Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Join me on Clubhouse, today at 3PM Pacific.

First off if you don’t know what Clubhouse is, here’s a brief description from the New York Times.

“What is it?

A social networking app that lets people gather in audio chat rooms to discuss various topics, whether it’s sports, wellness, art or why Bitcoin is headed to $87,000. Rooms are usually divided into two groups: those who are talking and those who are listening (participants can see a list of everyone who is in a conversation, and the numbers sometimes run into the thousands). Unlike Twitter, Clubhouse is a closed, hierarchical platform: A moderator oversees discussions and has the ability to let someone chime in or to kick out the unruly. In addition to the “clubs” sorted by topic, two or more users can join together and start their own chat room.”

You’ll need to download the app and have an invite. I have a few to give out. First come, first serve. Also, Clubhouse is iPhone only for now.

I’m going to start the room on Clubhouse at 3PM today, PT. The topic I want to discuss is What is an “active user”.

If an agent has created a website but doesn’t login to the backend every month, do they not find value in having the website?

If an agent creates listing alerts for their past/active clients but doesn’t login to the backend of the app and change anything, does that mean their clients don’t see any value? Is “set it, and forget it” a bad thing?

If a vast majority of agents barely do one transaction per year and barely log in to the MLS, why should they pay monthly MLS dues?

Let’s face it, if you tied value to app usage then the clock on your computer desktop would cost $500 per month.

It’s complicated. I see all sides to this. But most times “logins” are not the answer. Sometimes just using the app once a year is worth it.

Increasingly vendors are under pressure because MLS organizations and associations are under pressure to deliver services that members value. But how we define “value” is, well, complicated. Especially since most agents don’t do many transactions.

The nature of Clubhouse is that it’s a live conversation, and not recorded. So join me at 3PM for a safe space to discuss this topic, hopefully, it can spur more offline conversations that can lead to a greater understanding of this complicated issue.

Looking for a new gig?

Chief Innovation Officer – MIBOR

“The MIBOR REALTOR® Association is the professional trade association representing central Indiana’s REALTORS® since 1912. Our Broker Listing Cooperative (BLC®) listing service provides MLS services to over 9,000 subscribers. As Chief Innovation Officer, you will focus on creating solutions that improve the delivery of services to members, protect and improve the listing dataset, administer and enforce policy, develop applications that increase efficiency of MIBOR processes, and participate in strategic decisions of the organization.“

I love the thinking around this position, really a great opportunity. To find out more about this job and others please visit the Vendor Alley Job Board!

FirstMLS and ARA open up virtual trade show to all agents

Atlanta REALTORS® Virtual “Showcase 2020”

“The 20th year of Showcase, the Southeast’s premier residential Real Estate Trade Show, is scheduled to be held VIRTUALLY, on August 27, 2020. The Trade Show will bring together REALTORS®, real estate professionals and affiliated industries on a single day. The one day show will feature a broad selection of essential industry seminars from national and regional speakers, industry items, services, and business tools.”

I thought this was pretty smart. Many of these local trade shows get good speakers and have great content, so now that they are virtual, why not invite all agents?

New Orleans Metropolitan Member Appreciation Day

With a couple of big events being held in New Orleans this year, it was great to see this turn out at the NOMAR Member Appreciation Day.

Back to the future for Palm Springs MLS members

Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS® listened to their members

“VESTAPLUS™, the newest MLS system to enter the MLS industry and serving over 20,000 REALTORS® to date, inked a deal to bring back their software to the members of the Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS® (PSRAR) due to strong demand from PSRAR subscribers. The MLS™/CLAW a luxury MLS services provider in Beverly Hills and Malibu is the provider of VESTAPLUS™. The VESTAPLUS™ software will be delivered via a 3-way agreement between the Palm Springs Regional Association of REALTORS®, The MLS™/CLAW and California Regional MLS (CRMLS)”

With CRMLS latest expansion it looks like they have 4 MLS System of Choices: VESTAPLUS, Matrix, Paragon, and FlexMLS. It’s good to be an MLS Vendor these days.

Brenda Carnegie joins Metro Market Trends, Inc.


Metro Market Trends, Inc. Welcomes Brenda Carnegie

Brenda has served in the real estate industry for over 25 years starting as an MLS Director in Clearwater, Florida. She has held
positions with Interealty (now part of CoreLogic), Realist, and Coldwell Banker Residential. Brenda was responsible for managing
MLS system installations, sales and member support, as well as developing and implementing Broker-based solutions.

Brenda was part of the realtor.com® Industry Relations Team from 2009-2015 as Director of Industry Relations, providing support to Associations/MLSs in the Southeast.

Congrats to RealtyWEB.net and Brenda!

NARlando 2016

Many of you are already in Orlando, personally I don’t arrive till tomorrow afternoon. Which means I’ve got a jammed pack weekend! Here are some of things that we have going on.

W+R Studios booth!
Stop by and see our newly redesigned booth. Our booth number is 1185. No ping pong this year, but sit in on a demo and get a free t-shirt!

MLS Association Executives Session
November 4, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (that’s this Friday)
Hyatt Regency, Windermere Ballroom Z

Brian Donnellan has asked me to moderate a panel with Mike Wurzer, Matt Cohen and Chad Curry on the future of real estate technology. We are going to geek out on future tech and what it means for real estate. (I’m just glad not to talk about Upstream)

AMP Presentation
November 5, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (Saturday)
Katie and I will be demoing our Cloud Agent Suite (Cloud CMA, Cloud Streams and Cloud MLX) and highlighting recent integrations we’ve done with the AMP API.

ListHub Party
November 5, 2016 5PM-9PM
ICEBAR – 8967 International Drive, Orlando FL
W+R Studios is co-sponsoring the ListHub party. We will have a cool photo booth set up for attendees.

Corelogic Party
November 5, 2016 8PM-11PM
B.B. King’s Blues Club – 9101 International Dr. #2230, Orlando, FL
W+R Studios is also co-sponsoring the Corelogic party as well (what can I say, we like to party!)

Come by our Suite!
Katie and I will be in our Suite at the Rosen Centre giving private demos. We have a few slots open so reach out to Katie if you like to talk about adding the Cloud Agent Suite to your MLS or brokerage.

Other than that I’ll most likely be at the lobby bar (but you already knew that.)

Just remember, DON’T GO BIG ON THE FIRST NIGHT!

See you soon!

P.S. We are going to miss you Skinny!

NAR announces partnership with Clareity Security.

I heard through the grapevine (do they have grapevines in Arizona?) that last week at the 2015 Leadership Summit Dale Stinton announced a new partnership with Clareity Security, dubbed the “NAR Portlet Project“. Despite the unfortunate name it seems like another big win for Clareity. Clareity will begin implementing NAR Resource Portlets in about 18 to 200 local and state associations in August and September. Which should reach about 100,000 members. The new “Portlets” fit into’s Clareity’s SSO Dashboards.

A lot of members get to their MLS system through their local association’s website but its not clear whether 3rd party vendors participating with Clariety’s App Store will be displayed on this new association dashboards.

Overall I think this is great for NAR. They have a lot of resources that not a lot of members know about (REALTOR University, .Realtor domain name site, MVP member benefits, and of course RPAC). Clareity strategy seems pretty clear, they want their Dashboards to be in front of as many agents as possible. Makes a helluva a lot sense to me.

TAR says no to HAR

shoot in footAndrea V. Brambila for Inman News

Texas Realtors won’t provide member info to competing statewide Realtor site, HAR.com

“Last week, in a 23-to-16 vote, TAR’s executive board rejected a motion from HAR that would have had TAR send HAR a data feed, updated daily, of TAR’s membership roster, complete with names and contact information. In the motion HAR said it would have paid any costs associated with providing the feed and promised not to use the list to solicit TAR members to join HAR or its MLS.”

HAR is asking for membership information, not listing data. And they’ll pay all implementation costs. Seems like a no-brainer. Especially cause…

“Nationally, HAR.com was the 19th most visited real estate site in June with 1.32 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore. By contrast, comScore does not track TexasRealEstate.com’s traffic because the site doesn’t meet a threshold of around 50,000 unique visitors per month.”

emphasis mine.

“TAR suggested that, instead of a data feed, TAR could offer HAR a widget that would pull in profile information from TexasRealEstate.com when consumers search for Realtors on HAR.com. The information would appear in framed results, giving TexasRealEstate.com a traffic boost. TAR has not yet developed the suggested widget.”

LOL, “a widget”. The guys at Zillow and Trulia are laughing there asses off right now.

Wilmington Regional AOR switching to ShowingTime

About time…

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WILMINGTON REGIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® PARTNERS WITH SHOWINGTIME TO PROVIDE APPOINTMENT CENTER SERVICES TO MEMBERS

NEW SERVICE TO LAUNCH BY JANUARY 7TH, 2014

Chicago, IL – January 6, 2014—The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® announced today that it selected ShowingTime, the real estate industry’s leading showing management technology provider, to provide appointment center services for its 1,650+ Realtor® members beginning Tuesday, January 7.

“The ShowingTime Appointment Center’s extended hours, two-way text messaging capabilities, branded calls and emails, and overall use of technology to automate the scheduling process is exciting,” said MLS President Sandy Beals. “I am looking forward to a long relationship with ShowingTime. I am so confident they will exceed members’ expectations.”

ShowingTime’s technology-rich Appointment Center, along with its online scheduling system available 24/7 in the MLS, will enable WRAR members to call to schedule showings from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, seven days a week, or login to the MLS anytime to schedule showings. Members can also use smart phones, tablets and the ShowingTime Mobile App to request and manage showings and feedback.

ShowingTime products – currently used to schedule more than 2 million showings per month in more than 190 markets representing 400,000+ real estate professionals – use technology to improve efficiency and streamline the appointment scheduling process, resulting in quicker showing confirmations and less phone tag. The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® is ShowingTime’s 70th market-wide subscribing customer.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors®,” said ShowingTime President Michael Lane. “WRAR members will have access to many unique features that will help them be effective, including our patented two-way text messaging system for homeowner approval of showings. Our services will equip the members of WRAR to provide great service to buyers and sellers.” he added. “We’re also pleased to be able to offer job opportunities to many of the appointment specialists from the prior showing service that lost their jobs prior to the holidays.”

About ShowingTime
ShowingTime equips MLSs, Associations, offices, brokers and agents with tools to schedule showings, generate feedback and report on activity. Its products are used by more than 6,000 offices nationwide and integrated with 190+ MLSs to manage two million showings every month. Visit http://www.showingtime.com for more information.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Tom Denk, ShowingTime, 312-568-8001 x130 tdenk@showingtime.com

Sponsored By Paragon Connect