Apple enters the Top-level domain space with .APPLE

Jan 12,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

Apple sees the value in the new Top-level domains, and joins the ranks of many major brands recognizing that the new Internet addressing system launched by ICANN 2 years ago is starting to take hold in the marketplace.

The registration policy found on Apple’s website tells a lot about the importance Apple places on being the registry operator for the Top-level domain .APPLE that it acquired about the same time that NAR acquired its Top-level domain .REALTOR

“Only Apple can register or use .Apple domain names. .Apple domain names will be used to provide simple and intuitive navigation to Apple, while signifying a trusted namespace. Because of this Registration Policy, Apple customers can be assured that if they see a domain name with .Apple at the end, they can better trust it is from Apple.

A TLD is the highest level of a domain name (like ‘.com’ in the apple.com domain name) and generally represents the purpose of the domain name (like how ‘.com’ generally is used for ‘commercial’ websites). Apple was authorized by ICANN, the global regulator of Internet domain names, to be the registry operator for the .Apple TLD. As the registry operator, Apple will manage and set certain policies for the .Apple TLD, which will be used exclusively for Apple-owned websites.

Apple is the registry operator for the .Apple top-level domain. This Registration Policy covers who is allowed to register .Apple domain names and how those names can be used.”

http://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/tld/registration-policy/

In an unrelated scenario, Apple even sees value in securing their brand in other Top-level domains that are relevant to their core business. We know all about the Apple watch, but did you know that there are rumors flying around concerning Apple’s interest in the automobile industry what with their registration of Apple.Car, Apple.Cars and Apple.Auto

As noted in Mashable.com, “the speculation around an Apple car has been happening in earnest over the last year. And although Apple hasn’t officially confirmed that it is working on an automobile, its hiring moves and statements by executives make it clear the company is at least somewhat interested in the transportation space.

So the domain registrations could just be Apple protecting is trademark and brand across the new .cars, .car and .auto top-level domains (TLDs). And Apple is already in the auto space with CarPlay.

Still, the registrations add more fuel to the rumors that Apple is totally going to come out with a car.”

Centennial Celebration of REALTOR® Brand

Jan 12,2016 / By John Reilly / No Comment

NAR Centennial celebration of the REALTOR® brand – www.100years.REALTOR

As part of the 100^th anniversary of the REALTOR® trademark, NAR has produced an informative short video that covers the history of the brand and reviews the rules governing members’ use of the trademark. See http://www.realtor.org/videos/window-to-the-law-trademark-centennial

In addition, NAR has created a special website in honor of “100 years of distinction” for the REALTOR® brand. Very fitting that NAR makes use of its recently-acquired Top-level domain to direct traffic to www.100years.REALTOR . I’m sure they could have used the URL www.realtor.org/100years but I think having the message to the left of the dot and the brand to the right of the dot is more memorable. From a branding perspective, having the brand appear at the end is preferable to having it end with .org or .com

You’ll find another video and screenshots of some of the early advertisements of the REALTOR® name at http://www.100years.realtor/the-centennial – as well as a friendly reminder that the word is properly pronounced in two syllables with emphasis on the first; that is, REAL-TOR (and not REEL-I-TER, or RE-AL-I-TER).

There is an “Add Your Story” section that encourages REALTORS® to contribute a personal story as to what they’ve done in terms of community service and going the extra mile for consumers. At http://www.100years.realtor/add-your-story , “…we want you to tell us what you’re doing in your communities. Do you repair dilapidated homes? Volunteer at a local shelter? Maybe your passion is serving veterans, tutoring students, or organizing pledge drives. Take a picture of the charitable endeavor you’re proud of and tell us about it. Your submission will be part of an online project that will show who REALTORS® are and what you’re made of.”
See all Stories – http://www.100years.realtor/home#/search/all

Congratulations NAR on the Centennial celebration of the REALTOR® brand.

Search

Zero Moment of Truth

Jan 7,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

If you haven’t seen this, from Google…ZMOT…Zero Moment of Truth for shoppers:

Whether we’re shopping for corn flakes, concert tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. At Google, we call this online decision-making moment the Zero Moment of Truth — or simply ZMOT.

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/collections/zero-moment-truth.html

Education & Training

Choosing a Realtor to Represent you

Jan 7,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

Designations and Certifications…

I always used the fact that I was a broker (and not a sales associate), and that I had certain designations, which allowed me to differentiate myself from other REALTORS, and provided a little material for conversation about the industry with my clients. I was personally an advocate for more training. I hae never mentioned designations or certifications to her, even though our company created ePRO for NAR.

Yesterday, I received the following from my youngest daughter (41 years old). She is closing (sold) today on her condo in San Diego, and is now on the hunt to buy where she moved with her husband and son last year…here we go:

>>
How important do you think it is that Drew and I find a realtor with an “official designation” of being a “Buyers Rep,” designated by NAR, when we look for a house here?

An acquaintance of mine who moved to Florida highly recommended her realtor. So I just contacted the realtor today. I haven’t made any plans to see any houses or anything yet. THEN I thought to look this up, and she’s not on the list for being an official NAR “buyer’s rep.” She is an official realtor though.

There are two local realtors who do have the designation of “buyer’s rep” who work in my area. Do you think I should just contact one of them instead of this other realtor my friend recommended?
<<

As she was telling me about her beginning search, she mentioned that she liked REALTOR Dot Com. She didn’t like R.C much in the past because she said, it was not user friendly, and preferred Zillow. Yesterday she was very positive about how she found R.C has changed. I was glad to hear this from her as it backed up what Luke Glass reported to the MLS Committee at NAR back in November.

Real Estate Industry Project Upstream

Jan 6,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

upstream is a journey

Talking Point on NAR/RPR and the project known as Upstream…Upstream is Where the prospects are before they realize they are Prospects.

Scan0001 Scan0002

Motivation

All in the State of Mind

Jan 5,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

We learned the following Plebe Summer at USNA…and lived it for 4 years…and the “carry over” has served us well over the years. So much of life is “all in your state of mind.”

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you won’t;
If you like to win, but don’t think you can,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in a state of mind.

For many a game is lost
Ere even a play is run,
And many a coward fails
Ere even his work is begun.

Think big and your deeds will grow,
Think small and you’ll fall behind;
Think that you can and you will;
It’s all in a state of mind.

If you think you are out classed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise;
You’ve got to be sure of your self before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.

Uncategorized

List for Free Real Estate Brokerage

Jan 3,2016 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

Congratulations to Takeshi Sekiguchi on bringing his venture to the Mainland. I will be very interested to watch for traction in my market, San Diego.

I think that many would agree that the real estate model in North America, with all of its positive aspects, is and has been flawed for a long time, and that many of the early promises of technology have yet to be realized. We could all sit down and tell endless tales about the problems, issues, politics, data, MLS, unprofessionalism, etc.

This is my premature take. While we won’t know for a while, this model, from my perspective, has promise based on a number of things (Promise does not equate to sure success).

I have not seen the platform or the business plan…or their success in the Islands, and how they stacked up against the competition…but the ideas I have seen, with the right leadership and commitment, coupled with execution…and deep enough pockets, can have an impact and create major disruption, and corresponding opportunity, bringing social as well as technological innovation to the marketplace.

“List for free, buy for three” is a line we have heard and discussed frequently over the last few years. The listing side of the equation, with all of the attempts to shore up, has lost value and could lose more in the future. We have always said that the “data” is valuable. SRE thinks it is to the tune of more than half of the commission.

We would be fooling ourselves (or SRE would be missing a major point) if we did not also look at this as a major data acquisition strategy (as we saw with NAR and ZipForms a few months ago).

An important distinction…I don’t see this as a discount play…it is being positioned as a value added play. Charging less, for better service, is not a discount, but is value added, and one of the eight top consumer demands.

One more point, is the issue of anti-trust, as this is sure to get broker commission conversations going. Be careful.

Having said all of that, this is a tough business…”time, patience, and perseverance shall accomplish all things”…does Mr. Sekiguchi have what it takes? I would be a little more optimistic if Teke would have described him as a Multi- Billionaire:-)

This is the next big hybrid brokerage | Inman

SRE Matrix has used technology, discounts and salaried agents to make inroads in Hawaii and plans to generate much of its revenue by charging vendors for exposure on a proprietary end-to-end platform. The brokerage expands to Los Angeles, Las…

WWW.INMAN.COM

Communication

Association Communication Plan

Dec 31,2015 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

One of the biggest issues for associations is communicating effectively at all levels of the organization. To do so requires the creation of a communication plan and commitment to its implementation. Creating a communication plan requires the following:

Identifying the different channels of communication at your association. Examples are:

Leadership to Staff

Staff to Leadership

Staff to Staff

Staff to Member

Member to Staff

Member to Member

Association to Public

Committee Chairs to Committee Members

Committee Chairs to Committee Chairs

Committee Chairs to BOD

Identify benefits to be derived from more effective communications and which of those benefits you wish to experience.

Cost savings

More participation

Greater understanding of the workings of the association by all, members, staff, public.

Identifying current communication tools used by your association and alternate tools you are not using.

Meetings

Magazine

Newsletter

Telephone

Fax on Demand

e-mail

Website

Listservs

Autoresponders

Social Media – Facebook/Twitter/RealTown Communities

4. Identify sources of content to communicate besides the “as needed” communications

Minutes

Agendas

Calendars

Magazines

Schedules

REALTOR.org

Decide which communication tools you will be employing for each communication channel

Determine frequency of current communications down channels identified

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Annually

Determine desired frequency of communications to various channels

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Annually

Examples:

President to Board of Directors – Monthly by meeting and weekly by e-mail, supplemented by website Committee Chairs to Committees – Monthly by meeting, weekly by e-mail

Determine person responsible for insuring the implementation of the communication plan

Monitor results

If you feel you need better communications at your association, what are you doing different to accomplish your desired results?

“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Albert Einstein…or Ben Franklin…or Rita Mae Brown…or an old Chinese Proverb…

Saul

Leadership

REALTOR Association President’s Manual

Dec 31,2015 / By Saul Klein / No Comment

San Diego Association of REALTORS®

INTRODUCTION

Structural changes are taking place in every aspect of the workplace. The real estate industry is not an exception. The way our members sold real estate 10 years ago is not the way they sell it today and the way they sell it today is not how they will sell it ten years from now. Their market, job description and needs are being transformed. Driving forces and concepts affecting and threatening our members and our associations as they currently function include:

Board of Choice

Public access to the MLS

Agency liabilities

Loss of MLS to outside entities, which results in loss of MLS income

Buyer Brokerage/Broker Buyer Brokerage/Broker Compensation

Alternative revenue sources

Decreasing membership

Professionalism

Staff driven Vs volunteers drive, the dynamics of changing leadership

Added value, more for less

Dealing with the “I want it all, I want it now, and I want it for nothing” syndrome

Decrease in available volunteer time as time becomes more valuable and the membership shrinks

But in every threat lies an opportunity, an opportunity to ride the forces of change in the direction in which it is already headed, and reaping the benefits.

Check out the rest…

Presidents Manual

http://bit.ly/1mluOLm

Copyright Infringement Issues with Listing Photos

Dec 30,2015 / By John Reilly / No Comment

Forget about baseball being the national pastime. I think today’s pastime is surfing the web and checking the wonderful photos of real estate properties, whether they be exterior or interior shots, luxury homes, aerial views, video tours, 3D Imaging, you name it.

But who owns the photograph and what rights do they have to stop a third party from infringing on those rights? Those and related issues are the focus of several Risk Management articles prepared by the legal staff at the National Association of REALTORS®.

In a September 2015 article “Who Owns Your Property Photos?” the author points out that: “Improper use of listing photographs, however, can create legal problems for agents, brokerages and MLSs. Authorship and ownership of photographs within the real estate industry is “fractured”. Who authored the photograph and who can use what photograph and in what way varies across the industry. Listing photographs may be taken by homeowners, real estate agents, MLS or brokerage employees, or professional photographers. Photographs may be owned or licensed to different parties in a variety of ways. A misunderstanding of how you may use the photographs for property listings could make you vulnerable to a copyright lawsuit.” http://www.realtor.org/law-and-ethics/who-owns-your-property-photos

The article cites an ongoing case alleging that Zillow continued to use the listing photos in connection with “sold” properties and that this use exceeded the scope of the photographer’s limited license to use the photographs only in connection with active property listings. VHT, Inc. v. Zillow Group, Inc., No. 2:15-cv-1096 (W.D. Wash. 2015). http://www.realtor.org/sites/default/files/court-records/2015/vht-complaint-2015-09-23.pdf

As part of a Risk Management Strategy, the article recommends that you:

Review photography agreements to assess how you can use the photographs
Audit photographs to ensure compliance with the relevant agreements
Determine how you want to use listing photographs and ensure that future agreements permit those uses
Maintain a record of all photography agreements

To that end, NAR provides some Sample Photography Agreements for you to review with your attorney:

Work Made For Hire Agreement
Assignment Agreement
Exclusive License Agreement
http://www.realtor.org/law-and-ethics/who-owns-your-property-photos

So, what happens when you display on your website listing photos provided by other brokers under IDX rules and it turns out that one of those photos is now the subject of a copyright infringement claim by the photographer? There was no way for you to know about the infringement claim. How can you protect yourself?

As suggested by NAR’s Associate Counsel Chloe Hecht in a five minute video clip “Window to the Law: Listing Photo Copyright Issues,” you can limit your liability for copyright infringement by complying with the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which provides a “safe harbor” if a third party uploads infringing content on your website. You’ll need to designate a copyright agent on your website and with the Copyright Office; implement a DMCA-compliant website policy; comply with the DMCA takedown procedure; and have no knowledge of the complained-of infringing activity.
http://www.realtor.org/videos/window-to-the-law-listing-video-copyright-issues?cid=RISVID0022

In short, be respectful of the photography rights of others and be clear about what rights you grant others to use your listing photographs. And, as recommended in these articles, carefully review the relevant photography agreements.