Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Leveling the training playing field

I think any great tool, scratches an itch the creator of that tool had. In the case of Melissa Kwan, she thought she was wasting a lot of time, doing the same presentations, and trainings over and over again. She thought that many other people had the same problem. She wanted to give those people their time back. The tool Melissa created is eWebinar.

You might recognize the name, “Melissa Kwan”. She was also the creator of Spacio, a beautiful app designed to help capture and market leads at Open Houses. I wrote a glowing review of the app a few years back. Melissa’s design taste is second to none. The app is clearly laid out, beautifully designed and so easy to use.

Same goes for eWebinar. It’s just a pleasure to use.

So what is eWebinar and why am I so excited about it? And why do I think it might be a game-changer for the MLS organizations?

eWebinar is everything Zoom is not.

What I love about webinars is the live nature of them. The interactions. Ask questions, take a poll, download some content, and vote on topics. Those interactions in a webinar drive engagement. Unlike passively watching a video you are asked to interact. That’s a better experience.

What I hate about webinars is also the same “live” nature of them. First I need at least 3 people to pull them off, one to give the presentation/training, one to handle the questions/chat, and one other to handle any technical difficulties. That’s 3 people time and energy for an hour presentation. And even more time for setup. Yikes! And then their Murphy’s Law. The connection might be glitchy, the audio might cut out, or the slides don’t work. There are just too many variables and one of them is bound to fail, and it all happens live.

What eWebinar does is lets you record the best demo/presentation/training you have ever done. The audio is great, the video is great and the slides are perfect. Along with the video you can record interactions like asking for questions, taking a survey/poll, or downloading content. You can time where those interactions go in the video. You can even take a video you’ve already created in Zoom and upload that and add the original interactions too.

So what happens when someone asks a question? You can have those questions go to a designated person/queue via email or an alert on the website on even Slack. So your entire sales/support/training department can answer those questions in real-time. And those answers will appear on the screen as the eWebinar is playing…live. It’s truly is the best of both worlds.

Also, the metrics eWebinar gives you are super helpful.

To really understand it you should go to eWebinar and try it. Signing up for an eWebinar is exactly like signing up for a regular webinar. Registrants will even get an email after the eWebinar to “replay”.

How will eWebinar help MLS organizations?

I think this will solve a big problem in our industry. Many MLS organizations focus a lot of their training resources on their primary MLS systems, and not on the other software solutions they provide. Many MLS organizations have a lot of products they provide as a member benefit but limited staff/expertise to onboard/train on them. The beauty of eWebinar is that they can record an eWebinar once, and deploy it site-wide, saving tons of hours. This will help give parity to onboarding and training resources to the primary MLS system.

I made one for Cloud CMA. You can check it out here.

We have begun reaching out to MLS organizations with the hope of adding it to the training section of their websites and promoting it to their membership. I hope this will help increase adoption without putting any more strain on our MLS partners’ staff.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

The results are in…

2021’s Best Practices for CMAs and Listing Presentations Survey

“This year, nearly 5,000 real estate professionals completed the survey—a 49% increase over 2020. We asked questions from how real estate professionals find their comps to putting together a CMA report, to their behaviors at a listing presentation. This year we also asked how the pandemic has changed their business—like if they plan to deliver a virtual listing presentation in the next 6 months.”

This was a big hit back in 2020 and was happy to see us do it again. Lots of great information that will benefit any agent or broker using CMAs in their business. Please share!

MLS United launches with Cloud CMA

MLS United to provide members with leading digital solutions from Lone Wolf

“Lone Wolf Technologies (“Lone Wolf”) and MLS United are thrilled to announce a new partnership that provides real estate’s leading technology suite to the association’s 5,700 members as a member benefit in 2021 and beyond. This member benefit includes:
Lone Wolf Transactions (zipForm Edition), the most used forms and transaction management solution in real estate today
-Cloud CMA, the award-winning comparatative market analysis (CMA) tool
-zipLogix Digital 2.0 (powered by Authentisign), real estate’s top eSignature solution
-zipForm Mobile, the companaion app to Transactions
-MLS-Connect, direct listing import into Tranactions”

Great working with the team at MLS United and FBS. Congrats on your new MLS.

CMLS 2021 Conference Recap

Yeah, yeah, I know the CMLS Conference was a couple of weeks ago. But I’ve been pretty busy, so I’m just catching up, and I wanted to make sure I recognized a few folks.

First off, big ‘ole hat tip to Denee and the CMLS board of directors for making the decision of making the event hybrid. I’m sure there was a lot to consider but from my perspective, it was a good decision. Walking down the stairs to the pool area and seeing all the people at the Welcome Reception that first night was good for the soul.

I was also happy to see Kathy Condon inducted into the CMLS Hall of Fame. Kathy has had a great career and has given so much of her time to making this industry a better place.

It was also good to see Brian Donnellan recognized as MLS Executive of the year. Bright MLS has not shied away from tough decisions having to do with the Clear Cooperation Policy and conducting studies on the power of the MLS. I anticipate lots of good things to come.

Congrats to both Kathy and Brian.

Canopy MLS was recognized as a “Champion of the MLS” for its execution of the In the Know Campaign. I think they got the coolest trophy.

And last but not least, Cloud CMA was recognized as “The Business Partner and Vendor Champion of MLS”. We had a really fun time putting this together at Lone Wolf but were still surprised by this recognition.

I only wish the conference was longer (although my liver might not agree with me) so I could spend time with more people. My thanks again to CMLS.

Lone Wolf acquires Propertybase

Lone Wolf, Propertybase, and the ultimate real estate platform

“Our goal is to bring the time-honored tenets of the real estate world into the present with a modern, innovative, and connected technology platform that makes it simpler for people—and the professionals who serve them—to buy and sell homes. Serving over 1.5 million agents, 15,000 brokerages, over 900 MLSs and associations in North America, boasting nearly 650 employees with hundreds of cumulative years of experience, and offering the most trusted solutions in the industry involved in over 75% of all real estate transactions the US and Canada, Lone Wolf is the only company with the reach, size, and technology that can make this happen.”

Chris Egan, Chief Strategy Officer for Lone Wolf

5 acquisitions in 9 months. Unprecedented.

While there is a ton of money out there trying to disrupt traditional brokers and agents, Lone Wolf is doing the opposite, putting all their chips on brokers and agents to win.

I was already a big fan of Propertybase. Cloud CMA was a popular option to include with their standard Bold Leads product and Boston Logic (now Propertybase). Good products and good people.

Cloud CMA and catching the wave of digital transformation

Cloud CMA for Brokers

Late last year when Dan and I began talking to the people at Lone Wolf we weren’t actively shopping W+R Studios, but their interest in us made us stop and think. We always enjoyed working with many companies and industry players in organized real estate and proptech. We had relationships with different MLS vendors, portals, brokers, agents, and we wanted to keep it that way. Lone Wolf had a similar model. As we have recently seen, warranted or not, perception about what company is buying you can have drastic implications.  

We also wanted to leverage what we saw as our unique position in the real estate space. If you think about it, a comparative market analysis report (CMA), is the first digital representation of a property that could potentially become a listing. So adding a CMA to the tech stack, at the beginning, of a forms and transaction management solution made perfect sense. Lone Wolf was the first to really understand this vision, and the fact that our subscribers were doing close to 300,000 Cloud CMA reports a month (and growing) showed we had the ability to drive good adoption.

Another factor is that at W+R, we always struggled to grow our broker channel and Lone Wolf had a very strong broker sales channel. While many brokers choose to purchase a branded Cloud CMA theme to differentiate themselves from other brokers using Cloud CMA, they rarely opted for the full Cloud CMA broker edition. This was the case in markets where Cloud CMA was offered as a member benefit and markets where it was not. Our value proposition wasn’t strong enough.

So today I’m really excited to talk about the new Cloud CMA for Brokers. We have made a few major enhancements and additions and I’m really pleased with the results.  First off, the new Cloud CMA for Brokers is now integrated with both Lone Wolf’s Transactions solutions (zipForm and TransactionDesk Edition). Agents can go from the listing presentation to the listing agreement, to inputting the listing into their MLS system, getting all esignatures, to the purchase agreement without rekeying the same fields over, and over, and over again. And if the broker is using Lone Wolf’s Back Office solution they can account for everything and cut a commission check to the agent once the listing is sold. It’s truly amazing end to end solution and I think brokers are going to love this new integration.

The experience is bi-directional too. So if the agent’s workflow begins in Transactions, they can also start a CMA from there. Craig Rowe at Inman News had a good article about all the integration this morning.

Also, everyone understands that listings are gold. This is especially true in this market.  So we are also adding Homebeat to Cloud CMA for Brokers. Homebeat is a great way for agents to stay in touch and re-engage clients. Now every agent in the brokerage will get a Homebeat account. Homebeat has proven to be a great way to generate new listings. Here’s a quote from Greg Fox at Better Homes & Gardens,

“I was one of the first company to implement Homebeat..one of my top agents listened to their admin who said, “we should at least try it”. Next day, they had 6 listing leads, and phoned to thank me.” – Greg Fox

Along with these new features the Cloud CMA for Brokers also includes:

– Branded Theme (Both printed and Live) (optional) 
– Broker Dashboard
– Roster management
– Broker CMA Preview 
– Direct support
– Homebeat -New! 
– Transactions integration – New! 

A few disclaimers here. In order to take advantage of the listing input feature, MLS providers need to have the MLSConnect turned on as part of their MLS integration. Typically the listing input functionality falls in two camps, zipForms with Paragon MLS and TransactionDesk with Matrix. Just call us if you have any questions.

Just as before, Cloud CMA for Brokers is an additional cost to brokers where Cloud CMA is offered to agents as a member benefit. We have special launch pricing available to these markets too. Just visit us here.

Also, we are adding the Transaction integration to the full Cloud Agent Suite which now includes Cloud CMA + Homebeat, Cloud Streams, Cloud MLX, Cloud Attract and the Transaction integration. That means if an agent wants this integration but their broker has not signed up, they have a path to do so.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We will now get important feedback from our customers to make the integration better.

Lone Wolf is now waaaaaaaay ahead in giving brokers a truly end to end digital transaction experience. By adding Cloud CMA to the beginning of the transaction, along with the whole Cloud CMA Live virtual listing presentation experience, I like to say brokers are giving themselves a head start in the listing race.

Thanks for taking the time for reading this long post.  Stay safe, and I hope to see everyone soon.

“Not your usual (and typical) real estate book.”

I want to thank many of you for helping me promote my new book, The Art of the CMA. I’ve set up an Instagram account, which I plan to have some fun with if you want to follow.

Also, I would be happy to speak at your next virtual event about the value of CMAs and the different and surprising ways CMAs can help agents grow their business.

I have quantity discounts available. So if you are looking for the perfect gift for your board of directors, team members, or agents in your office I’ve got you covered. On quantities of 5 or more, I also would be happy to personalize each copy.

Just visit TheArtoftheCMA.com for details.

Reviews have been great so far.

“Not your usual (and typical) real estate book. I was already a huge fan of Cloud CMA and the positive impact it had on my business. I liked how it wasn’t just trying to sell you the CMA service the whole time.”

Dustin Fox

“Fantastic! Is this a book just about CMAs? No, not by a long-shot. The Art of the CMA contains a wealth of real estate industry insight and guidance no matter your experience as a Realtor. The book is a blueprint on engagement with the lifeblood of an agent’s career – the consumer. “

Amazon Customer

“My wife and I both read the book and it really gives practical advice and actions one can take. Read it soon before everyone else does!”

Alex GM

“I read the Art of the CMA in one, 2-hour session. It’s a well written, finely tuned piece of writing filled with solid information, storytelling and research that reveals the wonderful world of possibility that lies beneath the PDF the CMA is printed on.”

Amazon Customer

Thanks again for all your support.

N.A.R. should steal this idea

Charles “Chuck” Williams, CEO & Founder Buyside

America’s Top Real Estate Firms Come Together to Launch the First-Ever National Home Valuation Week in Partnership with Buyside

“After a rapid growth in the network of firms on the Buyside platform adding $54 billion in listing opportunities, the company pushed even harder for more listings and worked with its broker clients to launch the first ever National Home Valuation Week (#NHVW), which begins Monday, September 21st, 2020. Top real estate firms located in the United States will be participating in the event, joining together to promote consumers to check the value of their home though their local broker.”

You know how you are always hearing about “National Puppy Day”, or “National Margarita Day”, well this idea takes a different spin on that and I think it’s genius.

National Home Valuation Week (#NHVM) promotes homeowners to check the value of their home through a local broker/agent. Boom!

With a nationwide housing shortage, this could be a great way to encourage homeowners to consider selling their homes. The best way to make this successful is to increase the coverage.

I’m sure Charles Williams, founder, and CEO of Buyside has trademarked the shit out of this but that doesn’t preclude N.A.R., Zillow, Opendoor, whoever from working towards something that would benefit the entire industry. Chuck’s contact information is listed at the bottom of their press release. Call him. Let’s do this!

Plus, once they get a quick valuation from Buyside and the agent needs a present a full CMA, I know a guy.

So, I’m officially an author…

Well, to be clear, a “self-published” author. But hey, you gotta start somewhere. I got my first run of books from the printer and have set up a website where you can buy them. Check it out.

TheArtoftheCMA.com

You can also purchase the book on Amazon. But they take a hefty cut so ordering through my website ensures the money goes directly to the children. In this case, my children, not Jeff Bezos.

I would appreciate any way you could promote the site. Bulk discounts are available. So they make a great gift for your board of directors, or your favorite REALTOR. ????

Why did I write a book? I’ve had a few ideas of books I’ve wanted to write, and still want to write, but in the end, someone once said, “write what you know” so I took that advice.

And one thing I’ve learned, nobody writes a book alone. And I have a lot of people to thank. First off Charles Warnock. I had started to write this over 2 years ago, without much success, but things started to move once Charles came on board to help me stay on track, give me honest feedback, new ideas, and make anything I wrote even better. Thank you, Charles. I also have to thank Dan Woolley my co-founder and partner in crime for close to 30 years. I wouldn’t have one ounce of success if it wasn’t for Dan. Sharran Srivatsaa was gracious enough to write the forward to my book. I met Sharran through Rob Hahn and if you don’t know him you should, he has been a big influence on me and was very encouraging during this process. Stefan Swanepoel is a big inspiration and gave me a lot of great advice and honest feedback. Victor Lund saw an early draft and was very kind and gave me a blurb for the back of the book. David Charron was great through this whole process. He read a copy of the book early on and cheered me on. I think David was expecting a lot of f-bombs in the book, while my wife Jenn was telling me to take them all out! Also, I want to thank Brian Boero from 1000watt who was very generous with his time. Whenever I read anything that Brian writes, I almost always say, “God, I wish I wrote that”, or “I wish I could write that good.” Brian had some key feedback that helped us a lot. Go sign up for 1000watt’s blog now.

I have a lot of great stories, ideas, and inspiration from Brad Nix, Katie Lance, Chris Smith, Brad Inman and Tom Ferry in the book. I stole from the best.

I dedicated the book to Maggie, Eddie and Dan. Maggie and Eddie, along with Dan were my first co-founders at IRIS, LLC. We had no idea how to build and run a software company but Lightning -Easy MLS Access and Lightning CMA Plus laid the groundwork for everything in my career.

Last but not least I want to thank my family. Jennifer, my wife, put up with the clicking sounds of my keyboard on a lot of early Sunday mornings.

And thanks to all of you in this industry who have given me your friendship, support, and allowed me to do what I love.

W+R Studios’ Co-founder, Greg Robertson Releases Debut Title, The Art of the CMA.
 
New book helps real estate agents and brokers let go of fear and compete in a new world of proptech.

September 10, 2020 (HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA) – Software entrepreneur, blogger and podcaster, Greg Robertson has released his first book, The Art of the CMA. A 28 year veteran of the real estate technology industry, Greg is sharing his experience of helping create real estate’s most popular Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) tools including the recent Cloud CMA Live. Throughout his career, Greg has had thousands of conversations with agents and brokers nationwide on how they can leverage real estate’s most versatile tool, the CMA. The CMA is powerful in that it highlights their unique knowledge to compete both offline and online in a new world dominated by ever-changing business models and huge real estate portals.

“Artificial intelligence is just that, artificial, it’s not real” stated author Greg Robertson. “All real estate is local, and when it comes to something as crucial as pricing a home, nothing beats the eyes, ears, and nose attached to the brain of a good agent. There is far too much time and energy spent in the industry hating on real estate portals, iBuyers and new business models who are “trying to destroy us.” It is only when agents let go of fear that they can clearly see what a huge opportunity this new era in real estate brings.”

The new book includes a forward by industry thought leader Sharran Srivatsaa and bonus content of the results of the W+R Studios’ 2020 Survey of Best Practices for CMAs and Listing Presentations. 

For more information and to purchase the book, please visit, http://TheArtoftheCMA.com. Bulk discounts for teams and brokers are available.

About The Authors
The Art of the CMA was written by Greg Robertson with Charles Warnock.  Greg has been in the real estate technology industry for over 28 years. He is the co-founder of W+R Studios, a privately held software company.   Greg is on the “Power 200” (https://www.realestatealmanac.com/executives/), a list of the most influential people in real estate.  He has served as a director on the Council of MLS (CMLS) (https://councilofmls.org/), an organization dedicated to improving the Multiple Listing Service industry.  He publishes the popular real estate technology blog, Vendor Alley (https://vendoralley.wpengine.com/).  He also hosts two podcasts, Listing Bits and Industry Relations.  Greg lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife Jennifer, their three kids, and dog Molly.

About W+R Studios‍
Founded in 2008, W+R Studios is a privately held web software company located in Huntington Beach, California. The company focuses on creating the next generation of web-based software solutions for the real estate industry. Their flagship product, Cloud CMA, part of the popular Cloud Agent Suite, is licensed to over 500,000 real estate professionals all over North America.
By providing a “less is more” approach to software design, elegant user interfaces, and using the latest in agile programming, W+R Studios’ software applications are at the same time powerful, yet accessible to everyone. Co-founders Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson have over 28 years of experience each developing and marketing real estate software solutions.


Unboxing video – The Art of the CMA

I got a copy of my first book, “The Art of the CMA”, in the mail on Friday. I made a quick video to memorialize it.

We have done a ton of proofreading to make sure there are no obvious errors, but we also wanted to check to see the layout and print quality on the physical book itself before ordering any copies of the book in bulk.

Looks like everything is checking out so I will be placing my first order today. If you are interested to know when the new book comes out you can visit www.TheArtoftheCMA.com and sign up to be notified.

I have many people to thank but will wait when the book is available to everyone, plus I have something fun in mind for the official launch. Stay tuned!

Sponsored By Paragon Suite from ICE