Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Bob Hale honored as 2011 CEO Communicator of the year.

Great local recognition for Bob. Congrats!

Full Press Release below:
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PRSA HOUSTON HONORS HOUSTON ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® PRESIDENT AND CEO BOB HALE AS 2011 CEO COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR

HOUSTON — (June 30, 2011) — The Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR) President and CEO Bob Hale with the 2011 CEO Communicator of the Year Award during the organization’s annual Excalibur Awards Gala at the InterContinental Hotel on June 23.

The award is given to an organizational leader who demonstrates the ability to communicate effectively to general or specific publics; has public visibility as a communicator; is a respected member of the community; and invests his or her time and talent communicating a specific message or messages.

PRSA Houston recognized Hale for leading a successful integrated communications program that combines public relations, social media, a website (HAR.com) that draws more than 1.3 million unique visitors per month, and print and outdoor advertising campaigns to establish REALTORS® as the trusted resource for real estate consumers and HAR as the trusted resource for its membership.

“I am deeply honored to receive the 2011 CEO Communicator of the Year Award from PRSA Houston, but would be remiss not to share the credit with the HAR staff,” said Hale. “Association staff works hard every day to make sure consumers understand the value of a REALTOR® in real estate transactions and to communicate the benefits of the Association to our members. To have what we do recognized with this honor, and to know it comes from communications practitioners, makes it particularly meaningful.”

Hale has led HAR since 1988. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to become the largest trade association in Houston and the second largest local REALTOR® association in the country, with more than 24,000 members.

Thanks to Hale’s vision and drive, HAR.com is a household brand in the greater Houston area and the most frequently visited website in Houston real estate, with more than 1.6 billion hits each month.

HAR’s progressive communications include a Facebook page, which has more than twice as many fans as the next local REALTOR® association in the U.S., as well as extensive use of multiple social media platforms. The HAR YouTube Channel features nearly 600 videos that were all produced in HAR’s in-house studio and editing suite and have garnered more than 120,000 views. Among the videos are 61 that are part of HAR’s Consumer Knowledge Series, programming designed to educate consumers about real estate transactions and home ownership. The series has been so well received that the National Association of REALTORS® purchased 20 of them for use by associations across the country. HAR also produces The Edge, a weekly eNewsletter containing timely real estate industry information and data that is distributed to real estate brokerage managers to share with their agents.

During the awards presentation, HAR surprised Hale with a video containing personal congratulatory messages from former Houston Mayor Bill White, Houston Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney, legendary restaurateur Tony Vallone, Realogy Franchise Group President & CEO Alex Perriello, Great Day Houston host Deborah Duncan, Houston Business Journal Publisher John Beddow and U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

The CEO Communicator of the Year Award was created in 2006. Previous honorees include Mayor White, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, Imperial Sugar President and CEO John Sheptor and Chevron Phillips Chemical CEO Greg Garland.

In 2010, Hale was honored by another prestigious communications group as he received the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)-Houston Communications Leadership Award.

Ted Young VP of Rapattoni exits company.

I like to say every time a vendor leaves the real estate industry, an angel gets his wings.

Best of luck Ted!

Full Press Release below:

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Senior Vice President Ted Young Leaving Rapattoni Corporation

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., June 30, 2011 – Rapattoni Corporation (Rapattoni) announced today that Ted Young, senior vice president, has elected to leave Rapattoni at the end of June, 2011.

Andy Rapattoni, president and CEO of Rapattoni Corporation, said, “It is with regret that we accepted Ted’s resignation but we honor his desire to tackle another career and as Ted has said, ‘do something different’.”

Mr. Young, who started as a programmer with Rapattoni in 1980, has served on the company’s executive committee and assisted in overseeing the company’s operations. He was responsible for the development of four generations of Rapattoni’s association management software products, and he was the principle software architect behind Rapattoni Magic, a product which is used by approximately 250 real estate associations throughout the United States.

When tendering his resignation, Mr. Young stated, “During my long career, I have loved the people I’ve worked with, the customers I’ve served, and taken great pride in what I’ve done individually and what we together have accomplished as a company. I deeply appreciate the opportunities that were offered to me and how I was allowed to flourish. I’m thankful for the wonderful times we’ve enjoyed over the years and wish Andy, Niki, and the entire company the best of luck and success in the future. It is simply time to do something else and fulfill more of my dreams.”

Niki Rapattoni, chief administrative officer of Rapattoni Corporation, said, “We will miss Ted greatly and we send him off with love and many good thoughts for his future.” The company expressed their thanks and good wishes to Ted this week and culminated in a send-off under the trees in front of their facility in Simi Valley, California.

About Rapattoni
Rapattoni Corporation has been serving the real estate industry under the same name and management for over 40 years. The company provides an array of integrated products and services for real estate associations and MLS organizations, including an internet-based MLS, association management software, and key-less Rapattoni Secure Logon with SSO identity portals for online security and convenience. Rapattoni’s MLS products are serving approximately 300,000 users nationally and its association management customers represent more than 85% of the nation’s REALTORS®. Rapattoni’s headquarters are in Simi Valley, California.

For more information, contact Rapattoni’s Public Relations department at (800) 722-7338 or visit the Rapattoni website at http://www.rapattoni.com/.

If you would like to be removed from the Rapattoni News mailing list, please send a blank email to unsubscribe@rapattoni.com.

Al Unser retires after 20 years of service with Tulsa Assn. of REALTORS/MLS

They don’t make them like Al anymore. I had a chance to serve with Al on the CMLS board for several years. He is, as they say, “one of the good ones”. Always ready with a good story, his thoughtful and easy manner has been a great asset to this industry.

Travis, Al and Nici

Al recently celebrated the homecoming of his son from a tour in Iraq this past Thanksgiving. His son, Capt. Travis Unser, is a Naval Aviator with the U.S. Marine Corps and has earned 4 air medals while on tour. His daugher, Nicole, is a Neonatal ICU nurse for Baylor University Medical Center; she is a member of the Neonatal Transport Team. “Nici” was recognized as Nurse of the Year in her unit, and has been nominated for the Dallas’ Great 100 Nurses award.

Anyone who knows Al isn’t surprised he has raised such great kids.

Happy Trails Al, you will be missed my friend.

If you have a message for Al please feel free to say something in the comments. thx gr

Move’s CTO, Dave Story, previews new Android app on Scobleizer

Check out this latest video from Robert Scoble on Scobleizer interviewing Move’s CTO Dave Story about their iPad and new Android app. The video is great for a number of reasons; First off the video really does show off Move’s outstanding mobile apps. Secondly Scoble confesses to having been through the process of buying a home at least 3 times and as Dave is giving a demo of Move’s iPad app he peppers him with questions. His questions/comments are great and anyone creating software for real estate should really take a listen. Dave does a great job of answering his questions, and due to the depth of their iPad app is able to answer most of Scoble’s questions in the affirmative.

Here’s a few take aways:

Scoble mentioned that his REALTOR recommend 40 properties to look at. (40 seems way high to me, what about you?)

Scoble called Open Houses, a kind of “Realtor dating”. Love this!

He also mentioned his own house was underwater and “hasn’t taken a look at Zillow in awhile”

I also thought the way Dave danced around the question of “Is Zillow a competitor?” was well handled.

At one point Scoble asked the question if one day he would be able to “upload photos he took of his home”. Dave coyly said that is a great
idea, but couldn’t comment. Hmmmm user generated content on Realtor.com? Love this!

Two things about the Android app. Speech recognition is interesting, even though I think its crazy that we will all speaking to computers a la “Star Trek“. The Google Street View feature is great and exclusive their upcoming Android app, in the words of Scoble you can check to see if your future neighbor mows his lawn.

Congrats to Dave for doing such an excellent demo and interview. Great to see more companies/people in real estate technology getting this kind of exposure.

Mazel Tov Wes Wiggins!

From the dry heat of Tucson to the humidity of South Florida it looks like RMLS in South Florida has found their new CEO. Congrats to Wes!

Full Press Release below
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Wes Wiggins Joins RMLS Florida as President and CEO

The former Vice President, MLS, from the Tucson Association of REALTORS® is bringing his talents to RMLS Florida.
Miami, FL (June 23, 2011) – Regional MLS, Inc. (RMLS) has announced that Wes Wiggins will take over as their President and CEO. The Regional MLS, Inc. serves real estate professionals in Southeast Florida, from Port St. Lucie to Miami-Dade. Mr. Wiggins will be assisting them as they continue to grow their products and services.
“I am very excited to have the opportunity of leading RMLS and taking it to the next level of providing top tier services and support to its subscribers,” says Mr. Wiggins. “RMLS is a respected organization with a reputation of providing quality service. I look forward to working with their experienced staff to improve upon that reputation.”
Wes Wiggins was hired as MLS Director for the Tucson MLS in 2005. Prior to that he was a Manufacturing Supervisor at Texas Instruments. Wes is actively involved in local and national MLS organizations Including NAR’s MLS Issues And Policies Committee, CMLS, and the REALTOR.com MLS Executives Advisory Committee. Wes has collaborated on statewide data sharing initiatives, worked with Fannie Mae to improve the Short Sale process, and was instrumental in implementing the 1st international MLS data share between Tucson and San Carlos, Mexico.
“The world of MLS is a very dynamic place,” Mr. Wiggins explains. “There are a multitude of technologies and paradigm shifts that have to be addressed. To be entrusted by the shareholders of RMLS to ensure that we move in the right direction in regards to these changes is an honor.”

About RMLS
Regional MLS, Inc. is a real estate network of professionals and properties, providing service and support from Port St. Lucie to Miami-Dade. RMLS was established in 1987 and continues to strive towards advancing real estate professionals in Southeast Florida by providing products and services that meet the ever changing needs of the industry.

More on CIVIX…

I got an interesting email from a source within Move. They clarify a bit the roles of Move and NAR in regard to the original CIVIX lawsuit.

“In the settlement cited by Robert, CIVIX sued both Move and NAR for alleged patent infringement on Realtor.com. One of the benefits of the Realtor.com Operating Agreement is that Move is required to handle such matters on behalf of NAR. Move reached a settlement agreement with CIVIX and paid an undisclosed sum of money. This settlement, paid for by Move, covered Move, Realtor.com and NAR. NAR did not pay a penny of those settlement costs. However, the focus of that dispute was Realtor.com. When CIVIX later chose to sue MLSs (e.g., CIVIX-DDI vs. MRED and CIVIX-DDI vs. MRIS), it was for alleged infringements unrelated to Realtor.com and therefore the earlier settlement did not apply.”

This raises more than a few questions…

Another CIVIX Lesson; guest post by Robert Drummer

Robert Drummer of iMapp is a guest posting today. I thought the subject matter timely so I hope you enjoy!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the CIVIX-DDI patent fracas. In a nutshell, CIVIX-DDI has a patent on “systems and methods for remotely accessing a selected group of items from a database” or, more simply: Internet search with geo-location.

The NAR previously settled with CIVIX-DDI which included REALTOR.com operator MOVE and now, two years later, they have negotiated a $9.06 per member license on behalf of the member MLSs that were not covered by the NAR’s previous settlement. To my non-attorney mind this begs the question: Why weren’t the NAR members considered/covered in the first settlement?

Rather than risk additional legal expense and exposure, the NAR is now offering this license. While it’s possible the patent could be defeated (more on that later), a business decision was made; pay the license and move on. This questionable strategy creates an opportunity for other patent trolls to come out of the woodwork seeking master licenses with the NAR. As Rob Hahn said “There is a reason the USA doesn’t negotiate with terrorists”.

Laurie Janik, General Counsel at National Association of REALTORS®, informed me that they have reached the first milestone payment of $2.5 million dollars. Those MLSs (along with their members, vendors and affiliates) participating in the first round will be granted a license from the NAR. If you plan to participate, it seems prudent to make sure you are in the first round and that NAR receives your payment and paperwork no later than 5pm CST on June 16th, 2011.

If an MLS chooses to wait for the second or third round, they may be at risk of being excluded from the license. CIVIX-DDI may choose to accept whatever payments are received in those rounds, but that is entirely the decision of CIVIX-DDI.

The license runs with the MLS. That means if the MLS changes vendors in the future, those vendors will be covered under the license granted to the MLS. It is my understanding that in this scenario the ousted vendor receives no protection, other than that provided to their previously licensed MLS accounts.
Part of the agreement negotiated by the NAR includes a lawsuit cease-fire until August 17, 2011. After that date, any MLS that is not sub-licensed through the NAR could become a target for litigation from CIVIX-DDI. Ask MRED and MRIS how the litigation route went (not good, as they are paying more per member along with legal fees).

Here’s where it gets interesting for the Vendor Alley reader:
Most of these MLSs have provisions in their vendor contracts for indemnification. If the MLS decides to pass on the license and gets sued by CIVIX-DDI, the vendor may be liable for some or all of the legal expenses related to defense of the lawsuit. We’ll have to wait until August 17th to see which MLSs and vendors face possible exposure to a lawsuit.

Until then, there is still a chance that the remaining claims in the patents are overturned on reexamination. There are facts relating to prior art that have not been presented in the previous reexaminations:
In the 2006 reexamination, a reference was made to the Xerox PARC Map Viewer (Page 5 – Steven Putz, Interactive Information Services Using World-Wide Web Hypertext, First International Conference on World-Wide Web ISTL-QCA-1994-03-01, 1994 (EXPO 25440-EXPO 25447)

It’s my understanding that this paper and its public presentation were too late to be considered prior art as the cut-off date was in January of 1994. However there was a June 1993 public invitation to use the Xerox PARC Map Viewer and to my knowledge this invitation was not presented in either the 2006 or 2011 requests for reexamination. There is a public description of the Map Viewer service which was used extensively by public users in the second half of 1993.

This prior art would seem to cancel the patentability of claims 20 and 26 (using the Internet) as the Xerox PARC Map Viewer is purely related to using the Internet for geographic search and map production.

The 2011 re-examination denial does not raise the specifics of this prior art. In the 2011 reexamination, the examiner appears to focus on the use of the “Internet”. While not explicitly disclosed in ARACO (as proposed by the 2011 reexamination), the “Internet” appears to be extremely clear in this Xerox PARC instance as it was being used to respond to thousands of Internet map requests in 1993.

How this was missed is still a mystery. We’ll wait to see if this makes a difference for either Yahoo or Hotels.com, both of which are currently fighting lawsuits related to CIVIX-DDI and have taken the time to investigate our discoveries and the viability of the Xerox PARC information.
If this prior art changes the situation and the patent claims are overturned, our industry will have needlessly spent between $2.5M and $7.5M, paid by a combination of MLSs, their vendors and ultimately, the members of the NAR.

Looking for a new gig? Looking to hire? The Vendor Alley Job Board is your answer.

I glad to say I’m seeing an uptick of job postings on the VA Job Board! We’ve recently added even more expousure to job listings by having a direct link from the CMLS blog: http://CouncilOfMLS.com

So if you are looking to hire you won’t find a more targeted way of reaching your audience. And if you are looking for a new new gig then you know where to go first!

Here are the positions currently available:

IT Manager
My Florida Regional MLS

IT Director
My Florida Regional MLS

Systems Administrator
Northwest Multiple Listing Service

CIO
Sandicor

Account Executive – RRE
CoreLogic

Senior Systems Manager
MLSListings Inc

Check out the full details at The Vendor Alley Job Board.

Cloud CMA launches with Sandicor MLS

Excited to announce Cloud CMA is now available to Sandicor MLS members!

Sandicor, a California corporation, was founded in 1991 by eleven Associations of REALTORS® in San Diego County. Today Sandicor serves more than 20,000 REALTORS® in San Diego county and is owned by four associations; East San Diego County AOR, North San Diego County AOR, Pacific Southwest AOR, and San Diego AOR.

Many thanks to Ray Ewing, Karen Dupriest, and Paul Hethmon for helping us get going.
Sandicor subscribers just need to visit http://CloudCMA.com to get started.

[Source: Lightning|Twice, the official blog of W&R Studios]

MLS Cloud Conference 2011 Recap

I wanted to put down a few thoughts and observations about last week’s MLS Cloud Conference hosted by Bob Hale and the Houston Association of REALTORS.

Additionally I uploaded a bunch of photos from the event. You can see them at the Vendor Alley Flickr Photo Stream

When I first got there I did hear a few of the attendees muttering if they would gain anything by attending a conference held so closely to NAR Midyear meetings in Washington D.C. That combined with it being held the week after Memorial Day seemed to heighten the crowds expectations. But from what I could tell those expectations were soon met.

NAMLS
Bob Hale came up first to set the tone. Bob does a great job of honing in on the important issues and serving up some plausible solutions to these issues. He spoke about giving consumers what they want and about how the MLS needs to engage with NAR and others. But I can’t confirm or deny I heard him speak about forming a “National Association of MLS.” : )
To me a key measurement of a good speaker is how many other speakers reference them in future talks and in the hallways of the ballrooms. By that measure Bob was king.

This business would be great if it weren’t for the damn customers.

Brad Inman was the first keynote and talked about the “post PC” world we are living in. He told us to all get an iPad and kiss our towers and notebook computers goodbye. He had some interesting observations about the employees of his new company, Vook. Apparently nobody at his company likes to sit at a desk anymore, they like to stand, and not eat meat apparently. Although I thought one of the funniest moments (unintentionally) was when Brad made a remark of how he didn’t like the way that some NAR staff talked down about their membership. To me was pretty ironic since MLS execs (and vendors) behave in the same way, if not worse!

I D Mess

I think a lot of people thought the conference would only focus on MLS public facing websites but the topics were much broader in scope. I was kind of hoping for a throwdown between Alex Perriello, CEO of Realogy and Joe Horring of Realty Alliance. Joe was more bombastic but sadly no pile drivers or fisticuffs.

Vendor Love

Another thing that I enjoyed was that they had a lot of vendor love going on. Bob freely put up a lot of vendors to showcase their products and services. Some of the vendors did a great job of talking about a broader message and weaving their products in to that message, but sadly most were just doing a 15 minute long commercial.

Schmooze and booze

On the hospitality side things were great. The hotel was centrally located so you could walk to a lot of restaruants. The HAR staff was very helpful and any hosted bar that serves Tanqueray Ten is number one in my book! Here’s a quick tip if the event is held at the same hotel next year. Mo’s, walking distance from the hotel, has bar doesn’t close until 1AM. Just sayin….

Errol’s Comet

Other highlights were presentations by Errol Samuelson and Curt Beardsley from MOVE. Really great presenters. Errol used this insane picture of a view from a beach with fireworks, a comet and lightning storm to symbolize the state of the industry (You had to be there.) I heard more than one comment on John Heithaus’s presentation and his ability to use a Glengarry Glen Ross clip without swear words.

Lust

Some other random stuff I thought was cool. Channing Dawson of HGTV used the term “Home Lust” or “House Lust” a lot (can’t remember which one of these terms he used). A really great piece of jargon I had never heard before. It appears that someone else was paying attention because Robert Drummer of iMapp when he heard the term immediately went online to check to see if the domain was available. It was. And now HomeLust.com belongs to him! Classic.

Best Audience Question

The best question asked at the conference came from David Charron during Ann Bailey’s update on the CIVIX settlement.

David Charron: Is RPR going to help pay for the CIVIX settlement?

Ann Bailey: MLS providers should contact their RPR reps directly to work out details.

and so without further delay…
Vendor Alley Public Service Announcement

I think its great that RPR is willing to help out with this effort so in the interest of public service here are the names and contact information of all RPR reps that MLS providers should call and request cash assistance with CIVIX:

Ohan Antebian
Email: ohan@narrpr.com
 Phone: 949.910.6285

Ernie Bottom -East
Email: ernie@narrpr.com
 Phone: 262.785.0633

Kristen Carr – Southeast
Email: kcarr@narrpr.com
 Phone: 561.441.9494

Ron France
Email: ron@narrpr.com 
Phone 315.559.5238

Kristen Hernandez – West
Email: kristen@narrpr.com
Phone: 214.471.3795

A full list can be found at http://blog.narrpr.com/about/industry-relations. You’re welcome.

Compelling content, great speakers make this event a must attend. My congrats to Bob Hale and his team plus a special thanks goes out to Sam Scott, Rene Galvan and Shawn Dauphine for their wonderful Texas hospitality See you next year!

[Cupcake Photo Credit: Lisa Herrin]

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