Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Cloud CMA now integrates with Buyside data

Cloud CMA launches new data integration with Buyside

“Agents who create listing presentations with Cloud CMA are about to get a new edge in their efforts to win clients thanks to a new integration with data firm Buyside.
The integration, which was announced Tuesday, will let agents directly incorporate Buyside’s real-time market data into their presentations. Pennsylvania-based Buyside compiles data from online portals, open house software and various other sources to identify how many people are looking for a particular type of property at any given moment.”

Jim Dalrymple II at Inman News

We’ve always made it a point to be inclusive of data and tools that help brokers and agents look awesome in front of their clients. Showing the homeowner real-time data of the number of buyers looking for homes like theirs is a no-brainer. This new integration does exactly that with just the click of a button.

2020 is going to be a great year for Cloud CMA customers. I’m so grateful and proud of our team at W+R Studios and I can’t wait to share with you what they have been cooking up!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from W+R Studios!

In case anybody asks…

Get it? ????

Inman Connect – Las Vegas. Are you ready?

I gotta be honest. I’m a little nervous. A full week in Vegas? Yikes. At the same time I’m super pumped. Brad has put together a jammed pack agenda (the best ever?) As a real estate geek I’m going to be in heaven.

You got Mike DelPrete talking about iBuying. Mike is an expert on iBuying and his presentations always give me great insight. Also, Molly Bloom, the women who ran the most exclusive poker parties in Hollywood (great movie Molly’s Game, if you haven’t already seen it), I’m in! Plus Brad is going to interview Zillow CEO Rich Barton, Eric Wu, CEO of Opendoor and my personal favorite GFK (Glenn Fucking Kelman), CEO of Redfin. And that’s just a taste, there’s tons more great content.

Dan and I arrive Monday. And we are bringing a lot of the W+R team with us, so we will be rolling deep!

W+R Studios’ very own Katie Smithson will be on a Data Track panel Thursday at 3:45 PM, discussing with RESO CEO, Sam DeBord, “The Technology Driving Data Policies”.

If you are looking for a bit of an Inman Connect warm up, please check out the latest Industry Relations episode with Rob Hahn (recent Vegas transplant) and I. Which reminds me that on Thursday at 11:45 they will be announcing the Inman Innovator award winners. Two podcasts I produce, Listing Bits and the previously mentioned, Industry Relations are both nominated. ????

And of course I really looking forward to the great conversations I know I will be having with all of you.

But, I feel that I must leave you with this important Public Service Announcement (PSA). I feel that now more than ever, you need to really embrace it…

W+R Studios announces management restructuring

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (January 14, 2019) – Real estate software company W+R Studios announced management restructuring to help with boosting growth at the company.

Co-founder Dan Woolley will now take over responsibilities for choosing where to go to lunch on 2nd Friday’s of each month. Previously W+R Studios co-founder Greg Robertson held these responsibilities, which will now be switched to choosing company snacks and soft drinks. “Greg has done a great job choosing places to eat for lunch, and the company has done well under his stewardship, but we must change to move forward, and I welcome the challenge” stated Dan Woolley.

The company has a long time tradition of “Free Lunch Fridays” where team members located at W+R Studios’ Huntington Beach headquarters are treated to lunch every Friday of the month at local restaurants.  Deciding where to go to lunch every Friday has been deemed to be a crucial part of the company’s success.

“I’m more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy.” Stated Greg Robertson. “I’m looking forward to Dan opening up the company’s palette of lunch choices.”

These changes will be put in to place on February 8th, 2019.

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. 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 26 years of experience each developing and marketing real estate software solutions.


“Cloud CMA’s iBuyer Connect has legs.”

I couldn’t come up with a better headline than Inman News in their post today about Cloud CMA’s new feature “iBuyer Connect” so I just stole it. : )

Cloud CMA’s iBuyer feature has legs
New feature from W&R Studios is patent-pending, now open to investors nationwide

“In August, W&R Studios began testing iBuyer Connect, originally called Cloud Investor Connect, in Southern California. It gives an agent the option to request cash offers from iBuyers after creating a CMA for a property, provided that the property meets the requirements of an iBuyer.

Should any iBuyers that are part of the iBuyer Connect network choose to submit an offer, the agent can then go to a listing presentation armed with one or more cash offers to present to a prospective seller, along with a CMA.

If the seller accepts the investor offer, the agent will represent the investor as a buyer’s agent. The agent might also win the listing, in which case the agent could also serve as a dual agent. The feature doesn’t comes with any additional cost, and the compensation agents receive from an iBuyer varies by company and market.

Our current test is with a Southern California company who is focused on flipping homes. Venture backed iBuyers like “Opendoor” are typically making offers closer to market value. Cloud CMA can work with both models.

We recently celebrated the results of agents who used iBuyer Connect for the first time to make transactions. The response from these agents has been great.

We are also surveying all agents using iBuyer Connect and are very encouraged by the results (we sent the survey out to a pool of 250 participants and got 35 results back).

When asked, “How likely would you use this feature on future listing presentations?” Over 85% said they were “Very Likely”, “Likely” or neutral.

Here are some other quotes from the survey.

“The services works as advertised, the communication from the investor was great. “

“It could work for certain properties. We would use it again in the future.”

“I think this is a great new tool and look forward to using it again. “

“The offer was extraordinarily low… but still useful for selling an investor network to clients.”

“I really appreciate the service. I believe that it is great to have that service available when listing homes, especially when the home needs work and you dont need to wait for an offer.”

I reached out to one of the agents, Briar Warren of Murrieta, who successfully sold a home using iBuyer Connect, you can read her comments on our press release here.

As we continue to test this feature we are learning how to provide even more value to Cloud CMA subscribers. We think agents can provide a great experience to their clients by enabling them to participate in this growing iBuyer marketplace.

Looking for a little help….

My company, W+R Studios, is running a “Fall Promo” this year. For the first time we are offering all agents the chance to try all our products in the Cloud Agent Suite free until the end of the year. That means agents could have as much as 3 months of free service, this includes our premium product, Cloud Attract, which is usually over $100 per month. And also for the first time we are releasing the new Cloud CMA to all current and new agents.

I recruited some of our W+R employees and made a short video to promote the special offer. I really think it came out great.

What we need to do now is spread the word. So we’ve made it super simple for our friends who want to help by providing 2 things.

1. A co-branded landing page. Here’s what MFRMLS’ looks like:

2. A personalized Media Kit. This will have sample emails, copy, social posts, everything you need. Check out this link to see what MFRMLS Media Kit looks like —->Click to see MFRMLS Media Kit

So please drop Katie or me a line and we will build you a co-branded landing page and send you a personalized media kit.

katie [at] wrstudios dot com
greg [at] wrstudios dot com

If you don’t need a landing page or kit, just sent them to http://cloudagentsuite.com

One of the side effects I’m noticing is that this promotion really helping driving adoption. A lot of the signups are for free member benefit tools. So help me, help you!

The team has some pretty hefty goals, so even if its one email, or one post on your MLS login page, it would really help.

Thanks in advance!

BOOST – The MLS Staff Summit

W+R Studios is hosting the “BOOST-MLS Staff Summit“. Join the crew at W+R Studios for 2 days of intensive Cloud Agent Suite learning, networking, and training on how to Boost your MLS career. We’ll take care of room and board so get your ticket and yourself to Huntington Beach and we’ll handle the rest!

This event isn’t for CEO or leadership, but for those in the trenches working with agents in the training and support departments of the MLS providers.

Boost is hosted by W+R Studios, the creative team behind Cloud CMA and we believe in working hard and having fun. ????

All that’s required is to buy a ticket. Room and board are on us! Plus we promise to keep you entertained.

Tickets are very limited. To order tickets or find out more information please click the link below:

BOOST- MLS STAFF SUMMIT

Underdog?

High praise from Mr. Brad Inman on our new Cloud Investor Connect feature in Cloud CMA.

In real estate’s tech platform race, I’m betting on an underdog as brokerages square off against Zillow and Redfin, small startup W+R Studios’ Cloud CMA could be the viral hit like this summer’s Shiggy dance

But I got my eye on a third potential and fledgling platform coming out of nowhere by two likeable entrepreneurs who have been building real estate software for 25 years. Greg Robertson and Dan Woolley dub their company W+R Studios. Its signature product is Cloud CMA, which does comparative market analysis for agents to deliver to home sellers.

It’s software does 260,000 CMAs a month.

Here is the hook that could propel their company. The southern California firm added a new instant offer feature to their product last month, so when presenting the CMA the agent can also point the home seller to an instant offer alternative from investors and iBuyers.

It is being tested in Los Angeles with signs that it might be a breakaway product — maybe even a platform.

You can imagine most agents in the country using the software someday with all of the big Wall Street iBuyers and local investors participating on the Cloud CMA platform. It sports an easy to deploy API for investors and a friendlier-than-Mr. Rogers user experience.

Nice way to start a week. Dan and I want to thank Brad for his kind words (no pressure!). And also Art Carter and CRMLS for serving as our first “sandbox” of sorts. Plus our other MLS partners that have helped Cloud CMA to grow in to one of real estate’s most popular products.

So far our tests in Southern California for the past two weeks have gone better than expected. Agents love the experience, and are giving us great feedback. I’m happy to share some of our results, just contact me directly.

10 years

W+R Studios’ first office (rented cubicles) in Boca Raton, FL

It was 10 years ago today that Dan Woolley and I left our gigs at eNeighborhoods and started what would become W+R Studios. We had already been business partners for over 15 years at that point.

Looking back, launching a real estate software company in 2008 was insane. The country was reeling. Our new president, Barack Obama, walked in to the worst financial crisis in our country’s history, all caused by bad loans for, you guessed it, real estate.

But we were optimistic about us, the country and our ideas.

We didn’t officially open a bank account until later that year, with a modest starting balance of $2,500.

10 years later, our team has grown to over 40 of the most creative and talented people working in real estate. I love working with them everyday. Our products are used everyday by hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals all over North America, we have won awards and we just published our 10 Millionth Cloud CMA.

And in the next couple months we have some exciting new things to announce that I’m sure will bring W+R Studios even further success.

When I look at the past 26 years Dan and I have been business partners I couldn’t think of anyone else I would want to share this success with. As impatient as I am Dan reminds me everyday that the journey is the reward.

That’s so true, and like the old Turkish proverb says,

“No road is long with good company.”

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