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Texas-based brokerage JPAR, operating in 25 states and known for its 100-percent commission model, has secured a partnership that will empower its agents to resell a multitude of branded, tech-forward insurance products, according to a March 16 announcement.
Bubble, an “insurtech” company, is the umbrella provider and describes itself in the announcement as a “turnkey insurance agency-in-a-box platform.”
The technology-blended insurance brokerage provides clients with a web-based series of solutions for home, auto and life insurance. It also claims to leverage artificial intelligence to better deliver value.
Eric Flohr, chief operating officer of JPAR’s parent company, Cairn RE Holdings, said the insurance is continuing to confuse consumers and that Bubble’s model simplifies it for consumers, according to the announcement.
“This partnership will provide our agents a seamless process that will expedite insurance purchases for their clients. Bubble’s modern digital insurance platform is a great value-add all around,” he said.
Real estate is becoming increasingly vertical for both agents and consumers. Brokerages are moving quickly to integrate vendors, either through acquisition as Real did with LemonBrew or deep integrations and partnerships. Added revenue streams from “latched services” can shore up brokerage bottom lines during tight markets and create longer-term links between the brand and consumer between transactions. Such partnerships can also benefit ailing lending companies.
Proptechs are also reaching out to connect to insurance and mortgage vendors to resell add services within their own products. Relocation platforms MooveGuru and MoveEasy embed insurance and lending calls-to-action as do ownership management solutions, such as Milestones and Inside Real Estate’s (IRE) CORE Home.
Doorstead, a proptech operating in rental management, acquired Knox Financial in January of 2023 to upsell clients on additional lending products.
JPAR is a natural fit for such a business tactic as it is heavily committed to using technology to connect its agents and improve how they serve their respective markets. In February 2022, the company hired IRE to deploy its enterprise-level kvCORE Platform companywide.
The mobile-forward software will support a range of companywide business initiatives, from a comprehensive company dashboard and CRM to digital listing presentations and long-term client retention, Inman reported.
Mark Johnson was named president of JPAR in early 2022. He oversees operations for its 70 offices and more than 4,500 agents.
“We are well-positioned as a premium provider of real estate services to our professionals and their customers and are further supported to deliver on our customer commitment as a member of the Cairn Real Estate Holdings network of companies,” Johnson said upon his hire.
Agents at JPAR will interact with Bubble’s products through a unique login and dashboard experience, dubbed simply, the Agent Portal.
“Bubble’s Agent Portal allows JPAR agents to organize all their clients’ insurance information on one platform,“ Bubble said. ”The platform gives agents instant visibility into the status of each client’s insurance purchase along with the ability to send a Bubble-generated insurance quote to any client with one click.“
