Inman

‘New Kids’ pitch the future of real estate

AJ Canaria of PlanOmatic

Seven real estate technology startups pitched their shiny, new products in 60 seconds or less at Inman Connect Las Vegas Tuesday.

At a session called “New Kids on the Block,” company leaders offered their solutions to agent pain points, including ways to boost their reputation, collect more referrals, easily fix poor photos and get more clients.

Here they are:

Peer Reputation

Steven Wynands, co-founder and CEO

Steven Wynands

This Richmond, Virginia-based company uses feedback between cooperating agents to determine agent quality.

“Reputable Agents are competent and caring real estate professionals. They embody the highest standards of quality and competence in the real estate industry. They are the kind of agent that other agents love working with and the kind of agents that consumers deserve,” the company’s website reads.

On stage, Wynands compared Peer Reputation to LinkedIn for the real estate industry.

“We help agents and brokers deliver so much more value to their clients and offices by leveraging their relationships,” he said. He noted that knowing an agent’s reputation can “protect sellers from bad offers” and help agents get referrals.

Peer Reputation is a finalist for a 2019 Inman Innovator Award for most innovative technology.

PhotoPerfectApp

Steve Buice, president

This San Diego-based startup launched its app this month. The app allows users to take photos from their Android or Apple smartphone in difficult lighting situations and automatically edits them to make them “perfect.”

Steve Buice

“The best part is you don’t have to call and make an appointment to get a photographer to come several days later,” Buice said.

By using the app, agents don’t have to pay for a photographer at all or wait 24 hours for the edited images, he added. In addition, the photos are “all put together into a text you can send to your clients,” he said.

SquadVoice

Apurv Agrawal, founder and CEO

This startup uses artificial intelligence to identify “old, yet hot” leads in an agent or broker’s customer relationship management system (CRM), website or third-party partners.

Apurv Agrawal

The company follows up with, qualifies and then live-transfers the highest-potential leads to agents.

“SquadVoice essentially helps turn old leads into new money,” Agrawal said.

“Through your CRM, [identifies] where are the gaps or the key processes breaking your business,” he added.

dashCMA

Karen Abram, founder and CEO, 

Several multiple listing services (MLSs) launched this market report and presentation software tool in April. Abram told conference attendees that the inspiration for dashCMA comes from an Albert Einstein quote: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Karen Abram

“The traditional 60-plus page CMA [comparative market analysis] was anything but simple,” she said.

Abram said dashCMA highlights how specific features affect pricing — having a pool versus not having a pool or having a view versus not having a view. And dashCMA pulls all of that information into one view, she said.

DashCMA is also a finalist for a 2019 Inman Innovator Award for most innovative technology.

BrokerAssist

Marshall Beck

Marshall Beck, co-founder and CEO

This startup offers an agent collaboration platform where agents can sign up to either give or receive assistance on a deal and can network for referral opportunities nationwide.

Beck noted that agents often need help because of vacations or last-minute showings. BrokerAssist is designed to help agents and brokers manage and improve their business, he said.

Real Estate Consortia

Teresa Grobecker

Teresa Grobecker, CEO

Using a patent-pending blockchain-based “title token” for every property in the U.S., this company tracks the status of real estate referrals pertaining to a particular property.

Real Estate Consortia “can track your referral from start to close,” Grobecker said, noting that referral tracking is a $20 billion problem in the industry.

Addressable.app

Chris Tosswill

Chris Tosswill, founder and CEO

This company sends homeowners on an agent’s mailing list handwritten, personalized mail and promises a response rate 10- to 30-times higher than traditional mail.

“It sounds kind of crazy, but we use robots to handwrite direct mail,” Tosswill said.

“Addressable is hands-down the most effective way of reaching homeowners.”

Addressable is available on a month-to-month basis with no subscription, just a monthly fee “because we believe in our product,” Tosswill added.

To get the full scope of the conversation, watch the full Inman Connect video here.

Email Andrea V. Brambila.

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