by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
This week, we caught up with Katy Davenport, Director of Product Management at First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS) in Georgia. We chatted about getting on the RESO Board of Directors, missing out on big paydays and the gambling industry. Enjoy!
Q1: You have found your way on to the RESO Board of Directors after a fairly short tenure at FMLS. Why should people not be surprised?
Katy: First of all, a lot of credit goes to the organization I represent, FMLS, which has a long legacy of being “first.” It’s in our name for a reason. I have a lot of support and backing from FMLS CEO Jeremy Crawford, who used to be the CEO of RESO.
When I was first approached about working at FMLS by COO Marsha Buice, I was asked about my long-term goals, and I frankly stated that I wanted to be on the RESO board. From the day I got my job offer, they understood and supported that goal.
I talked to a lot of past and present RESO board members about their experience. When voting was open, I spent even more time talking to other vendors and MLSs.
RESO: Oh, you campaigned!
I did. It was out of my comfort zone, but it was something I felt very strongly about, and I believed in FMLS being a major part of RESO. Our Senior Product Analyst, David Williamson, for example, is very involved in the workgroups.
I know that I have less than 10 years in the industry but I figured if it didn’t work out with my first attempt at getting on the board, I would keep trying. But I was really happy that my many conversations turned into support. Many of the people I talked to liked what I had to say, and they trusted me to be on the board, for which I’m really grateful.
I have talked at length with Marsha and Jeremy about the organizational values of FMLS and how they align with the goals of the RESO board. I bring my own personal feelings to that, and I’m trying to do good for my organization while using my full breadth of experience to make the industry better. I believe in RESO, and I just really wanted to be a part of it.
I also want to give a shout out to [VP, Head of Industry Relations at Anywhere] Caitlin McCrory, who I worked with at Redfin. I talked to her a lot about being on the board, and she challenged me to keep a positive mentality. I thought, “What’s the worst that can happen?” I wasn’t going to lose my job if I didn’t make the board. It’s something I wanted, not something I had to do. It wasn’t a requirement for my role at FMLS, it was a requirement I set for myself.
Q2: We used to work together at ShowingTime. We both have good friendships and professional relationships from that time in our lives, but neither of us stayed long enough to wind up under the Zillow umbrella, after that acquisition. Do you have any regrets about missing out on the stock options that came from that deal?
Katy: (Laughing.) A lot of regrets. It’s so sad.
The Zillow acquisition was announced about a month after I left ShowingTime. While I’m very happy about where my career has gone since then, I could have turned that into even better Detroit Lions football season tickets.
Even sadder, that’s not the only time I missed out on a nice payday. When I was a senior in college, I was a finalist in a promotional raffle at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. A mortgage company was giving away $1 million if the Wings scored within a certain amount of time left in any period.
It was only a few seconds. I think it was supposed to be whatever the mortgage rate was that day. I had to go on the ice before the game, and they put me on the jumbotron at the end of every period to catch my reaction. Sadly, I did not win.
I had to sign all this paperwork, and they let us watch the game from a suite. At one point, they walked in with a giant check that had my name on it, in case I won. It was surreal and now serves as a cool story to tell whenever I have to take the sting out of missing something like that Zillow payout!
Q3: You spent more than four years of your career working in the casino industry, notably as the manager of more than 40 people in a casino call center. What’s an interesting thing about that line of business that amateur gamblers may not know?
Katy: Gaming is very personal. It all revolves around money, and people don’t like losing money. It’s interesting what people will say to you over the phone in the heat of the moment when they don’t have to look you in the face as they say it.
If you are kind to someone though, whether you are a casino regular or not, the people that work in gaming will do whatever they can to make the experience better.
I had one senior citizen customer, Betty, who would take a bus to the casino about once a month, and I developed this warm relationship with her. She would specifically ask for me when she called, even after I got upgraded to a managerial position. I think I upgraded her room to a suite almost every stay, because she was just so sweet and kind. She kept in touch with me even after I moved from Michigan to Chicago.
Being kind will get you through and is often rewarded. It seems like a simple concept, but it’s the truth. The highest rollers would often be the nicest, no matter how much they lost, and that made a difference. On the other end of the spectrum, some low-amount money losers – in the range of $150 or less – were quite entitled and would usually yell the loudest. You develop a very thick skin though, which is always helpful in life.
Overall, it was a cool job, and it was a surprisingly technical job. I don’t think people realize how deep everything goes. Like even when I wasn’t working, I had to follow the rules and take my hands out of my pockets because I knew the surveillance team was watching. If I was even at the casino as a visitor, my hands had to be out and visible. It’s still a habit now, on the rare times I gamble.
Also, if you get a job at a casino and you quit, you are banned from the floor for like six months as a matter of policy. You also aren’t supposed to take pictures of slot machines. Livestreams are not allowed. I don’t know how the people on TikTok get away with it, because our security guys would catch so many people taking pictures of machines and would force them to delete the photos.
Hospitality is a very genuine part of the gaming industry and was a cool experience for me. All calls would end with, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” We took good care of our guests. It’s a mentality I carry with me in my job now as I interact with our members and the industry at large.
Three Questions is an interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards in a fun way.
