Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Listing Bits Episode 53: Radical Transparency & the Remine Pivot – with Mark Schacknies

When you move fast, you break things.  Mark and the rest of  Remine’s co-founders are definitely shaking things up in the MLS space.  This conversation was recorded at the CMLS Conference in Salt Lake City on October 17th before their recent attempt to launch a new listing portal and Zillow’s decision to cut off access to their Zestimate API   As Mark says, in this wide ranging conversation, Remine’s attitude is to “go big or go home.”

In February 2019, Remine raised $30M in private equity to grow its real estate data and analytics platform. A month later, the company announced a painful reduction in force as they shifted focus from upselling agents to partnering with the MLS. So, what prompted Remine’s pivot to an enterprise model? And how are they making the transition from predictive analytics to a next-level MLS system? 

Mark Schacknies is the Cofounder and CEO of Remine, a software company that delivers real estate intelligence to more than 825,000 realtors in 40-plus MLS markets. On this episode of Listing Bits, Mark shares the Remine origin story, discussing how the founders started out as competing agents but came together around a shared fondness for data-driven strategies. 

Mark speaks to Remine’s pivot from predictive analytics tool to full MLS system, describing what inspired their transition to an enterprise model and how they are addressing their lack of experience in the realm of MLS conversion. Listen in for insight around how Remine’s philosophy differs from legacy incumbents like CoreLogic and learn what success looks like for Mark’s team on their journey to an IPO.

What’s Discussed: 

How the founders of Remine started out as competitors 

Leveraging tech to transform real estate from within

How the MLS governs the world’s most important asset class

Why Redfin is at the top of Mark’s list of consumer portals

Balancing privacy with data to empower decision-making

What inspired Remine’s pivot to a full MLS platform

What a day-in-the-life of Mark Schacknies looks like

How Remine is addressing a lack of experience in MLS conversion 

The difference in philosophy between Remine and CoreLogic

How Remine’s UI gives control to MLSs re: business rules

What success looks like for Remine + the IPO timeline

Resources:

CMLS 2019

The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Alvin Toffler

Cloud CMA

Joe Kazzoun

Connect with Mark:

Remine

Mark on LinkedIn

  1. What a great interview! Thanks Greg! There some shade thrown at Remine for being trying to be the Swiss Army knife MLS product. However CoreLogic is pressing that through partnerships and specifically with Prospects Software. They tout that MLS-Touch, Prospects CRM, client portal and Matrix seamlessly interact with each other.

    A few years back I sat with Greg and mentioned I thought the perfect MLS system would have a seamless UI across all devices, much as Apple does with its it’s apps. Apple’s own apps are virtually identical whether you use use them on a computer, phone or tablet. And information syncs across all devices.

    That is what Remine needs to accomplish without CoreLogic’s clunky add-on approach. By that I mean MLS, client portal, CRM and mobile apps. What a dream it would be for me to do be able to do everything I need to do in real estate I terms of those four touch points in one MLS portal and have all the info sync across all my devices.

  2. Roland,

    Great that you’re talking about the alliance and integrations between CoreLogic and Prospects – it’s cool to see that the word is getting out!

    Like you, I am a big Apple user and I totally understand what you mean about the Apple ecosystem. However, I disagree that this is the best approach in real estate, i.e.: having all your tools in one interface, with one supplier.

    As a real estate professional could you be the agent, the mortgage broker, the inspector, the attorney and the escrow officer? We both know that this is impossible.
    You could be the inspector, for example, but you would never have time to be 100% focused on it. The inspector on the other side of the street, the one that ONLY does inspections, would be better than you because he would be dedicated to his niche, and immersed in developing and honing his service, learning the latest best practices, etc.

    At Prospects we focus 100% of our resources on our CRM and our Mobile MLS app. They are premium, best-of-breed apps.
    Real Estate is all about Location, Location, Location, we think that real estate software is all about best-of-breed and Integration, Integration, Integration.

    What we’ve built with CoreLogic is amazing and you should try it or call me for a personal demo. 🙂 It kicks arses. We’ve also just integrated with Realist tax data, and soon our MLS-Touch app and Prospects CRM will be integrated with Cloud CMA.

    Respectfully,

    Charles Drouin
    CEO
    Prospects Software

Sponsored By VestaPlus