What I Learned at NAR 2012
This Year’s NAR was very interesting. It was my second since joining Smarter Agent. Unlike my first one I have a better handle on the industry though I am still learning. During the previous NAR there were a number of mobile vendors on the floor of the exhibit hall pushing mobile and their products and services. This year there was only one aside from us. It is certainly understandable as there is some cost in being there and staffing a booth with few agents ready to make a purchase on the spot. Further, there was a tremendous presence both in people and booth size of the aggregators. Things certainly have changed for them in a year. With their public offerings, they have been able, in many ways to become bigger than the real estate brands they “serve”.
Our goals however were to continue to be present for the industry, answer any questions and provide a window into our product suite. Since last year we have been able to further define who we are and what we offer. From expanding our national franchise application, to developing hundreds of apps for local or independent Broker, to the thousands of Agents we launched with their own branded apps, it has been a great year for Smarter Agent. But we did not stop there, we expanded our offering to provide dozens of MLSs their own consumer facing mobile product including the first ever Dual-Purpose app for MRIS. This new product allows Members of MRIS to not only access agent only features and tools from the MRIS app, but they can also brand it to distribute to their clients and get all the leads back. In the end what we accomplished this year, and shared at NAR, was our ability to further franchises, MLSs, brokers and agents to “own” their brand and control their own leads. That will never change, nor will the need for real estate professionals to have tools at their disposal to fend off aggregators looking to serve them their own clients for a fee.
~ Philip Charles-Pierre, SVP Marketing and Distribution