Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

NARlando 2016

Many of you are already in Orlando, personally I don’t arrive till tomorrow afternoon. Which means I’ve got a jammed pack weekend! Here are some of things that we have going on.

W+R Studios booth!
Stop by and see our newly redesigned booth. Our booth number is 1185. No ping pong this year, but sit in on a demo and get a free t-shirt!

MLS Association Executives Session
November 4, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (that’s this Friday)
Hyatt Regency, Windermere Ballroom Z

Brian Donnellan has asked me to moderate a panel with Mike Wurzer, Matt Cohen and Chad Curry on the future of real estate technology. We are going to geek out on future tech and what it means for real estate. (I’m just glad not to talk about Upstream)

AMP Presentation
November 5, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (Saturday)
Katie and I will be demoing our Cloud Agent Suite (Cloud CMA, Cloud Streams and Cloud MLX) and highlighting recent integrations we’ve done with the AMP API.

ListHub Party
November 5, 2016 5PM-9PM
ICEBAR – 8967 International Drive, Orlando FL
W+R Studios is co-sponsoring the ListHub party. We will have a cool photo booth set up for attendees.

Corelogic Party
November 5, 2016 8PM-11PM
B.B. King’s Blues Club – 9101 International Dr. #2230, Orlando, FL
W+R Studios is also co-sponsoring the Corelogic party as well (what can I say, we like to party!)

Come by our Suite!
Katie and I will be in our Suite at the Rosen Centre giving private demos. We have a few slots open so reach out to Katie if you like to talk about adding the Cloud Agent Suite to your MLS or brokerage.

Other than that I’ll most likely be at the lobby bar (but you already knew that.)

Just remember, DON’T GO BIG ON THE FIRST NIGHT!

See you soon!

P.S. We are going to miss you Skinny!

Weekend Update Script from CMLS 2016

Update (9.23.16 at 9:45pm)

I’ve added the images of the slides and a video to this post.

I thought I would post my script from my “weekend update” session at CMLS 2016. Sorry for any typos…

“Hi, I’m Greg Robertson, and here’s your WEEKEND MLS UPDATE

1. Upstream announced today two key hires to help with implementation and operations.

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Upstream CEO, Alex Lange in a statement said, “We think with the help of Penn & Teller we really might get this thing to work.”

2. Speaking of Upstream.

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I have no real joke here, just the logo.

3. RPR announced today they found the one REALTOR using RPR to create reports.

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It turned out to be the 2 year old son of Joe Lightman, a REALTOR in Spokane Washington, who had somehow managed to get at Daddy’s keyboard.

4. In other related AMP news, Marty Frame announced that in tandem with the release of AMP they will also launch a new API that will replace MLS executives.

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In a statement, Mr. Frame said “It was actually a pretty easy thing to do, since no MLS execs follow business rules.”

5. This morning it was announced that Adrese Roundtree will replace Daniel Craig as the new James Bond.

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It might be the only time in the film’s franchise history that the new Bond will get less ass than the actor that plays him.

6. Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring to be the next CEO of the national association of realtors.

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In a statement Mr. Trump said that if he loses the general election this year, he will run to become NAR CEO.

When asked why he would like to take NAR’s top spot, Mr. Trump exclaimed “I thought the salary was fantastic!”

7. Right on the heels of Zillow’s announcement that Diverse Solutions would be sold to MarketLeader, Zillow today announced it would also be selling DotLoop to Market Leader as well.

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No money was exchanged, Zillow said in a statement that the only terms of the deal was that Market Leader had to take Austin Alision and his Twitter account with him.

8. Hey did you hear that thanks to the MLS industry the people at Oxford Dictionaries announced earlier this week that they have added a new phrase?

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In 2017 “Industry Relations” will be added to the Oxford Dictionary

9. CMLS CEO, Denee Evans, today announced another major partnership. This is right after CMLS announced a deal with NAR.

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The Prince of Darkness. That’s right, the devil himself. Because, at this point, what’s the difference?

10. Also, after the stunning success of showing a video of alcoholics in recovery at the CMLS Gala Wednesday night CMLS announced that next year they will be adding videos showing lap band surgery and the dangers of STDs.

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This way nobody will want to drink, eat or fuck at a CMLS conference ever again.

11. Hey, did you hear about the minor crisis at the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn last night?

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From what I hear the famed steakhouse ran out of Silver Oak! But don’t worry the HAR staff was quickly relocated to Nobu across the street where the evening when on as planned.

12. Matrix today announced that they have changed the name of their new MLS software product.

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Formally known as Matrix 360, they have changed the name to Matrix 2060 to correlate with their new release date.

13. Anyone have any idea of what this number means?

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This is how many days its been since the realty alliance said the MLS industry had 10 days left.

Thank for everyone being such a good sport. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Also Freddy Sarabia (who also shot a video of my MLS Rap earlier this year) was in the audience and got a lot of my session on video. Enjoy!

The CMLS conference is next week???

via GIPHY

I don’t know about you guys but its hard to believe CMLS conference is next week. The agenda is looking good, but I find myself wondering about other stuff like….

What lobby bar is everyone going to hang at?
Should I crash the legal seminar dressed as Elvis?
Do I hit on a soft 16, when the dealer has a 9 showing?
How many people will actually make the sessions?
Is “Sunshine” her real name?
What’s the number of a good bail bondsman?
Who’s holding?
How many days does the MLS industry actually have left? I think its less than 10.

chevy_chase_on_weekend_update

I’m actually on the agenda this year, 8:45am Friday morning.

Start the day with a laugh when Greg Robertson, publisher of VendorAlley.com, gives a “Weekend Update” style segment of industry news, rumors, gossip and lobby bar talk.
Speaker: Greg Robertson – Co-Founder, W+R Studios
Location: Celebrity Ballroom (1-4)

So if you are still alive by then, please join me, should be fun.

Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

Hunger makes the best sauce

GregDanAward
Dan and I want to send a big thank you to Brad and everyone else at Inman News for the unexpected honor of winning this year Most Innovative Technology Award for Cloud MLX. We also want to thank all of you who have supported us over the 25 years we’ve been in real estate technology. We are just getting started with Cloud MLX and can’t wait to show you more. Thanks!

P.S. Looks like Katie was pretty stoked too.

See you at ICSF 2016!

Looking forward to catching up with everyone at Inman Connect is San Francisco this week.

Keep in mind Boston Logic is doing a great series of presentations at ICSF next week in what they are calling the “MarTech Salon” in the Franciscan Ballroom.

On Wednesday Tuesday at 11am I’ll be speaking with David Friedman, CEO of Boston Logic, on “Building an RE Tech Company”

You can see Tuesday’s full schedule here: http://sched.co/7qr9

You can see Wednesday’s full schedule at: http://sched.co/7ktS

Thursday’s schedule is also pretty strong.

At 8:30am Alex Lange, newly appointed CEO of Upstream will tell us “The Truth about Upstream”

At 2:15pm Errol, Curt will answer “What does the future look like for the MLS?”

You can see Thursday’s full schedule at : http://sched.co/7mta

Screen Shot 2016-08-01 at 11.53.57 AMThe Innovator Bash is also Thursday night where Cloud MLX along with many others are nominated for 2016 Most Innovative Technology. Dan and I have been nominated so many times we are beginning to feel like Susan Lucci. : )

See you there!

Boston Logic has a few things up their sleeve.

New Real Estate Marketing Solution Delivers Tech Plus TalentAce by Boston Logic Fills Resource Gap For Agent Teams and Boutique Brokerages

“Boston Logic (http://www.bostonlogic.com), the technology platform that powers enterprise brokerages nationwide, announced the launch of Ace (http://ace.bostonlogic.com), a powerful technology solution that ties together a brokerage or team’s website, online lead generation, lead routing/follow up, CRM and online marketing, while also providing a skilled marketing person who can help drive these initiatives and campaigns.

Ace is tailored for agent teams and boutique brokerage companies, who often lack a dedicated staff person to lead their online marketing programs.

“Through many years of working with brokerages, we’ve learned that one of the biggest obstacles that brokers and teams face is having the staff to help drive the technology in which they invest,” said David Friedman, founder and CEO of Boston Logic.

“We designed Ace to include marketing support because we want to provide not only great technology, but impactful outcomes, even when the brokerage or team doesn’t have the full time staff to do so in-house,” Friedman said.

Boston Logic is doing a great series of presentations at ICSF next week in what they are calling the “MarTech Salon“.

On Wednesday Tuesday at 11am I’ll be speaking with David Friedman, CEO of Boston Logic, on “Building an RE Tech Company”

You can see Tuesday’s full schedule here: http://sched.co/7qr9

You can see Wednesday’s full schedule at: http://sched.co/7ktS

Thursday’s schedule is also pretty strong.

At 8:30am Alex Lange, newly appointed CEO of Upstream will tell us “The Truth about Upstream”

At 2:15pm Errol, Curt and Jonathan Bednarsh (president of Onboard) will answer “What does the future look like for the MLS?”

You can see Thursday’s full schedule at : http://sched.co/7mta

Zillow settles lawsuit with MOVE/NAR

Andrea Brambila reporting for Inman News

Zillow and Move settle trade secrets lawsuit for $130M

$130 million smackaroos is all it took.

“Before the settlement, the case was scheduled to go to jury trial today. None of the parties admitted any liability, wrongdoing or responsibility in the settlement agreement, according to a Zillow Group public filing.

Move’s co-plaintiff, the National Association of Realtors, is entitled to 10 percent of the settlement proceeds after deduction of Move’s litigation-related costs and fees, with the remainder being paid to Move, according to a News Corp. public filing.”

All I can say is thank goodness. This was a huge distraction for everyone involved. I’m so happy for Errol, Curt and their families. This had to cause such undue stress on all involved.

I hoping that everyone involved can move forward and forgive and forget. I thought is was bullshit when MOVE and NAR first filed the lawsuit against Errol, especially in an industry where people seem to move from different companies on a regular basis.

But, I was also worried about Zillow’s timing and the aggressive way that they hired Curt. It seemed pretty ruthless.

This industry needs as many smart people involved in the conversation as possible. So NAR, let Zillow Group participate in trade shows and events.

Zillow, the last time I saw Spencer give a talk they asked him what was one of things he would have changed in the past. He said he would have reached out more to the industry. Well, you talked the talk, now walk the walk.

I’m also excited to see what is on the horizon for online real estate. You can bet the competition between MOVE, Zillow Group, Redfin and other is going to be fierce.

I glad were are back to innovation instead of spoliation.

The talk of T3

I had a major case of FOMO last week, missing out on the T3 Summit. While Stefan was gracious enough to include me on their Power 200 list I had way too much going on (i.e. launching our new Cloud MLX product) to make the trek.

Rank-45-HeadshotWhile there were a lot of sessions covering some of the most talked about topics (Upstream, AMP, etc.) I’ve talked to a few people who attended the event and the one speaker/person who kept coming up and that everyone was impressed by was Amy Bohutinsky, the Chief Operating Officer of Zillow. She previously ran the marketing at Zillow and took the new role right around when they closed Trulia.

If anyone else has anything to share please say something in the comments. I tried following on Twitter but couldn’t keep up.

Well, there’s always next year. Word is they will hold it at the Four Seasons again in Westlake Village. This year the event sold out fast.

Mike Wurzer says you shouldn’t be “spooked”

Are MLSs spooked by AMP?

“What this means is that AMP isn’t something to be worried about, rather each MLS will be able to consider choosing AMP as their MLS vendor on the same basis it would consider choosing FBS, Black Knight, Corelogic, or any other vendor. That’s an opportunity, not something to fear.

Rational and thoughtful (and a bit fun) post from Mr. Wurzer. Nice to see him writing again.

Clareity MLS Survey: Black Knight claims top spot again, FBS closing gap.

You gotta hand it to Rich Lull, Marty Reed and the rest of the team at Black Knight for another year at the top of Clareity Consulting’s “MLS Customer Satisfaction Survey“.

Oddly enough this year’s (and last years) number 2, FBS, was not at the event. And it appears that FBS is closing the gap. While Black Knight had a 10 point lead last year, FBS closed that gap to only 4 points. FBS also had the biggest jump in points.

2015 Clareity

2014 Clareity

According to the survey,points are calculated:

“…grouped by MLS vendor and system, based on a calculated score (3 times the “Excellent” percentage plus “Good,” minus “Fair,” minus 3 times “Poor”). A higher calculated score signifies better end-user satisfaction as reported by the MLS executive.“

Nice to see Rapattoni (who was at the event) go up a few points as well.

More later on the workshop itself, but wanted to congratulate everyone above.

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