Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

OMD Visualized

Hi res version of the map can be found here.
Kevin McQueen via Facebook:

“How many MLSs are there? (updated). I have been working with a number of reliable data source with a dream of having a reliable “source of truth” about active residential MLSs. This information is actionable and useful to the industry and this is long overdue. Thanks to RESO, RPR and others for helping us align definitions and counts – 677 is a reliable count this month. We can now identify key information about each one to enable every board of directors, association exec and brokers in each market to make informed decisions about what is best for their members and firms.
Facts and truth replace emotions and drama in decision-making. MLS is a business and we need this data to do it right. Brokers are counting on us.

Here is one visual representation of MLSs by state, along with the number of Realtor users.

– 88 MLSs serve 80% of the Realtors.

– The other 20% have the power to change the MLS landscape by doing what is best for their members and brokers.

– 11 dark red states on the map don’t have a problem with too many MLSs.

– 311 of the MLSs are in just 10 states.

– 20 markets have a bad case of OMD (overlapping market disorder).

What about yours?

If you need more facts and truth to make better business decisions in your boardroom for your members, let us know at info@t3sixty.com“

Love this! Looking forward to sharing a conversation I had with Kevin on an upcoming episode of Listing Bits. We talked about his history in the industry, consolidation and about the map graphic above. Only thing I wished I’d asked was if he was related to Steve McQueen?

MetroList expands reach in Northern California

MetroList® Expands To Amador County

“The Amador County Association of REALTORS® will be transitioning its MLS operations to MetroList in June 2018, and will operate a local MetroList Administrative Center to fulfill all MLS related services for Amador County real estate professionals.
“We are pleased to expand our geographic market area and deliver MLS services to our neighbors in Amador County”, said Bill Miller, CEO of MetroList Services, Inc. “As the largest MLS in Northern California, MetroList provides a robust offering of products and value-added benefits to help our subscribers grow their real estate business.”

MetroList has the largest geographic coverage in California and also offers access to eight other MLS systems. Nice win for MetroList and members of the Amador County Association of REALTORS.

Listing Bits: Building a Chatbot that Converts with Jatinder Singh & Katie Djurich

Real estate professionals spend $9B annually to drive traffic to their websites, but less than 1% of that traffic leads to conversion. What’s to blame for this abysmal data? The vast majority of customers are looking to get an answer to a quick question, yet they are met with an aggressive chatbot who demands their contact information before agreeing to provide any information. And even if they do acquiesce to giving a name and email address or phone number, they have to wait several hours for a response. Jatinder Singh and Katie Djurich have built a better chatbot, one that uses scripted AI to engage with customers immediately and understand their needs first.

 

Jatinder and Katie are the visionaries behind Botplan, a chatbot for real estate that is compatible with Facebook Messenger, webchat and SMS. Available 24/7, the machine-learning tool initiates a dialogue with incoming leads, sets appointments and communicates the customer’s needs to the agent. Jatinder’s extensive background in the retail innovation space and Katie’s experience with the real estate industry led to an interest in designing a chatbot that helps agents effectively automate this portion of their business—and enjoy an occasional family dinner!

 

Today Jatinder and Katie explain the problems with the current chatbot solutions on the market and how Botplan addresses those issues. Jatinder explains why Botplan is transparent about being a virtual assistant and the distinction between the questions it can and cannot answer. He discusses Botplan’s ability to understand customer needs and communicate those needs with agents and how the team has made adjustments to the platform based on customer interaction. Katie and Jatinder address the reasons why chatbots that demand contact information before providing value tend to be off-putting and ineffective and how Botoplan uses scripted AI to employ the soft sell. Listen in to understand how Botplan is reaching agents and how the platform integrates with Facebook and SMS as well as webchat.

 

What’s Discussed:

 

Why Jatinder and Katie built Botplan

The problems with current chat solutions

-Cost prohibitive

-Poor quality

-Limited availability

How Botplan works with Facebook, SMS and webchat

Why Botplan is transparent about being a virtual assistant

How chatbots are compatible with a busy lifestyle

The questions Botplan can and cannot answer

How Botplan works to understand the customer’s needs

How Botplan communicates with agents

How Botplan has made adjustments based on customer interaction

Why chatbots that require contact information are off-putting

Botplan’s use of scripted AI to engage with customers

Jatinder’s background in the retail innovation space

Katie’s experience in real estate and virtual tours

How Botplan is reaching agents

-Brokerages

-Tech platform providers

 

Resources:

 

Botplan Webinar Registration

 

Connect with Jatinder Singh & Katie Djurich:

 

Botplan

Botplan on Facebook

Botplan on Twitter

Botplan on Instagram

W+R Studios launches Cloud Agent Suite hub


W+R Studios Launches New Product Hub

“On cloudagentsuite.com, new and existing subscribers to W+R Studios’ products can easily see what’s available in their market, try all products free of charge, view training videos and launch applications from a single place. Subscribers will have one login for all subscriptions.

“This will also better serve agents in areas where multiple products are site licensed by their MLS provider. With this new hub agents we be able sign up for all site licensed products with one entry. The best side effect of this process is that it will greatly impact adoption numbers across all W+R Studios’ products,” said Greg Robertson, co-founder, W+R Studios.

Super proud of the design team at W+R Studios, they really designed a gorgeous and functional site. W+R Studios has 4 products, developed at multiple times. So that meant four different websites. The new site does 3 things.

Number one is give the agent one place to go to find out about the products offered by W+R Studios and try them all (depending on the market) for free. Unlike most third party software vendors W+R Studios has always had a way for agents to come to the site and begin using its products without having to talk to a sales person first.

Number two is a “Launchpad” that gives agents quick and easy access to all products via one page. W+R Studios believes this will be super helpful with adoption in site license areas.

Number three is a place to learn. W+R Studios recently hired a full-time video producer. Her job is to create instructional, “how to” and “why?” videos that can be accessed from the “Learn” section of the site.

Amy A. Ulloa-Zúñiga joins CRMLS


CRMLS Appoints Amy A. Ulloa-Zúñiga as Director of Broker Resources
“California Regional MLS has appointed Amy A. Ulloa-Zúñiga as its Director of Broker Resources. Ulloa-Zúñiga enters the newly created role with over a decade of real estate industry experience, most recently serving as West Coast Regional Director for REALTORS® Property Resource® (RPR).”

Great hire by CRMLS. Congrats to Amy and CRMLS.

Century 21 Rebrand


I’m a bit late on this but I got to say I really love Century 21’s new look. They put together a site that shows the new branding in different scenarios. It’s simple, sleek and modern. I really think their marketing team, lead by CMO Cara Whitley, really knocked it out of the park.

This is what I would expect from Century 21’s new CEO Nick Bailey. Good profile of him at Inman News; Zillow exec Nick Bailey to take over Century 21 as new CEO . Nick’s background is diverse and gives him an interesting perspective. He started at Century 21, then held senior roles at brokerages (RE/MAX) and later software company MarketLeader (which was acquired by Zillow).

Overall this kind of experience is very unique and gives Nick a lot of street cred to make some interesting moves.

Lots of things happening at Realogy and with these new breed of executives it will be fun to watch.

Say Yes to the MLS!

An email sent out to NORMLS members made a special announcement.

The Shareholders of these two companies voted on January 22, 2018 to consolidate into one new company to be known as Yes-MLS. The combined membership will exceed 12,000 members and will serve 36 Counties in Ohio and West Virginia. Yes-MLS will be the largest MLS in Ohio and is expected to be fully complete by early Spring 2018.

Carl DeMusz, current CEO of NORMLS will serve as CEO of Yes MLS. “This consolidation opens many doors for our members as we empower our brokerages to serve their clientele locally and on a national scale by implementing standards that knock down barriers to their businesses”, said DeMusz.

John Kurlich, current CEO of CRIS who will serve as COO of Yes MLS observed, “The ‘consolidation’, rather than a ‘merger’, enables us to create a new and forward-looking MLS for our members. One that provides accurate data and the technology to use that data in an increasingly data driven real estate environment.”

Congrats to Carl and John. Love the new name!

HouseCanary wins $706M in lawsuit

HouseCanary wins $706M after getting sued by Quicken Loans offshoot

“The jury agreed with HouseCanary that Title Source, as the Quicken Loans division was referred to in the case, failed to honor a software licensing contract and then used HouseCanary’s technology and trade secrets to try to construct its own version. Title Source had initially sued HouseCanary, alleging fraud and breach of contract over the software, but HouseCanary countered and won the huge sum.”

Great story. $706M represents 10 times the amount of HouseCanary’s initial funding. This case sounded vaugely familiar, then I recalled this other story…

Collateral Analytics sues Nationstar for allegedly stealing trade secrets

“Because there are no other products on the market with comparable accuracy, coverage, and functionality, (Nationstar and Xome) were unwilling to switch suppliers,” the lawsuit states. “And, because it literally takes decades of research and refinement (not to mention many millions of dollars) to make a product with the accuracy, coverage, and functionality that Collateral Analytics displays, Defendants were unable to develop their own.”

So, the lawsuit claims that Nationstar took matters into its own hands and stole Collateral Analytics trade secrets.”

Twinsies!

Looking for a new gig?

Sr DevOps Engineer – Real Estate Digital

“Design and implement auto-scaling and CI/CD solutions that improve the ability of the RED IT delivery teams to efficiently deliver solutions with quality.
-Will develop and implement a set of quality criteria and the associated validation method to ensure that any deliverable meets the expected quality levels of our customers
-Coding and scripting and operational tasks using one or more programming or scripting languages, design and implementation of configuration management and service discovery, secrets management, immutable infrastructure, containers, and the use of tools to accelerate the SDLC and improve availability and quality of releases
-Actively review their own and the team’s work processes and implement improvements seen from other teams or in industry to drive continuous improvement of the team’s efficiency, speed, and quality”

You can find out about this gig and more on the Vendor Alley Job Board

Clareity MLS Workshop 2018 Recap

Report from Clareity’s 17th Annual MLS Executive Workshop

“Clareity packed a lot of perspectives and content into a ton of sessions over a day and a half – but the Workshop is about more than content – it’s about relationship building. We’ve listened to those attendees with ideas of how to make the event even better – besides the meals together and fun outings on arrival day, the longer breaks have improved the networking possible during the event.”

Good recap from Matt. I gotta say I was a bit cautious about the event, ever since Clareity was acquired by CoreLogic. But Gregg, Matt and team pulled off a great event with diverse content, that didn’t pander to the mothership. Hopefully they can keep this vibe/event going.

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