Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

The MLS/CLAW adds Cloud Streams as MLS member benefit

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The MLS™/CLAW Adds Cloud Streams as Free MLS Member Benefit

“Cloud Streams is a perfect way for agents to stay connected and engaged with their clients” stated The MLS™/CLAW CEO, Annie Ives. “Our members already love Cloud CMA, and know they are going to love Cloud Streams as well,” concluded Ms. Ives.

With the addition of The MLS™/CLAW now over 85,000 members have access to Cloud Streams as a free MLS benefit.”

As an MLS vendor themselves The MLS™/CLAW has found a way to grow in a very competitive environment. A couple years ago they added the Palm Springs Association of REALTORS and more recently the Imperial County Association of REALTORS signed up for their THEMLSPRO(r) system. Even with efforts to bring a statewide MLS system to California. That’s why I call Annie, The Wolf of Rodeo Drive.

Cloud Streams now available free to all CRMLS members

Cloud Streams LogoWhen we (W&R Studios) launched Cloud Streams earlier this year we were basing it on the same precepts that made Cloud CMA successful. Find something that has heavy usage on an MLS system but could be done much better. MLS systems are amazing pieces of software but they can’t do everything right.

We immediately saw an opportunity with listing alerts and “client portals”. It was a new product category for us, but still kinda of the same, “…making agents look awesome in front of their clients”.

That’s why I’m so proud to announce that CRMLS is now offering Cloud Streams as part of their basic MLS service. Launching any new product can be scary but based on the response, our instincts were right.

So many thanks to Art Carter and his team as CRMLS for their confidence and support. What a great way to end and start a New Year!

P.S. We’ve got a few more of these deals in the pipeline, and would love to talk to any of you who are looking to give your MLS members (Site license or otherwise) a great alternative to what your existing MLS system provides. Give me call at 714-240-3895 or via email at greg [at] wr-studios [dot] com

P.S.S. Inman News also did a story on the deal. I really should remember that I’m talking to a reporter when I’m opening my mouth. : )

MLS listing alert tool aims to give agents an edge over top portals
-Nation’s largest MLS is first to offer Cloud Streams as free member benefit

Full Press Release Below:

CALIFORNIA REGIONAL MLS SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH W&R STUDIOS
CRMLS to Offer Cloud Streams to Association Members

SAN DIMAS, Calif. (December 30, 2014) – California Regional MLS (CRMLS) has reached a partnership agreement with W&R Studios, in which California Regional MLS will offer W&R Studio’s product: Cloud Streams. Cloud Streams is an innovative listing alert and collaboration tool that allows agents and brokers to set up and provide branded MLS listing alerts to their clients.

Cloud Streams allows clients to receive listing alerts by email and/or text in real-time via desktop, tablet or iPhone app. Listing alerts link directly back to the client’s personalized communication stream. Brokers and agents benefit from the branded, photo-rich content delivered through Cloud Streams.

“We are partnering with W&R Studios because we wanted to align ourselves with a proven provider that can deliver a product that will strengthen collaboration between real estate professionals and their clients.” said Art Carter, Chief Executive Officer of CRMLS.

“We think agents and their clients will enjoy using Cloud Streams. We wanted to create somehing that gave agents an edge over the listing portals. Cloud Streams is fun to use, provides the best property information there is while keeping them engaged with their clients. said Greg Robertson, Co-Founder of W&R Studios.

“We are confident this partnership with W&R Studios will help deliver more creative products for real estate professionals”. said Mr. Carter. “As the industry leader, will continue to add to our suite of products those that assist in making agents and brokers relevant to today’s consumer”.

Founded in 2008, W&R Studios is a privately held web software company located in Huntington Beach, California. W&R Studios focuses on creating the next generation of software solutions for the real estate industry.

For more information on California Regional MLS membership, products and services, visit www.crmls.org.
About California Regional MLS

CRMLS
California Regional MLS is the nation’s largest and most recognized subscriber-based MLS, dedicated to servicing over 73,000+ real estate professionals from 34 Associations, 3 Boards of REALTORS® and 1 MLS. CRMLS is the industry powerhouse and thrives on providing the most relevant products and services to its subscribers.

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ShowingTime inks deal with CarolinaMLS

Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. signs agreement with ShowingTime

““ShowingTime Appointment Center has developed innovative technology solutions that support Realtors® as well as the goals of CarolinaMLS,” said Steve Byrd, vice president and CTO of CarolinaMLS. “Their 24/7 service, best-in-class mobile app, two-way text messaging and analytic reports will not only afford our agents a great experience but will help agents provide even better service to buyers and sellers.”

Its been a good year for ShowingTime. Congrats.

SentriLock wins in Las Vegas

“4 years, 3 Leadership teams, 2 AEs and 1 beautiful signed contract!”

Nice win for Kim and Sentrilock. Congrats!

Full Press Release Below:

Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® Partners With SentriLock, LLC
Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® (GLVAR) has partnered with SentriLock, LLC, the official lockbox solution of the National Association of REALTORS®, to provide its members with SentriLock’s REALTOR® Lockbox System.

GLVAR is the local representative of the National Association of REALTORS® and the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. GLVAR is one of the top 10 largest REALTOR® Associations in the United States. GLVAR serves more than 11,500 real estate professionals in the Greater Las Vegas area, providing local members with the highest level of education, training and political representation.
Heidi Kasama, 2014 GLVAR President, said, “After researching this issue, we chose SentriLock for this important service because we determined they were the most qualified and offered the best, most cost-efficient solution for our more than 11,500 GLVAR members.”

SentriLock CEO and founder Scott Fisher has led the company through 11 years of consistent growth to serve more than 280 REALTOR® Associations and MLS customers throughout North America.
“We’re extremely excited about partnering with a proven leader like Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®, which is an outstanding organization with a great staff,” Fisher said. “I believe GLVAR recognizes that our 100% REALTOR®-focused company will be an excellent fit for their members. As with all of our customers, SentriLock is committed to providing GLVAR members with the best product and service available.”

Contact Information Greg Sheldon SentriLock, LLC. http://www.sentrilock.com (513) 618-5821


MRED sticks with dynaConnections

MRED:

“Our mission is to provide the very best MLS to our customers,” said Jeff Gregory, Chairman of the Board for MRED. “We have succeeded thanks in large part to dynaConnections, whose staff has been relentless in delivering an MLS solution that is unsurpassed in the industry. In fact, connectMLS has been the top-rated MLS system in the country for two years running according to the WAV Group MLS Technology Survey. Their customer service and responsiveness to our staff is top-notch. We are thrilled to continue this great relationship with Tim Ford and his staff.”

Some say its easy to get high ratings when you only have one or two customers, but being an MLS vendor (on any level) isn’t easy. A wins a win. Congrats to Tim Ford and his team.

THE MLS/CLAW sign direct licensing agreement with Trulia

BH-sign-CropTrulia:

“The direct agreement with The MLS™/CLAW demonstrates the value MLS/Trulia partnerships can deliver to solve challenges around data distribution and display, helping brokers build their brand and support the success of their agents,” said Alon Chaver, Vice President Industry Services at Trulia. “By working with The MLS™/CLAW’s forward thinking leadership, Trulia can now provide The MLS™/CLAW members the freshest listings displays, increasing the volume and quality of leads they generate, and improving conversion rates to power the growth of their businesses and their brands.”

Nice win (for both sides). Annie is a tough cookie. For Alon and his team to turn these guys around is truly (pardon the almost pun) impressive.

This further cements my view that Trulia “gets it”, and is far more the industry friendly portal. For starters they have had a team focused on this longer, they are willing to make compromises to get better data, (where Zillow is not) and Alon’s team has shown a certain finesse getting these deals done.

Perhaps now that Zillow and Trulia are part of the same team maybe these types of deals will open some eyes at Zillow.

3 MLS Providers choose Paragon

Three Realtor/MLS Organizations Select Black Knight’s Paragon® MLS System

The MLS Solutions division of Black Knight Financial Services (formerly the LPS MLS Solutions division), announced today that the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire, Inc., the St. Augustine & St. Johns County MLS, Inc., and the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, which collectively serve 2650 real estate professionals, have each chosen Black Knight’s Paragon® MLS as their new multiple listing service system.

Good for them.

Is the Market Leader deal with NRT a good one?

Inman News has a story of Market Leader (now owned by Trulia) having entered in to a multi-year deal with NRT, which as over 41,000 agents, to provide a white-labled version of their product at a “modest” fee.

Not sure what they mean by “modest”. When Market Leader did a deal with Keller Williams back in 2011 they announced that 80,000 of KW agents would pay $15/ month for “eEdge”. Not sure how much of that was going back to Market Leader either. But somehow I think this NRT deal is even more leveraged to the back-side. Meaning the up-front fee is minimal, and conversion to a “premium version” is where they make money.

Market Leader has similar deals with other Realogy brands, Century 21 and Better Homes & Gardens. NRT, as you may know, is operated by Realogy.

These freemium (or close to freemium) deals are tough. Agents are fiercely independent. It’s up to the vendor to do the leg work of first getting adoption and then converting them to a a premium version. Based on my experience the franchisors are going to little or next to nothing to help out.

It would be interesting to see what type of conversion percentages they have with each brand. The article mentions Trulia having 25K “premium subscribers”, which based on my math, and agent count, is 27% of their existing deals. Based on my experience even half of a 27% conversion rate is pretty amazing (and a good deal). My guess it would be Keller Williams first and C21 and BH&G a distant second and third (as a percentage of premium upgrades). But I do think the NRT deal with be closer in conversion percentage with KW than C21 or BH&G.

Wilmington Regional AOR switching to ShowingTime

About time…

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WILMINGTON REGIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® PARTNERS WITH SHOWINGTIME TO PROVIDE APPOINTMENT CENTER SERVICES TO MEMBERS

NEW SERVICE TO LAUNCH BY JANUARY 7TH, 2014

Chicago, IL – January 6, 2014—The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® announced today that it selected ShowingTime, the real estate industry’s leading showing management technology provider, to provide appointment center services for its 1,650+ Realtor® members beginning Tuesday, January 7.

“The ShowingTime Appointment Center’s extended hours, two-way text messaging capabilities, branded calls and emails, and overall use of technology to automate the scheduling process is exciting,” said MLS President Sandy Beals. “I am looking forward to a long relationship with ShowingTime. I am so confident they will exceed members’ expectations.”

ShowingTime’s technology-rich Appointment Center, along with its online scheduling system available 24/7 in the MLS, will enable WRAR members to call to schedule showings from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, seven days a week, or login to the MLS anytime to schedule showings. Members can also use smart phones, tablets and the ShowingTime Mobile App to request and manage showings and feedback.

ShowingTime products – currently used to schedule more than 2 million showings per month in more than 190 markets representing 400,000+ real estate professionals – use technology to improve efficiency and streamline the appointment scheduling process, resulting in quicker showing confirmations and less phone tag. The Multiple Listing Service of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors® is ShowingTime’s 70th market-wide subscribing customer.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors®,” said ShowingTime President Michael Lane. “WRAR members will have access to many unique features that will help them be effective, including our patented two-way text messaging system for homeowner approval of showings. Our services will equip the members of WRAR to provide great service to buyers and sellers.” he added. “We’re also pleased to be able to offer job opportunities to many of the appointment specialists from the prior showing service that lost their jobs prior to the holidays.”

About ShowingTime
ShowingTime equips MLSs, Associations, offices, brokers and agents with tools to schedule showings, generate feedback and report on activity. Its products are used by more than 6,000 offices nationwide and integrated with 190+ MLSs to manage two million showings every month. Visit http://www.showingtime.com for more information.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Tom Denk, ShowingTime, 312-568-8001 x130 tdenk@showingtime.com

eShowings CEO, Charles Smith, goes to prison.

This guy should make the “most stupid criminals list”. Not paying payroll taxes? Really? That’s was you plan?

EShowings founder headed to prison after pocketing company funds

Andrea V. Brambila of Inman News

“Charles Smith, 54, of Bear, Del., founded his 180-employee firm, eShowings Inc., in 1999. In April, Smith pleaded guilty to 10 counts of “failure to truthfully account for and pay over payroll taxes” during a nearly three-year period between 2007 and 2009. On Oct. 4, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.”

The real travesty is the 180 people who put their trust in this guy.

And then there’s this.

“BHHS Fox & Roach has already chosen another appointment center from showing management tech company ShowingTime for its 62 offices and 4,000 agents.”

A wins a win.

Sponsored By Paragon Connect