I was at a meeting recently with a lot of MLS executives and the topic of reporting came up quite a bit and the frustration they felt getting accurate usage numbers from their 3rd party vendors.

Now we all know that not everyone will use the products and services offered by MLS providers to their membership. It seems like most industries it really falls more to the 80/20 rule. Where only 20% of a group is doing any real business. In fact I hear that ratio is closer to 85/15 in some MLS markets.

So I’d like to share what my company, W&R Studios, provides its MLS customers (and Broker customers) in regard to reporting to start a discussion on the best practices of offering such reporting.

What defines an “active user”?

To begin with you first have to defines an “active user”. I’ve seen many definitions. Typically this number represents when a member logs in to the service, at least once, in a set time period. Sometimes this is a 30 day period but many times I see an active user measured as a person who logs in to the system, at least once, in a 90 day period. The period is subjective and may have to do with market conditions as well.

At W&R Studios we give all our MLS customers access to an real time dashboard. At anytime they are free to log in to the system and see these metrics as they relate to Cloud CMA. Here’s just a sample of some of the data available:

1. Number of New Users Signups: Today, yesterday, this week, last week, this month last month and total currently active.

2. Number of Reports Created: Today, yesterday, this week, last week, and last month.

3. Report Types Created: CMA, Buyer Tour, Single Property and Flyers. (Including percentage breakdown)

It’s a lot of information, and our MLS customers love it. Below is a partial screen shot from an actual Cloud CMA MLS Site License customer. They have about 3,500 members total.

Having shown these number I do want to say that we look at these and want to improve. And yes, I chose to show you one of our MLS customers that is performing well (duh!), we certainly have others in which we are looking to gain traction. Point is our MLS customers see those numbers too!

Show Me The Money!

In cases where we have a Revenue Share agreement we also give access to a Revenue Share Pipeline dashboard to show what kind of quarterly revenue share they can expect to receive. The screen shot below is from an actual MLS customer:

All of this data is generated in real-time and can be accessed by the MLS executive at any time.

While not perfect we think this is a big step in giving our MLS customers the transparency they have always wished for and deserve.

What are they so afraid of?

In the end we know, as a vendor, that we will live and die by those usage numbers and with the technology available today there is really no excuse not to provide our customers these metrics.

I was a bit unimpressed with the line up of Super Bowl ads this year. I did think the Jerry Seinfeld ad for the NSX was very funny. But the “Its halftime in America” ad featuring Clint Eastwood was by far my favorite. It literally gave me chills. See below if you missed it.

There was a bit of buzz in the industry when Century 21 announced that they too were going to run an ad during the Super Bowl. At the best I would call the ad “cute“, but at least they were investing in their agents and for that I appauld them.

If I were going to do an ad I would position Century 21 agents as the real estate company that is going to lead this country out of the real estate crisis. A lofty goal? Yes, but done correctly it would position Century 21 agents as the brand to help rebuild the American Dream. To me that’s “Bolder”.

Here’s the ad. The narrator would be Morgan Freedman (of course!). He would be reading a poem adapted from “The Star Thrower” by Loren Eiseley.

OUTSIDE.

NARRATOR BEGINS SPEAKING

“An old man had a habit of early morning walks on the beach. One day, after a storm, he saw a human figure in the distance moving like a dancer. As he came closer he saw that it was a young woman and she was not dancing but was reaching down to the sand, picking up a starfish and very gently throwing them into the ocean.

Images of Century 21 agents putting up signs for an open house. Getting stuff out of their trunk. Preparing a house.


”Young lady,” he asked, “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”


The young lady replied, “The sun is up, and the tide is going out, and if I do not throw them in they will die.”

Images of Century 21 agents meeting with buyers, showing property. Kids running up stairs and down hallways.


“But young lady, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You cannot possibly make a difference.”

The young woman listened politely, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves,

Images of Century 21 agents shaking hands with young families.


saying, “It made a difference for that one.“


The old man looked at the young woman inquisitively and thought about what she had done. Inspired, he joined her in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.

Image of thousands of Century 21 agents walking (wearing gold jackets?) along the shore hurling starfish towards the ocean.

Fade to Century 21 logo.

END

Put that in your pipe and smoke it Parsippany.

Full Press Release Below
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Clareity Security Announces New Customers for SAFE Syndication

January 30, 2012 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Clareity Security (www.clareitysecurity.com), the leading provider of data security and syndication solutions for the real estate industry, is pleased to announce the recent addition of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island and Maine Real Estate Information System to its customer family. Each has signed a SAFE Syndication® agreement and will enjoy the benefits of the leading data distribution and compliance management tool for multiple listing services.

SAFE Syndication is designed to serve as a contract management, compliance and reporting tool for MLS organizations, brokerages and franchisors. SAFE Syndication provides a consolidated system for measuring and reporting on all listing distribution activity. In addition, the compliance tools in the product provide independent verification and reporting by the MLS and/or Clareity Security as a neutral, trusted third party. These features allow the MLS to eliminate unnecessary expansion of compliance costs and refocus internal resources on more strategic projects. Most importantly, SAFE Syndication compliments all existing and emerging syndication methods, products and approaches because the focus is on compliance reporting and complaint tracking, along with producing reports that help brokers and MLS organizations make better syndication and distribution decisions.

“SAFE Syndication is going to help us better organize and communicate our compliance and contract management efforts across the entire MLSLI organization. With Safe Syndication, each of our designated staff members will have web-based access to contracts, complaints, and audits for all of our data customers.” stated Jim Speer, Vice President of Operations.

Clareity Security would like to invite everyone interested in SAFE Syndication meet with our team. Contact sales@clareitysecurity.com to schedule a detailed presentation.

About Clareity Security:
Clareity Security, located in Scottsdale, AZ is the leading provider of security products and services for the real estate industry. It’s SAFEMLS® and SAFEACCESS™ products help MLS organizations and real estate professionals easily and effectively safeguard sensitive consumer information against unauthorized access and provides next generation strong authentication solutions for secure online transactions. Additional information is available at http://www.ClareitySecurity.com.

Contact:
Amy Geddes, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
480-444-0014 or Email

Word on the street is that the EBRDI Board of Directors approved the hire of Rosemary Scardina yesterday as their new CEO. Congrats to EBRDI and Rosemary on her new gig!

ARG Announcement

UPDATED: Click on over to You Tube and check out the comments, a lot coming from Zillow and Trulia (they are going on batshit crazy over this).

Also interesting is the mention of Sandicor’s public MLS site. You can see it at about 7:02 in the video above. Then again at least it keeps them from going to this site (uuuuuuugly!).

And lastly they created a logo! The slogan is “Never Syndicated. Never Duplicated”. It kind of reminds me of the stamps you see on a side a beef.

Word on the street is that Alice Myerhoff (@motodot) is leaving Inman News to join Pivot a company headed by Brian Solis specializing “from social brands to social business”. Alice was the SVP of Sales/Business Development at Inman for over 6 years.

I’m going to miss Alice. She would always listen to my crazy sponsorship ideas and sometimes we even implemented them. Please join me in wishing her well.

A few things have been written about MOVE’s latest announcement on the creation of the “Real Estate Network” (REN). MOVE’s says REN will “extend the syndication of property listings to highly trafficked websites operate by real estate franchisors and brokerage networks.”

I have to say I think this is a brilliant strategy on MOVE’s part. Here’s why:

1. Zillow and Trulia have already proven quantity (and quality for that matter) of listing data isn’t necessary to operate a highly trafficked real estate portal.

2. This further hedges MOVE’s position. MOVE currently depends upon its agreement with the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) for listings and does not run a national IDX network.

The big question is “who cares?” So I’m going to focus on a few tipping points that would cause a Franchisor or brokerage network to implement a REN feed on their respective websites.

1. SEO benefits
I think this is the weakest case. Most Franchisors running sophisticated IDX networks from vendors like Homes Media Solutions (formerly eNeighborhoods) and RED (formerly LPS Real Estate Group) have already figured out how to maximize SEO benefits using a platform designed to be a launching site for a “network of broker idx sites”.

2. Cost
This is a big factor. As I’ve stated Zillow and Trulia have already proven quantity of listings doesn’t matter. Aggregating MLS data from multiple sources managing all those different display rules and paying those MLS fees have a huge cost associated with it. What if RE/MAX is paying their IDX vendor $70,000 per month and MOVE is offering REN for $7,000 per month. Is it possible that a company like RE/MAX might opt to save the money? Maybe.

3. The MLS Two Step
This is also a potential decision point. Lets say that a particular MLS provider, for the purposes of this example the Houston Associaiton of REALTORS (HAR) has made is very difficult to display listings from their MLS. The Franchisor always has to jump thru a few extra more hoops when dealing with HAR. Will some Franchisors be willing to forego not having all Houston listings as long was they don’t have to talk to Sam Scott anymore? Maybe : )

4. Filling the gaps
The REN might be a great way for new and exisiting Franchisors to supplement coverage in areas where they don’t have a Franchisee yet. According to the rules they would still need a license in the state, but thats relatively easy. This makes Realty Executives participation as a charter member of REN a little clearer.

5. Exposure.
Search traffic to real estate portals is still heavily brand related. Long tail searches are a relative minor piece to the equation. It was announced recently that Century 21 is running a Super Bowl ad on February 5th. Depending on when REN would be implemented how ironic would it be when Realty Executives announced to their agents that all their listings would be advertised during the Super Bowl. Pass the chips!

In a way MOVE, with the announcement of REN, has changed the conversation away from IDX (something they are very weak in) to Syndication (something they are very strong in).

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Special Edition

Smart MOVE.

“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there come a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

Market Leader, Inc Form 8K filed 12/30/2011

“The termination was effective December 31, 2011. As a result, Imprev has released Market Leader from future minimum contractual liabilities totaling $2.6 million, as well as any and all future revenue sharing payments related to the revenue generated from the premium SaaS solutions being provided to Keller Williams professionals. Market Leader will pay Imprev early termination fees totaling $1.45 million, which the Company expects to record as contract termination costs in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Concurrently, both parties entered into a transitional services agreement for the period January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2012 for which the Company will pay Imprev $600,000.

Starting in the first quarter of 2012, Market Leader will offer its own marketing, design, and printing capabilities as fully integrated components of its SaaS platform and products based on the solutions that were acquired as part of the August 2011 acquisition of SharperAgent.”

Ouch.

New York Real Group Forges Statewide Stats Partnership with 10K Research

“The New York State Association of REALTORS® (NYSAR) and 10K Research and Marketing are pleased to announce the February 2012 launch of a statewide housing market reporting partnership using combined data from Multiple Listing Services from throughout New York State.

10K will gather and organize housing sales data from the state’s array of 31 MLSs and provide unique, attractive and localized market reports to 33 participating local associations within NYSAR, making each group the definitive voice of real estate in their respective local markets.”

Two things I love about this. First thing; 10K is clearly doing well. It just shows you how great products combined with a awesome team can succeed (in any market). Secondly, 10K Research is part of the Minneapolis Association of REALTORS. You hear a lot about local associations struggling with generating new forms of revenue and business models. These associations should look look north.