clareity's 2013 nar san francisco meeting and expo report · clareity's 2013 nar san...

Copyright 2013 Clareity Consulting www.clareity.com

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Clareity's 2013 NAR San Francisco Meeting and Expo Report

MLS Policy Forum .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Trade Show Floor .......................................................................................................................................... 3

People on the Move ...................................................................................................................................... 7

NAR Directors Meeting ................................................................................................................................. 7

Party Round Up ............................................................................................................................................. 8

2014 MLS Workshop – Register Now! .......................................................................................................... 9

About Clareity ............................................................................................................................................. 10

View of the Moscone Convention Center where the NAR Expo was located. NAR’s conference

drew a large turn out of 22,500 members and guests – and the weather was awesome!

November 2013


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MLS Policy Forum

Ron France provided an RPR update regarding the new dashboard. It contains tools for MLS and Association staff including market data statistics, usage statistics (including what reports they are using), news, training updates, and promotional content. Additionally, you can use the dashboard to create reports that can be automatically sent out. The dashboard was rolled out for beta in October and will be officially available for everyone in Q1 of 2014. There will also be a new report that can be expected in Q1: “Federal Economic Area Reports.” The session then got lively. The MLS Panel Discussion contained the panelists Jeff Barnett (Alain Pinel Realtors), Tom Phillips (TREND MLS), Steve Brown (Crye Leike Realtors), Steve Sullivan (MIBOR), Summer Greene (Better Homes & Gardens), and John Mosey (Northstar MLS). The first point of discussion was whether or not there are too many MLSs and too many sets of rules. Many of the panelists agreed that a common problem is that members are forced to belong to multiple MLSs. Barnett commented how one cannot get the same data formats from MLSs and since it costs money to do this, a large regional MLS would be helpful. Another issue addressed by Sullivan is “who is the primary customer?” Brown suggested NAR could help set rules about what you can or cannot do with sold data so that “we are not in tension with the MLS” and that if they do deny sharing sold data, there would be ramifications about it. Greene suggested that her enforcement of data is “pretty good” due to similar policies and rules and identical fields between her 6-7 MLSs, but the problem is getting IDX feeds replying, “Let my data go!” The next topic regarded MLS Public Facing Websites, a controversial ongoing discussion in our industry. Both Mosey and Phillips do not have a public facing MLS site, simply because their role is “B to B” and believe the communication should be between the broker/agent and the consumer. Barnett noted he would rather not have an MLS public site, but he also would not like to have sites like Zillow or Trulia and that’s just not reality. He controls the site and therefore advertising so majority of brokerages are on board and the public likes it. It’s an effort to protect themselves from big sites with inaccurate listings. Mosey is currently dealing with a lawsuit regarding misappropriation of copyrighted data. He is hoping the case will favor no public facing websites period so that way listings cannot be stolen. Clareity strongly recommends protecting listings using Distil’s anti-scraping solution designed for real estate, including public MLS and IDX sites – http://realestate.distilnetworks.com. If they never steal your listings in the first place, it reduces your legal hassles! Panelists agreed that hopefully these common lawsuits provide guidance regarding copyright protections since it is a huge challenge keeping track of where data is and what it is used for.

http://realestate.distilnetworks.com/


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Trade Show Floor

Following are highlights from the Expo: Obeo hosted a booth introducing their new Room Decorator. Their software allows you to virtually put furniture into a room within a listing property. Allowing home buyers to visually create their dream home or work with their existing home interior is not only innovative and fun, but a seemingly logical thing to do when searching for a home. Obeo specializes in virtual tours and the new Room Director is a cool twist.


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Various vendors and partners throughout the expo displayed signs exclaiming “We Are Here,” referring to their relationship with the Clareity Store. Just a few of the many participants included CloudCMA, Wise Agent, GeoJet, OnVedeo, Previsite, and LPS. Thank you to all of those who participated, we truly appreciate your support!

Most Luxurious Booth Berkshire Hathaway Home Services flaunted a set up resembling a five star hotel more than an expo booth. Their all white showroom was so inviting, you couldn’t help but want to stay and hang out in the chicest place on the trade show floor.


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Most Creative Booth

RESASS, the real estate social network, brought expo attendees through a blast from the past. Their booth boasted a historical museum of outdated technologies, paying homage to the idea that REALTORS must continuously adapt in this ever changing world of RE technology. Clareity agreed this was the most creative theme to relate to RE technology and it was presented in a tasteful yet humorous manner that really made you walk away thinking.

Vintage gear pictures courtesy of storify.com/RESAAS


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Best of Show Award

At first I stopped to gawk at what could be the ugly shirt winner (remember Supra’s bowling shirts?). Instead I learned that Quantum Leads ordered these colorful CHEF coats to tie in with their marketing campaign that included a printed “menu” of their products and these guys were your lead chefs. Get it? Quantum Leads – and these guys cooked up deals for leads? OK, it was corny, but anybody bold enough to wear these coats deserves an award. They certainly stopped traffic and were a conversation starter! www.leadchef.com

Best SWAG at the Expo…

The Inland Mortgage screwdriver was totally legit and has a reversible tip – flat head and Philips. Finally some practical swag worth taking home!

http://www.leadchef.com/


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People on the Move

NAR Directors Meeting

The biggest news, NAR will be building a spanking new headquarters building on Michigan

Avenue that will include a 5-star hotel. NAR will own part of this huge new project.

Here is a great summary of the 2013 director’s meeting:

http://www.realtor.org/articles/2013-board-of-directors-meeting-recap

Person Old Gig New Gig

Melissa McHone RETechnology Sales Docusign Sales

Chris Chappell OK City Metro AOR MLS

Director

Maine Association of

REALTORS General Manager

Warren Andrich Discover MLS VP Sales Corpus Christi CEO

Rosemary Scardina President/CEO, East Bay

Regional Data

CEO & Founder RCS

Braintrust & Consulting

Wes Wiggins CEO, Regional MLS of Florida General Manager, South

Florida MLS

Terry Penza CEO, Realtor Association of

Greater Fort Myers and the

Beaches

Director of Network

Membership at REAL Trends

and Murray Consulting

http://www.realtor.org/articles/2013-board-of-directors-meeting-recap


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Party Round Up

ListHub

It was all clowns and fun houses at the Listhub party this year. Hosted at the Qi Ultra Lounge in Downtown San Francisco, the event was sponsored by MyNewHome, Clareity, Zillow, Sentrilock and CloudCMA.

CoreLogic

The CoreLogic party took place at the three-story Tempe Night Club co-sponsored by Chase, Clareity and a few other smaller name brands … <grin>. A Beatles cover band rocked out upstairs while a live DJ packed the dance floor below. Corelogic lit up the night with glowing necklaces and blinking coasters and kept guests busy with a wacky photo booth.


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That’s all folks! Thanks for reading our 2013 NAR Meeting and Expo Report!

Matt Cohen Chief Technologist Clareity Consulting Minneapolis, MN [email protected] 612-331-1788

Gregg Larson President & CEO Clareity Consulting Scottsdale, AZ [email protected] 480-444-2085

2014 MLS Workshop – Register Now!

MLS executives and staff and leadership, please consider joining us in Scottsdale, Arizona March 5th – 7th for Clareity's 13th Annual MLS Executive Workshop. This MLS Workshop will provide timely updates and address the key issues facing MLS executives and leaders. For more information, please see http://clareity.com/events

Scottsdale Plaza Resort A block of rooms at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort (http://www.scottsdaleplaza.com/) has been reserved. For reservations call (800) 832-2025 and specify the Clareity Consulting rate.

mailto:[email protected]


http://clareity.com/events

http://www.scottsdaleplaza.com/


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About Clareity

Clareity Consulting brings clients fresh insights and wide perspective gained by serving clients

throughout the industry: associations and MLSs, brokerages, franchises, technology vendors,

and others. Clareity’s services include:

STRATEGIC AND BUSINESS PLANNING

Clareity provides strategic, governance, and

product/service business planning that bridges the

gaps between strategy, tactics, and the timely

activities needed to support your goals. Clareity

also facilitates MLS regionalization & data shares.

SYSTEM SELECTION

From needs assessment and RFP to contract

negotiation, for MLS, TMS, Public Records, and

other offerings, Clareity's structured processes

help your organization make a good business

decision with stakeholder involvement.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Clareity can address leadership or large groups on

timely topics in an informative and fun way.

Popular topics include MLS trends and system

options, information security, and real estate

technology trends, such as cloud computing and

mobile technologies.

COMPLIANCE AND RISK AUDITS

Providing information security, risk management

and business resumption planning, staffing and

salary reviews, and VOW / IDX compliance audits,

Clareity brings both an independent view and

finely-honed technical skills.

PRODUCT / SERVICE / SOFTWARE REVIEW

Clareity performs customer surveys and market

research, develops product strategies and

specifications, performs usability and quality

assurance, audits security, and facilitates user

groups. Clareity also facilitates strategic alliances,

mergers, and acquisitions.

RECRUITING

Your business is only as successful as your

leaders and employees, and Clareity has

discreetly helped recruit some of the brightest

minds in our industry for their current positions,

both executive and technical.

WEBSITE PLANNING AND REVIEW

Clareity helps improve website design, usability,

and content, accounting for key factors such as

SEO and mobile experience. Clareity also creates

specifications and helps clients select the best

partners to produce, and provide compelling

content for, their web applications.

EXPERT WITNESS

Whether it's a matter of the policies and practice of

organized real estate or a more technical software

dispute, Clareity can provide an expert witness

with integrity and experience to conduct research,

write expert opinions, and provide depositions and

testimony.

For more information, please contact:

Gregg Larson Matt Cohen

602-315-3362 612-331-1788

[email protected] [email protected]

Or visit: http://clareity.com



http://clareity.com/

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