Understanding Your ListTrac Report
The image below is a clip from ListTrac Web Insights for an MLS. ListTrac is now reporting metrics from nearly every major IDX vendor, the major portals, and the MLS systems including Black Knight, Matrix, FlexMLS, and Rapattoni – in total, over 100,000 real estate property search sites. This particular report shows listing views. It should be no surprise that Zillow is the leading consumer site for viewing property. In most MLS areas, Zillow has more traffic than all other sites combined (which is true in this market). Here are some interesting observations: The MLS system matters The MLS system is a major point of engagement for consumers who are home shopping. Moreover, consumers viewing property from the MLS system are working close enough with a real estate agent that the agent goes through the trouble of setting up their saved search. Of course, the MLS views will also include the research done by agents when they do searches. It is a hard number to dissect, much in the same way that traffic to Zillow is hard to dissect the intention of consumers on Zillow or other consumer sites. Homes.com? Homes.com was contested by Realtor.com when CoStar CEO, Andy Florence, announced that Homes.com has garnered enough traffic to become the second highest ranking portal in America. Realtor.com CEO, Damian Eales, stated in a podcast that Andy's statement is easy to make "when you are grading your own homework." WAV Group has not seen a ListTrac report that validates the claims of Mr. Florence in any market, but we have no reason to doubt him. If you have evidence, please pass it along. Homesnap? Sadly, Homesnap has also disappeared from these reports. Homesnap was the partner to the Broker Public Portal and was garnering tremendous traffic in many markets. Before the sale to CoStar, I believe that 1.2 million real estate agents were benefiting from their service through their MLS. I still do not understand why CoStar killed that product. As you can see, Zillow has retained Trulia, which is outperforming Homes.com in this market. Who is IDX vendor Cyberitas? A Google search result of the company indicates that they are working with Anywhere brand Century 21. In this market, Century 21.com is slightly ahead of virtual tour vendor Property Panorama in terms of traffic, and slightly behind Homes.com in overall traffic. I found it interesting that Century 21 has more traffic than Coldwell Banker in this market. Typically, it is reversed. The Power of IDX (or powerless IDX) In terms of IDX vendors, Reliance Networks and MoxiWorks were tied, followed by IDX Broker and iHouseWeb. But overall, IDX is dwindling in terms of attracting consumers to search for properties. WAV Group believes that IDX vendors have failed to keep up with the portals in one key area: IDX sites do not display listings of all parcels. They only display the listings for sale or recently sold (in many markets). Consumers love getting the listing information at the parcel level published by Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Homes.com, Movoto, Redfin; and the newly appointed sites by RE/MAX and Compass that have also become parcel centric. If you are a broker, remember to log into ListTrac and look at how your listings are performing in the market. Share that information with your agents so they understand these numbers and remind them that ListTrac has seller reports that show where a client's listing is being viewed. If you are an MLS and would like help interpreting the ListTrac report and communicating that to your brokers, agents, or consumers, reach out to our team. WAV Group Communications can help. Other ListTrac Data Points ListTrac will also show you how many leads were generated off of listings, and which sites generated the most number of leads. They will also show visitor trends. You will be amazed at how much traffic dips in the MLS on weekends. I love the top agent report. As you might expect, the agent with the most listings has the most views of their listings. The geographic traffic report is fascinating. It allows you to look at where the consumer is searching from. This particular market has significant search traffic from the major Texas cities. The national narrative is that everyone is moving to Florida and Texas – but this area is attracting folks from Texas. Last but not least are the most popular price points. Seventy percent of all search traffic in this market was for homes under $500,000. As you can tell, I am a ListTrac fan. If you have it in your market, make a point to review it every month. Be sure to include it in your training and communications. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Dan Troup Becomes Broker Public Portal CEO
Broker Public Portal (BPP), a collaborative venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs to create a national consumer home search experience, announced the appointment of Dan Troup as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Troup brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record in the real estate and technology sectors, establishing him as the ideal leader to guide BPP through its next phase of innovation and growth. As the former Director of Data Operations & Strategy at RE/MAX, LLC, Troup has a demonstrated history of driving strategic initiatives, fostering collaboration, and delivering exceptional results. His extensive background in real estate technology and deep understanding of industry dynamics and the business needs of brokers make him ideally suited to steer BPP towards new heights. In his new role as CEO of Broker Public Portal, Dan Troup will be responsible for the organization's strategic vision, partnerships, business model, financials, product development roadmap, and launch. His leadership will play a pivotal role in enhancing the BPP platform, ensuring it continues to provide immense value to real estate professionals, brokers, and consumers alike. Reflecting on his appointment, Troup stated, "I am honored to step into the role of CEO at Broker Public Portal during this pivotal moment in the real estate industry. BPP has already made significant strides in demonstrating the importance of a national MLS consumer-facing property search site. I am eager to amplify these achievements, driving innovation and assembling a dynamic team at BPP. Together, we will not only uphold, but surpass the industry standards, ensuring a property search experience that is both impartial and captivating, guided by the principles of the Fair Display Guidelines." BPP's Vice-Chair of the Board, Rebecca Jensen, expressed confidence in Troup's ability to lead the organization into the future. "The incredible successes Dan has delivered in his career have prepared him to take on the role of driving this important initiative. He has the experience, skills, and relationships to deliver business generation opportunities for brokers and MLSs across the country in a very important time. Dan's strategic vision, leadership acumen, and passion for helping the real estate industry deliver valuable information, education, and support to consumers make him the perfect fit for BPP. We are thrilled to welcome him aboard and are confident that his technical expertise and infectious enthusiasm will drive BPP to next-level success." "Each industry expert that the BPP is composed of, in collaboration with Dan, will lean on their technology expertise and leadership skills to continue to execute on its mission – to deliver a consumer experience provided by people who sell homes, not ads," said Chairman of the Board, Dana Strandmo. For a complete list of board members, visit the BPP Leadership page.

How to compete with the big portals in your market: Parcel-centric SEO
How can the average brokerage or real estate agent compete with big names like Zillow, Trulia, or Realtor.com when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) for home listings? Compass, which was founded in 2012, has just surpassed both Realtor.com and Trulia in certain markets by pursuing a strategy that's available to anyone who has a real estate-related website. It's all about paying close attention to long-tail keyword search opportunity and developing SEO around parcel data before the home gets listed on the market instead of waiting until you have the listing to create a property-specific page. Victor Lund at WAV Group explains in more detail. WAV Group believes that search engine optimization (SEO) around long-tail address search is a best practice. It is not necessarily the thing that is going to drive massive lead generation and sales, but it is the right thing to do. Your site must be parcel-centric For many years, real estate brokerages have ignored a key principle of SEO. Namely, brokers need to build websites on a public record parcel foundation by creating a web page for all properties. You layer MLS records on top of those pages by adding the MLS information when it becomes available. Portals SEO listings before they are listed Because brokerages have ignored this strategy, sites like Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Trulia and Movoto have carved out an advantage. SEO provides free consumer traffic to your website. Compass has joined this fleet of companies who are developing SEO on off-market properties. The biggest benefit is that when the listing comes on the market, you have already invested in SEO for that property. A big part of SEO success is being "above the fold." Meaning that your company's webpage for that property address can be clicked without scrolling. I did a handful of searches on properties in different areas around the country and found that "Compass.com" pages were as high as No. three on the list – above the fold! Their results seem to be better in markets where they operate, i.e., better in Silicon Valley than Niagara Falls. What's not on the page? Compass decided not to provide an AVM on the value of the property, but they do display the accessor data. WAV Group believes that this is a mistake. We would advise that they should show three AVMs and show the AVM range, rather than a specific number, and use this as an opportunity to generate a listing lead by creating a call-to-action to meet with an agent to understand the home value. Even Zillow shows a range on the Zestimate. What's on the page? Having an image is very important. Compass uses Google Street View. They highlight the bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, year built, lot size. They do a nice job of mentioning the county and linking to a county landing page where you can see the county boundary. They also add home facts and school information. Want help? WAV Group is working on multiple projects today to move brokers to a parcel-centric platform – meaning that their website and other consumer facing tools (including agent tools) adopt this foundation of records for every property. The reason why products like MLS-Touch from CoreLogic have reached over one million users in just a year is because agents and their clients want to see all of the property information. I would love to see MLSs get behind this and become a conduit for the data. These records should be on the same server as the MLS records. If they were combined, that would be even better. Compass has made great strides in pursuit of this strategy in a short period of time. There is plenty more that they can do on these pages. They can market their mortgage services, allow homeowners to register to monitor their home value and nearby homes for sale, cross market their mobile apps, and more. All of these features are on Redfin – our favorite site for off-market listings. We will keep an eye on future releases at Compass. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Redfin Publishes Wind Factor Data from First Street Foundation to Show Damage Potential for Homes
Redfin is now publishing wind risk data provided by First Street Foundation for nearly every for-sale U.S. property listed on Redfin.com. "Redfin strives for relentless transparency around climate risks for folks on their home-searching journey," said Redfin Vice President of Product Ariel Dos Santos. "As climate disasters such as hurricanes become more severe and frequent, it's critical that we show homebuyers how effects like wind damage may impact their home." First Street Foundation's Wind Factor is a property-level risk model that estimates the likelihood of wind damage based on current and projected wind exposure from hurricanes. Wind Factor also takes into account how wind exposure may shift in the next 30 years, which is the typical timespan for a mortgage. "Wind Factor's uniqueness is that it's hyper-local and specific to wind damage rather than broader climate threats such as storms," said First Street Foundation CEO Matthew Eby. "Through Redfin, every person searching for a home will now have access to the most granular climate-risk data available, empowering them with the tools they need to make educated decisions on where to live." Nearly half (49%) of U.S. residents who moved in the last year believe the increasing frequency or intensity of natural disasters, extreme temperatures, and/or rising sea levels will likely impact home values in their area in the next 10 years, according to a Redfin-commissioned survey conducted by Qualtrics in May and June 2023. Still, only about 5% of respondents who moved in the last year or plan to move in the next year listed climate change as a reason for their relocation. In fact, a recent Redfin study showed that counties more vulnerable to flooding, wildfires and heat have seen more people move in than out from 2021-2022. That's partly due to the housing affordability crisis, which has increased migration into less expensive but more climate-risky areas. There's good reason to believe that transparency around climate risks has the potential to impact which homes people choose to live in. Redfin found last year that homebuyers who have access to flood-risk information when browsing home listings online are more likely to view and make offers on homes with lower flood risk than those who don't have access. This wind risk data will be available on the Redfin app later this year. Redfin also features First Street Foundation climate risk data at the property-level for wildfire, flood and extreme heat.

Howard Hanna Opts Out of IDX and Tests VOW
Howard Hanna is the largest privately held real estate company in America, closing 113,853 transactions in 2022 – resulting in more than $36 billion in closed sale volume – ranking the firm No. 5 in the nation among all brokerages. HowardHanna.com is also among the most visited websites among all brokerages in America. Also, in the 13-state footprint of the firm, they experience consumer visits that compete head-to-head with many of the top national portals, often exceeding Redfin, Homes.com, and others in core markets. In northern Ohio, the firm has opted out of the IDX program in MLS Now. When consumers search the site HowardHanna.com in those markets on their broker website, they only see Howard Hanna listings unless they are logged in and assigned to a Howard Hanna agent. Users that are logged in see all MLS listings. That is how a VOW website works. VOW pumps up registrations and highlights company listings As you might imagine, consumers do not really understand IDX vs. VOW websites. Howard Hanna has turned this into a lead generation tool. I did a search for Rocky River, Ohio as an unregistered user and the following interstitial appears: "...Our company has 63 listings that match your search criteria out of 105 listings on the market. To view more, click here." Clicking takes the consumer to a registration page. In deploying a VOW, Howard Hanna is also promoting their listings in the market front-and-center. Many visitors to broker websites are drawn there from a yard sign or the firm's reputation. Placing their inventory first makes a lot of sense, especially when you have more than 60% of the listings in a community. For visitors looking for a Howard Hanna listing, they are more easily accessed without sorting through hundreds of listings of other firms. For buyers who want to see all homes that match their search criteria, they create an account. Howard Hanna agent websites were also converted to VOW. They operate just like HowardHanna.com, displaying company listings to unregistered users and all MLS listings to VOW consumers. Howard Hanna continues to advertise listings on Zillow.com One element of the Howard Hanna strategy is the company's commitment to advertising listings on Zillow.com. Although Zillow is a participating broker of MLS Now, the company is also an advertising platform for real estate listings. Howard Hanna maintains an advertising relationship with Zillow, local newspapers, real estate magazines, and other popular real estate advertising firms to widely market listings for sale. Worth noting, Redfin.com is also a VOW real estate website. When Redfin refreshed their feed from MLS Now, the Howard Hanna listings were not displayed unless users register to the website. Howard Hanna listings are in the MLS This should almost go without saying, but Howard Hanna listings are in MLS Now. All agents working with homebuyers can use the CoreLogic OneHome client portal and set up listing alerts. None of the MLS tools or services for agents have been impacted by the selection not to participate in IDX. If you search a Howard Hanna listing by property address, it is interesting to note how many websites are out of compliance with the refresh rules of the MLS. There are numerous sites that have not taken down the listings to unregistered users. I doubt that this is intentional, but merely a result of poor IDX data handling systems. What should other brokers and agents do? All brokers and agents in the market have the option to upgrade their website to a VOW website. Today, HowardHanna.com has a competitive advantage. Given that Howard Hanna is the leading firm in the market, consumers will quickly realize that they are not seeing all the listings from IDX only sites. They are more likely to start using HowardHanna.com. It is important that agents set up searches for their clients in the MLS to view all listings. Brokers should also look into converting their websites to a VOW site. Want to learn more about VOW? WAV Group wrote a series of articles about VOW websites: What Is a VOW and How Can It Help You Grow Your Business? How to Use Your VOW Website for New Customer Acquisition How to Use Your VOW Website to Communicate with Buyers Sell Homes Quickly with a VOW Website How to Use Your VOW Website to Retain Clients for Life In closing, it is exciting to see innovative brokers like Howard Hanna testing strategies to drive more opportunities to their real estate agents. Here are a few other link examples to tests and innovations that we have covered by Howard Hanna: Howard Hanna Syndication Announcement 'Coming Soon' Programs from Compass and Howard Hanna: Find Out How HH Sold 55 Homes in One Month with Find It First Hanna Financial Driving Real Estate Transactions with Buy Before You Sell Program In review of our posts mentioning Howard Hanna, we actually foreshadowed this strategy back in 2012. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

The Broker Public Portal Appoints New Chairman and Welcomes 3 Additional Board Members
The Broker Public Portal (BPP), a collaborative venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs to create a national consumer home search experience that connects home searchers directly with the listing agent, announced the appointment of a new Chairman and several distinguished individuals to its board of directors. This strategic move marks a pivotal moment in the company's journey towards continued innovation and expansion. Under the guidance of the newly appointed Chairman, Dana Strandmo, who is also Chief Administrative Officer of HomeServices of America, the BPP is poised to further strengthen its position and drive groundbreaking initiatives. Strandmo is a seasoned industry veteran who is also known for his previous role as general counsel providing legal advice and guidance to HomeServices from its inception. With an impressive track record of successful leadership and a deep understanding of legal real estate dynamics, Chairman Strandmo brings invaluable expertise to the company. "I am honored to accept the position as the new Chairman of the Broker Public Portal and work alongside such accomplished brokerage professionals and MLS executives on the board," said Dana Strandmo. "Together, we will harness the collective knowledge and experience to drive innovation, push boundaries and lead the BPP to new heights of success." Joining the board are the following accomplished professionals (in alphabetical order), each recognized for their exceptional achievements and unique perspectives: AnneMarie DeCatsye, CEO of Canopy Realtor® Association and Canopy MLS: Named in the Swanepoel Power 200 report since 2018 as one of the most powerful people in real estate, she serves on the MLS Roundtable, Realtor.com MLS Advisory Board, and is the corporate secretary for the MLS Grid. Charlie F. Hunt, President of HUNT Real Estate: Hunt is involved in the local and state real estate community, serving on the New York State Multiple Listing Service Board of Directors, as a Director and Secretary for the Upstate New York Real Estate Information Service, Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors, Greater Rochester Association of Realtors and Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors. Dave Wetzel, President and Chief Executive Officer of MLSListings: Prior to his current role, Wetzel made his mark as a Silicon Valley software and technology executive, with companies such as IBM, Siemens, and Cisco Systems, in positions spanning product management, marketing, software architecture, and software development. He is also designated CMLX3 (Certified Multiple Listings Expert), which is the most comprehensive MLS industry leadership program. "We are thrilled to welcome AnneMarie, Charlie and Dave, as well as our new Chairman Dana," said Rebecca Jensen, freshly appointed Vice Chair of Broker Public Portal. "We collaborate with a dedicated team composed of seasoned leaders representing the nation's finest brokerages and MLSs, who are committed to helping real estate professionals serve consumers on their quest to achieve homeownership." Their collective expertise across various domains will serve as a catalyst for transformative growth and empower the BPP to embrace emerging technologies and seize new opportunities in the landscape of this dynamic collaboration of brokerage and MLSs. "Each industry expert that the BPP is composed of will lean on their technology expertise and leadership skills to continue to execute on its mission — to deliver a consumer experience provided by people who sell homes not ads," said Chairman Strandmo. For a full list of the board members, visit the BPP Leadership page.

NextHome Forms Strategic Relationship with Realtor.com
NextHome is teaming up with Realtor.com to showcase the platform's discoverability, reach, and connection-building solutions to more than 5,500 NextHome agents in 610 offices across 48 states. The new relationship was announced at NextHome's annual conference in Houston where NextHome's Chief Executive Officer James Dwiggins was joined by members of the Realtor.com® executive team, Go To Market & Revenue Enablement Vice President Mark Graham and Chief Revenue Officer Bryan Ellis. "Our NextHome membership will continue to take the challenging marketplace head-on, especially with access to the Realtor.com toolbox of for-purchase lead solutions through our relationship," said James. "Their ReadyConnect Concierge, Connections Plus, Local Expert, and Enhanced Listing Intelligence solutions will help our agents capture valued business opportunities." ReadyConnect Concierge, formerly Opcity, gives users access to live-transferred and pre-screened real estate leads with no upfront costs. Their advanced algorithm sends an alert via SMS or app push notification to agents who might be a good match to work with that client. Agents compete for the lead and the first agent to claim the lead alert will receive a phone call from a Realtor.com Consumer Success Rep and be live-transferred to speak to the client. Connections Plus is a powerful all-in-one real estate lead generation and conversion system to connect agents with serious buyers, designed to help agents capture, convert, and close more leads. Local Expert is a turnkey digital marketing solution that gives consistent, highly targeted, and measurable brand exposure to local consumers with customized and branded real estate ads aimed at active buyers and sellers on Realtor.com, Facebook, and Instagram. Enhanced Listing Intelligence from Realtor.com put predictive insights from listings at agents' fingertips, making it easier for agents to demonstrate their value and knowledge of local market conditions, amplify their marketing tactics for their clients, and close deals. "Working with NextHome is a natural fit with our mission to be a trusted partner to brokers and agents everywhere and help them reach, connect, and engage with consumers who need their expertise and service," said Mark Graham, Realtor.com vice president, Go To Market & Revenue Enablement. "We are investing heavily in new features and solutions, and we see a great opportunity to collaborate with NextHome as we bring those to market and help their agents grow their business with buyers and sellers here at Realtor.com."

News Corp to Power Up Realtor Website
Pretty exciting news from News Corp CEO last week about powering up Realtor.com. In his remarks at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, Robert Thomson shared his vision to leverage their other media assets to improve the performance of the site. If you harken back to the web 1.0 days – or even into the early stages of web 2.0 – the top way that real estate websites gained traffic was to partner with portals that had more traffic. Everyone was partnering with sites like Yahoo and embedding search into newspaper websites to take over the real estate section of those sites. Guess what – that is still a pretty damn strong strategy. Real estate is a hot topic today. It always has been. The real estate areas of News Corp sites like The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and the New York Post are among the top consumer websites on the planet. Moreover, they are highly regarded and trusted by their paying readers. These assets owned by News Corp provide the company with a strategic advantage that Zillow and CoStar do not have. When CoStar talks about investing millions to drive traffic to Homes.com, it means that they need to buy it from companies like News Corp. The same is true of Zillow. Obviously, News Corp has bundles of remnant ad space to drive traffic to Realtor.com. Honestly, I have always wondered why News Corp has not already deployed this strategy heavily. I always suspected that the other News Corp divisions did not want to give up that valuable space without being compensated. After all, the leaders of each company are responsible for selling every inch of ad space – even to internal companies. Nobody is sure how Mr. Thomson plans to work out this program to buoy Realtor.com – but I can assure you that their customers will appreciate it when the consumer traffic spigot gets turned on to push more and more consumer leads. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Redfin Launches Favorites Lists to Help Buyers Organize Their Home Search
Home searchers now have an easier way to keep track of their favorite homes on Redfin. The technology-powered real estate company has launched Favorites Lists, a new tool that allows Redfin's app and website users to organize their favorite homes into custom lists and share them with their home search partner. The new tool builds upon Favorites, one of Redfin's most-loved features. About 7 in 10 Redfin app users have chosen at least one favorite home, and nearly 40% have compiled a list of more than 30 homes. With Favorites Lists, home searchers can bring some much-needed organization to their search and group their favorites in any way they like—whether that's rental apartments in the city or homes with amazing kitchens. "It's common for buyers to search for homes in different neighborhoods, or to consider renting in a new place before they decide if they want to buy there," said Redfin Phoenix agent Kelly Khalil. "Everyone's journey is different, so having the ability to organize your favorite homes according to your own goals or preferences makes the process easier. And since most people search for homes with a loved one, it just makes sense that you can seamlessly share those lists with a search partner." Renters can also organize their search with Favorites Lists and share homes with a roommate or partner. For those deciding between buying or renting, the feature makes it easy to collect candidates and decide how to move forward. "We're excited about this feature because it works for anyone who uses Redfin to search for a home," said Ariel Dos Santos, Redfin's vice president of product. "It's just as useful for a renter keeping track of apartments in different neighborhoods as it is for someone looking to buy their first home or an interior designer browsing the latest home trends. Our goal was to give users the flexibility they need to stay organized and to encourage people to have fun with it." How It Works When someone logs into their Redfin account and favorites a home, the feature prompts them to create a list for the home or add it to an existing list. House-hunters can create up to 100 lists and may edit or delete any list they have created, making the experience fully customizable. People who are searching for a home or an apartment with someone else can designate a Redfin search partner, which instantly shares their lists and invites the search partner to collaborate through list edits and comments on favorited homes. The feature is now available for all for-sale, off-market and rental homes on Redfin.com and the iOS app, and will be available on Android later this year.

The Broker Public Portal Welcomes Its Two Newest Board Members
The BPP has excellent governance that welcomes brokers and MLSs to serve three-year terms, rotating one-third of the board each year. Today, the BPP's board of managers is evaluating technology offerings and selecting a replacement for the JV with Homesnap. Both Barbaro and Long are technology-driven brokerage leaders who contribute tremendous experience in real estate technology to the board. Please see below for the full press release: The Broker Public Portal Welcomes Two New Board Members SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif – December 7, 2022 – The Broker Public Portal (BPP), a collaborative venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs to create a national consumer home search experience that connects home searchers directly with the agent, today announced the appointment of two new board members, Michael Barbaro, CEO of Redwith Inc. and RJ Long, managing partner of Coldwell Banker Real Properties Group. "We are thrilled to welcome Michael and RJ to our Board of Managers," said Alon Chaver, Chairman of the Board. "Our dedicated team is composed of seasoned leaders representing the nation's finest brokerages and MLSs, who are committed to helping real estate professionals serve consumers on their quest to achieve homeownership," added Chairman Chaver. "As the BPP continues to execute on our mission – to deliver a consumer experience provided by people who sell homes not ads – RJ's and Michael's technology expertise and leadership skills will be indispensable." Michael Barbaro is founder and CEO of Redwith Inc. and its subsidiary companies, including Redwith Real Estate, a technology-driven, impact-focused real estate brokerage and Redwith Technologies, a B2B & B2C (SaaS) software development company with a primary concentration in the ReTech and FinTech verticals. Barbaro also remains at the helm and CEO of his flagship firm, the philanthropically inspired Huntsman, Meade & Partners Compass Realty Corporation, a residential and commercial real estate brokerage which he founded in 2008 and Omni Consulting, a strategic consulting firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, crisis mitigation and litigation consulting launched in 1999. In addition to his personally held corporate entities, Barbaro is president of SmartMLS – a nationally ranked, top-20 statewide multiple listing service in Connecticut with nearly 22,000 subscribers.   RJ Long is the Managing Partner of Real Properties Group and its Coldwell Banker franchises, including CB Prime Properties; collectively, the 7th largest Coldwell Banker franchise in the US by units. RJ is a strong advocate for quality and providing value in the real estate industry. Over the years, he has held several NYS leadership positions, as well as serving on several industry Board of Directors in various capacities. In addition, his experience has included investment sales, government consultation, asset management, commercial real estate development and he is currently serving on the Executive Committee of the Make-A-Wish NENY Board of Trustees, helping to spearhead its mission of creating life-changing wishes for children battling critical illnesses.   RJ Long The nominating committee of the Broker Public Portal is led by Lyon Real Estate CEO, Pat Shea. "The term for the board of the BPP is three years and they are staggered to blend new thinking with historical perspective," says Shea. "We do have a few more broker positions available. Both Long and Barbaro join the board at a critical juncture as we review proposals to replace the Homesnap partnership that terminated on November 1st, 2022," says Shea. Both new board members have served on MLS boards and each offers deep technical SaaS experience. For a full list of the board members, visit the BPP Leadership page. About Broker Public Portal Broker Public Portal (BPP) is owned and operated by real estate brokerages and MLSs to deliver a better home search experience, with the same comprehensive, real-time MLS data used by real estate professionals – the people who list and sell homes, not ads. The BPP mission is guided by delivering a national home search platform powered by real-time MLS data and following Fair Display Guidelines. Broker Public Portal, LLC was founded in 2014 and operated under the Homesnap brand through our joint venture from January 2017 to October 2022. Broker Public Portal serves more than 120+ MLSs representing 850,000 real estate agents and brokers. Learn more at BrokerPublicPortal.com. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Facebook Death by Advertising and the Broker Public Portal
It comes as no surprise that youngsters in their late teens and early twenties are not into Facebook. The site, which launched under the brand Facemash in 2003, became available to the public in 2006 and reached 100,000 pages in late 2007. The site welcomed my profile in 2008. Even then, I believe that I was an early adopter. In those early days, there were a few dozen of us visiting the site every day to chat. Then the site changed. The Broker Public Portal must avoid the same fate. In February 2011, Facebook killed itself by making the decision to replace the chronological post feed with its patented News Feed. I could not visit the site anymore to reliably catch up on the people that I cared about. Instead, Facebook showed me the posts that their machines believed are most important to me, hiding the posts of many of my friends and blasting my visit with advertising. It was like they filtered my email with little or no input from me. In July, Facebook restored the chronological news feed, but it requires a lot of user configuration. I am not planning to go back. Admittedly, my Facebook activity has gone way down. Rather than checking the site multiple times a day, I most likely check it a few times a week. By backing away from visiting the site, I gained the perspective that it is no longer a social media site for connecting with people. It is an advertising site that lets in just enough social posts to barely hold my attention. I think that consumers are also migrating from advertising property search sites to ad-free sites. By now, you likely know that the Broker Public Portal and Homesnap have dissolved their joint venture. After October 31st, the agreement between the two companies will end. I have the feeling that the guidance of CoStar, the company that also acquired Homes.com, is going to destroy the Homesnap product with advertising. It will be a real shame if they do. As the Broker Public Portal reimagines its next iteration of a national MLS consumer property search site, I am overjoyed with the board's commitment to being ad-free. In a recent meeting with a real estate search site developer, they pointed to Redfin's popularity by applauding the user experience as the driving force. Sure, Redfin.com does offer a pretty good search experience, but it is not much different than most other brokerage websites. Being parcel-centric and national are clear differentiators. I believe that the most differentiating feature of Redfin — versus other sites like realtor.com, Homes.com, and Zillow.com — is that it has more to do with the preference of an ad-free search experience. Much in the way that social media sites should hold true to always displaying the posts of the people I follow and care about, the Broker Public Portal will display every listing. Moreover, the new broker portal website will hold true to keeping advertising out of the search experience. The guiding principle of the Broker Public Portal is that home search should be delivered by real estate professionals, not advertisers. At this point, over 15 exceptional companies have committed to propose partnership opportunities to launch the new Broker Public Portal – which will replace Homesnap. It is exciting to see so many companies with outstanding technical skills going all-in to support the partnership with brokers and MLSs across the industry. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Redfin Launches Down Payment Assistance Feature in Partnership with Down Payment Resource
Redfin has added down payment assistance information to home listings on its website. Potential homebuyers can now use Redfin to discover down payment assistance programs they may qualify for in order to help make homeownership more affordable. The feature is powered by a partnership with Down Payment Resource, a company helping the housing industry connect homebuyers with more than 2,200 homebuyer assistance programs nationwide. Each eligible for-sale listing page on Redfin in the U.S. now displays the number of down payment assistance programs available in that area. Interested homebuyers can input basic information and immediately receive a tailored list of programs they may qualify for, the amount of assistance potentially available to them, and links to the program pages for more information. "Nearly half of Americans who have never owned a home say that saving money for a down payment is a barrier to homeownership, and many young people in particular feel like they'll never be able to own a home," said Christian Taubman, Redfin's chief growth officer. "Down payment assistance programs can make homeownership more attainable, but information about them is often fragmented and hard to understand. We saw a big opportunity in partnering with Down Payment Resource to raise awareness about these programs to help more people become homeowners." This information is especially valuable as the national median home price has soared roughly 40% since the pandemic, making saving for a down payment more challenging. Recent Redfin research found that the typical U.S. homebuyer who took out a mortgage in July made a $62,500 down payment, nearly double the median down payment in July 2019, before the pandemic started. "Our research shows that one in three declined mortgage applications are denied for reasons that could be addressed with homebuyer assistance, which underscores the critical need to increase awareness about these life-changing programs," said Rob Chrane, CEO and founder of Down Payment Resource. "Partnering with Redfin is a great way to get information about financial support into more consumers' hands. With thousands of assistance programs available across the country, many Americans may be able to afford homeownership sooner than they realized." This launch is part of Redfin's broader mission to remove barriers to homeownership and make finding a home clear and achievable. Other efforts include: Ongoing donations to nonprofit community partners through Redfin Rise, the company's philanthropic initiative. This year, Redfin Rise donations have provided housing counseling sessions for 660 families through Clarifi, supported the development of 12 permanently affordable homes through Homestead Community Land Trust, provided $135,000 in closing grants to 45 homebuyers through NHS Chicago, and helped build 226 homes in El Salvador and Mexico with New Story. Maintaining free homebuyer resources, including first-time homebuyer guides in both English and Spanish and homebuying classes taught by expert Redfin agents. Publishing extensive housing market research about affordability and equality issues.

Zillow Adds New Feature to Their Brokerage Website
Even after making the conversion from a third party portal to a brokerage website, Zillow continues to innovate on features that the consumer enjoys. In a recent press release, Zillow announced that consumers will be able to remove listings from their search results that they are not interested in. If you have searched for property recently, you know that getting email notifications on listings that you are not interested in is spammy. Of course, this feature is only available to registered users on the website. This creates another lead generation opportunity for Zillow that will allow them to generate more consumer engagement and boost referral revenue. As a broker, you may want to take a look at this feature and have a discussion with your website developer about including this popular search filter for your clients. Here is the entire press release: A top-requested new Zillow feature lets shoppers hide homes they've ruled out SEATTLE, Sept. 6, 2022 -- Zillow® today announced a new search feature that lets shoppers hide homes they're not interested in, thereby decluttering their screens and saving them time and energy as they search for their dream home. Simply press the "hide home" icon and the listing won’t appear in future search results. Though starting to increase at a moderate rate, the number of homes for sale in the United States is still near record lows, which means finding the perfect house can take some time. Buyers recently surveyed by Zillow say it takes between two and three months to find a home. "Home shopping can be stressful and time-consuming, and this new feature helps buyers reduce the noise and distraction so they can focus on the homes that inspire them," said Jenny Arden, Zillow's chief design officer. "This upgrade was one of the most requested features by our customers, and it gives them a great way to remove the homes from their search results that fit their filter criteria but don't necessarily match their needs or tastes." How it works Now available on the Zillow app, the "hide homes" tool makes the shopping experience faster, simpler and easier by allowing users to press a button on the home listing page that prevents the home from showing up in future search results. Users can also bring back a property if they change their mind. This tool was designed to cut down on search time and will soon improve overall personalization for home shoppers. Eventually, when someone hides a property, it will automatically be removed for that user on all touch points, including home recommendation alerts and emails. "Clicking on homes they've previously viewed but decided against and may have forgotten about during the long search process makes the house hunt process longer and more frustrating," Arden said. "This tool allows our millions of Zillow surfers the ability to 'X out' homes that they know they are not interested in touring or purchasing." The "hide homes" tool is another of a host of newly developed features and tools on the app and website, which also include multi-location search and Homes to Compare, to help shoppers move faster and more confidently during their search and zero in on homes that fit their needs. About Zillow Group Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate to make it easier to unlock life's next chapter. As the most visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates offer customers an on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting or financing with transparency and ease. Zillow Group's affiliates and subsidiaries include Zillow®, Zillow Offers®, Zillow Premier Agent®, Zillow Home Loans™, Zillow Closing Services™, Zillow Homes, Inc., Trulia®, Out East®, ShowingTime®, Bridge Interactive®, dotloop®, StreetEasy® and HotPads®. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS #10287 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).

Zillow Earnings Call: The Super App and Commission Revenue
As you may know, WAV Group works in literally every part of the residential real estate industry. So it makes sense that at least one of us listens to the Zillow earnings call every quarter. (Click here to read our article on Zillow's Q4 2021 earnings.) The theme for the call was fairly simple, Zillow's Super App. Zillow proceeded to talk about all of the investments, development, and "awesomeness" that their Super App is going to be. It sounds like it will not be much more than a few enhancements that give home shoppers some nice features – 3-D tours (like Matterport), financing options (grow Zillow Mortgage), and adding services like ShowingTime. I have always been amazed that they have not done a Dotloop integration. As you know, these earnings calls are scripted and lawyered to the point of saying very little. The good stuff comes from the Q&A. Six callers were allowed to ask questions at the end of the call; five of the callers asked questions related to Zillow's Flex program. If you didn't know, Zillow has become a broker and plans to be compensated similarly to Redfin's referral program. Rather than pay for advertising, agents share a third of their commission. Given the litigation about buyer agent fees, I wonder if the courts will begin to look at the failure to disclose these commissions paid out to referral brokers. Surely the buyer did not get a chance to negotiate these fees and probably did not even know about them. To listen to the recording of the earnings call, click here. If you would like to learn more about Zillow's Flex program, click here. Let's Talk About It During their call, Zillow shared that a quarter of homebuyers in 2021 were connected to their agent through Zillow. As Flex is rolled out, this is going to have a significant impact to agent commissions. Brokers and MLSs need to work hard to keep up in order to continue to have relevance to agents and the consumers we all serve. It takes some creativity, strategy development, and clear execution. We can help. Call us. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Zillow Launches Homeownership Strategy
The great thing about Zillow being a public company is that they confess their strategy to their investors. In their Q4 earnings reports, Zillow laid out an impressive and visionary strategy that makes total sense for consumers and creates an enormous challenge to real estate brokers who are not taking the full cycle of homeownership seriously. Zillow calls this strategy the "housing super app." To me, it looks like an exact copy of the strategy being deployed by Milestones.ai. The rental lifecycle of housing has been synthesized by Ishay Grinsberg. We all go through this cycle when we gain housing independence from our guardians. Our first housing cycle is move-rent-rental maintenance–move–rental maintenance–move. That is a cycle that is being addressed by the rental MLS company, Rental Beast – and thankfully it is being adopted widely by traditional MLSs. Zillow did not really talk about their rental strategy in the earnings report, but they are deep into rentals because that is where the consumer relationship with housing begins. The economics of move is being dominated by Updater, who has gained massive penetration into rental movers. This includes setting up mail, internet, utilities, garbage, etc. Nobody has really dominated rental maintenance – which is mostly renters' insurance. Landlords do the rest of the maintenance. All of this changes when the consumer shifts from rental to purchase. This is where Realtors come into the picture, along with the MLS. With few exceptions like the Houston Association of REALTORS®, or those who have deployed Rental Beast, our nation's MLSs have not put enough energy into developing a community for people who rent. Agents don't make much money on rentals and the data management for homes for rent is very different. It's easy not to bother with this, however very short-sighted. Rentals is where homeownership starts. Once a consumer gets into the first time home buying mode, they go directly to Zillow today. Now that Zillow is a broker, they are well on their way to being the most trusted source of information and property options. Today, Zillow is passing off those customers through referrals to Premier Agents. I wonder how long that will be true. They can become a lookalike broker to EXP overnight and probably blow that company's impressive growth out of the water. We will see if that happens. What is happening now is the focus on the "housing super app." Not much has been said about the features of that app, but I imagine that they are going after the same goal as Milestones.ai. Dustin Gray and the team at Milestones view homeownership in four cycles – which is a slightly different cycle from rentals: Buy-move-homeownership-sell. If Zillow nails this before the real estate industry, which I fear they might, they will absolutely blow away their forecast of $5 billion in annual revenue and 45% margins on EBITDA by the end of 2025. Buying a home is not really broken today. Property search is available everywhere. Showing services are available everywhere. Contract management is available everywhere. However, where it breaks is in the closing. There is awful integration between title, mortgage, and insurance during the buying process. Many brokerages have developed ancillary companies to provide a "full service" experience. But none of them have combined those services into a seamless and integrated experience the way that Milestones has imagined it. With Milestones, the consumer goes right from the search experience into the closing experience in the same homeownership portal. It's one place where the broker, agent, and ancillary service providers collaborate to help the consumer. The next step is move. Right within Milestones, the consumer can manage their entire move. They can do as much or as little as they like – from full service to do it yourself. The important step here is the consumer experience. Most real estate companies hand the customer a vendor list (on paper), or may offer the free use of the broker's moving van. These are weak and disjointed value propositions to the consumer. They want to click a box and have the items they choose completed efficiently and for a competitive price. Once a consumer moves, the broker, agent, title, loan officer, fall away. Often never to be heard from again. The consumer's trusted advisors leave the relationship entirely, or they pass off the consumer to some form of pre-formatted vanilla drip solution with an occasional phone call asking for referrals. Here again, Milestones solves this issue with homeownership hubs. Of course, the purchase contracts, loan docs, and other material transaction documentation is stored here. The homeownership portal also reminds the consumer to change HVAC filters, drain water heaters, find and maintain service providers for repairs. Milestones stitches together the many other services that are siloed and disjointed today, right down to the paint chip selected five years ago during the bedroom remodel. More importantly, Milestones acts as a financial center for homeowners. It provides multiple AVMs for home value. Monitors the debt-to-equity ratio in the home. Meters interest rates to suggest refinance opportunities. Feeds information about other neighborhood listings and sales. The best part is that the service providers are all seated in the proper handrail of Milestones. As the consumer is living in the homeownership part of the cycle, professionals are always on hand to answer questions or offer help. They never left. In the next phase of the cycle before it all starts again, the agent can relist the home, the loan officer can prequalify them to buy their next home, moving checklists and estimates are created, and the homebuyer journey begins again. If Zillow beats the industry to this, it will be a profound success. Once again, it is up to the industry to have vision and execute on that vision ahead of Zillow. This is a huge opportunity for Zillow or any brokerage group today. Someone will win homeownership. WAV Group is the leading research firm focused on Data as an Asset and Customer for Life. We are also personal investors in Milestones and Zillow. Our founders have also made investments in many other companies like MooveGuru and Buyside that have pieces of homeownership software solutions. We have no doubt about the future of homeownership hubs. They are coming. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Zillow Does It Again: This Time They're After Your Rental Income
This month, Zillow announced that your MLS rental listings would no longer be syndicated directly to Zillow. Instead, if listing agents, teams, or brokerages elect to publish their rentals on Zillow, they will have to pay $9.99 per week, per listing. With this policy change, Zillow forces every agent, team, landlord, rental specialist, brokerage, and MLS to create an account with Zillow Rental Manager and pay this hefty fee to appear on Zillow. At Rental Beast, we ran the numbers. The potential economic impact on real estate is massive: potentially tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. By the numbers Large MLSs may have as many as 10,000 listings each month or more. If you take 12,500 rental listings and multiply it by an average cost of $9.95 per week for 4.5 weeks (the typical amount of time it takes to rent out a listing), the expense for a single large MLS would be over $6.7 million annually. Even a smaller MLS with 200 monthly rental listings would be looking at an unbudgeted annual expense that tops as much as $107,000. A large brokerage with just under 1,000 monthly rental listings would have to find more than $500,000 annually to pay Zillow. Considering the low margins most brokerages struggle with to remain viable, one has to wonder: Is Zillow trying to get blood from a turnip? The typical agent, only working their sphere of influence, will generate a couple of rental listings per month. To put their rental business on Zillow will now set them back over $1,000 a year. The Rental Beast alternative With more than 113 million renters today, listing agents and landlords need a better choice. Rental Beast provides a great alternative to individual agents and landlords. Most importantly, Rental Beast, which has nearly 9 million rental listings, offers seamless integration with MLSs. In addition to cost savings, the Rental Beast all-in-one solution provides a powerful suite of tools not offered by Zillow or similar listing platforms, including enhanced agent search detailing agent commissions, rental concessions, co-operation, financial requirements, and more. Rental Beast also captures the landlord renter's insurance requirements, then pairs the information with preferred rates from Liberty Mutual. Our advanced AVM is another significant competitive advantage because it encompasses 50+ data points culled from nearly 9 million rigorously maintained rental listings on Rental Beast. We also deliver extensive education and training through Rental Beast University. We've seen this before from Zillow On January 12th, many agents were astonished to see an email from Zillow with the subject line, "Your rental listings are no longer on Zillow." But if you look at Zillow’s track record, this move should not be surprising. When Zillow bought New York City's rental listing site StreetEasy in 2017, Zillow began charging $3 per listing per day, or $21 per week. About a year later, Zillow increased its daily listing fee by 50 percent to $31.50. The next year, in 2019, Zillow increased its daily listing fee on StreetEasy by another 33 percent to $42 per week. Over two years, Zillow doubled its listing fees for rentals on StreetEasy. Will anyone be surprised if Zillow raises its $9.99 per rental listing per week a year or two from now? Talk to agents who use Rental Beast Agents are finding better ways to promote their rental listings, like Sandra McKimmey with Better Homes and Gardens Winans Real Estate in Dallas, Texas. She markets her rental listings on Facebook Marketplace through Rental Beast. While she has only used Rental Beast for a few months, it has already paid off, as she earned $1,400 in commissions for rental listings she said only took "a couple of hours to close." Ronald Nordgren, a leasing consultant with Infiniti Properties in Homewood, Illinois, tells other agents they do not need Zillow if they use Rental Beast. He closed 95 leases using Rental Beast last year and was the number one agent for rentals out of more than 200 agents in his office. For J.R. Alexandre, an Ethanmour Realty agent serving Boynton Beach, Florida, Rental Beast was a "game-changer." Alexandre found using the Rental Beast digital platform was a time-saver, explaining, "I don't spin my wheels doing paperwork." Rentals on the MLS is the future Agent experiences like these are happening with thousands of others. Our agent reach is growing exponentially as more MLSs partner with Rental Beast. Because many renters will become homeowners, Rental Beast delivers future business to agents in partnership with MLSs. Finally, as the leading source of rental listings on Facebook Marketplace, we delivered more than 263,000 potential leads to real estate agents and landlords in 2019. Facebook notes that Rental Beast "provided 54 percent more leads per listing generated than other online listing services." Rental Beast is, today more than ever, the rental solution for agents, teams, landlords, rental specialists, brokerages, and MLSs. Learn more about who we are and what we do at rentalbeast.com. Ishay Grinberg [pronounced ee-shy] is the Founder and CEO of Rental Beast, the largest rental listing data provider with nearly nine million rentals nationwide. Sourced directly from property owners and updated in real-time, the Rental Beast database, directly and in partnership with local Multiple Listing Services, provides real estate professionals with an unparalleled view of all properties and owner types.

Homes.nyc Aims to Disrupt New York City Real Estate
For 20 years, I have been looking for the one real estate website that could deliver content and data without feeling like someone was putting their hand in my pocket, trying to steal my clients, tolerating inaccurate data and fostering the notion that a website is far more valuable than any service I, as real estate agent, could provide. Eureka! I have found that site: It's Homes.nyc, and it quietly launched about a week ago in New York. It has the potential to the successor to the big industry players like Streeteasy.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Realtor.com.

Top Real Estate Teams Ditch the Big Portals for Their Own Branded Google PPC and Social Media Lead Generation Campaigns
If real estate agents and brokers received a dollar for every lead generation sales pitch they hear, they could retire from real estate. While that might be a slight exaggeration, it illustrates a reality: the market is overrun with multi-billion-dollar companies trying to sell them leads. Those leads keep growing more expensive, or come with hefty referral fees, or are sold over and over again. Because they're generated from web traffic and consumers surf multiple sites, they're often delivered to multiple agents simultaneously. If you're not the fastest phone in town, you lose the deal. This combination of factors squeezes potential return on investment to all but nothing. The situation evokes a commonly heard question: "How come I'm the only one not making money in this scenario?"

The Land Broker Co-op Partners with RealX to Modernize Solar, Wind, and Mineral Property Rights Transactions
RealX, America's first and largest online property rights exchange, and The Land Broker Co-op (the "Co-op"), have agreed to provide a turnkey solution for transacting property rights for the Co-op's 16,000 land-focused real estate agents. Property rights include leasing land for solar, wind, oil and gas, timber, cellular towers, and more. "Our agent members are the best-of-the-best when it comes to providing land services to their clients. RealX provides our members with a transparent online exchange to help landowners generate income from their land by easily connecting them with the leading companies in energy (solar/wind/oil and gas), communications (cellular towers), building materials (timber), and many others," said David Light, CDO (Chief Development Officer) for the Co-op. "RealX has organized and modernized a highly-fragmented multi-billion-dollar marketplace," said Dan Murphy, President of the Co-op. "They are providing a vehicle for agents and their landowner clients to proactively market their properties directly to the buyers within each vertical, giving themselves the best opportunity to unlock additional income. No longer are landowners stuck waiting for a deal to come to them without professional assistance. Co-op agents and their clients will be the best positioned to lease their land for renewable energy as the boom continues." RealX is an independent national exchange that brings buyers and sellers together in a technology-driven marketplace that facilitates property rights transactions. "Our goal is to unlock the value of every property for both the landowner and the company leasing the property. Energy companies on the exchange can search, compare, and connect to landowners and their agents in just a few clicks – no more cold calls, postcards, or knocks on the door. We build trust, transparency and control into what was once a complicated and opaque process," said Luke Glass, CEO of RealX. RealX has experienced an average month-over-month user growth rate of 51% this year, achieved throughout the pandemic. In addition, the Co-op's website, landbrokermls.com has been the land industry's fastest growing land website since the Co-op was founded in 2018. Glass expects Co-op agents will register millions of acres across the U.S. in the RealX exchange, becoming the top agents in the country transacting property rights.

Zillow Poised to Massively Disrupt Real Estate and Investors May Demand It
Zillow Group has been investing in growth and building consumer trust since inception. The company has not focused on profits, but growing audience and revenue. A day of reckoning may be on the horizon and the real estate brokers, franchises, and agents may be watching in horror from the sidelines if the company pivots. In the early days, Zillow offered real estate brokers and franchises a fair exchange of value that give the company a massive jumpstart. As the incumbent, Realtor.com was charging agents and brokers for advertising; Zillow offered it for free. Firms providing listing content to Zillow got leads back from interested consumers. Those days are long gone. Zillow gets its revenue almost exclusively from their relationships with about 100,000 Premier agents, and now from the growth of their iBuyer program.

Broker Public Portal Reinvestment Fuels the All-New Homesnap Pro
Today, Homesnap released the most advanced generation of its home search platform. This massive update, called the "All-New Homesnap Pro," is fueled by an ongoing reinvestment from Broker Public Portal, the industry-led initiative powered by Homesnap's technology. Featuring a unique "Likelihood to List" score, Homesnap Pro takes a big leap forward by using predictive analytics and data science. For agents, using this bellwether tool could mean an end to "spray and pray" marketing: sending out thousands of mailers hoping to hit someone who might be ready to sell. Instead, with the new "Off-Market Marketplace" now built into Homesnap Pro, an advanced machine learning algorithm helps agents to cherry-pick those most likely to make a move. New deep, rich data is fully integrated with search – from public records to mortgage data – and that means agents won't ever have to worry about a consumer knowing more about a property than they do. The All-New Homesnap Pro boasts "over 500 data sources on a single platform — more than any other mobile solution in residential real estate." Agents, brokers, and MLSs asked, and Homesnap listened. The new release adds the availability of real-time MLS data integration that delivers saved searches, listing carts, and contact synchronization. Combined with search filters that can identify only those properties with specific parking needs or ones with a pool or basement, the All-New Homesnap is delivering on providing next-level search. There's a lot more packed into this latest release of the All-New Homesnap Pro. Another standout feature – Building Pages – help agents demonstrate that they are the hyperlocal expert. An agent can filter a search to show every unit in a condo complex, showing both listings and off-market units. Drilling down deeper, agents can see the history of every property: current and prior owners as well as past public listings. At its core, the technology that powers the Broker Pubic Portal still delivers its most essential and market-defining feature. Homesnap still connects agents with consumers to provide the most accurate, timely, and extensive information – directly from the MLS — to help buyers and sellers make the best decisions. Homesnap CEO John Mazur summed it up best: "With this latest generation of Homesnap Pro, we continue to give our users resources to better attract and serve their clients." Join this webinar to learn more about Homesnap pro's new features. Hear from Tom Hosack, President/CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, The Preferred Realty Northwood Realty Services and Bill Kauffman, the Director of Development for Homesnap, as they explore and explain the six core areas of Homesnap Pro to provide agents and customers have a better experience. Visit the registration page for more details! Here's the complete news release issued today from Homesnap. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Test, Iterate, Win Leads: How One Brokerage Perfected Their Lead Gen Program
What do you do when your brokerage's lead generation program is not where you want it to be? If you're like Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace, Realtors (CBWW), you don't get discouraged. Instead, you try something new, test it and tweak it until you hit your desired lead conversion goals. When CBWW's self-run lead generation program was getting low agent buy-in and few quality leads, the brokerage turned to realtor.com. They started with a pilot run in a handful of offices, and expanded company-wide as the leads rolled in. Agent buy-in and lead conversion rates have "gone up dramatically because of the quality of leads," says George C. Wallace, CBWW broker/owner. We spoke with George to find out how CBWW implemented and perfected their lead generation program with realtor.com. Read the interview below to find out how they not only increased the number and quality of leads coming in, but also how it's also helped them retain agents and even rescue the foundering careers of other agents. How did you hear about realtor.com's lead program? We were part of the peer group within the Coldwell Banker franchise with 20 other likeminded, similarly sized companies from across the country. We first heard the presentation at that meeting about 18 months ago. We first had a couple of managers try it at their offices as a pilot test case just to see how it would go, and how it worked, and so forth. Once we saw the results and began to investigate it more, we decided to launch it company-wide. How did you educate your agents—was there a learning curve? We decided to bring in realtor.com to do the training, and we started with about about 50 people who went through the orientation. We learned from our mistakes and made corrections, and more agents got involved. We're also offering additional training beyond what realtor.com does. We like the rules and the set-up and the training. I think it has led to increased conversion rates with these best practices, and we also created some of our own. So you have the leads pre-scrubbed by realtor.com. Where are the leads coming from? We weren't putting any in—they were just coming direct from realtor.com. Did you have leads coming to you prior to using this service? Yes, from several sources. We had it set up where we had our own internal department with ISAs who would chase leads, with that person calling and trying to make those contacts. We tried to scrub the leads ourselves and set them up on drip campaigns. But our conversion rate was not what we wanted it to be. Nor was buy-in from the agents where we wanted it to be. We tried a couple of different models; one of the models we tried was where we charged an agent a referral fee. They wouldn't have to pay anything upfront to belong, and we tried it that way for a while. Agents said, "Wow, we had to pay a lot of money." We just didn't get the buy-in having us administering this instead of realtor.com. As a third-party administering, there was more pushback. How did the changeover impact the buy-in and conversion? It has gone up dramatically because of the quality of leads. Customers are further along through the process with realtor.com capturing the lead compared to when we're doing it ourselves. It boosts morale and it has helped a lot of people. Those in the program are very positive about it and they're very exuberant about it and they're willing to tell their story. Does having success stories with the program help in your recruitment and retention efforts? Yes. They are saying, "I'm getting these leads. I'm converting these leads. I'm having fun with it." They're sharing that and it certainly has helped us recruit. It's helped us retain. In that regard, it's helped save some agents—there is no question. We have had agents that are resurrecting their career. Some weren't involved in lead generation programs and their business was sliding and they didn't have momentum going to win back customers or capture new business. We've been able to infuse this new opportunity to get them some leads. It's helped generate good outcomes each month and get their moxie back. They are building their sphere of influence and that helps generate some other business. I've heard this story several times and that's been a great added value. It gives them new life and new hope and new confidence, and they're like, "Wow, it's just fun business again." They're building their career or they're trying to build back their career, so it's quite a real, key role. It's a good way for them to brag on social media about how busy they are. Learn more about realtor.com's lead generation opportunities here.

Winning More Listings through Teamwork and Technology
"We're just not into selling," isn't something you expect to hear from a real estate team. But that's exactly what Gabriel Dusharme and Brian Voigt of The Voigt Advantage team have to say about their approach to business. Instead, the pair prefers to focus on caring for their clients and guiding them through the home buying and selling process. That care extends to the technology they use to get their clients' homes in front of as many buyers as possible. In this interview, Dusharme and Voigt share how they leverage technology to drive a positive client experience.

What Do You Really Know about Apartments.com?
The other day, we at RE Technology were talking about Apartments.com. As we frequently explore different companies and products to stay current in the market, we sometimes like to challenge our initial perception before further research: As of now, what do we think we know about Apartments.com? Our guess, of course: that Apartments.com just focuses on apartments. We could not have been more wrong. We learned they have many different rentals, not just apartments, and most importantly...RESIDENTIAL RENTALS (single family homes, condos, duplexes, townhomes, etc...) which is the reason they are attending all the top industry conferences.   What is ever more amazing is that there is NO cost for an agent, broker or an MLS to display their listings on the Apartments.com Network. Most importantly, this is “Your Listing, Your Lead” where there is no advertising from competing agents on a single listing. The Apartments.com Network is positioned in the industry as a lucrative lead source for agents to incorporate rentals into their business.  Renters become buyers! We were absolutely amazed that you could find homes, townhouses and condos using the Apartments.com network, which boasts nine different rental sites that receive over 50 million monthly visits.  Each of the different sites fill a different niche for renters. Apartments.com ForRent.com, ApartmentFinder.com  Apartamentos.com ForRentUniversity.com After55.com WestsideRentals.com CorporateHousing.com  ApartmentHomeLiving.com. You would think that using the sites in the Apartments.com network would incur expensive fees for agents and brokers. On the contrary, as stated, —Apartments.com is FREE to the agent, broker, or the MLS. Having a feed thru the MLS is easy for the agent, as their data feed prevents them from having to re-enter the listing every time, automatically uploading it to the Apartments.com network. Last, but not least—for two reasons, the Apartments.com network of sites cannot be a better lead source for agents that deal in rentals. First, the network has more than 50 million renters visit their sites every month—the #1 most visited rental source in the country! Second, renters eventually enter the homebuying market as an additional lead source to agents.  Apartments.com Network is already connected to 200 plus MLS organizations across the U.S.  To find out if your MLS already offers the Apartments.com Network in your marketplace, click here.  If you are not sure that your local MLS is connected, click here to get them added.

Broker Public Portal with Homesnap Hits an All-time Traffic High
A group of passionate and forward-thinking brokers and MLSs formed the Broker Public Portal (BPP) to help provide a nationwide alternative to the ever-more expensive third party sites. In just three years, BPP, through its partnership with Homesnap, has created a nationwide lead generation app and portal that helps brokers provide an effective answer to the two questions they get from their agents EVERY DAY: How are you going to help me generate leads and increase my referral business? The Homesnap solution chosen by the Broker Public Portal does just that. In September, the Broker Public Portal broke its own record thanks to the continued adoption and momentum by MLSs that collectively serve 1.1 million agents nationwide. Last month, traffic on the no. 1 rated mobile app and desktop solution hit an all-time high! Traffic is up 40% year-over-year. To date, Homesnap has delivered over 1.8 million leads and more than 20 million home buyers and sellers have been invited to join their local REALTOR® on the app. This program is truly helping to keep agents at the center of the transaction! If you would like to learn more about offering Broker Public Portal to your MLS members or if you would like to learn how to generate leads and referrals for your agents, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected], and I'll be happy to connect you to the right people! To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Fixing the Agent Search Problem
The vast majority of consumers begin their real estate searches online. They are not only looking for potential homes but also searching for real estate professionals that could help them with the sale or purchase. Googling a real estate agent's name will most often return their social network profiles and industry profiles on the first page of the search results. Agents do a fair job of updating their social profiles. However, they don't even score a passing grade at keeping their industry profiles up to date. Take a moment and do an agent search on your company website. Imagine a consumer doing this same search. Do you like what you see?

How One Brokerage Gets More Listings and Referrals with Online Branding
Robert Slack, LLC uses branded property portal and retargeted ads to attract clients, recruit agents, and win listing presentations. In this interview, Robert Slack, Founder and CEO, and Dan Walters, Partner and COO, share their secrets to online marketing success.

Thinking Like a Homebuyer Will Get You More Leads
Have you ever considered what goes on in a customer's mind as they search for a home? We know that almost 90% of prospective customers start their home-buying journey online, but understanding the behind-the-scenes of the home-buying process can put you ahead of the competition. When they start their search, most homebuyers already know the type of property they're looking for, as well as the location. They will type in keywords such as "home for sale in [city]", "condos for sale in [city]", "single family homes in [city]", "duplex for sale in [city]," etc. according to their preferences. Do the same thing and you'll notice that it's not always local websites that come up on the first page, but rather well-established real estate portals.

Zillow 3D Home Tour Is Really Property Panorama
Remember years and years ago when Property Panorama launched? Property Panorama is still around, and running strong. They are probably the industry's leading virtual tour company, with over 500,000 customers building tens of thousands of tours every day. Zillow took a page out of Property Panorama's playbook by using visualizations to create a 360-degree tour and stitching them together, which they call Zillow 3D Home, and claim it is a 3D tour. Way to catch a headline, Zillow, but your tours aren't even close to a real Matterport or GeoCV 3D Tour.

Zillow Is Already the Google of Real Estate
Zillow continues to make waves in the real estate industry as the company has recently: Acquired a mortgage lender Expanded its Homes division and iBuyer presence Continued its foray into the rental market The company that was once feared as disrupting the entire industry got off to a slower than anticipated start, but is now putting together the pieces to bump up the blood pressure and heart-rates of industry incumbents.

Tapping the Zillow Gap: Competing on Consumer Experience
Ah, Zillow. The real estate portal we all know and love. It's no secret that many homebuyers leverage the "Z word" to begin their initial stages of the home buying process. Due to the popularity of Zillow with homebuyers, many brokerages and agents alike feel they must be committing a dedicated monthly budget to the platform for a perceived fear of missing out on a potentially limitless stream of leads. Many real estate professionals also feel there is an unspoken expectation they need to be present on the search portal to truly compete with those who are also on Zillow.

Your Brokerage Needs to Improve Your Consumer Responsiveness
Sometimes Zillow Group does something that aggravates the industry, like displaying agent reviews. Other times Zillow does things that not only aggravate the real estate industry, but they point to profound best practices that are a roadmap to success. When brokers pay attention, they can learn a lot.

WATCH: How Newly Licensed Agents Get a Fast Start
How does Wemert Group Realty get their new agents out of the gate faster than the competition? By providing them leads from realtor.com® and training them on how to work those leads. Wemert Group incentivizes those leads, as well. Rather than giving rookie agents their best leads, new agents get "cut your teeth leads" that they have to work a little harder on and learn from. From there, they can earn their way to better leads or a higher price point. Want put your new agents on the path to success? Learn how with leads from realtor.com®.    

[Video] How Online Leads Powered Wemert Realty to 20x Growth
Wemert Group Realty is on track to close 800 transactions this year, up from 40-60 in 2008. What's their secret to 20x growth over the past decade? According to broker Jenny Wemert, it's realtor.com®. To learn more, watch the video above. Want to find out how realtor.com® leads can grow your business? Learn more here!    

Zillow's Opinion of Upstream and CAR's Forms License Policy Is Obvious
I have been reading articles about Zillow Group's positioning on Upstream and the forms licensing policy of the California Association of REALTORS® with great interest. My take away is that Zillow Group is doing and saying exactly what they should be doing and saying to positively impact Zillow's market opportunities in real estate. Remember, Zillow has industry relations people and government relations people that want to fight tooth and nail for every advantage they can get. It's business. Without Property Listings, Zillow Dies

How this Brokerage's Agents Close $1.2 Million per Month
Broker-owner Luke Monroe sets an ambitious, but achievable, goal for all of his agents: that each should sell a minimum of $1.2 million in gross sales volume per month. Monroe's agents are able to accomplish this thanks to the systems that his firm, Kendrick Realty, have in place. In the video above, the management team at Kendrick Realty shares how the massive volume of leads they receive from realtor.com® each month helps their agents meet their goals. Watch the video now to learn more about the systems that Kendrick Realty uses to sort, qualify, and convert their realtor.com® leads. Want to find out how realtor.com® leads can grow your business? Learn more here!    

Broker Public Portal Is the #2 MLS Consumer-Facing Website!
The Broker Public Portal with Homesnap continues to take the industry by storm. The strategy to pool the listings and resources of MLSs across the country is working! In just over a year after the BPP/Homesnap partnership was announced, there are now 145 MLSs representing 875,000 agents on one marketing platform featuring over 90 million properties, generating thousands of FREE leads every day for agents. Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is now the second largest MLS consumer website, according to Hitwise, the nation's leading source for measuring real estate web traffic across the entire industry.

How Do the Top 20 Sites Manage Digital Search Advertising?
At WAV Group, we like to look under the hood at what the top property search sites in America are doing to engage consumers and boost performance. In some cases, we work with the site owner and have access to their analytics. In other cases, we use benchmarking tools like Hitwise and ComScore to get a glimpse into what these top performers may be doing. The results are interesting. In the snapshot that we took, the nation's leading portal – Zillow.com – is benchmarked to be the top search site with 36 percent, and also the top investor in paid search. Their paid click share is 35 percent of their search traffic and 36 percent of their search traffic is organic. Overall, Zillow acquires 5 percent of the paid click traffic. Zillow's Click-Through Rate (CTR) on paid traffic is 5.33 percent.

You Can Beat the National Portals with This Strategy Today
Imagine a world where every real estate agent, broker and franchise in the nation promoted their real estate mobile app to consumers. The app is white-label branded to the agent, broker, and franchise, offering direct access to every MLS listing without any competitive ads. That is the way it would need to work. Guess what? We have it. You have it. Our industry has it. Today.

Broker Public Portal Update: Q1 2018
Call to action: Please support the BPP by emailing this update to agents and brokers in your market to drive awareness and adoption of Homesnap. For the industry to realize its vision of a national portal alternative to existing advertising sites, we need to communicate the strategic value of supporting Homesnap. Success is in your hands. Following the phenomenal growth experienced in 2017, Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is anticipating even greater levels of success in 2018. Adoption by MLSs and brokerages is accelerating faster than many thought possible. And thanks to a comprehensive communications campaign, the word is getting out – the industry is delivering across America a better search experience.

Get Off My Transaction! What Zillow's Latest House-flipping Announcement Means for Brokers
Zillow Group, Inc. announced they're expanding Zillow Instant Offers to compete directly with OpenDoor and other Instant Offers companies – and that for the first time, Zillow itself will be buying homes from consumers and reselling them. So, what does this mean for brokers? Two ways to look at it: So much for "We sell ads, not houses," as Spencer Rascoff has repeated ad nauseum over the years. That's right up there with, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Zillow, of course, has every right to direct their business as they choose, but this is proof that they couldn't care less about their relationship with brokerages. Look at the revolving door nature of the staff working with brokers as further evidence (remember Chris Crocker and Nick Bailey as the most recent examples?). Wake up call. I attended the Swanepoel T3 Summit in Miami last week and the theme was resoundingly that if you don't make change happen, then change happens to you. I'd rather be the one making it happen, and I think that the brokers that continue to thrive will be the ones that disrupt themselves, not wait around to get disrupted.

Build Your Own Real Estate Portal
This video demo features industry experts in marketing, APIs, and website development to give you everything you need to know to build your own real estate portal. Some of the key parts of a real estate portal include Automated Valuation Models or AVMs, Neighborhood Pages, Property Landing Pages and Market Overviews. This demo will walk you through how to build and implement each of these features.

Did Zillow Open the Door to Their Own Demise?
One of the greatest philosophers of all time was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). For brevity, let's call him Hegel and be thankful to the University of Berlin where he lectured. I will suspend with the deep philosophy I learned in college and summarize Hegel as the author of a triad of historical development referred to thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In our observation, the MLS is the thesis, Zillow is the antithesis, and what happens next will be the synthesis. Moreover, I will argue that Zillow may have opened the door to their demise with the Instant Offers test.

Zillow Is a Broker – So What?
"Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, NRT, Redfin – all brokers. Do brokers drop out of IDX because they are selling homes in their market? Brokers share their listings with these large firms every day. If Zillow joins the list, what's the diff?" This is the conversation starter that an investment banker had with me today. I appreciate having conversations with people in the capital markets. Bankers see the world differently. They believe that markets shape themselves and that great companies lead markets. Perhaps Zillow Group has its heart in its current service offerings today. The company protests against becoming a brokerage, but everyone got very upset recently when they launched a pilot for Instant Offers that seemed broker-like. It's a program where Zillow helps investors buy property by submitting offer letters directly to homeowners. Brokers don't like it. Some agents really like it.

5 Ways to Eliminate 'Headless Agents' on Your Listings
When was the last time you got a friend request on Facebook from someone who hadn't bothered to upload a profile photo and was still using the grayed-out floating head instead? I'm hoping it was a while ago, but maybe you can remember how you felt when a faceless person reached out to you. When I get one of those, I simply delete the request and move on. If someone doesn't care about enough about their friends and colleagues to even upload a picture, I'm not really interested in connecting with them. Do you see how consumers may feel the same way when they encounter a faceless "secret agent" on a portal or third-party website?

CFPB Investigating Zillow – Brokers Consider RESPA
Inman News journalist Andrea Brambila broke the story on Thursday that Zillow is under investigation by the CFPB. Apparently this has been happening for two years. According to Brambila, "The program, launched in June 2013, allows 'Premier Agents' who pay for advertising on Zillow Group's apps and websites to invite lenders to share marketing costs by paying Zillow Group to appear as 'Premier Lenders' in advertising alongside the agent." What Should You Do? Brokers should take immediate action. Agent activities are supposed to be supervised by the broker. We do not know who is going to become the target of the CFPB. That is the funny thing about regulators. Perhaps they find Zillow complicit, but I would expect that there is a possibility that they pursue the mortgage company and the real estate community who are also knowingly involved in the practice. Brokers need to establish a defensible position, especially if you are a large firm. Here are a few ideas. Be sure to document your efforts in the even that you need to defend yourself against the wrath of the CFPB. 1. Send notice to your agents alerting them to the concern 2. Have office meetings to educate agents about the concern to educate agents on RESPA

Changing Buyer Behavior to Convert More Web Leads: A Q&A with San Diego broker Jesse Zagorsky
A dynamic leader who started his career in 2003, San Diego real estate broker Jesse Zagorsky is a self-proclaimed, unabashed geek when it comes to digital marketing and lead generation. In this brief interview, he shared how he has churned through various lead sources to find the one that works best for him, and how his team works to change web lead behavior starting on the very first call. If you were to go back and look at customers you have met online – when did it first come onto your radar? Were you an early adopter of online marketing? I was an early adopter – I was focusing on online marketing since I got into my real estate career in 2003. That was pretty much the beginning of online marketing. I have worked with every provider in the real estate space. Some were referral models and others were pay for lead programs. At this point, I must have tried every provider of online leads. You were an early adopter, but I imagine you have a lot of competition now! According to NAR's 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 51 percent of last year's home buyers found their future property online and brought it to the attention of a real estate professional. Does this seem possible to you? Absolutely. I actually think 51 percent may be low. Even though we have instant access to properties as agents, so do our clients, and the reality is that buyers are looking at houses often before a REALTOR® has had a chance to look that day. I actually think this is a good thing. The value proposition has changed; our role as an agent is not just to find the house, as it is in executing all of the other elements of the process.

Will Zillow Win the MLS Data Aggregation Wars?
A new war over data management has broken out among America's largest technology firms, and no clear winner is in sight. To begin, it may be best to level set around what data aggregation is. For brokerage firms or technology companies that leverage MLS data in software, they are pulling MLS data feeds. When you are pulling more than one feed, you are aggregating MLS data. Brokerage firms and software companies that have hired WAV Group to streamline their data aggregation systems know that we have always focused on the three leading firms that have been aggregating MLS data for years: Homes.com, Real Estate Digital, and WolfNet. From time to time, we do send our RFPs to other firms, but we have never been able to find any vendor who has the breadth of market coverage or the quality of data management systems that compete with those firms. The thesis for outsourcing data aggregation if you are a broker or a software vendor is simple. Homes.com, Real Estate Digital, and WolfNet already have the data on their servers. Each of them curate more than 98% of the MLS data from more than 600 of the nation's MLSs every day, and in some markets they are updating as much as 96 times per day (about every 15 minutes in large markets). There are easily 4 million updates per day to the data. Rather than duplicating the effort with your data, administrators, brokers, franchises, and software vendors are outsourcing. The price is lower than doing it yourself and, in our experience, these three firms are expert at the job and provide delightful customer service.

Zillow Improves Broker Programs
Zillow Group, which includes the websites of Zillow and Trulia, have landed on a broker strategy for marketing that works. Featured listings are dead and have been replaced with a product to advertise in ways that drive the largest margin opportunity for a brokerage firm – leads to eTeams and relocation. I call this "shared display," where the brokerage and agent are clearly displayed and may be contacted – easily understood as "your listing, same leads." This functionality works equally well for any brokerage or large team. Display Rules Primer There are three general types of display rules: Fair Display, Shared Display, and IDX Display. Fair Display is pretty simple to understand. If it's your listing, then only your identity is displayed on the listing. Many people like this display because it's "your listing, your lead." It works like the new car dealer. You call BMW to buy BMW. The second type of display is a Shared Display. This is where Zillow has innovated. Under the ad portal strategy, the listing agent and broker are always displayed on their listing and can receive leads. But the display is a shared display, so three other advertisers may be displayed on the listing if they pay. Let's understand that this is "your listing, same leads." Our research shows that brokers get the same volume of leads on their listings with shared display as they did with fair display (read on). The third display is IDX Display. In this display that is popularized on broker and agent websites, the site owner gets all the leads and the listing broker and agent have a byline. This is understood as "your listing, no leads." This model is akin to a used car dealership where the company will sell all brands of cars.

Time for Brokers to Clean Up Online Profiles
Online real estate agent and brokerage profiles are a mess. Specifically, agent and broker profiles on broker websites, Zillow, Realtor.com, and Homes.com are naturally in disarray at this time of year. With transaction volume low during December, it is a very good time to clean everything up. Most brokerages audited by WAV Group consulting average 10 percent inaccuracy, which reduces lead generation and undermines a firm's online reputation. Start With Data Collection It is a relatively easy task to collect the data necessary to update profiles. Start with your offices. "Offices have identities," says Marilyn Wilson, partner with WAV Group. "When we audit brokerage firms, we find that companies who have moved offices rarely put forth the effort to remove the old offices from association databases, MLS databases, brokerage websites, and syndication websites." There are services that can do this for you. WAV Group has resources that can automate the process on major search sites like Yelp, Google, and others. But the syndication sites require more effort, typically requiring the broker to log into the publisher site to make corrections. Agent profiles are the heavy lifting. It is vital that you collect the profile image of all of your agents, detail their contact information, and help them curate a reasonable bio of at least 250 words. Here is a quick guide for 5 Best Tips to Create a Powerful Bio (Sherry McCormick).