FBS, the creators of the industry-leading Flexmls® System and Spark Platform, announced today the acquisition of Solid Earth’s Spring software platform along with the hiring of the Spring team. Combining the Spring® Portal, the Spark® API, and the Flexmls® System establishes a completely new, powerful platform that puts MLSs, brokers, and agents…

Here’s a link building idea for those thinking about your business on a long enough time span to invest in SEO… Support crowdfunding campaigns on platforms such as Kickstarter, Patreon, and IndieGoGo — especially if you can get in early enough with one to become a showcase supporter/sponsor. You’ll…

There’s a fantastic article on the topic of VOWs that Inman published last week. It’s written by David Kully, an antitrust partner for Holland & Knight LLP. Mr. Kully worked for 18 years at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he played a central role…

I get asked quite frequently what website platform real estate agents & brokers should use. What better way to research than hearing directly from real estate agents using the various vendors? I had a chance to ask Drew Laughlin in Columbus Ohio his thoughts on his experience with Sierra…

[Update: I totally spaced and forgot Market Leader bought Diverse Solutions. My bad.] I visited Zillow Group’s investor relations page because I wanted to listen in on yesterday’s earnings call (you can see results of Q3 here). [text in the next few paragraphs below is irrelevant given Diverse…

The first hackathon I ever participated in was actually just in 2013 when I built an app called Curb Call at the Retsly / Realogy Hackathon in SF.  I got second place at that one which won me an oversized novelty check (plus a smaller…

What website platform should you use in 2017? One option is BoomTown. I had a chance to ask Tom Lipinski in Macomb County (a former client while I worked at Virtual Results) his thoughts on his time with BoomTown as his online marketing partner (website +…

Startup founders beware: Zillow decommissioned their Mortgage Rate Summary API. Building on top of a 3rd party free API is great, until it gets yanked from under you. (I had this same issue with Horizon when Facebook decommissioned/modified the APIs we built on). I originally…

There’s a proposal for NAR to change IDX policy to include a link back to a listing brokerage’s website within every IDX listing display. This has been suggested and supported by Redfin’s Glenn Kelman and WAV Group’s Victor Lund. References: Geekestate by Drew Meyers Notorious by…

Earlier this week, I saw Victor Lund’s post about Glenn Kelmans’s call for IDX policy revisions requiring link backs to the broker. My first reaction was: this is a brilliant initiative/strategy. For Redfin. Not for the industry. I planned to write a blog post. Then,…