Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

My interview with Jimmy Kelly, CEO of Lone Wolf

The first 4 months at Lone Wolf have been an awesome learning experience for me. Lone Wolf and W+R Studios have always had mutual customers, and I was always aware of the forms and transaction management business but now I’m getting a full immersion course. What I’m learning the most is this, at scale, it’s a tough business. I know that competition is starting to rise in this space, I would only say to them, be careful what you wish for.

With that in mind, I sat down to talk with Lone Wolf’s CEO, Jimmy Kelly. I was surprised but not surprised that he agreed to do this interview with me. I don’t think we made any edits or cut anything out, it’s about 30 mins long and worth the watch. Jimmy answered all my questions, even the tough ones (check out the timeline), and I still have a job!

Hope you enjoy and see how running a form business during the beginning of a worldwide pandemic is a little like Lucy and Ethel working at the chocolate factory.

Timeline:

:40 – Introduction to Jimmy, and history in software industry

4:20 – Greg and Jimmy discuss forms changes and frequency of requests

5:15 – Looking back on pandemic, COVID requests, and response from Lone Wolf

9:30 – Greg asks about product outages, instability. Jimmy discusses what’s going on at Lone Wolf.

12:00 – Greg: What do you say to customers who’ve heard that before?

16:05 – Jimmy discusses future of Back Office. 

17:45 – Greg: Are Transactions (zipForm Edition) and Transactions (TransactionDesk Edition) eventually going to merge? 

20:00 – Greg: What do you say to customers who want you to focus on current issues rather than innovating/buying companies? 

23:45 – Jimmy previews what he’s most excited about coming soon from Lone Wolf

29:00 – Greg: What can you share about Stone Point Capital acquiring CoreLogic? 

31:30 – Is Greg a thorn in Jimmy’s side?

The 2020 Swanepoel Power 200 list keeps it interesting

Rich Barton took the top spot from Ron Peltier this year, with Gary Keller coming in at number 2. So that means two “technology companies” CEOs are on top of the list. ????

I count about 18 MLS Execs making the list this year, which I think is up 2 from last year.

Bob Hale, CEO of the Houston Association of REALTORS was the highest MLS exec, moving up 1 spot to #26.

The list also includes Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS at #35, up 1 spot from last year, Brian Donnelan, CEO of Bright MLS #75, John DiMichele, CEO of Toronto Real Estate Board, Teresa King Kinney, CEO of the Miami Association of REALTORS #108, Rebecca Jensen, CEO of MRED, LLC, #120, Merri Jo Cowen, CEO of Stellar MLS (formerly MFRMLS) #121 Kathy Condon, CEO of MLSPIN #130, Matt Consalvo, CEO of ARMLS #131 , Dionna Hall #141 CEO of Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, Jim Speer CEO of One Key MLS (formerly New York MLS) #146 Jeremy Crawford, CEO of First Multiple Listing Service, Tom Hurdelbrink, CEO of Northwest Multiple Listing Service, Anne Marie DeCatsye CEO of Charlotte Regional Realtor Association and CarolinaMLS at #179, John Mosey CEO of Northstar MLS #180, Emily Chenevert, CEO of Austin Board of REALTORS, #183 Brad Bjelke CEO of UtahRealEstate.com, #184, Chris Carrillo, CEO of MetroMLS #185,

Sam DeBord, CEO of RESO was listed at #154 and Denee Evans, CEO of CMLS was listed at #181.

Notable vendors include Errol Samuelson of Zillow Group at #38 (up two spots from last year), Chris Bennett of CoreLogic at #56. Mike Wurzer went up a few spots to #87. Morgan Carey, CEO of Real Estate Webmasters is listed at #129, Grier Allen, CEO of BoomTown is at #133, Joel Macintosh CEO of WolfNet #142, David Anderson, President of LionDesk went from the “Watchlist Group” last year all the way to #148 on the big list, right in front of yours truly, Greg Robertson at #149 (woohoo!). Charles Williams, CEO of Buyside, #157. Brian Boero and Marc Davidson of 1000watt #161, Mark Schacknies & Leo Pareja co-founders of Remine made the list at #164, Andrew Flachner, co-founder of RealScout at #168, Marilyn Wilson and Victor Lund of the WAV Group at #169, Mitch Skinner of LarsonSkinner up a few spots at #173, Suzanne Mueller of Realtor.com #188, John Mazur, CEO of Homesnap came in #199.

Congrats to everyone! I apologize in advance if I missed anyone.

Vendor Spotlight: TourSimply

I had a call with Brad Chitty today. He’s the founder of TourSimply. It’s basically a property showing management solution.

Here’s the video.

They are based out of the Atlanta area. Not a lot of fluff, does exactly what it says on the tin. If any of you MLS peeps are interested, I’m sure Brad would love to hear from you.

brad@toursimply.com

Real Estate Vendor Spotlight: SwipeFin

I get a lot of inquires from new real estate vendors or existing vendors with new products. So I thought I would start something new, I call it “Vendor Spotlight”. To kick this off, I’m going to feature SwipeFin. A clever app designed to help real estate agents manage their expenses. It uses the Tinder method of swiping left or right depending on whether the change is a business or personal expenses.

We recently took our “beta sticker” off and threw our hat in the ring for the annual Realogy’s FWD competition.

Check it out:

Editor’s Note: I’m really partial to video. So if you want to be featured you would increase you’re chances by having a video to go along with your product/feature.

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