This is dope yo….
Is The Lones Group the worst vendor in the world?
I hate bullies.
The story hit Inman News last month. Daniel Rothamel known as the “Real Estate Zebra” –was hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by “The Lones Group“, a company that produces a “Zebra Report” and “Zebra Blog” to market its services to real estate agents.
After threatening him and his family, Daniel today took the high road and succumbed to the intense pressure this episode has put on him and his family and agreed to stop using the moniker Zebra and stripes any further. Daniel posted a letter he drafted to The Lones Group attorney today outling his decision.
One of things that stuck me was that nobody from The Lones Group ever bothered to contact Daniel directly before filling a fucking FEDERAL LAWSUIT against him and his family.
Really Denise Lones? You didn’t even bother to call the guy and try to work things out? WTF? Have you ever heard of Karma Denise? Have you ever heard of the Golden Rule?
In your “Secrets Behind Success” Blog you have a section called “Ask Denise”. I’ve got a question for you Denise.
HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?
Who can you trust?
In my previous post I mentioned a lot of discussion is going on about the issue of listing syndication. Two efforts I heard about last week came from Trulia and eNeighborhoods/Homes.com.
Trulia Direct Reference.
You can read about this effort on Trulia’s blog. The idea came from their “Innovative MLS Advisory Board”. Here’s the explanation from that blog post:
“How does Trulia Direct Reference work?
Regardless of whether an MLS is syndicating for sale listing data to Trulia, the MLS provides a reference file that shows the status, price and other details on all properties listed in its area. Trulia then tries to match this data against the listings data syndicated from various sources, including real estate agents, brokers, franchisors and other third party syndicators. We then compare elements, such as price, agent, brokerage and current status. If there are discrepancies as compared to the MLS system of record, we’ll notify the agent and/or the MLS of the errant data sources to help clean up the data that is out there. We will also present the correct data from the MLS on Trulia.com.”
One of the guys I work with, Mike Banhagel, has great analogy that I think works for this, he calls it “pulling a Tom Sawyer”. If you remember one of the stories in the book Tom had to paint a fence. He wasn’t thrilled at the prospect but came up with the idea to convince other neighborhood kids that painting a fence was one of the most exciting and fun things you could do on a Sunday afternoon. Soon he was charging all the neighborhood kids to paint HIS fence! Right or wrong it seems like Trulia’s trying to pull a Tom Sawyer on the MLS industry.
MLS Trusted (eNeighborhoods/Homes.com)
I think this idea has a lot of legs. You can read about it MLSTrusted.com. Here’s a brief rundown of the benefits:
“The MLS Trusted partnership program was founded to reinforce and promote the value of the partnership between MLSs and participating brokers.
We are partnering with MLS organizations to replace Homes.com listings sourced from services less reliable than the MLS. Through this partnership, all listings sourced from a local MLS are displayed on Homes.com with the new MLS Trusted badge.
This badge tells consumers they can trust the property details they see, and brands the local MLS as the trusted source for truly accurate property data. All listings also contain clear and direct attribution and contact information for listing brokers….”
I love this idea. Think about it as a Better Business Bureau badge. Plus I think the team behind it has all the right intentions. eNeighborhoods has long been a true champion for the integrity of MLS data and good partners that operate within the industry. Of course it will all depend on the implementation but, I’d like to see this effort get some momentum.
Clareity 2011 MLS Executive Workshop Recap
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:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vendoralley/sets/72157626202301528/
Join me at Clareity’s MLS Executive Workshop
I came a couple days early to the Clareity MLS Executive Workshop. As part of the conference I’m going to be moderating a panel on Thursday at 1PM entitled; “3rd Party Innovation”. The panel includes Michael Hayes from eNeighborhoods, Michael Lane from ShowingTime, Joe Kazzoun of Instanet Solutions and Mike Barnett of Property Panorama.
Should be fun and hoping for some great discussion.
