Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

T3 Technology Summit dates announced

T3 Technology Summit Unveils the Future of Real Estate Technology and Marketing

“The T3 Tech Summit is where innovation converges with opportunity, creating a dynamic ecosystem for marketing and technology leaders. Our commitment to fostering meaningful connections and providing valuable insights ensures that attendees leave equipped to shape the future of our industry,” said Michael Phelan, senior vice president of technology consulting at T3 Sixty.”

T3 Sixty

Dates are Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2024, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans. Early bird pricing is super reasonable. This event seems to get better and better every year.

T3 Sixty will not publish 2024 rankings of brokerages

Prudent.

T3 Sixty Webinar-“5 years of insights for MLS & Association Executives”

The industry owes the folks at T3 Sixty a lot of gratitude for putting this information together. Whether you are a vendor, MLS organization or Association this data is gold when it comes to planning.

Today T3 Sixty just updated its Real Estate Almanac. This year they also parsed out ownership structures of MLS organizations. Join Clint tomorrow and get the full rundown.

To register visit => T3 Sixty Webinar Series

Swanepoel Power 200 for 2024

It’s that time of year again! T3 Sixty has published their SP200 list for 2024. Each year I like to parse out the list and see how our brothers and sisters made out in the MLS community.

The Mt. Rushmore of MLS Execs (as I previously coined them last year) has not changed but each of their respective positions have slightly improved. Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS, Brian Donnellan, CEO of Bright MLS and Bob Hale, CEO of HAR.

Art and Brian both jumped 7 spots, Bob broke in to the twenties.

Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of Stellar MLS leaps 32 spots to #52 to the fourth highest ranking MLS exec on the list beating Teresa King Kinney of Miami AOR who dropped 5 spots to # 60.  Jeremy Crawford of FMLS catapults 48 spots up this year to #54.

John DiMichele of TREBB (the only MLS on this list that doesn’t offer Cloud CMA to its members) falls to #66.  ( you know I love you Jon. 😆)

Dionna Hall, CEO of Beaches MLS, glides up to #96 on the list.  Rebecca Jensen, CEO of MRED lands at # 99 while Matt Consalvo, CEO of ARMLS, climbs up 10 spots to #100.  Gene Millman, CEO of REColorado.com soars to #102 on the list (that’s a leap of 65!) Emily Chenevert, CEO of Austin Board of REALTORS jumps 18 spots up from last year to #124

AnneMarie DeCatsye, CEO of Canopy MLS climbs to #174. Brad Bjelke CEO of UtahRealEstate.com landed at #175.  

Stuart White, CEO of Realtracs rockets 56 spots to land at #120.  Plus “the mad scientist” Tim Dain was listed at #130 ( a jump of 58 spots)

Erm Grasso, CEO of MLS PIN, and Richard Haggerty , CEO OneKey MLS, debuts on the list at #195 and #198 respectively.

Congratulations everyone!

***Please forgive me if I missed someone or got something wrong. Just DM me and I’ll make the correction.***

T3 Sixty’s Annual MLS Study

I have to say that the Real Estate Almanac is one of the most used tools I have. I was asked to pass along this announcement and hope everyone will consider supporting T3 Sixty’s efforts.

“Each year since 2018, T3 Sixty in collaboration with RESO have produced the Organized Real Estate rankings section on RealEstateAlmanac.com. The ranking include the MLS subscriber counts and organizational types for each of the 521 MLSs across the United States along with REALTOR® association membership counts. To ensure they have the most accurate information possible, T3 is again asking MLS Executives to share their current MLS subscriber counts for publication of the 2024 version of the list which will be published electronically and shared with the industry in February of 2024.

Building on their success with last year’s intial research, MLS executives will also be given the option to take part in T3’s confidential MLS Executive compensation and benefits study. This year, based on feedback, the independent research firm has added the option to complete an MLS COO and CTO study. It is important to note that the individual results of these studies will not be made public, but each MLS survey participant will be provided with a complimentary synopsis report of the research results. 

T3 Sixty 2024 MLS Count and C-Level Compensation Study

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty’s SVP of Organized Real Estate directly at clint@t360.com.”

Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty

Less software?

Next week Lone Wolf Technologies will reveal its new platform at the T3 Technology Summit, and I’m super excited about it. Why? Let me tell you a story.

At W+R Studios we were bootstrapped, so we needed to grow organically. Our product strategy centered around making core features of an MLS system better.

CMAs on MLS systems suck? Let’s make a better one. Enter Cloud CMA.

MLS system’s client portals and listing alert emails are ugly. Let’s make them pretty (and easier to use). Voilà , Cloud Streams.

Searching on MLS systems too complicated? Let’s make something simple. Boom, Cloud MLX!

The problem was two fold. In order to grow we needed to add new products (more software) and at the end of the day is that we had 3 different software apps, each of them great in their own right, but they didn’t really work together. Also if you wanted all three you had to buy each one separately, and have 3 separate logins, and 3 separate onboarding scenarios, 3 different times you entered a credit card number, and 3 separate…you get the point.

We solved most of this by creating the “Cloud Agent Suite“, but really only scratched the surface of what was possible, then we were acquired in December 2020.

So this problem of “simplifying real estate” has been on the minds of our (W+R) design team for a very long time. How do we bring all of this together to create an end to end solution that makes sense, and still grow? Can “less software” be the answer?

Turns that the problem was about to get bigger. Starting in 2020 Lone Wolf acquired 5 companies in 9 months (including W+R); HomeSpotter, LionDesk, Terradatum and Propertybase. Now you had 9 (at least) separate logins, 9 separate… you get the point.

Sean Wheeler, CTO Lone Wolf
Sean Wheeler, CTO Lone Wolf

When I left Lone Wolf I was starting to see the green shoots of this work. Most of it on the backend led by Sean Wheeler, Lone Wolf’s CTO. One login, one credit card, one database of contacts for all products, etc. Jimmy Kelly, Lone Wolf’s CEO, talked about their effort and the concept of “less software” on a post on Inman News titled “Real Estate Doesn’t Need More Software“. I was also privy to see some of the earlier mock ups from the design group, which were super impressive.

Jimmy Kelly, CEO Lone Wolf
Jimmy Kelly, CEO Lone Wolf

But, like any good meal it all comes down to ingredients. Lone Wolf from my estimation has the best ingredients in the market. The products they acquired (and the teams behind them) are not only best of class but have high adoption rates and great partnerships. Now it comes down to presentation and taste. And I have full confidence in the design chops of the team behind this. I had a chance to interview, Damien Huze, who was W+R’s Chief Design Officer and now a principal designer at Lone Wolf on my Listing Bits podcast which should drop this week.

Damien Huze, Principal Designer Lone Wolf
Damien Huze, Principal Designer Lone Wolf

Am I biased? Absolutely. Am I still a fan of simple focused software applications? You betcha. But I’m a bigger fan of people. So I look forward to seeing how this particular group of talented people proves less software is better.

“This is why you go to conferences!”

Jack Miller, CEO of T3 Sixty via LinkedIn:

“Our consulting team is in hundreds of conversations every month with brokerage leaders, team leaders, and executives in our industry – and there is no way to sugar coat this, there is a malaise over part of the industry right now.

Many people that would normally engage, show up to things, be present – they are simply not there.

This has been evidenced heavily by attendance at the late summer conferences that kick off the fall conference season. Attendance is 30-50% down, which in many respects, is not surprising.”

Go read the whole thing.

T3 Sixty pens, “Letter to the Industry”

Letter to the Industry – Compensation Lawsuits

“The recent settlement between MLS PIN and plaintiffs in the Nosalek case reveals that foundational change to the structure – a decoupling of buyer broker compensation from listing broker compensation to some degree – will most likely occur sooner than later. These changes could come because of a settlement, a judge’s injunction or, if the industry is smart, by key stakeholders’ proactive adjustments to their policies and practices.”

Rob and I have been discussing this for a while now and will cover some of the implications of the Nosalek case on this week’s Industry Relations pod.

The bottom line is shit’s getting real.

T3 Sixty’s Real Estate Almanac shows consolidation and growing membership of MLS and Associations

New data from T3 Sixty shows continued compression of total real estate MLSs and Realtor associations across the US

“The 2023 rankings compiled by T3 Sixty’s research team reveal a four-year steady decline in the total number of MLS organizations and local associations and a steady increase in the average MLS subscriber count and local association membership during that same time period. Since 2020, the total number of MLSs and local Realtor associations have dropped 7.6% and 3.8%, respectively, while the average member count of each has steadily grown.”

From a T3 Sixty email announcement:

Meanwhile, the MLSs that remain are growing in subscriber count, averaging an increase of 5.5% in membership in 2022. Since 2020, the average subscriber count for MLSs has grown by nearly 30%.

Not sure why T3 Sixty didn’t publish the same content in their email overview somewhere on the web to link to. Lame.

But the data is awesome. While membership counts are up close to 30% since 2020, they did dip down from 2022 to 2023 by -5.5%. The Real Estate Almanac is a great resource for the entire industry. Many thanks to Jack, Clint, and the rest of the team at T3 Sixty.

The 2023 Swanepoel Power 200

Let’s face it, we all love lists. “What’s your top 5 albums?”, “Rank the 10 greatest basketball players”, etc. ,etc. ,etc.

Well the SP200 is out today and some big changes with Gino Blefari, President and CEO of HomeServices of America, taking the top spot from Gary Keller. Some are calling this controversial. I think Rich Barton and Andy Florance should have ranked higher but nobody asked me. Sue Yannaccone, newly minted CEO and President, Anywhere Brands is the top female executive at #6, I’m a big fan of hers so that was good to see.

But on to what I’m really interested in, how did our peeps in organized real estate do? I count about 19 MLS execs on the list. I think that is 4 more than last year. At the top of this is the Mt. Rushmore of MLS Execs (since they appeared that way on the list). Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS, Brian Donnellan, CEO of Bright MLS and Bob Hale, CEO of HAR.

Art is off to a running start in 2023 with the addition of SRAR, bringing CRMLS’ member count north of 110,000.

Teresa King Kinney of Miami AOR at # 65, Jon DiMichele of TREBB at #74, and it wouldn’t be a Top200 list without Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of Stellar MLS #84, Rebecca Jensen, CEO of MRED at # 93, deal maker extraordinaire, Jeremy Crawford of FMLS continues his rise to #102 this year.

Matt Consalvo #110, CEO of ARMLS and Dionna Hall #115, CEO of Beaches MLS both jumped ten spots from last year. Emily Chenevert, CEO of Austin Board of REALTORS leaped 13 spots up from last year to #142


Tom Hurdelbrink, CEO of NWMLS made a huge leap up 15 spots from last year to #155, although with the leadership NWMLS has done this past year regarding transparency I would have loved to see him higher on the list.


Brad Bjelke CEO of UtahRealEstate.com catapulted up 19 spots from last year to #159, and great to see Gene Millman, CEO of REColorado.com land at #167 on the list and Rick Trevino, CEO of MetroList Services debuts on the list at #174 (Go Rick!)


Also cool to see Stuart White, CEO of Realtracs at #176 and it looks like this year AnneMarie DeCatsye, CEO of Canopy MLS went from #192 to #181. Plus “don’t call it a comeback” Tim Dain was listed at #188 and the spectacular Shelley Specchio came in at #194.

***Please forgive me if I missed someone. Just DM me and I’ll make the correction.***

And it is always great to see Sam DeBord #144, CEO of RESO and Denee Evans #178, CEO of CMLS be recognized for all the great work they do for the industry. I would also add the prophet himself, Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBS to that category.

I’m also contractually obligated (just kidding!) to mention that Lone Wolf CEO, Jimmy Kelly lept 6 spots to #52 on the list. How could you not love a CEO name Jimmy!?

And I did want to make a special call out to a special person on the “SP200 Watchlist“, Caitlin McCrory, VP of Industry Relations, Anywhere Real Estate.

I’ve been following Caitlin’s career for a while now and she has a passion for the industry that is infectious, it’s just all kinds of wonderful to see her recognized.

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