by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
This week’s interview is Eric Hackman, Director of Customer Success and Support at CubiCasa. This is part two in our exploration of the suddenly hot topic of floor plans. We talked about vendor/MLS relations, why the lyricism of Don Henley and Glenn Frey hits the heart of real estate, and rooting for an underdog. Enjoy!
RESO: You continue to make splashy new partnerships around real estate with CubiCasa’s floor plan product line, but we touched on one of your more interesting wins in our Three Questions session with Megan McFarlane, CEO of New Mexico MLS.
That MLS now requires a floor plan with every listing, and we learned that you were personally onsite in New Mexico traveling with Megan to ten cities across the state over five days to teach implementation demos. What lessons can you share about conducting long-lasting, successful vendor/MLS relations to that extent?
Eric: In our Floor Plan on Every Listing (FPOEL) mission, we are hitching our wagons to partners who are willing to take this next step. We will invest in their subscriber base whenever they want us to do onsite training or online webinars. We will deeply invest in the educational pieces that the MLS is sponsoring for their subscribers.
We’re not just handing our product over to them to figure out. We’re willing to go this extra step, and it’s not a one-time thing. We intend to help through every step of the FPOEL mission and beyond into other engagement points like continuing education.
Naturally, we expected a little resistance on this road trip, because it was a requirement and people don’t like being told what to do, especially REALTORS®. But vendors don’t typically travel around an entire state for hands-on training while sharing the very real benefits of FPOEL.
Vendors should 100 percent do this sort of thing, because it was an overwhelming success. We don’t just mean that in a feel-good sense either. We see the level of success in the increased engagement numbers, and this absolutely must be tracked in order to prove worth and advance the mission.
As for the floor plan product itself, data compilation is good for the MLS. It becomes theirs through a partnership that includes shared rights.
RESO: You have surpassed the 20-year experience threshold in real estate, and you have crossed through at least four organizations along the way, officially marking you as a resident of real estate’s Hotel California (“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!”). How do you feel about this longevity, now that you are an elder statesman of the industry? Do you feel like a veteran?
Eric: Yes and no. What’s exciting about the real estate industry is that it’s a roller coaster. Since the economic booms and crashes in 2004 and 2008, and through some pretty serious tech changes, it’s never been dull. That’s why I love it. It’s constantly evolving, especially with proptech and AI over the last several years. Sure, AI is a buzzword today, but so was the Internet a quarter century ago.
The industry never stays the same, and I‘ve been working with people that take part in many different functions of the transaction – valuation, agency, MLS, consumer, backend and front end. I could go into other industries with the level of experience I have, but why would I? I do this for the relationships I’ve built. It’s everything.
At CubiCasa, it’s a customer-focused organization from the top down, and that’s why I love it here. This mindset is where I thrive.
RESO: You hail from Cincinnati, Ohio, and are a fan of the local professional sports teams, especially the Cincinnati Bengals football team and Cincinnati Reds baseball team, neither of which have had much championship success in recent years. How do you respond to a pervasive lack of success from something you are passionate about?
Eric: Oh, man. It’s tested my loyalty and commitment, but it shows that I remain committed to the things that I feel passionate about. It might sound cheesy, but that feeling follows me, no matter where I go, including my work at CubiCasa. I can’t turn it off. So I owe a lot to my Cincinnati fandom.
I live in the Twin Cities in Minnesota now, and I love their teams, too. They are now my 1A teams. It’s often demoralizing, but I’m a glutton for punishment.
RESO: You poor fool.
The interviewer is a lifelong fan of Minnesota pro sports teams like the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves and Wild. The Twins last won a championship in 1991. The other teams have never won a championship. The Cincinnati Bengals have lost three Super Bowls, and the Cincinnati Reds last won a World Series in 1990.
Three Questions is a lighthearted interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards.
