For all of those going to NAR Midyear meetings (I still can’t get myself to say RLM) this message is for you.
I don’t care where NAR decides to hold the conference, Tradition is tradition, so I’m inviting everyone to meet up at the Omni Hotel’s Marquee Lounge Monday night (5/8/23). Anywhere from 9 PM on, just get there before last call (Midnight), and let’s all raise a glass together in a place we have enjoyed each other’s company for so long!
Spread the word!!!
Dan just pinged me this in Teams today.
I remember crashing a broker meeting to give the agent who created the millionth Cloud CMA report a free iPad. Trying to fit the balloons in Frances’ car was an effort!
And we recorded this video when we surpassed 10 million reports. It’s one of my favorite videos we did at W+R.
We created this together Dan but your fingers brought it to life. Congratulations!
#noequal
How can we make housing affordable for everyone? Rob and Greg explore how we can make housing more accessible and affordable for all. From creative solutions to policy changes, watch as we unpack the different strategies available to make housing affordability a reality. Tune in now to learn how you can help create a future where housing is within reach!
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Connect with Rob and Greg:
This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2023
Just wanna give another shout-out to everyone at CoreLogic. Kim, Kevin, Charles, and Lisa have been huge supporters and I appreciate them in sponsoring this month of Vendor Alley.
I’m sure if you attended RESO this week you heard about Trestle Direct. Trestle Direct offers a new way for MLSs to provide agents, brokers, and technology companies Web API access to non-standardized listing data and additional assets such as contacts, saved searches, and more. Now available exclusively to Matrix clients at no cost and provided through Trestle, CoreLogic’s data distribution platform, for accessible data licensing management.
Thanks again everyone!
Remember that article, Homes.com Using Your Name to Steal Your Leads?
Well, Homes.com responded to the article. And not just anyone but Homes.com CEO David Mele.
THE HOMES.COM RESPONSE WILL SURPRISE YOU
Ray: “One of the questions I was asked by agents, does Homes.com have the right to use an agent’s Name, Image, or Likeness to advertise or market the Homes.com website?”
Mele: “Homes.com has not specifically selected and used agent names, images or likenesses to advertise the Homes.com website. But we have utilized Google’s DSA system, which generated ads based on content that was listed Homes.com, which included both property listings and agent profiles.”
It’s precisely what I pointed out before. Agents using a platform like Google (which is free) means they (the agents) are the product. Homes.com is doing nothing wrong here.
The Q&A goes on to address “selling leads” and what happens to the inquiries made on the website.
Ray: “You stated in your email that “Homes.com doesn’t sell leads or trick users. … Click on our ads and submit leads, and see where they go.” One of the agent’s spouses did this. They went to YouTube, searched for the agent (their spouse) by name and saw the Homes.com ad using that agent’s name. They clicked on the ad that took them to the agent’s profile page. Then they searched for a house, clicked on a house and submitted a request. That inquiry did not go through to the agent whose name they had searched on YouTube. Can you help me understand anecdotes like this that we received?”
Mele: “If they had submitted an inquiry from the agent’s profile page, that inquiry would have gone directly to the agent they landed on. But if they then searched for a house listed by another agent, then the inquiry would have gone directly to the listing agent for that house. Since we employ a “Your Listing, Your Lead” model, all inquiries from listing detail pages go to the listing agent and the listing agent only. And these leads are not sold to the listing agent. They are provided for free.”
It’s pretty funny that agents can’t grasp the “your listing, your lead” concept. Big kudos to David Mele for addressing these concerns head-on.
Black Knight and Restb.ai Form Strategic Alliance to Offer an AI-driven Image Product Suite
“Two top industry firms are teaming up to deploy this new AI-powered technology. Today, Restb.ai, the leader in artificial intelligence and computer vision for real estate, announced a strategic alliance with Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) to integrate the Restb.ai MLS Product Suite seamlessly into the Black Knight Paragon MLS platform and offer the integrated products to Black Knight’s customers.”
Great news. I’ve been a big proponent of adding tags to listing photos. But the rub was the cost of doing this at scale. Restb.ai partnering with Black Knight is a perfect outcome.
I think the benefits of this technology are far greater than what is being presented. With advances in AI we are going to see some cool stuff. Sure helping out with listing input is a solid use case but I think we are only scratching the surface of what can happen once all listing photos are properly tagged. And I hope they don’t restrict access to this metadata to other vendors.
My thanks to CoreLogic for sponsoring Vendor Alley again this month.
If you are an MLS organization, it’s time to transition from old-school RETS to modern Web API. Launched by CoreLogic just this week, Trestle Direct offers a new way for MLSs to provide agents, brokers, and technology companies Web API access to non-standardized listing data and additional assets such as contacts, saved searches, and more. Now available exclusively to Matrix clients at no cost and provided through Trestle, CoreLogic’s data distribution platform, for accessible data licensing management.
CoreLogic is also a Diamond Sponsor at the Spring RESO Conference next week in San Antonio, TX. Make sure you say hello.
DPX–or Decentre Property Exchange–is an online marketplace for real estate. And it comes from the heart and mind of Rob Hahn as a potential solution to current real estate buyer/seller woes. As Rob states, DPX offers transparency, the highest price for a property, efficiency, faster transactions, and a better consumer experience. It’s also duly noted that Rob Hahn, as the mind behind DPX, is treated in this episode more as a guest than a co-host as he is pretty much interviewed by the Fab Greg Robertson. Could real estate auctions be coming to a town near you? Find out what Rob and Greg have to say in this week’s episode of Industry Relations!
Watch us on YouTube!
Connect with Rob and Greg:
This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2023
Second Century Ventures Announces 14 Companies for 2023 REACH Scale-Up Program
“We are thrilled to welcome these innovative companies to the 2023 REACH and REACH Commercial programs,” said SCV President and NAR CEO Bob Goldberg. “Their solutions are poised to make a significant impact and help overcome the complex challenges that lie ahead in the real estate industry.”
Here’s the list:
- Flock: offers a seamless and tax-deferred exit from rental property using the 721 Exchange, allowing property owners to passively earn income and appreciation without the traditional responsibilities of ownership.
- HighNote: a drag and drop presentation and proposal platform to help agents pitch and sell listings, offers, neighborhoods and themselves.
- Plus Platform: modern asset management and trading platform for residential mortgages, providing better transparency and liquidity to the mortgage market.
- Prisidio: digital vault to capture and securely share your most important information with the key people in your life.
- Real Grader: measures, manages and maximizes digital reputation for real estate professionals across search, social media and real estate platforms.
- Summer: simplifies the process of finding, buying, designing and monetizing a vacation or investment home through a non-fractional approach.
- Tongo: private card-based product for agents to draw against pending commissions ahead of closing, and only repay when they get paid.
I’ve been following HighNote for some time. Mark Choey, HighNote’s Founder, has a good idea for design and it shows in the product. I also think Tongo is interesting. These “credit cards for X” and popping up everywhere. Congrats!
