by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
This week’s interview is with a past guest in a different role – Dan Troup, CEO of Broker Public Portal (BPP), a collaboration between real estate brokerages and MLSs to create a national consumer home search experience in the U.S. We talked about brokerage involvement at RESO, real estate portals and ice breaker questions. Enjoy!
Q1: Since we last spoke for this interview series, you have a new role, but you have maintained your strong support for RESO during this transition and continue to serve on the RESO Board of Directors. The last time we spoke, you said this:
“Brokers shouldn’t necessarily care what gets done at RESO but should know what is driving the work of RESO. Competitors are setting standards together for the industry. Initiatives like the RESO Data Dictionary are key to realizing those goals. As a broker and vendor, RESO has saved us a ton of time and money.”
A lot of people still consider RESO an MLS- and vendor-focused company, but we also want brokers to have a strong voice. How would you go about making that happen?
Dan: I think we need to hear broker feedback from other channels rather than direct. Most brokers are two to three steps removed from the process of creating standards, but I want to be clear that the outcomes of our work at RESO makes brokers the beneficiary of our effort. Whether it’s the ease in which brokers can use technology tools, the interoperability between those tools or other factors that organize the industry into predictable shapes, RESO exists to make things easier for brokers to complete transactions.
As someone who has been in the brokerage business for 20 years, I can unequivocally say that working with real estate technology has gotten easier because of RESO. Sure, MLS consolidation has helped in this regard, too, but there are plenty of real-world examples of the RESO Data Dictionary improving lives. It would cost us significantly more money and time to start the BPP if there was not a Data Dictionary or Web API.
Our goal at BPP is to put it in the market without even touching a RETS feed and to always be mapping Data Dictionary feeds. With this edict at our core, it immediately erases hours and hours of time.
In fact, the best example I can cite right now of Data Dictionary and Web API superiority to any other methodology is the BPP. The ability to get this off the ground and so quickly with limited funds and time is a revelation.
RESO creates a lower barrier to entry and makes it easier for us to talk to different tech products. And now with AI tools, for that kid or that retiree in the garage, it’s never been easier or cheaper to start something cool that can change the way the industry operates. I love that.
I think what benefits brokers the most is that we build an environment where competition flourishes, pricing for innovation is lower, data quality increases and efficiency increases.
Q2: It appears that Cribio is being established as the public-facing portal of BPP. How do you intend to differentiate yourself from other major real estate portals?
Dan: Cribio represents the brokers that contribute to it with listing content. brokerpublicportal.com would not be a good consumer-facing brand. Brokers love it, of course, but I don’t think that consumers would understand what it meant.
We toyed with some other domains. We selected Cribio as the name, because it has six characters. Our research indicated that brand names with six characters or less that are not affiliated with anything specifically related to the subject matter have a better chance of making it. Think of Zillow, Redfin, Twilio and Amazon. They are easy to spell, memorable and are unattached.
Picking names is actually really hard. Someone is always not going to like it. So we chose objective versus subjective. When we found Cribio, it was available, and we could own it on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and wherever else we chose to expand the brand, all of which can be even more difficult to secure.
Brokers sometimes make the argument that MLS websites are competing with brokerage websites. But brokerages face a larger problem, and it has to do with branding. Stating that your brand has all listings for sale is tough to prove to consumers. Just like you wouldn’t assume that you can buy a Chevy on Ford’s website.
Today’s portals have separated themselves on technical ability and advertising. The technical gap doesn’t really exist anymore. You can now execute at the same level as a big player with much less money. We all have access to Amazon Web Services and Artificial Intelligence. Technically, the moats aren’t there anymore. There are some things still, obviously, like an AVM or a gamble on a ChatGPT app, but the playing field is more level.
Advertising is still a giant moat. At BPP and Cribio, we don’t currently have the budget to run Super Bowl ads, but we do have great relationships with our ownership structure of agents, brokers and MLSs. We hope that those relationships will forge a choice to use a tool that is already owned by the industry instead of buying opportunities back from another portal.
Will consumers want to use it as well? We think so. We’re still building up to that goal, and we recently launched in the app store.
Q3: You are a fairly social fellow, and I have been lucky enough to break bread with you. You have some interesting ice breakers, including asking colleagues to describe a time when they were arrested. And people participate! Do you find that this sort of edginess works to break down barriers or have you ever had pushback from the squares?
Dan (Laughing): If I have ever asked you that question, it means I trust you. But I don’t really expect people to answer such a personal question. It’s supposed to loosen people up, get them laughing. And if anyone was actually arrested, it’s usually in a not serious manner, thank goodness. If I’ve asked such a question, it means I’m trying to advance our friendship.
RESO: Not all of your questions are so in your face. You also ask simple questions, such as your first concert or favorite musical artist.
Dan: I also have a question that I like to ask very confident people. If you go up to someone who looks like they have everything together and ask them what makes them nervous, the answers you get are really interesting.
The people I tend to ask this question are big-time speakers, because they’re the ones that seem like they have all the answers – the dream life – but you know what? They’re human.
I am fascinated by how it brings you down to the ground level of the fact that we are more alike than different. And that is meaningful to me.
Even the arrest question is meant to share that we are human and alike. I find that in asking these kinds of grounding questions, it also grounds me.
Three Questions is a lighthearted interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards.
