What’s new and what’s different has long provided the foundation for Inman Connect. Whether it’s new names in leadership or alternative business models, Connect is imbued with themes of innovation.
The bi-annual event is a bellwether for the industry’s tolerance for technology, and in no better way is that made tangible than with New Kids on the Block, the long-standing showcase of technology meant to reveal who and what is about to make change.
Here’s this year’s lineup:
Domotics
This immersive home tour tech and consumer search provider is aiming square at consumers’ demand to innovate the home search. Designed to work in an authentic VR environment with headsets from Oculus and others, Domotics tours engage the viewer with augmented reality, virtual staging and as real a 3D home-tour experience as the internet can offer.
They offer home search interfaces on popular Smart TV services, too, such as Apple TV and Roku. The company works alongside its agent clients to assemble collateral and build-out various tour assets.
Ascend Lead Sites
Hard-working (and well-reviewed) agent Connie Ly decided she wanted a different way to manage her leads and market properties. She figured other agents did, too.
Ascend Lead Sites delivers modern websites, listing marketing features, a CRM, text campaigns and a host of other ways to help agents elevate their operation. The initial review stated that, “Ly is catering Ascend Lead Sites to those individual agents who want but can’t reasonably afford what the bigger names in proptech lead gen and marketing offer.”
NKOTB panel; photo by AJ Canaria of MoxiWorks
Toura
Zillow’s shut down of its iBuying program shines an even brighter light on the future of Showingtime, which founder Rich Barton mentioned in an earnings call will become a focus. Until we understand what that means, agents might want to look into the alternatives, like Toura.
Toura’s home showing management and mobile-forward consumer search experience makes a point of not employing any tactics to elevate one listing over another. It can partner with local multiple listing services, distribute messages, track leads, provide showing statistics and connect curious buyers with local agents.
Zoodealio
Sellers are no longer restricted to only entertaining what the open market has to offer them. Mobile app Zoodealio was designed to help them make sense of that ever-growing list of options, Zillow Offers notwithstanding.
Reviewed in July, Zoodealio stood out for its unique user experience and the integration of its own cash-offer product, increasing the variety of selling scenarios. It can serve as an educational tool for agents, too, by showing them what’s driving selling decisions: price or convenience?
However you slice it, Zoodealio keeps agents front and center by hiring them to list the homes it buys. Can you say, “both ends of the deal?”
DirectOffer
A mobile app for both iOS and Android, DirectOffer was built with some unique listing marketing features to help agents tell deeper, broader stories about properties.
The patent-pending AudioTour plays when tapped, narrating the viewer through a listing’s highlights told over property description page. And its OfferGrid, also patent-pending, helps agents and their clients breakdown the basics of what the market is offering. There’s in-app messaging specific to each listing and support for video and 3D tours.
HighNote
Mark Choey, CEO of HightNote; photo by AJ Canaria of MoxiWorks
It’s a brand-eat-brand world out there, and HighNote wants to make sure you come to the listing presentation hungry. This presentation product offers a slick, tech-savvy way to curate brand and performance assets in the context of one-on-one conversations. But, if you can’t make it to a meeting, presentations can be viewed via browser, too.
HighNote, reviewed this year, is like Studeo and CORE Present, which is to say it’s all about assembling supporting evidence of your capabilities into a visual and fact-checked thesis on why consumers should work with you. Slick, colorful presentation tools are more powerful than a phone call and much more effective than a nicely-written email. Do more than show up.
Courted
Part agent-to-agent social network, part referral generator, Courted allows agents to maximize their market value with detailed online profiles, networking opportunities and market data insights.
Courted is a celebration of agents and teams. The app gives users a library of tools to showcase accomplishments and seek referral business and potential co-workers.
It can be used to help build teams and understand what’s happening in a nearby market. The user experience is sharp, mature and should work to engage agents and drive conversation. A review of Courted is expected to publish this month.
