W&R Studios Archives - Page 2 of 3

Cloud MLX is looking soooooo good!

February 6th, 2016

My company, W&R Studios, is getting close to releasing our new MLS front end product, Cloud MLX. It’s looking amazeballs! I don’t want to give away too much but here are a few partial screen shots.

It’s living up to exactly what I expected: Simple, Fast and Beautiful.

We think agents are going to love it.

Cloud MLX can simply be a hub to our existing products Cloud CMA and Cloud Streams. The larger vision, is it can also be used an an alternative front end to your MLS. It’s so fast and simple agents won’t need extensive training.

Our new design team is really hitting it out of the park. I can’t wait to ship it and show everyone.

W&R Studios adds Chief Design Officer

October 29th, 2015

Really excited about this!

DAMIEN HUZE JOINS W&R STUDIOS’ LEADERSHIP TEAM AS CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER.

“HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (October 29, 2015) – Privately held software company, W&R Studios, announced today that Damien Huze will be joining their leadership team as the Chief Design Officer. Damien has been involved with the company since 2008. He designed W&R Studios’ corporate identity as well as consulted on the UI/UX and identity of their flagship product, Cloud CMA.

Damien grew up in Paris, France. Both his parents were in creative fields. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized the impact of growing up in house where there was always a sketch being drawn, a story being written, a canvas being painted, or an object being fabricated. The trash bin full of concepts gave me awareness of the grind a designer has to go through to do valuable work.” stated Damien. Later, when he was a teenager they moved to Florida.”

Looking forward to introducing Damien to everyone in San Diego.

Pro Tips: Anatomy of a trade show – 2015 N.A.R. Annual Conference San Diego

October 27th, 2015

I get asked a lot whether or not it make sense to have a big booth at the N.A.R. Annual conference or any trade show for that matter.

First off I think the biggest mistake most vendors make is they don’t do anything to help drive traffic to their booth. They basically just show up with some swag and hope agents will pay attention to them. So, here are some simple tips to help you increase your ROI.

1. You need to have a hook.

In previous years I’ve had celebrities like Fabio and Richard Simmons at our booth. Agents loved them. But your hook doesn’t need to be celebrity. Sometimes you need to get creative. This year we are doing a ping pong themed event. We are challenging all agents to beat our CFO, Karl Ziegler, at ping pong to win free subscriptions to our software. Here’s a video that we put together.

2. Ted Turner is credited with the phrase, “Early to bed, early to rise, in-between…advertise!”. You gotta promote your hook. In our case we are doing a lot of social media (#BEATKARL). Plus we sent out postcards to all N.A.R. Annual attendees.

We are also cross matching that mailing list against our email database and following up with an email campaign to those same attendees.

If you can afford it, signage at the event can also help you draw attention to your booth.

***True story, I actually met Ted Turner once and asked him if he said the above phrase. He quipped back to me, “Well son, i would say, work like hell, and advertise!”***

3. Have a goal.
You need your sales team to have a goal. 400 signups? 100 solid leads. Something to keep their eye on the prize and motivated.

If anybody else has any other tips I’m sure everyone would love to hear them in the comments. Have a great show!

Can you spot the developers in this picture?

April 27th, 2015

#W&RStudios

How to hold a better Open House

January 16th, 2015

In part 3 of W&R Studios “Hack Week” developers try to disrupt the way agents hold an Open House. Check it out:

W&R Studios “Hack Week” – Part 3

I gotta say that I think Tory and Derek really did a great job (given they only had a week.)

I’m also very impressed that the video presentation of Part 2 of this series, “Cloud MLX” , has over 100 views!

Fun stuff!

Cloud Streams now available free to all CRMLS members

December 31st, 2014

When 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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Tanqueray No. 10 Imperial Shaker

October 21st, 2014

Wondering where this will fit in the office.

#want

See you at Inman’s Real Estate Connect SF next week

July 10th, 2014

I’m looking forward to attending Real Estate Connect in San Francisco next week. I’m participating on a couple things that I think are worth sharing.

CEO Summit
This is being held on Tuesday the 15th (a “pre-conference” event) I’ve been before and its a good mix of people. I’m scheduled to give 3 live interviews.

David Charron, CEO of MRIS
Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia
Steve Berkowitz, CEO of MOVE, Inc.

I did something similar at NAR Midyear that was a lot of fun. Brad has asked me to ask each of these guys some really “tough questions”. I’ve got a few, and really looking forward to mixing it up. (And if you have a few tough questions of your own hit me up via email or leave something in the comments.)

Marketing Track – “How to Create, Build and Launch Things People Want.”

Dan Woolley and I will also be co-presenting on the Marketing Track Thursday, “How to Create, Build and Launch Things People Want.” We will be joined by the super talented Michele Serro of Doorsteps (Swipe), Winston Welborn of Hawaii Life Real Estate. Marc Davison from 1000watt Consulting will be moderating.

Getting Dan on stage is like pulling teeth, so I’m really psyched to be able to show off the brains of our operation and share our creative process.

Looking forward to seeing everyone. Just email or DM me if you want to hook up.

W&R Studios gets a facelift

June 23rd, 2014

You may have read about a project I’ve been working on to add signage to our offices in Huntington Beach. The signage was installed last week and came out beautiful! One of those rare projects that came out better than I imagined. Thought I would share some of the photos I took of the building. You can click on each photo for a larger image.

The “One-Click” CMA

February 11th, 2014

Another shameless plug.