“In a significant development for the real estate technology sector, Lone Wolf Technologies and First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS) have announced a groundbreaking five-year strategic partnership. This collaboration will bring Lone Wolf’s trusted TransactionDesk platform, including the industry-leading Authentisign eSignature solution, to FMLS’s more than 60,000 members. “
Absolutely huge deal for both parties. There’s been a bit of a logjam in deals like this in our space. I get to meet and work with a lot of great companies and talented people who love real estate technology and want to innovate.
I hope this is a sign that things are getting back to a place where we see more companies investing in the future so all this wonderful talent can be put to good use.
I’ve always been a big fan of simple, focused software. In today’s parlance that would mean, “point solutions”. Software that does one (or two) things, and does them great. Now many of the larger companies are switching to “end to end” platforms, which also have a place. So when Vijay, CEO of co-founder of Trackxi, asked me to join him on this webinar I quickly agreed. I think it will be a great opportunity to discuss these topics and about some the changes in the industry is going through and how vendors are creating new categories to compete.
I’ve always been a big fan of simple, focused software. In today’s parlance that would mean, “point solutions”. Software that does one (or two) things, and does them great. Now many of the larger companies are switching to “end to end” platforms, which also have a place. So when Vijay, CEO of co-founder of Trackxi, asked me to join him on this webinar I quickly agreed. I think it will be a great opportunity to discuss these topics and about some the changes in the industry is going through and how vendors are creating new categories to compete.
“Real estate leads are among the most expensive leads generated across all American business, often leading to real estate professionals paying as high as 40% of their commission for a sale generated from a lead. Many leads generated at online shopping websites are sold over and over again, causing consumers to be inundated with spam-y text messages and robo-calls that seem to have no end. Now, there must be a clear opt-in by consumers to this form of communication. The FCC wants the consumer to opt in on a 1-to-1 basis to each company that will receive their contact information. “
Victor Lund, WAV Group
As Rob and I discussed on a recent Industry Relations podcast we think this is going to have a bigger impact than any one realizes.
One thing I’ve discovered about myself is that I really enjoy the beginning phase of starting a company. Building a team, fleshing out the idea of a product, branding, positioning, pricing, billing, go to market, etc. Once that part is done is more of a matter of managing and optimizing (which I kind of like too). That’s why I always enjoy talking to new vendors, hearing their ideas, and if I like the idea/founder seeing if I can match them with the right people.
That’s exactly why I’m started working as an advisor with Trackxi. Trackxi is a deal tracker software solution for agents, teams and transaction coordinators, it also so has light CRM. It’s more a project management solution than a “transaction manager”, it doesn’t have any MLS integration or does it incorporate forms natively. In that way it’s a very opinionated piece of software. Trackxi is pre-loaded with deal workflows (tracks?) that agents can share with their clients and other people involved in the deal. It has a kind of “pizza tracker” data viz element that clients can view to see what tasks have currently been completed, what tasks are in progress, and tasks that haven’t been started. Which I think will be great for buyer’s agents showing their value.
You can use Trackxi to track pretty much anything. One client used it to plan her wedding. I think beyond tracking deals you can make templates like “First 90 days as a real estate agent”, “Kick start your real estate business.” , etc.
Another reason I’m working with Trackxi is their co-founder Vijay Gopalswamy. Vijay lives in Portland, Oregon and is bootstrapping the company. Vijay started as an agent and later a broker team leader and Trackxi was born from some of the lessons he learned with starting that team. Vijay is a pretty humble guy and has an interesting background. I interviewed him on Listing Bits that I will share later today.
I’m actually not sure what being an “advisor” really means. But I am having super fun working with Vijay; brainstorming messaging, positioning and company strategy. Our hope is that these discussions and work translate to getting Trackxi available to more agents. To find out more about Trackxi please visit their website here.
In this first week of the Sitzer Burnett trial is all about the plaintiff presenting their case. And it seems that the plaintiffs are all about showing training materials, and slides from previous conferences that use the 6% as proof that the “fix is in”!
The poor consumer has been tricked in to thinking that this percentage was never negotiable. Hell, the whole reason for scripts in the first place was that CONSUMERS WERE ALWAYS TRYING TO NEGOTIATE. Has anyone brought that point up?
I was talking with an MLS Exec the other day, he told me that they had to call the police because a member was upset at a recent change they made to their MLS system and made threats about what he was going to do when he came to the MLS office. In this day and age with what happens in schools I don’t blame them for calling the police.
I heard another story about an MLS/Assn how a member organized a “march on the association offices”, in this case, the MLS was accused of making too many changes in a short time. Yikes! They even started a Facebook group. Imagine that, a Facebook group, I wonder what name they gave the Facebook group? “Hands off our MLS system!”, “Back to the MLS Books!”, or maybe “You’re doing too much, STOP!”
Of course, you have to plan. These changes have to be thoughtful. But no matter what members will complain that “we didn’t have enough time”, “we weren’t notified”, “it’s not the right time of year” or “we wanted more training”. That is always going to happen, no matter if it’s 3 months or 3 years. To me, those are table stakes that any organization has to deal with when they move forward.
Along with all the drama on social media, MLS staff, and execs are berated with emails, phone calls, and name-calling. You really can’t blame any MLS exec who doesn’t do much and keeps the status quo. I mean it is the safe thing to do if you want to keep your job.
But there are others that press forward, who know the risks, but know the rewards as well, and press on. Because if we aren’t growing, we are dying. You don’t want to “change for change’s sake” but we have to try new things if we want to progress. We all need to fight to move our organizations and the industry forward.
That’s leadership.
So when presented with a new idea you want implemented, or a decision you need to make that should have been made long ago, don’t be discouraged. Remember what the Spartans said when the Persians told them if they fought they would unleash enough arrows that would “black out the sun.”
“Good,” the Spartans said, “then we will fight in the shade.”
“We are bolstering our agent tech stack by making a top-shelf CRM solution available to our subscribers that offers easy onboarding and time-saving integrations with other CoreLogic solutions, including MatrixTM and the MLS-Touch® mobile app, said Dave Wetzel, President and CEO of MLSListings. “Prospects CRM gives our members a powerful new tool that will help them manage clients in the most efficient and effective way possible.”
Adding a CRM as an MLS member benefit is a relatively new thing. Although C.A.R. recently added LionDesk at a state level. Integrating with MLS client portals seems to be a no-brainer. Interesting to see how far this trend goes.
Milestones (milestones.ai), the all-in-one homeowner portal making it easier for consumers to buy, move, own, sell, manage and access mortgage services for their home, today announced that their product is now licensed to 250,000 real estate agents and loan officers, and their customers.
Milestones uniquely partners with real estate brokers, mortgage lenders, title companies, franchises, Realtor associations, and multiple listing services to offer the service to agents to better serve their clients.
I’m sure their recent partnership with CAR helped them get to this number. What Milestones is doing is not a new idea. Homeownership portals have been around for a while. I think what makes Milestones different is the talent they have attracted and a twist on the business model. I also think including loan officers in the mix is a smart side bet. The challenge for them going forward is upselling, which is always a percentage game.
