Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

It’s raining APIs

Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBS
Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBS
Mike Wurzer must be rolling his eyes every time he reads Inman News lately. Its 2016 and the industry has finally caught up with him and his company, FBS. Back in May of 2012 (yes you read that correctly, 4 years ago) FBS announced its Spark Platform, which includes the Spark API. Which gave software developers two great things, an easy way to get MLS data and permission to sell their products to any of their flexmls customers. The Spark API allowed us to get Cloud CMA up in running in “long tail” MLS markets that we may not have served due to size or some other challenge.

Now, along with AMP, two others have joined the fray. Zillow and CoreLogic. Zillow with its Retsly Connect initiative and CoreLogic with its Trestle initiative. So since a big component of these initiatives is to target software developers to make cool stuff, and I happen to run a software company that makes cool stuff I thought I would give a quick run down of the pros and cons of each.

AMP
PROS:
Owned by NAR. RPRs effort to provide a back-end database to MLS providers has announced they have MLS providers representing over 200,000 agents interested in AMP. That’s a lot of agents, and as a software company I like the size of that market.
CONS:
Owned by NAR. Nobody that I know have has seen any API documentation, and it still isn’t clear how the revenue model would work for 3rd party software developers integrating with AMP.

Zillow’s Retsly Connect
PROS:
Owned by Zillow. Sexy technology, we used their Public Records API in Cloud Streams and were impressed. Retsly Connect looks equally cool, and lots of bells and whistles I think MLS providers would like (which is why I think Bob Hale signed up).
CONS:
Owned by Zillow. They have a chicken and egg problem. They currently have only 6 MLS providers signed up (and I think a third of them are in Canada). So, they are going to need to get some sort of traction for developers to write for the platform, but also need more coverage to entice developers to do so.

CoreLogic’s Trestle
PROS:
Big company. Knows data. They have over 300 MLS databases. Some of them the largest MLS providers in the country. That a HUGE market potential. If the Spark API provided the “long tail” MLS markets, CoreLogic would provide the freaking Elephant.
CONS:
Big company. Not launching until Q3 of this year. No API info, no revenue model announced.

For the record our plans at W+R Studios is to be platform agnostic and make our products work on any platform our customers want. But, I still want to give
a couple words of advice:

1. Try and stay away from an App Store model. I’ve been a big proponent of an “Agent App Store” in the past but it has been very brutal to get agents to change their purchasing behavior. Maybe in the post “front end of choice” world things might change, but that’s a big if.

2. Your initiative must include data access rights AND permission to sell. Make it an opt-out for MLS providers. One without the other will not scale. If I build something fast and it takes 6 months to get approval from your MLS committee to sell it, then these initiatives are essentially worthless.

In the end competition is a good thing. I think the next few years are going to be very exciting times for real estate technology. Sometimes all it takes is just a spark.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Interesting perspective from Marilyn at WAV Group on selling her house.

I Didn’t Hire FOUR Listing Agents!

“First, every one of the premiere agents and my listing agent called me back within minutes. This is not the normal response time I have experience in the past, so I was very pleased. Checkmark for all of them on responsiveness.

Now let’s get to the area that was very troublesome to me. I asked each agent to tell me a bit more about the house. I wanted to see how much they actually knew about the property. Had they visited it? Were they familiar with the neighborhood? The town? The Street?

I was very disappointed to find out that NONE of the premiere agents had been in the house or even in the neighborhood recently. They knew nothing about the property. They were simply using my property to troll for potential buyers. They were not experts in any way regarding the community or property they were representing”

Her experience mirrors mine in regard to agent responsiveness. I think Zillow is doing a great job of training agent to respond to inquires. In tests I’ve done on Zillow, agents are getting back faster than ever.

I’m not sure other agents not knowing the market is really Zillow’s fault, sadly its really a problem the whole industry has to deal with.

MRED adds Cloud Streams as a free member benefit

It’s Mostly Cloudy at MRED

“”Cloud Streams caught my eye from the moment I first saw it,” said MRED President/Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Jensen. “Delivering the freshest information in the most consumer friendly way to prospective purchasers is critical to service the public today. W &R Studios has hit another home run with this latest product.”

My thanks to Rebecca, Lynn and the rest of the MRED team for making this happen.

Errol Samuelson is out of the penalty box

errol comeback
Looks like Move, Inc.’s “power play” time is over (Errol is Canadian, so I can’t stop with the hockey references).

Look for an exclusive interview with Brad Inman. It’s posted now.

Also looking forward to see Stefan’s live interview with Errol at the T3 Conference in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.

Just don’t call it a comeback.

Apple Pay and subscription based services

apple0132I’ve written about decreasing the “friction” of customers signing up for your products and services. My company still does a lot of transactions at live events (demos and trade shows). I found its much better to close deals at the event and not rely on them signing up when they get home.

To do this we still have to rely on paper order forms.

This is due to mostly crowd control issues. If a single presenter is doing a Cloud Streams demonstration to 40 people in a room there is no easy way for those attendees to sign up for the service asynchronously other than a paper order form.

I see more and more REALTORS coming to events with their digital devices, but filling out an online form by taping on a screen (whether an tablet or iPhone) is still a cumbersome process.

Yesterday Apple announced a brand new service called Apple Pay. They are also releasing an API for developers. With this service you can order online product with the Touch ID button on your iPhone. No forms to fill out, and a receipt is emailed you automatically.

Imagine the scenario at a presentation where after your demo you direct an attendee to a website address and have them click a choice of Monthly or Yearly Plan and then use Touch ID to sign up. That’s it. Boom.

I get goosebumps thinking about it.

Booth duty

photo-6I’m here at Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS MLS Technology Forum today and wanted to do a quick post on a few thoughts I had about trade shows.

1. VP MPH. Nothing will help your product pitch better than working a busy booth. You quickly learn what features/benefits are a hit or miss with the agents. This is invaluable especially when launching a new product like our Cloud Streams. Reactions I get here will also overflow to our website landing pages and marketing materials.

2. More vendors, more better. The MLS/Associations/Organizations that put together a good trade show gather together relevant vendors. Stephanie Hill has done a great job here of bringing together some top industry vendors and the agents can tell.

3. Agents are buying.

4. Agents will take anything that is not nailed down to your table. It’s like some sort of twisted Halloween. “Excuse me Ma’am, but those are my car keys you putting in your bag.” Sheeesh!

5. I still get a rush every time I make a sale. There is something about the face to face, overcoming objections, banter, back and forth, asking for the order and getting it, that I will always love.

Goomzee Redesigns Mobile App

Goomzee:

“Some of our earliest MLS adopters like Intermountain MLS (IMLS) in Boise regularly share feedback from their agent users and leadership,” explains Mike Sparr, Goomzee CEO and Founder.  “We carefully consider all user suggestions for future release planning and IMLS’s CEO, Greg Manship, personally suggested we consider adding a built-in support or help link.  We pushed the envelope even further and included a completely integrated help desk and training system which I believe is another industry-first in the mobile arena.  Our latest release includes too many features to name, but we’re very proud of ways we simplified the navigation to further delight our users.”

Can’t believe I missed this release from last week. It speaks to what I was talking about for 3rd party solutions in the mobile space. Love seeing so many options for MLS providers to ponder. It seems a lot of these “alternative front ends” are finally appearing, but taking a “mobile first” approach.

See full press release below:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Goomzee Redesigns Mobile App Navigation; Introduces Mobile MLS App Help Desk

Missoula, MT — August 18, 2014 — It just got easier for multiple listing services and REALTOR(r) associations nationwide to deliver competitive mobile solutions thanks to Goomzee’s latest mobile app innovation and industry first, a built-in mobile help desk.  Goomzee, one of the real estate industry’s leading providers of mobile solutions, announced today that their latest mobile app release included the industry’s first fully-integrated mobile help desk, minimizing support burden for MLS staff who want to provide mobile apps to their customers.

Goomzee’s Mobile MLS allows MLSs and Boards to provide professional native mobile app access to agent-only information, and configurable option to offer public access, or even invite-only access, on a per-market basis.  Now when users tap on the “Help” menu they can immediately access forum articles and submit support requests or view the status of their current requests without ever leaving the app.  Once they’re done with the help desk, they simply dismiss it and resume with their mobile work whether it’s searching for listings, sharing with clients, or saving searches for later use.

“Some of our earliest MLS adopters like Intermountain MLS (IMLS) in Boise regularly share feedback from their agent users and leadership,” explains Mike Sparr, Goomzee CEO and Founder.  “We carefully consider all user suggestions for future release planning and IMLS’s CEO, Greg Manship, personally suggested we consider adding a built-in support or help link.  We pushed the envelope even further and included a completely integrated help desk and training system which I believe is another industry-first in the mobile arena.  Our latest release includes too many features to name, but we’re very proud of ways we simplified the navigation to further delight our users.”

Goomzee recently shared that nearly two-dozen Boards/MLSs from coast to coast have already selected Goomzee for their Mobile MLS Apps for their customers, and the pace doesn’t appear to be slowing.  In second quarter alone, the company announced five additional MLS markets signed multi-year agreements to provide Goomzee’s software to their members and dozens more are lining up.  Goomzee’s mobile apps compliment current MLS systems, and deployments typically take thirty days or less, depending on the complexity of third-party systems integrations.

“I am impressed with the fact that [Goomzee] is always looking for ways to enhance [their] app, and our users love how fast it is,” says Julie Rietberg, CEO of Grand Rapids Association of REALTORS(r).

The latest mobile app featuring new simplified navigation and built-in help desk is now live for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch via Apple’s app store and the Android version will be live very soon.

ABOUT GOOMZEE
Goomzee celebrated its 11th year in business in 2014.  The company began as an e-commerce application service provider, powering and hosting small business’ e-commerce websites,  but shifted to real estate technology just as the industry fell into turmoil to solve recognized gaps in mobile technology.  The company has been serving the real estate industry since 2007, and multiple listing services since 2008.  It’s initial real estate product called Goomzee Connect allows agents to capture leads at the property via text message codes on sign riders and a lead capture system.  After working closely with MLSs and providing it’s service as a member benefit in nearly 30 MLS markets, representing over 296,000 agents, MLSs approached Goomzee to co-design a mobile solution that would best serve the needs of their members.  Their current solution represents a culmination of their first-generation web solution, and two years of research and development to offer a platform that rivals the large portals.  For more information, request a quote, or to schedule a personal demo, please contact Goomzee via http://www.goomzee.com.
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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.

How did you hear about us?

When someone signs up for Cloud CMA we have wizard they walk thru, which helps them get set up (photo, logo, etc.) August of last year we added a question, “How Did You Hear About Us?” It had a drop down menu with the a few choices. Of the customers who bothered to make a selection here’s the breakdown:

Your MLS 33%
Another Agent 24%
My Broker 14%
Other 12%
Google 6%
Email 3%
RETechnology 3%
REALTOR Mag. Ad 3% – We run a small ad in the classified section
Live Event 2%

One of these stats really stood out to me….

Agent: 24%
I’ve always wanted to do a “Have a friend sign up and get a free ____” marketing campaign. I haven’t pursued this idea because I thought that agents were too competitive. This result is showing me that they do talk about tools they love.

As a SAAS (Software As A Service) company this is great news. Its kind of a “network effect”. And so far I haven’t done anything to promote agents to get their friends to sign up. So far…

How did you hear about us?

[UPDATE: I should mention these are on Direct Subscriber to Cloud CMA, meaning they are paying for Cloud CMA with a credit card, not part of a site or broker license.]

Wanna be a REALTOR?

An open letter to anyone wanting to get their real estate license
The trials and tribulations of starting a career as an agent

Greg Nino, REALTOR Houston Texas

“Several times a year I am approached by people who want to become a Realtor. Many of them think it’s a great way to supplement their income while they keep their day job. A lot of others are interested in a career change. I decided to type this blog post to save myself time. Each time I’m asked I’ll simply send the inquiring person a link back to this post”

My favorite is #3.

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