Too many of these RIP posts lately.
I can’t express the influence MetroList has had on my career. Rick has been a solid part of the winning team at MetroList and it’s hard to imagine him gone. We all raised a glass and gave a toast to him and Frank at our Omni Lobby Bar takeover. He will be missed. #fuckcancer
We did it! Thanks to everyone who made it. A truly special night. #omnilobbybar #rlm2023 #love
From Inman News….
Frank Major, trailblazer who carved path as Bright MLS’s first CTO, dies
“It is with great sadness that I share some unexpected news with the real estate community regarding the loss of one of our beloved colleagues,” Donnellan wrote.
“This past Thursday, Bright MLS Chief Technology Officer Frank Major passed away suddenly. Our hearts are with his wife Aisha, their children, and their extended family. Please keep them in your thoughts.”
What a gut punch. So young. Dan and I have had a few great conversations with Frank over the years. My condolences go out to his family.
For all of those going to NAR Midyear meetings (I still can’t get myself to say RLM) this message is for you.
I don’t care where NAR decides to hold the conference, Tradition is tradition, so I’m inviting everyone to meet up at the Omni Hotel’s Marquee Lounge Monday night (5/8/23). Anywhere from 9 PM on, just get there before last call (Midnight), and let’s all raise a glass together in a place we have enjoyed each other’s company for so long!
Spread the word!!!
#noequal
Second Century Ventures Announces 14 Companies for 2023 REACH Scale-Up Program
“We are thrilled to welcome these innovative companies to the 2023 REACH and REACH Commercial programs,” said SCV President and NAR CEO Bob Goldberg. “Their solutions are poised to make a significant impact and help overcome the complex challenges that lie ahead in the real estate industry.”
Here’s the list:
- Flock: offers a seamless and tax-deferred exit from rental property using the 721 Exchange, allowing property owners to passively earn income and appreciation without the traditional responsibilities of ownership.
- HighNote: a drag and drop presentation and proposal platform to help agents pitch and sell listings, offers, neighborhoods and themselves.
- Plus Platform: modern asset management and trading platform for residential mortgages, providing better transparency and liquidity to the mortgage market.
- Prisidio: digital vault to capture and securely share your most important information with the key people in your life.
- Real Grader: measures, manages and maximizes digital reputation for real estate professionals across search, social media and real estate platforms.
- Summer: simplifies the process of finding, buying, designing and monetizing a vacation or investment home through a non-fractional approach.
- Tongo: private card-based product for agents to draw against pending commissions ahead of closing, and only repay when they get paid.
I’ve been following HighNote for some time. Mark Choey, HighNote’s Founder, has a good idea for design and it shows in the product. I also think Tongo is interesting. These “credit cards for X” and popping up everywhere. Congrats!
My thanks to CoreLogic for sponsoring Vendor Alley again this month.
If you are an MLS organization, it’s time to transition from old-school RETS to modern Web API. Launched by CoreLogic just this week, Trestle Direct offers a new way for MLSs to provide agents, brokers, and technology companies Web API access to non-standardized listing data and additional assets such as contacts, saved searches, and more. Now available exclusively to Matrix clients at no cost and provided through Trestle, CoreLogic’s data distribution platform, for accessible data licensing management.
New in Cloud CMA: Live buyer tours
“Live buyer tours build on the existing functionality to turn static reports into dynamic ones—with real-time data that you and your buyers can easily read on any device. So you get a new way to show off properties, and your clients get live access to the most relevant information about their favorite listings. “
I’m really proud of the team and what they’ve acomplished with this new enhancement. Back in May of 2020 we launched Cloud CMA Live. Cloud CMA Live raised the bar for interactive digital presentations and also gave agents a new way to present remotely.
The Buyer Tour report in Cloud CMA has always been a hidden gem. With the new Live Buyer Tour we wanted to give Buyer’s agents a new tool that was mobile first. I know agents are going to love it. This new enhancement is free to all Cloud CMA subscribers and launched yesterday. Check it out and please feel free to share the quick video I made above.
City National Bank to pay at least $31M to settle redlining charges
It’s the fifth redlining settlement the Justice Department has reached since announcing an initiative to combat redlining in October 2021. The settlements have generated $75 million in relief, including a $20 million settlement with Berkshire Hathaway-owned Trident Mortgage Company in July and a $13 million settlement with Lakeland Bank in September.
“Redlining is a practice from a bygone era, runs contrary to the principles of equity and justice, and has no place in our economy today,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement Thursday. “This settlement should send a strong message to the financial industry that we expect lenders to serve all members of the community and that they will be held accountable when they fail to do so.”
Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone.
It must have been the mid to late 90s, so pre-internet. We were either exhibiting at a CAR trade show or maybe NAR Annual was in Anaheim that year. IRIS was still a relatively new company and we had launched our Lightning product, which gave real estate agents a quick way to log in to different MLS systems (Moore Data and PRC). In the booth next to us was a guy, who was solo at the time, selling software to create flyers and other marketing materials (Flyerware I think it was called) for agents, and it was Mac only. His name was Renwick Congdon.
Typically when you are standing in a booth all day you strike up a conversation with the company next to you. Maybe watch the booth while the other guy goes on a bathroom break. I could tell Renwick was a smart guy, and like us he was a bootstrapper. We started a friendship that would last over 25 years.
We would see each other at shows, check up on how our businesses were doing, grab dinner sometimes, share insights, and he talked about his family and that one of his daughters getting married. He was very proud of his family.
I think he was one of my first interviews on my Listing Bits podcast. We even flirted at joining forces back in 2015. Kind of a “roll-up” strategy that never happens. He didn’t need us. With Imprev he created a monster of a business, I think he had all major franchisors on his platform. He absolutely crushed it. In late 2019 he sold his business to MoxiWorks. I remember Dan and me talking about how great it was that “one of the good guys” got paid. We called and congratulated him on his success.
When Covid hit, he reached out to Dan and me to check in and ask how we were doing. He called to congratulate us in 2020 when Dan and I sold the business.
Renwick passed away last week. I don’t know the details. But, I do know this, Renwick was a true innovator and his persistence should be an example to us all.
My sincere condolences to his family. He was truly, “one of the good guys”. Damn.
