Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

RIP Joel MacIntosh

Real Estate Technology Pioneer Joel MacIntosh Passes Away

“As the founder and CEO of Wolfnet, and later through its successful merger with OjO Labs, Joel was instrumental in modernizing real estate technology and pioneering IDX. His forward-thinking leadership built critical bridges between traditional industry practices and the emerging digital ecosystem, empowering countless professionals with tools and platforms that remain essential today.”

Make sure you read Victor’s tribute above. What a sad loss.

I can’t even count how many times I recommended WolfNet to other vendors, brokers, and agents. They basically invented the IDX space. Joel was a great guy—reliable, solid, and someone who touched a lot of lives.

Joel was one of my very first industry interviews, before I even started podcasting. I think this interview really shows the great sense of humor he had.

RIP, Joel. My condolences to his family.

RIP John Morris

I first met John when he started J. Williams, a real estate software company in the 1990s. John had one of the first CMAs in the business. He branded his tools as the System for Success Suite. Part of that suite included Sellmore CMAShowpro, and EasyFlyer.

At the time, my company, IRIS, partnered with John on an integration with our Lightning-Easy MLS Access, that added MLS photos into Sellmore CMA. It was the first CMA in the industry with MLS photos. John and I traveled the country doing joint presentations. He was a huge mentor and taught me everything I know about selling in front of a live audience.

Eventually, IRIS acquired the assets of J. Williams, and we rebranded the System for Success Suite as Lightning CMA Plus. But John was just getting started.

He went on to found Advanced Access. Seeing the internet as an opportunity, Advanced Access became one of the first vendors to provide real estate agent websites. It’s hard to describe now just how impactful and pioneering Advanced Access was in getting agents “on the web.”

As fate would have it, Advanced Access was acquired by Dominion Enterprises—coincidentally, the same company that acquired eNeighborhoods, where I was working at the time. So what did John do next? Did he start another real estate software company?

Nope. He opened a race track.

In my book, The Art of the CMA, on page 125 I describe John as “The Evel Knievel of Real Estate”:

“One of my mentors is a very interesting guy named John Morris. He’s been a real estate agent, developer, restaurant owner, started and sold two successful real estate software companies (one of which I bought from him), and flown hang gliders, helicopters, and airplanes.”

You may have already seen John and not realized it—he had a bit of internet fame, too. After buying a water jet company, he appeared on a news broadcast where, during the demo, his jetpack accidentally hit the reporter and triggered the safety switch and sent John crashing in to the water.

A couple of years ago, John reached out to me. Apparently, a friend of his, still in real estate, had picked up a copy of my book and told John he was mentioned in it. John loved it and called me. We spent 30 minutes on the phone laughing and telling old stories. I promised to visit him at his race track.

Earlier this year, we got in contact again. He told me he had cancer but was fighting it. I visited him this past February, and he showed me around the property, excitedly telling me all his plans for the future. Same old John—larger than life, with that impish twinkle in his eye.

There are many people still in the industry who were impacted by John. And without a doubt, there would be no Cloud CMA without Sellmore CMA.

I just wanted to make sure his family knows how much of an impact he had on me—and on this entire industry. RIP John.

Peter Shuttleworth RIP

Peter, sans red suspenders, I believe in 2011.

Word spread over the weekend, that we lost Peter Shuttleworth. Mike Wurzer, CEO of FBS, wrote a great post about Peter you can read here. Below is an excerpt:

“A lot of people throw the term partnership around easily but Peter was very intentional and selective when he used that term, which is one of the many reasons CMLS honored him by naming their annual MLS Executive of the Year Award after him (PDF). In creating the award, CMLS wrote: “Peter’s motto of, ‘You should always have a seat at the table to listen, participate and help shape ideas’ is an ideal that all MLS Executives should desire. When Peter retired he left a legacy of integrity, professionalism and resoluteness to serve as the standard for any MLS Executive to aspire to be.” Well said, CMLS!”

I like that word “resoluteness”. It means a strong determination to achieve or persevere something through challenges. With things being as they are now, I believe resoluteness is something we can all aspire to.

I have my own story about Peter and how he helped me. This was back in the days when CMLS was known as Northwest Council of MLS. “Northwest Council”, as we all called it, had two conferences a year. Perhaps it was because I would sit in on a lot of the meetings, or would love to discuss all things MLS in the lobby bars of these events, Peter once asked to speak with me. He told me there was an opening for a “business representative” on Northwest Council’s board and he thought I would be a great candidate.

I was accepted, and was the business representative for Northwest Council for about 10 years. It opened a whole new world for me.

Thank you Peter. Rest in peace.

RIP Richard Simmons

While not the biggest news this past week the passing of Richard Simmons got me a bit nostalgic. I hired Richard Simmons to do a meet and greet at our booth at the 2004 NAR Annual Convention. This was on the heels of the NAR Annual Conference in 2003 where we had hired Fabio. But that’s another story. Fabio was a huge success and drew a huge crowd at the eNeighborhoods booth. So naturally we thought, let’s get another celebrity! After some brain-storming we settled on Richard Simmons. You can see page one of the agreement we did with the company repping him below and an ad we ran in REALTOR Magazine:

He was a lot of fun. I remember him calling our wives for a prank, “Hi Honey, guess who’s with your husband right now?!” He would also record voice mail greetings for our cell phones. “Hi this is Richard Simmons and you’ve reached Shane’s voice mail!”

Another thing I remember was how a lot of conference attendees came up and told stories about how he had motivated them to live a more healthy life. When I saw him having these conversations (sometimes he would pull them aside) you could see something in his eyes…he truly cared. Such a great legacy.

Kristen

One of the most genuine people I’ve ever known. Beautiful inside and out. An amazing mother. Rest in peace. 🥺

RIP Lin McIntosh

Linda Louise Simmons McIntosh AUGUST 19, 1942 – JANUARY 19, 2024

“Lin had a successful 45-year career in Hawaiian Real Estate. After retirement she volunteered into the Peace Corps and served in Kenya educating Kenyan families on how to develop businesses to provide for themselves and on a water conservation project to bring water to the remote villages. She also participated in building a school in Kenya for children of the Genocide.”

DigitalMemory.com

What a life! I have had so much joy following her adventures on Facebook (on her front page you can see her riding a camel)! She stopped posting late last year and I wondered what was up. The obit says she died peacefully. God speed Lin. You will be missed.

Don’t wait

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

-Steve Jobs

Bubbles Up

Via Twitter

The soundtrack to many days spent on the river with friends. Thank you Jimmy.

Inventor of PDF dies

John Warnock, Inventor of the PDF, Dies at 82

“The PDF was the result of Dr. Warnock’s abiding obsession since graduate school: finding a way to ensure that the graphics displayed on one computer — whether words or images — looked the exact same on another computer, or on a page from a printer, regardless of the manufacturer.

“It had been a holy grail in computer science to figure out how to communicate documents,” he said in a 2019 interview with Oxford University.

Clay Risen, reporting for The New York Times

Hard to think of another industry that has benefited from the PDF more than real estate. From forms to CMAs and everything in between. Thank you John.

RIP Lorne Wallace

Lorne C. Wallace, 1962-2023

“A chartered accountant by trade, and the third generation of his family to be involved in real estate, Lorne founded Lone Wolf in 1989. Through a combination of passion, innovation, and sheer will, Lorne grew the company into the leading software provider for the residential real estate industry in North America. His vision for Lone Wolf guides us to this day.”

Lorne was a force of nature. He was an incredibly shrewd and talented businessman. Anyone who has been in this businesss long enough has a few “Lorne stories”, I have a couple myself. While our paths never crossed once W+R Studios was acquired by Lorne’s company, Lone Wolf (he had already left the business and board), I can see everyday the impact he made in people’s live. My greatest sympathies to his family and friends.

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