Realtors Property Resource (RPR), a subsidiary of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), has slashed 10 percent of its staff as part of a restructuring to help meet 2019 budget directives, RPR confirmed Monday in a news release.
In a statement, RPR said it conducted an end-to-end review of its market level systems, product delivery and organizational structures to better align with NAR’s strategic plan. NAR performed its own realignment process to become more “member-centric,” this year, according to the release.
“NAR CEO Bob Goldberg established a clear vision for the Association and RPR moving forward,” said Jeff Young, RPR’s chief operating officer and general manager, in a statement.
“RPR’s core mission is clear, ensure that Realtors remain essential to the transaction through access to tools, features connected to nationwide parcel-centric data and reports,” Young added. “RPR’s growth in the future will be driven by programs which refocus the RPR team to develop a deeper understanding of the daily life and business of agents and brokers.”
RPR is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NAR and provides Realtors with information and analytics on more than 166 million property parcels. RPR also operates Upstream, a platform for brokers to manage their data. Upstream launched earlier this year after a long development period and millions in investment from NAR. The project has drawn criticism from some corners of the industry.
Earlier this month, a former tech contractor for RPR launched a crowdfunding campaign to sue the company, alleging he was wrongfully accused of overbilling for his work, resulting in his termination. The contractor alleged RPR’s technology is “very fragile” due to its “poorly architected system” and “poorly written” and “non-optimized” code and said “RPR spent millions of dollars on garbage.”
RPR has never produced a profit for NAR and 88 percent of NAR’s members don’t use it regularly. According to reports from NAR’s Finance Committee, NAR will have spent at least $203 million total on the for-profit subsidiary by the end of 2018. That figure includes budget cuts to the company NAR made earlier this year as well as funding for Upstream and the now-defunct Advanced Multilist Platform (AMP) project.
RPR’s internal assessment took several months and the company scrutinized its own organizational structures and strategic initiatives, according to the release. RPR is re-imagining its communications and support network of broker, multiple listing service and association partners, while cutting 10 percent of staff to meet budget directives, the release said.
The plan also calls for a restructuring of the senior management team with the following moves, according to the release:
• Janine Sieja will assume the role of senior vice president of product management. Sieja and her team will streamline RPR’s development process, working closely with operations to simplify the user experience and increase adoption and user satisfaction.
• Emily Line, RPR vice president of commercial services, will transition to vice president of member experience. Line will manage user feedback and testing programs to create a closer relationship between the evolving needs of residential and commercial agents and product planning.
• Karen France will expand her responsibilities as senior vice president of market engagement. This group unifies RPR’s market facing teams to provide a more holistic delivery of the platform’s products and programs for specific industry sectors, including industry relations, broker services, training and programs, commercial services, MLS support, legislative resources and partner integrations.
• Allen Wright will become vice president of operations, overseeing internal systems and data analytics, as well as business operations to expand on RPR’s systems and reporting architecture.
• Mark Suchy, RPR senior product manager, will be taking the role of vice president of Product Management and will be focused on assisting RPR in streamlining its product testing and release processes.
Inman reached out to NAR to clarify if these cuts were part of earlier announced budget cuts; to get a sense of RPR’s total staff numbers and to gather more information about RPR’s future goals. NAR spokesman David Greer declined to comment beyond what was in the news release.
