Vendor Alley Sponsorships are now open for 2024. I haven’t promoted that I’m selling sponsorships for 2024 yet but organically companies have reached out and I’ve already sold 3 months. These are all repeat customers.
Sponsorships on Vendor Alley are for a full month. You get your logo on the site all month. Plus I write a “thank you” post every week during that month (4 total). You can just send me the copy you want to post, or I can take your copy and write it in my own voice. Totally up to you.
I have close to 900 industry people that are signed up to receive email alerts every time I post something. So those email recipients will see your posts at least 4 times during that month.
Also, I’m doing a couple new things this year…
A site redesign. I’m going super minimal this time and it’s going to make your ad pop.
Also I’m including an interview on my Listing Bits podcast. So that is something else you are can promote and I will also post it on my blog, giving you effectively 5 posts during that month. Keep in mind I’m still going to do other Listing Bits podcasts along with these sponsored ones.
I expect the remaining sponsorship slots to go fast. If you are interested reach out to me at gregrobertson@gmail.com and I will send you an invoice which will also serve as an insertion order. First come first serve.
My son Toby would really appreciate your support. They have some tasty popcorn choices available, click this link to support him and his Troop #319 => Toby Robertson Scout Fundraiser
Next week Lone Wolf Technologies will reveal its new platform at the T3 Technology Summit, and I’m super excited about it. Why? Let me tell you a story.
At W+R Studios we were bootstrapped, so we needed to grow organically. Our product strategy centered around making core features of an MLS system better.
CMAs on MLS systems suck? Let’s make a better one. Enter Cloud CMA.
MLS system’s client portals and listing alert emails are ugly. Let’s make them pretty (and easier to use). Voilà , Cloud Streams.
Searching on MLS systems too complicated? Let’s make something simple. Boom, Cloud MLX!
The problem was two fold. In order to grow we needed to add new products (more software) and at the end of the day is that we had 3 different software apps, each of them great in their own right, but they didn’t really work together. Also if you wanted all three you had to buy each one separately, and have 3 separate logins, and 3 separate onboarding scenarios, 3 different times you entered a credit card number, and 3 separate…you get the point.
We solved most of this by creating the “Cloud Agent Suite“, but really only scratched the surface of what was possible, then we were acquired in December 2020.
So this problem of “simplifying real estate” has been on the minds of our (W+R) design team for a very long time. How do we bring all of this together to create an end to end solution that makes sense, and still grow? Can “less software” be the answer?
Turns that the problem was about to get bigger. Starting in 2020 Lone Wolf acquired 5 companies in 9 months (including W+R); HomeSpotter, LionDesk, Terradatum and Propertybase. Now you had 9 (at least) separate logins, 9 separate… you get the point.
Sean Wheeler, CTO Lone Wolf
When I left Lone Wolf I was starting to see the green shoots of this work. Most of it on the backend led by Sean Wheeler, Lone Wolf’s CTO. One login, one credit card, one database of contacts for all products, etc. Jimmy Kelly, Lone Wolf’s CEO, talked about their effort and the concept of “less software” on a post on Inman News titled “Real Estate Doesn’t Need More Software“. I was also privy to see some of the earlier mock ups from the design group, which were super impressive.
Jimmy Kelly, CEO Lone Wolf
But, like any good meal it all comes down to ingredients. Lone Wolf from my estimation has the best ingredients in the market. The products they acquired (and the teams behind them) are not only best of class but have high adoption rates and great partnerships. Now it comes down to presentation and taste. And I have full confidence in the design chops of the team behind this. I had a chance to interview, Damien Huze, who was W+R’s Chief Design Officer and now a principal designer at Lone Wolf on my Listing Bits podcast which should drop this week.
Damien Huze, Principal Designer Lone Wolf
Am I biased? Absolutely. Am I still a fan of simple focused software applications? You betcha. But I’m a bigger fan of people. So I look forward to seeing how this particular group of talented people proves less software is better.
My son Cole just completed his senior project. He is part of the Center for International Business and Communication Studies (CIBACS) at his high school. His project was to create a business with a product to market and sell. This week he finished the project and I couldn’t be more proud.
He wrote a book, “The Terrific Tome for Travelers”, technically it’s a “5E Supplemental Book” for Dungeons & Dragons. He got into D&D over the pandemic and played it over Zoom with his friends and later in our garage. He commissioned artists, wrote over 22,000 words, came up with new characters, and designed the layout, it’s amazing!
It’s a great adventure where players try and help the people of the city of Drakai to overcome evil politicians with supernatural abilities, including the mysterious Dr. Anthrax (Dr. A).
Cole Robertson
He set up a website as part of the project and is now ready to take orders. It’s only $19.99 and you’ll get a PDF delivered instantly. He is also doing some cool things with video as supplemental content to the book, but you’ll have to order to see that content.
His final presentation is this Saturday so I’m trying to help him get as many orders as I before his presentation.
So if you are a big D&D player yourself or know anyone else who is, please visit the site and order your copy today. And please share with any other people you know that might be interested.
Order “The Terrific Tome for Travelers” today at ====> Sunbound Studios
“With this partnership, MLS PIN will integrate Boost into Pinergy’s Listings Manager and Tools page. This will allow MLS PIN’s more than 45,000 customers to create and launch digital ads to market their listings and agent profiles immediately through Boost, with their listing data channeling directly from Pinergy into the advertising solution for faster and easier ad creation.”
I’m really excited to talk about this new integration we just announced with MLS PIN. Boost is a drop-dead simple way for real estate agents to advertise their listings on top websites and social media. Major franchisors and large brokerages have been using this integration with their back-end systems for years now with great success.
MLS PIN is the first MLS organization in the country to bring this to their own MLS system Pinergy. Their members can go straight from inputting a listing right to that listing showing up branded to the agent on top websites and social media sites in just minutes. A huge thanks to MLS PIN CEO, Erminio Grasso for his vision in starting this effort and Aaron Kardell and his team for making it happen.
And last but not least Melissa Lindberg for keeping me and everyone on their toes.
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!
“Live buyer tours build on the existing functionality to turn static reports into dynamic ones—with real-time data that you and your buyers can easily read on any device. So you get a new way to show off properties, and your clients get live access to the most relevant information about their favorite listings. “
I’m really proud of the team and what they’ve acomplished with this new enhancement. Back in May of 2020 we launched Cloud CMA Live. Cloud CMA Live raised the bar for interactive digital presentations and also gave agents a new way to present remotely.
The Buyer Tour report in Cloud CMA has always been a hidden gem. With the new Live Buyer Tour we wanted to give Buyer’s agents a new tool that was mobile first. I know agents are going to love it. This new enhancement is free to all Cloud CMA subscribers and launched yesterday. Check it out and please feel free to share the quick video I made above.
“Omni Multiple Listing Service (“Omni MLS”) is pleased to announce that it will provide Lone Wolf Transactions (zipForm Edition) (“Transactions”) and MLS-Connect® from Lone Wolf Technologies (“Lone Wolf”) as benefits to their over 4,000 members. Omni MLS members will now have access to a complete real estate transaction experience that features specific Omni MLS forms to help standardize contracts both within Omni MLS and throughout the region—potentially reaching nearly 1.2 million real estate professionals.”
Love being a small part of these ground breaking deals. Major kudos to Jessica Richardson of Lone Wolf and Ross Buck of Omni MLS for their persistence of getting this to market! ¡Felicidades!
“At this time, the NMAR Executive Committee has made the decision to pause the transition to SkySlope as the state’s Form Provider. There is a misalignment between member needs and SkySlopes’ Forms Platform and until that can be resolved, the decision to postpone the launch date was made. For now, NMAR will continue to offer Instanet/Transaction Desk as its membership benefit Forms Provider. “
With MLS-Connect, subscribers can enter a listing ID into Transactions and watch as MLS information populates directly into transaction documents. This gives subscribers the means to quickly and accurately fill out forms while avoiding manual data entry and costly errors.
“We are pleased to introduce MLS-Connect to our subscribers,” stated Rebecca Jensen, MRED President and CEO. “Modern real estate is a fast-paced industry and it’s our mission to help our subscribers perform at the highest possible level. Introducing an innovative solution like MLS-Connect means they can do that.”
