Keller Williams Expands in Latin America and Caribbean
Keller Williams is expanding further across Latin America with new master franchises in Honduras and Turks and Caicos.
“We have a strong foundation of agents supporting consumers on their home and commercial real estate buying, selling and leasing journeys across Latin America,” said William E. Soteroff, president, Keller Williams Worldwide, the international division of Keller Williams.
Led by Regional Operating Principal Raul Martinez, the Keller Williams master franchise in Honduras is currently initializing operations. The master franchise in the Turks and Caicos is also in the midst of launching and is led by Regional Operating Principal Terry Meneley.
For more information, visit kwworldwide.com.
New Study Shows Property Buyers and Sellers Overwhelmingly Prefer Listings with 3D Tours
Matterport announced the results of a new study that shows U.S. real estate buyers and sellers are no longer satisfied with static photos and would overwhelmingly opt for a more immersive experience.
The survey polled 1,000 U.S. property buyers and 1,000 U.S. property sellers. Nearly 80 percent of property buyers and sellers would switch to a real estate agent offering immersive 3D tours of listed properties. Millennial and Gen Z respondents are overwhelmingly in favor of more immersive listings. For instance, 83 percent of Millennials and 94 percent of Gen Zs would switch to an agent offering these services, compared to 63 percent of Gen Xers. Not only would they switch, but 87 percent of sellers and 86 percent of buyers would recommend these agents to their friends.
Similarly, an extraordinary 99.4 percent of sellers reported that offering an immersive 3D tour would improve the competitive edge of their property listing. Moreover, 89 percent of sellers believe their listings would perform better (i.e. sell faster) if it featured an immersive virtual walk-through tour. Of the sellers surveyed, 88 percent reported that they would prefer to work with a realtor who could offer an immersive 3D tour of their property over ones that couldn’t. These sellers are ready to take actual steps today, with 80 percent saying they would switch to an agent/agency who offered 3D capture services over ones who could only offer photography services.
For more information: https://matterport.com/industries/real-estate.
Weichert Partners with Inside Real Estate
Weichert has partnered with Inside Real Estate to bring the myWeichert, powered by kvCORE, platform to its more than 13,000 sales associates and affiliated agents across the country. This customized technology solution will enable agents to conduct every part of their business leveraging the most robust lead generation tools on the market, coupled with AI-driven, behavioral nurturing to maximize engagement with both new business and sphere of influence contacts.
Weichert’s latest technology investment is in line with the company’s ‘best of both worlds’ approach of providing the perfect combination of innovative tools and high-touch coaching based on real-world experience in order to support its sales associates.
For more information: www.weichert.com, www.insiderealestate.com
HomeLight Launches Cash CloseTM and Elite AgentTM
HomeLight announced today the launch of two programs: Cash Close and Elite Agent.
- Cash Close uses HomeLight’s cash to dramatically simplify buying and selling. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or a current homeowner looking to make a move, HomeLight gives you the cash to close on your new home with speed and confidence.
- HomeLight Elite Agent is the new standard of excellence in real estate. The program identifies the top 1% of real estate agents based on their performance and empowers them with cutting-edge technology, exclusive financial products and additional support.
“Our vision at HomeLight is to make every real estate transaction simple, certain and satisfying. Cash Close and HomeLight Elite Agent are huge steps toward fulfilling that vision,” said Drew Uher, HomeLight’s founder and CEO.
For more information: HomeLight
Lone Wolf Releases AI-Enabled Solution, Insights, Helping Brokers Start Fast in 2020
Lone Wolf Technologies (“Lone Wolf”) announced the release of a new solution: Lone Wolf Insights.
Insights is a first-of-its-kind solution that uses data science to translate brokerage data into plain language for strategic leaders. The solution aggregates and performs complex calculations on back office data, turning essential information like company dollar, gross commission income (GCI), and year-over-year trends into easily-understood visualizations and forecasts, and providing prescriptive insights that brokerage leaders can use to measurably improve their office production, agent performance, and overall profitability. It is the first of many innovations coming from Lone Wolf in 2020, including a new marketplace for its 1.4 million agent customers, as well as the next version of their industry-standard back office and accounting solution, brokerWOLF.
“I can’t tell you how excited we are to release Insights today,” said Jimmy Kelly, CEO of Lone Wolf. “This is a brand-new solution to Lone Wolf, and one that our customers—and the industry at large—have been demanding. Combining artificial intelligence with the power of human intelligence, Insights gives real estate leaders the kind of information they can take immediate action on and provides them much more direct control over their brokerage’s profitability.”
For more info: Lone Wolf
Homepie Opens Simi Valley Office to Serve Southern California Homebuyers
Homepie, Inc®, a provider of do-it-yourself tools for homebuyers and sellers who wish to transact without a real estate broker, today announced the opening of their offices serving southern California.
Over the past 30 years, the internet has shifted the way consumers buy and sell items directly from each other. During this time, consumers have become more comfortable with peer-to-peer transactions of increasing size and value. A trend surfaced recently toward discount or limited service in housing; Homepie reinforces that trend further by offering homebuyers and sellers all of the tools required to complete a property transaction without a real estate professional.
“Having been in the mortgage industry for many years, I have processed transactions for myself, family, and clients without a Realtor®,” says Founder and CEO, Brad Rice. This experience inspired Rice to develop the Homepie marketplace where anyone can sign up to list or sell a home on their own and pay no commission.
For more info: homepie.com
United® Real Estate Recognizes Opportunity to Support Nation’s Service Men & Women Through New VA Lending Changes
United® Real Estate announced its partnership with Mutual of Omaha Mortgage. The partnership allows United agents to become VA certified in VA lending practices and deepens United Real Estate’s quest to provide service excellence to service men and women across the Nation.
“In providing this resource to our Agents we are accomplishing two of our important goals. First, we are delivering tremendous educational support which will help our Agents achieve more success in their individual real estate practices and second, we are delivering greater levels of service to our country’s past, present and future service men and women,” says Rick Haase, President of United Real Estate. “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Mutual of Omaha Mortgage in this effort. They are truly knowledge leaders in the VA lending space,” added Haase.
To learn more: GrowWithUnited.com
