Besides hair stylists share a lot in common with Realtors. First off they have to receive a license from the state to practice, many of them are independent contractors, they work at a salon (similar to a Broker office), and they rent a chair (think desk fee). A few key differences, they do more transactions (of course) and on average hair stylists make more money than a Realtor.
Plus the event (ISSE) was supposed to have more attendance than NAR‘s annual conference.
Our booth location wasn’t the best, the show was in the main Long Beach Convention Hall we were set up in the arena, with the “Wellness” crowd. Not so bad. Our neighbors were a company called Minx, who did shrink wrap nail coverings, across from us was what I can only refer to as “boob tape”. The video being looped was interesting to us for the first 10 minutes but then got kind of creepy. Believe me, beauty isn’t pretty.Open for business!
We set up our booth and were ready to rock. The show opened on a Saturday and the attendance we pretty tepid. This made sense we one of the other exhibitors pointed out that a lot of salon and spas are open on Saturday. Makes sense. We only signed up a couple subscriptions and called it a day.
Line 'em up!When I arrived at the convention center on Saturday I knew this show attendance was going to be much better than Saturday, there was already a line forming to get in. While we did get better traffic, it very hard to draw people in. A lot of the exhibitors were being very aggressive with booth promotions. I decided to take a look in the main convention center.
Pandemonium!! It was like a giant CVS designed by someone does casinos in Vegas. The music was loud, you had different hair performers who would speak in to a microphone as they cut hair. Freaking crazy. My favorite was a girl in lingerie on stilts. Guess what she was selling? Curling irons, of course!!Hair stage performer in action
I sat in on a couple break out sessions, learned a lot. We closed up the booth around six, with a few more orders. The feedback we got from attendees was great. But there were no other vendors selling technology directly to stylists, the other software companies were targeting enterprises sales to salons and spa owners. I look at this more of an opportunity than a problem.
Monday was “student day”, lots of students (dressed mostly in black and for whatever reason girls love to wear knee high boots, with short shorts, which was fine by me.). We had a few “be-backs” come back and order.
While I was hoping for a lot more orders due to the size of the show I came back encouraged. We plan on hitting a few spas and salons locally and see how that pans out. I need a hair cut anyway.
