Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Rich

13ef3cdAfter 8 years at Black Knight (formerly LPS) Rich Lull has left the building. I’m not sure the management at Black Knight knows what that means, but I’m pretty certain they will look back at that day as deflection point.

The first deflection point is when Rich walked in to the building. That was some 8 years ago. The previous year they lost about 10 accounts and their Paragon MLS system was widely regulated to smaller MLS markets.

Enter Rich. He and the team went to work. And over the next few years they added about 85,000 customers to Paragon and some of the largest MLS markets in the industry; GAMLS, Sandicor, Vancouver BC to name a few. (And some are yet to be announced.)

His legacy includes 4 straight years on the top of Clareity Consulting’s Satisfaction Survey. Not bad. And its hard to find anyone that’s not more respected in the industry.

What I don’t think many companies understand is while any person may be replaceable, that’s not so for a true leader.

And now Rich is a free agent. And just when the MLS industry is starting to shake up. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Keeping it interesting…

My thanks to the staff at Inman News for naming me one of “21 Interesting People In Real Estate – Inman’s 2016 list”

21

“Real estate has some real characters — whether they’re people who use their own clout in the industry to do interesting things, or people who came to home sales from other industries and walks of life. The Inman editorial team has collected our picks of the most interesting people in real estate.”

The list includes Jay Thompson from Zillow, Jonathan Smoke from MOVE, Rob Hahn, Leigh Brown, Tessa Hultz and many others.

Andy Grove

You gotta watch this video recording late last year at an event honoring Andy Grove. The presenter is Ben Horowitz. At the end they bring Andy on stage, and his message is one, in these times especially, that we should all take to heart.

“Let’s remember that millions of young people who have the misfortune of being born in the wrong national boundaries and going through all the horrors, that Ben described, I had to. I made it. Lets try and in a little way to help them make it.” – Andy Grove

You are not human if you don’t tear up. If you don’t know his story, seek it out. If you want to be a better manager, read his book.

Rapattoni plugs in

39Rapattoni announces integration with RPR Advanced Multi-List Platform (AMP)

“Rapattoni is a long-time industry partner and veteran MLS system developer,” said Dale Ross, CEO of RPR. “RPR is extremely pleased that Rapattoni has embraced the AMP™ concept of an open database with universal access for all licensed application innovators. Rapattoni has been a leader in providing both association management systems and MLS technology to REALTOR® associations for decades,” he continued. “We look forward to working with the Rapattoni team to help them bring the promise of the AMP™ system to their many MLS clients.”

Times, they are a changing…

Is GSDAR shooting itself in the foot?

RB GSDAR SC2Looks like Sandicor needs new equipment (which was planned for), Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS (GSDAR) is boycotting meetings so the expense can’t be approved. And the members suffer.

North San Diego County Association of REALTORS (NSDCAR) have sent a letter to their members describing the issue: “Your MLS is in Jeopardy”

NSDCAR

UPDATE: Here’s a response from GSDAR.

Zillow Agent Video Walkthrough Video Remix!

I was on Zillow today with a colleague and we noticed that a bunch of listings with their new agent generated “walkthrough videos” were at the top of the search results. I was skeptical when I saw this announced because I felt the quality of these videos would vary.

Anyway we started to watch one of them. After about 10 seconds my colleague said, “Doesn’t this seem a bit spooky, like a slasher film? You know the kind when a serial killer cases the house?”

I thought, oh my god she’s totally right! So you can guess what I did next. The Zillow Agent Video Walkthrough REMIX!

Oh, and just wait to you see what happens at the end!!!

 

(Keep in mind, this is an actual Zillow Walkthrough video, I just added the music)

Alon Chaver joins HomeServices of America

alon
Alon Chaver Joins HomeServices of America as Chief Information Officer

“Chaver is well-known within the real estate industry and brings nearly 20 years of product innovation and leadership experience. Most recently, Chaver served as Trulia’s vice president, industry services where he was responsible for data acquisition, data quality and the development of products and services to support Trulia’s partnerships with the real estate industry. Chaver currently serves as a director on the Broker Public Portal’s board of managers. Chaver earned a law degree from University of California-Berkeley School of Law and served as Lieutenant, Communications and Electronics in the Israeli Defense Forces from 1982-1986.”

Alon is legit. I believe he will be a reasonable voice to the current discussions around how/when/if Upstream is implemented.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Interesting perspective from Marilyn at WAV Group on selling her house.

I Didn’t Hire FOUR Listing Agents!

“First, every one of the premiere agents and my listing agent called me back within minutes. This is not the normal response time I have experience in the past, so I was very pleased. Checkmark for all of them on responsiveness.

Now let’s get to the area that was very troublesome to me. I asked each agent to tell me a bit more about the house. I wanted to see how much they actually knew about the property. Had they visited it? Were they familiar with the neighborhood? The town? The Street?

I was very disappointed to find out that NONE of the premiere agents had been in the house or even in the neighborhood recently. They knew nothing about the property. They were simply using my property to troll for potential buyers. They were not experts in any way regarding the community or property they were representing”

Her experience mirrors mine in regard to agent responsiveness. I think Zillow is doing a great job of training agent to respond to inquires. In tests I’ve done on Zillow, agents are getting back faster than ever.

I’m not sure other agents not knowing the market is really Zillow’s fault, sadly its really a problem the whole industry has to deal with.

Mike Wurzer says you shouldn’t be “spooked”

Are MLSs spooked by AMP?

“What this means is that AMP isn’t something to be worried about, rather each MLS will be able to consider choosing AMP as their MLS vendor on the same basis it would consider choosing FBS, Black Knight, Corelogic, or any other vendor. That’s an opportunity, not something to fear.

Rational and thoughtful (and a bit fun) post from Mr. Wurzer. Nice to see him writing again.

Chris Lambrou joins Metro MLS

Metro MLS hires Data Guru, Chris Lambrou, as Chief Information Officer.

Lambrou joins Metro MLS with 17 years of MLS industry experience, including multiple honors and accomplishments. He is currently the chair for RESO’s newly formed Internet Tracking Workgroup and IEEE’s hackathon committee.

Most recently, Lambrou was VP of Special Projects/R&D at Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). There, he designed a group collaboration web service that streamlined short- sales for REALTORS® that was used by over twenty MLSs, assisted thousands of families nationwide, and was adopted by Fannie Mae as their official short-sale solution.

Before that, he was the Help Desk Supervisor for 10 years which ended in MRED’s first-ever nationally recognized “top call center in America” award.

Nice get for Metro MLS. Congrats to Chris.

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