Real estate business operating system Chime and listing marketing and agent branding engine Curaytor announced a partnership at Inman Connect New York Tuesday that will provide customers with an interface combining the two technologies.
Existing customers of each are not required to use the new hybrid product, and the companies are not merging.
Curaytor’s Convert technology offers results-oriented analytics that shed light on lead behavior and help hone messaging, bolstering the value of a database.
“The products have somewhat merged, but the companies have not,” said Chime CEO Mike McGowan on a phone call before the New York Marriott Marquis event.
“Curaytor was open about not being very good at the IDX piece of it, but that’s something we happen to do very well. So Curaytor’s social media, lead generation and brand awareness expertise will serve as the front-end of an agent’s business, and we’ll handle the backend IDX tools, CRM, listing alerts, and saved searches,” McGowan said.
McGowan also revealed the relationship germinated from a random cold call made by a Chime account executive to Curaytor’s co-founder, Chris Smith.
“About four minutes later, I was on the phone with Chris, and then two weeks later on a plane to Boston,” McGowan said.
Mike McGowan
“We were actively talking to several IDX providers at the time,” Curaytor co-founder and CEO Jimmy Mackin said on a phone call with Inman. “It was a very serendipitous call, and the fact that they got a plane to come see us showed us that they were serious.”
Both companies will provide support teams depending on which aspect of the blended platform requires assistance. McGowan said there are about 100 using it as of this writing.
The integration process was started in September and took about three months to complete.
“For us, it was this great opportunity in the marketplace to marry a best-in-class real estate search experience with everything else agents need for the ultimate tech stack to power growth,” Mackin said.
Relative to the account executive who made the call to Smith, McGowan said he’s been well taken care of this year.
Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
