Broker Platform Innovation Pays Off for Inside Real Estate
As technology companies grow and gain market share in the industry, only some are building for the future with ongoing innovation. The challenge for all of them is to remain innovative in a competitive environment, where the leading brokerage platforms offer many of the same features and functionality. For the longest time, the themes of elegant, front-end design and consumer lead generation was the goal line. Those elements remain relevant today, but the most innovative broker technology firms have emphasized deeper productivity applications for teams and agents, like sophisticated, AI-driven lead follow-up that acts like a 24/7 smart virtual assistant for every single agent. The most innovative tech firms today are tapping into the perennial struggle of our industry – creating the tools to create and maintain customers for life. In 2021, Inside Real Estate launched two significant productivity components to their broker platform, named kvCORE. The first was CORE Present, an integrated CMA and listing presentation solution. CORE Present allows the marketing team of the brokerage to construct on-brand listing presentation templates. The seamless integration to the kvCORE system eliminates the need for agents and teams to sign in to a third-party application to run their CMA and build a listing presentation. The quality of the product earned them a perfect 5-star rating by Inman News. The second product innovation to kvCORE was the release of CORE Home – the first-of-its-kind lifetime homeownership technology that puts the coveted consumer relationship in the hands of brokerages and their agents. Like CORE Present, CORE Home is seamlessly integrated into the platform to empower agents to deliver better service to their clients, over the lifetime of homeownership. What's completely groundbreaking is that the technology is 100% branded to the brokerage and agent, giving them the opportunity to provide value to consumers all throughout their homeownership journey. There are four main components: Current Home, Next Home, Buy and Sell, and Move. With Current Home, clients have a portal containing real-time alerts around home value and detailed market data, and the ability to monitor mortgage and insurance to ensure competitive rates. Next Home is an agent guided search solution. Buy and Sell contains vital transaction related task management, and Move delivers a concierge-type solution for moving, home improvement, and home maintenance. There is no doubt that the demand and need for this technology is fierce. They've rolled out CORE Home to several thousand agents in two major brokerages and have already seen a 30x lift in consumer engagements. The new homeownership technology is available exclusively to Inside Real Estate's kvCORE customers. Aside from these two significant building blocks being added to kvCORE, there were more than 300 additional product additions and enhancements made to other elements of the platform last year. That is a lot of innovation when you are also growing and onboarding new clients at that high of a growth rate. The results of driving innovation have been significant for Inside Real Estate. The company reports that user satisfaction is a perfect 5 out of 5 for 75% of their customers, and a 4.5% overall rating. In four years, Inside Real Estate has grown their brokerage client base to serve 250,000 agents managing 115 million client relationships. Some of their notable clients include eXp Realty, NextHome, Weichert Realtors, Royal LePage, The Keyes Company, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices The Preferred Realty, JPAR Real Estate, Samson Properties, La Rosa Realty, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene, HER Realtors division of Howard Hanna, among many others. Company employment has grown past the threshold of 250. As we move through a transition year in the real estate market that is expected to cool off the seller's market, we expect platforms like kvCORE to play a more significant role in helping brokerages create efficiencies and helping agents grow their client relationships for maximum repeat and referral business. The effort to find and nurture home buyers has not been a consideration for the past few years. Companies who focus on onboarding buyers into solutions like kvCORE today will be poised to gain market share in a slowing housing market. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

AVMs and the RVM: The 'REALTOR' Makes all the Difference
One of, if not the most, talked about subjects in real estate right now is AVMs (automated valuation models). More specifically, how Zillow's AVM and their reliance on it within their "Zillow Offers" iBuyer program caused them to fold the service entirely. If you're unfamiliar with this trending story, check out this article, this one, or this one to get up to speed. While many industry professionals have shown support for seeing the "Zestimate," it has also been criticized as to its accuracy in determining home valuations. This story has brought AVMs in general into the light as a hot topic as well. And that got us thinking about our version: the RVM® (Realtors Valuation Model®)... Not all AVMs are equal AVM technology sprang up just over 20 years ago, where its initial use occurred most often in mortgage lending and real estate investing. It uses a mix of algorithms, artificial intelligence and aggregated, public data to create digital comps and home value estimates. The tech graduated to pop culture status in 2006, when Zillow launched and put the word "Zestimate" into everyone's vocabulary. The challenges that these valuations have caused for REALTORS® has been written about extensively over the years, but the real point we're trying to focus on is the difference between AVMs and the RVM® (especially the "R" part of RVM®). First off, any AVM should be no more than a starting point. It's the human knowledge and market experience that needs to be added to any calculation to make it accurate. By looking at AVMs, but allowing customization tools that took that knowledge into account, REALTORS® have at their disposal a better, more powerful and more accurate tool for the task of pricing homes. Simply put, the RVM® is an AVM, but with highly accurate data and better tools to allow the REALTOR® to add their market knowledge. Here's a breakdown of the main differences: AVM = Automated Valuation Model: a value estimate calculated using publicly available information RVM® = Realtors Valuation Model®: a value estimate calculated using publicly available information plus MLS active, sold and off-market data The RVM® is available exclusively for REALTORS® via RPR (Realtors Property Resource) The RVM® pulls directly from the MLS, giving it the most up-to-date data, allowing for the highest accuracy of any valuation product available. It also displays a five star confidence score rating, which helps agents make better decisions. What's the RVM® secret sauce? It's you, the REALTOR®. As good as the RVM can be, current data, confidence scores and a product backed (and owned) by the members of The National Association of REALTORS® aren't the biggest factors that separate AVMs from the RVM®. The biggest point of differentiation is the name itself: "REALTORS®." Superior tech and tools are essential, but they'll only get you so far. What really counts hinges on the human element. Sure, REALTORS® use the RVM® as a starting point, but it's what they bring to the table in experience and expertise that really provides their clients with spot-on property pricing and home valuations. This "boots on the ground" approach is what truly separates the RVM® from all the others. For example, all AVMs base their evaluation on properties being in "fair" condition. But in reality, properties vary. With RPR's Refine Value Tool, a REALTOR® can walk through the home and make property condition assessments, up or down, in minutes. They can also correct outdated information, such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, etc. They can include major home upgrades, as RPR takes regional home renovation data from Zonda and refactors it at a local zip code level. (Zonda is a housing market research and real estate data analytics company that helps home builders and developers make smarter decisions.) And if the home needs repairs, those can be included. too. All of these elements factor in to reflect a change in value. Additionally, REALTORS® have another resource in their tool belt, the CMA. After confirming or correcting a listed home's facts, they can search for and adjust comparable properties to zero-in on an estimate of the home's value based on recent sales in the neighborhood. AVM-RVM® resources/questions and answers For an in-depth look at how REALTORS® and the RVM® can work together, be sure to read: 5 Simple Steps to Building a Stunning and Compelling RPR® Seller's Report. And check out RPR's FAQs on AVMs and the RVM®. To view the original article, visit the RPR blog.

CMA to Listing Agreement to MLS to Commission Check
Lone Wolf announced their integration today between Cloud CMA and their forms and transactions systems, zipForm and TransactionDesk. I excitedly took a look. Had they cracked the holy grail? The grail itself is something that our industry has discussed for decades--lead to close. If there is a company that can get you there, it may soon be Lone Wolf. One of my favorite sayings, which I picked up form Merle Whitehead of Howard Hanna, is "Sign here, press hard." It is a classic salesperson saying that goes well with something my dad always told me, "A businessman (businessperson) without a pen is like a soldier without a gun." For listing presentations, the CMA is the beginning of a process. It is the assembly of information that is reviewed by agent and seller to determine if the seller wants to choose that agent to list their home. Obviously, if the seller agrees to list at a certain price, the very next step would be to start the listing agreement, followed by "Sign here, press hard," or in DocuSign's case – you don't need to press hard. What I expected in the announcement was a workflow that would take the agent from the CMA presentation directly to the listing agreement. I imagined the agent getting up from the kitchen table and starting to walk around the house to complete the MLS listing input form, taking photos with the camera on their iPad. Lone Wolf is not quite there yet. But I like the direction. Check out the video below. The integration that they have done allows the agent to authorize their Cloud CMA account in Lone Wolf Transactions or vice versa and provides some transfer of information between the two – like the information about the customer and the subject property. It's a start, but not the workflow I have in my dream. Certainly, better than anything on the market today. I am sure that future development in this area will be closer to my imagination. And it does not stop there. Remember, with MLSConnect – in certain MLS market areas, the information curated by the listing agent is enough to start an MLS listing. This saves agents enormous time and removes so many errors. Every MLS should have this feature. But wait, there is more... Brokers with Lone Wolf Back Office have integrations that will literally allow them to go from contract close to commission check. Stone Point – owners of Lone Wolf and, soon, CoreLogic – are on a great path to truly command a strong value proposition to the business side of real estate. On the other hand, CoStar is targeting the front end with their announcement of the Homes.com acquisition. It is profoundly interesting to me that startups are not the ones delivering innovation to our industry – it's the billionaire private equity firms. Click to view integration To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Inside Real Estate Acquires dashCMA to Further Expand Their kvCORE Platform
In a press release last month, Inside Real Estate, makers of the kvCORE platform, announced the purchase of dashCMA. Unless you are operating in California or Nevada, you may not have seen dashCMA. But RE Technology has, and rest assured you will be very happy to see this new CMA become available in your market to differentiate your listing presentation from other competitors in the market. The beauty of a great CMA is supporting the Realtor in conveying a clear story about the market and their specific pricing approach to buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, there haven't been great options available for agents to do this in a simple and effective way. Most CMAs today feel seriously outdated, consisting of lengthy PDFs with little to no client interaction. They are clunky and time consuming to produce, too. dashCMA is a modern take on the CMA. It launched in Southern California where competition is fierce, and the high price of housing puts a premium on the quality of information that consumers expect from their agent. Driven by this understanding, and the necessity to quickly and effectively establish trust with buyers and sellers around pricing, dashCMA was born. The product competes with players like Cloud CMA and MoxiPresent, although it stands out due its interactive dashboard that allows agents to change comps and toggle the impact of specific features in real time. It's a drastically new approach to the decades old pricing conversation. Thanks to features like client engagement tracking (seeing when, where, and how the client interacted with the report), dashCMA helps ensure no deal is ever lost over pricing. dashCMA was developed as a standalone end-point solution positioned to scale one MLS at a time. Thanks to Inside Real Estate's extensive MLS footprint through their kvCORE platform, dashCMA will now be made available in just about every MLS market in the nation in short order, and will have deep integration into kvCORE. Inside Real Estate will be adding dashCMA into their Marketplace where agents can add the product via a subscription. Brokers who are on kvCORE today should call about group pricing. One of the exciting opportunities for both Inside Real Estate and dashCMA to think about is the role that CMA plays in the enterprise workflow environment powered by machine learning and automation which their kvCORE platform specializes in. dashCMA founder Karen Abram mentioned that connecting the CMA tool to something like lead generation has the opportunity to dramatically change the process. Consumers can inquire about a listing and receive an automated CMA about that property before the agent has a chance to call the customer back. Moreover, kvCORE can automate the process of scheduling a call with the customer after the CMA has been viewed or leverage other tools like a BombBomb video if the consumer does not open the email. The opportunities are pretty endless when you get beyond integration points that are limited to API and SSO. We look forward to seeing how this all comes together. This is a really exciting time in real estate technology as hot tools like dashCMA and BombBomb get fully integrated into powerful platforms like kvCORE. It's truly a win for brokerages and their agents. Congratulations to the team at Inside Real Estate and dashCMA.

New Product Homebeat Creates Clients for Life, from the Makers of Cloud CMA
WAV Group has long advised brokers and agents on the enormous benefits of keeping in touch with past clients. NAR's Annual Homebuyer and Seller Trend Report shows that 88% of consumers indicate that they would use the same agent in a future transaction, but only 12% actually do. The no. 1 reason why consumers do not use their agent again is that the agent failed to stay in touch.

Sales Are Looking Up!
Every Monday thru Friday at 10:30 AM PST Are you ready to start writing more offers and winning more listings? Then join me, Gary, at one of our free, live, Cloud CMA webinars hosted daily! Come see why over 100,000 real estate agents nationwide are using Cloud CMA to write more offers and win more listings. I'll take you through a complete overview of Cloud CMA and show you just how easy it is to start looking awesome in front of clients and prospects, today! The topics we'll cover include: Cloud CMA setup Overview of the Cloud CMA user interface How to create Cloud CMA reports How to share your Cloud CMA reports Creating and sharing reports from your smartphone (it's a little bit like magic!) And even show you how to do a listing presentation with our Interactive iPad CMA! Register now!

One Top Brokerage's Tools for Recruiting and Retaining the Best
According to NAR, nearly half of Realtors--45 percent--say that they would like to see the amount of technology that their brokerage offers expanded. However, this is something that many brokerages struggle with. In fact, 48 percent of brokers say that keeping up with technology is one of their biggest challenges! But offering tech tools that can help agents--and, by extension, the brokerage--achieve success is one of the best ways to retain top performers and recruit new ones. Fred Real Estate Group in Bend, Oregon knows this. In fact, they live it. They offer their sales representatives an agent website that's superior to what competing firms offer, as well as in-person training, scripts and follow-up coaching. As a result, "Fred" never has to aggressively recruit agents; agents want to come work for them because they've developed a culture of (and reputation for) success. What's their secret? We can't tell you just yet, but you can find out for yourself next Tuesday, Oct. 4. That's when Greg Fischer of Fred Real Estate Group will be joining us for a FREE, live webinar to share his brokerage's keys to recruiting and keeping the best agents in their area. You'll also learn Fred's best practices for building a strong brokerage, keeping up with and vetting technology, branding, and more! Seats are limited, so register today!

Sales Are Looking Up! (9/19-23)
Every Monday thru Friday at 10:30 AM PDT Are you ready to start writing more offers and winning more listings? Then join me, Gary, at one of our free, live, Cloud CMA webinars hosted daily! Come see why over 100,000 real estate agents nationwide are using Cloud CMA to write more offers and win more listings. I'll take you through a complete overview of Cloud CMA and show you just how easy it is to start looking awesome in front of clients and prospects, today! The topics we'll cover include: Cloud CMA setup Overview of the Cloud CMA user interface How to create Cloud CMA reports How to share your Cloud CMA reports Creating and sharing reports from your smartphone (it's a little bit like magic!) And even show you how to do a listing presentation with our Interactive iPad CMA! Register now!

RPR Becomes CMA of Choice for Texas Brokerage
"As a corporate philosophy, we believe that it's our job to look out over the horizon and see what's coming at us," says Toni Nelson, director of strategic initiatives for Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene, Texas. "We recognize that Realtors Property Resource® is the present and the future, and are moving forward by making RPR our CMA [comparative market analysis] of choice." "RPR offers layers of data all in one place, with great flexibility, and automation like we've never seen before. We can't get that anywhere else," said Toni, whose brokerage operates 24 offices across the region. Currently, BHGRE Gary Greene has an RPR usage rate of 65 percent and growing. Why RPR's CMA? Toni claims RPR's CMA offers REALTORS® a distinct advantage in the marketplace, pointing to RPR's Realtor Valuation Model® (RVM®) and Refined Value as two of the data platform's most powerful tools. "We encourage our agents to use RPR's RVM as the starting point in their valuation process. Then we teach them to use RPR's Refined Value Tool to make adjustments on the value of the home based on improvements made, local market conditions, interior and exterior conditions, and a lot more."

Sales Are Looking Up! (8/8-12)
Every Monday thru Friday at 10:30 AM PDT Are you ready to start writing more offers and winning more listings? Then join me, Gary, at one of our free, live, Cloud CMA webinars hosted daily! Come see why over 100,000 real estate agents nationwide are using Cloud CMA to write more offers and win more listings. I'll take you through a complete overview of Cloud CMA and show you just how easy it is to start looking awesome in front of clients and prospects, today! The topics we'll cover include: Cloud CMA setup Overview of the Cloud CMA user interface How to create Cloud CMA reports How to share your Cloud CMA reports Creating and sharing reports from your smartphone (it's a little bit like magic!) And even show you how to do a listing presentation with our Interactive iPad CMA! Register now!

Sales Are Looking Up! (7/4-8)
Every Monday thru Friday at 10:30 AM PDT Are you ready to start writing more offers and winning more listings? Then join me, Gary, at one of our free, live, Cloud CMA webinars hosted daily! Come see why over 100,000 real estate agents nationwide are using Cloud CMA to write more offers and win more listings. I'll take you through a complete overview of Cloud CMA and show you just how easy it is to start looking awesome in front of clients and prospects, today! The topics we'll cover include: Cloud CMA setup Overview of the Cloud CMA user interface How to create Cloud CMA reports How to share your Cloud CMA reports Creating and sharing reports from your smartphone (it's a little bit like magic!) And even show you how to do a listing presentation with our Interactive iPad CMA! Register now!

Sales Are Looking Up! (6/6-10)
Every Monday thru Friday at 10:30 AM PDT Are you ready to start writing more offers and winning more listings? Then join me, Gary, at one of our free, live, Cloud CMA webinars hosted daily! Come see why over 100,000 real estate agents nationwide are using Cloud CMA to write more offers and win more listings. I'll take you through a complete overview of Cloud CMA and show you just how easy it is to start looking awesome in front of clients and prospects, today! The topics we'll cover include: Cloud CMA setup Overview of the Cloud CMA user interface How to create Cloud CMA reports How to share your Cloud CMA reports Creating and sharing reports from your smartphone (it's a little bit like magic!) And even show you how to do a listing presentation with our Interactive iPad CMA! Register now!

Getting Started with Listingbook (5/31)
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at 10:00 AM PDT In this session you will learn: What Listingbook is and what it's for Basic System Navigation General Overview of Your Clients' Experience The Differences Between Listingbook Basic and Listingbook Pro Register now!

Help Agents Overcome 3 Seller Objections
Valuation is one of the most difficult skills to master as a real estate professional. Even if there's a matching home next door, each property has its own set of distinct characteristics that should be considered in the equation. In the real estate industry, we spend hours upon hours evaluating properties, and consumers spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on appraisals. But when it comes to setting a home's asking price, it's easy for logic, reason, and facts to fly out the window. Sellers often believe their home is worth more than a practitioner's valuation. This can mostly be attributed to emotional factors that cloud a seller's ability to evaluate objectively. Considering the emotional stakes, it's imperative that sales agents know how to come to an amicable agreement with clients on price. Teach your agents how to overcome these three common seller hurdles. 1. Sellers Leery of Agents' Intentions: The seller doesn't trust your agent yet and believes he or she is just trying to win a commission. If clients don't believe that the agent is hearing them when they talk about the value of their home, then your agent will not get the listing. Solution: Sellers must believe that your agent has a burning desire to sell their home for top dollar. They must also trust that your salesperson will provide them with objective data and opinions as to the value of their home. Your agent should clearly outline the factors that go into a complete market analysis. This includes demonstrating knowledge, expertise, and the intent of representing the best interest of the client. Agents who aren't confident in pricing strategy won't be able to communicate the value of the property to potential buyers or other agents when trying to sell the home.

Broker AVMs (Part 5): Suggestions for NAR
You will no doubt be pleased to hear that this post is the last of a five-part series on the question of whether and how brokers participating in MLS may use listing data of other brokers to power AVMs sold into the real estate vertical. See Part 1 for an intro and Part 2 for advice that NAR gave MLSs in 2013. I examined a letter from The Realty Alliance (TRA) on this subject in Part 3. The 4th post discussed the NAR policy proposal, at least as it stood as of May 7, 2014. In this post, I'll briefly discuss a report from Clareity Consulting, which came out on May 8. Then I'll make some clarifying suggestions to the policy proposal going before NAR's Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee this week. The Clareity Consulting report On May 8, Clareity Consulting released a report titled "Broker AVM: Exploring the Controversy." I encourage folks to read it, but it leaves some of the issues I've expressed the greatest concern about mostly unaddressed. I think the Clareity report makes an impassioned argument for why NAR should comply with TRA's request. While I don't necessarily agree that all those arguments are persuasive, that has not been my angle; instead, I'm interested in how the decision is made and how this works out in practice. My main concern is that the Clareity report appears to assume that any broker AVM will be run as responsibly as I expect TRA's Collateral Analytics partners will run things. For example, the report says: "To be clear, the financial institution never receives raw MLS data." (p. 3) "Unlike the 'paper brokers,' or others who have misused the data, TRA wants to ensure brokers have a legitimate means of doing business, facilitated by the MLSs." (p. 4)

2 Technology Game Changers Hit the Market
There were two announcements made this week that I think will have some pretty significant impacts on real estate. WolfNet announced that they are now fully live on the national IDX data feed for Canada. Moreover, every application that WolfNet offers has now been tailored to the needs of Canadian real estate. WolfNet has long been a leader in property search solutions in America, notably serving search solutions to every Keller Williams agent in addition to many other brands. Now WolfNet's Canadian customers will have access to the same benefits. The second announcement came from W&R Studios, makers of Cloud CMA. Cloud CMA became popular with MLSs who wanted to deliver a CMA solution to subscribers that is fast, easy, and mobile. It has resulted in huge success, reaching over 95,000 users. Now, Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson have focused on another clunky feature of many of today's MLS systems – the automatic notification. They call it Cloud Streams. It allows agents to configure a search for their client(s) that will notify them whenever a new or updated listing matches their search criteria. Like Cloud CMA, it is fast, easy, and mobile.

3 Ways Brokers Can Help Their Agents Be Local Experts
Brokers, are you doing everything you can to help your agents succeed in a crowded market? Even if you've only been paying minimal attention to real estate marketing talk during the past few years, chances are good that you've heard someone use the term "local expert." It's more than just a trendy marketing phrase, though. Just like consumers need agents to guide them through the maze of paperwork that comes with buying a home, they also need an agent's wealth of community knowledge to help them find the right home. While there are plenty of things that agents can (and should) be doing establish their local credibility, brokers can help their agents get a boost on the competition. Below, we've listed three simple tools that brokers can start using now. Lifestyle Property Search Ninety percent of all consumers search for properties online during the home buying process. They have myriad search options to choose from, too--everything from giant portals like Zillow, Trulia, and big box brokerages to small town realty offices and agent websites. That's why it's important that your brokerage's IDX search solution stands out from the crowd. If you're just offering boring, run-of-the-mill data, buyers have plenty of other places to look online.

Organizational Tools and your Real Estate Business
Guest contributor Cloud CMA says: As a real estate agent, it's an understatement to say that you have a lot on your plate. You take on a tremendous amount of responsibility and are held accountable every step of the way. With that in mind, how organized are you? Organization can save you time, money, and bring balance to your life. Additional benefits include increased productivity, lowered stress, and healthier relationships. To enjoy these benefits, organizational tools must be carefully selected. An organized kitchen calls for shelves, drawer dividers, baskets, bins, containers, and more. Tools that excel in the kitchen may not function as well in other areas of the home. This same concept also applies to your real estate technology solutions. As an agent, you already have a huge selection of tech tools to choose from. Some tools provide an "all in one" solution that touches every area of your business. While functional and purposeful, these applications can lack the specialization required to satisfy niche areas of your business.

Real Estate CMA: How to Make Phone Ring
We've got Harper two days in a row for you this week! Here's his latest from the Core Logic Broker Buzz blog. Most Real Estate Agents put a great deal of effort into their Listing Presentations—or CMAs—to be able to put their best foot forward when meeting with a potential home seller for the first time. Listing presentations are meant to set an Agent up for success during and after the listing appointment by detailing their experience, expertise, super-secret marketing tactics, references and more. It’s everything a seller could ever want to know to feel comfortable with choosing a Real Estate Agent to list their home. But what about being more proactive with this beautifully constructed and well-thought out piece of marketing?