Real estate franchisor Re/Max has acquired tech startup booj — short for the phrase “be original or be jealous” — the companies announced Tuesday.
Booj develops end-to-end technology including websites, mobile apps, predictive analytics and lead generation systems for the real estate industry. The Colorado-based startup was founded in 2005 and serves 40 regional real estate companies encompassing 20,000 agents.
“Our extremely talented team at booj has worked hard to deliver dynamic technology to the real estate industry,” booj Managing Partner John Sable said in a statement. “Joining forces with Re/Max allows us to invest even more in research and development to take our suite of tools to the next level, bringing new and powerful solutions to busy agents and their buyers and sellers.”
The acquisition is part of a push by Re/Max to center technology in its business. By bringing on booj, the franchisor hopes to boast a stronger technology focus in-house instead of just adapting third-party and vendor products for agents. Re/Max rival Keller Williams echoed a similar sentiment about ditching “bolt-on” tech for in-house solutions at its annual Family Reunion conference this month.
“Our strategy is to serve the industry’s most productive agents by providing technology that saves them time, connects them to buyers and sellers, helps them leverage the brand and its many competitive advantages, and ultimately enables them to be even more productive and successful,” Re/Max CEO Adam Contos said in a statement. “In collaboration with booj, our membership and other strategic partners, we will deliver the best technology to the world’s most productive real estate network.”
Re/Max emphasized that this acquisition followed a year of growth refreshing the Re/Max brand, creating a business and product strategy team and launching new automated social media and digital marketing tools for agents.
The acquisition also follows an investigation that found that Re/Max’s founder and CEO violated the company’s ethics code by failing to disclose a $2.4 million loan between the two. The investigation delayed Re/Max’s most recent earnings report.
“We’re passionate about building technology that changes agents’ lives and makes buying and selling a home easier,” booj Managing Partner Ido Zucker said in a statement. “Putting our existing platform and new innovations into the hands of Re/Max agents will be incredibly rewarding for our entire team. We’re excited to see what world-class technologies we can build together.”
