WFG News
January 26, 2015

The real estate war zone: Part 1

For 15 years, you’ve heard about how the Internet was going to change everything in the real estate industry. Not too much has happened yet, right? Just wait — it will. Never before have there been such huge companies and innovators wanting to take control of the real estate industry. Until…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Welcome to a snowy New York City

Many moons ago, before Google was a verb, the powerful search engine’s co-founder, Larry Page, spoke at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco. At the time, I overheard a wary, old-school real estate broker in the back of the room grumble, “Who is this guy?” When Connect was in its…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Capture 10 percent more real estate leads with these 5 blog tools

Driving traffic to your website is a lot of work, and more than 90 percent of most website visitors bounce. That’s a huge source of untapped leads that you can mine — if you have the right tool set. Increasing the number of opt-in processes on your website (when done…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

What real estate can learn from consumer brands that ‘get it’

The real estate transaction has been commoditized … have you noticed? Between the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, state and local regulations, can you honestly tell me that how you transact a brokerage deal, mortgage, or settlement is significantly different from your competitors? Face it,…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Special report: How to deliver technology agents need

Money is pouring into real estate technology, and the sheer number of products available to agents has risen exponentially in recent years. Whatever the merits of that increase, on a practical level this means that real estate agents are often bombarded by solicitations from tech companies peddling the next big…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

How a strong vendor network secures more listings

Selling a home is a team effort. In addition to the broker and the client, there’s the mortgage lender, the painter, the title lawyer, the plumber and a host of other home services professionals. And the real estate agent must be the team coach. Michael Banks, a real estate broker…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Lindsay Listanski: ‘Social media makes the world a smaller place’

Age: 27 Years in real estate: I’ve been with Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC for three years but grew up in real estate. My father has been with the Coldwell Banker brand for nearly 30 years, he is now the Branch Vice President of the Livingston, New Jersey, office. Some…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Is real estate missing a $100 billion opportunity?

In the last three years, a new class of homeowner entered our business. They are the largest in history, and they represent the beginning of something much more important to come. Institutional investment in single-family rentals, the SFR industry, began as a purely opportunistic pursuit. The housing crisis captured Wall…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

MLSs around the country offer agents showing tool

Showings are an essential part of an agent’s job — people rarely buy homes sight unseen. In order to help agents tackle the logistics of getting prospective buyers inside properties, more and more multiple listing services are helping their members schedule showings online. Eight MLSs have signed licensing agreements to…
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WFG News
January 26, 2015

Zillow opening doors to developers for ‘hackathon’ competition

Zillow is opening up its doors to developers for a weekend “hackathon” competition that will run from Feb. 6 to 8 at its Seattle headquarters. The top three winners will be awarded cash prizes with a grand prize of $10,000. With access to real estate data from Zillow and the federal…
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