The RISMedia’s Real Estate Newsmakers initiative celebrates industry professionals who are making strides in the real estate space with their positive contributions. Ned Stringham, chairman and CEO of Inside Real Estate, leads one of the fastest-growing, independently-owned real estate software companies, bringing innovation to the core and helping real estate professionals achieve success with a tech-forward approach.
Stringham shares what it means to be trailblazer in the industry and how Inside Real Estate has achieved high levels of success by putting all its energy toward finding technological solutions that simply deliver results.
You were selected as an RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker, in the Trailblazer category. What does it mean to you to be a trailblazer in the industry? Â
Ned Stringham: I’m honored to be recognized as a Newsmaker alongside such talented leaders in our industry. To me, being a trailblazer means an unwavering commitment to forward progress. It means looking several steps ahead, anticipating what’s going to impact the lives of our customers. And then working to create a culture of continuous improvement and innovation to ensure the success of our customers both now and in the future.
How have you paved the path for success at Inside Real Estate?
NS: As an independent technology partner, our success is predicated on the success of our customers. Driven by that fundamental alignment, I focus my energy on ensuring Inside Real Estate is always in the best possible position to deliver real business results for our customers. This past year, for example, we brought on Lovell Minnick Partners (a $3B private equity firm) as our new primary financial backer. This move has given us an even greater capacity to serve our customers using our expanded financial resources to invest in and acquire the very best products and people.
Tell us how you’ve used your entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy to implement change at Inside Real Estate.
NS: I’ve been fortunate to be a part of building many successful businesses over the years as a founder, an operator and an investor. One of the most fulfilling aspects of my role at Inside Real Estate, is instilling my past experience and learnings from both outside and within the industry to help our team become the best leaders they can be.
What are some of the trends you’re seeing in real estate, and how do you foresee Inside Real Estate adapting to them?
NS: We continue to see consumers demand a more consumer-centric, tech-enabled experience when it comes to real estate. There is an arms race happening across our industry to develop a platform that streamlines an often-disjointed process, giving real estate practitioners the ability to meet and exceed the evolving needs of today’s homebuyers and sellers. As we’ve seen play out in many other industries, there will be a continued consolidation of technology providers who can deliver at that level. We’ve positioned Inside Real Estate, and our customers, to succeed with the right strategy, resources and financial backing needed to compete and deliver results for the long-haul.
What role will kvCORE play in adapting/innovating around these changing trends?
NS: Our flagship platform, kvCORE, was built specifically to eliminate the disjointedness that costs agents, teams and brokers real money, every day. Our model provides a flexible, tech ecosystem that empowers agents and teams to win more business while supporting brand differentiation and profitability for the brokerage. We continue to expand on that foundation, leveraging best practices learned across our over 200k users along with the latest data and machine learning trends to consistently deliver more relevant and compelling consumer experiences that give our customers a leg up on the competition.
What advice can you provide to anyone looking to innovate and bring positive change to the industry?
NS: Focus on your customer’s success and delivering value, first and foremost. The rest will follow.
To view Stringham’s 2020 Newsmaker profile and those of all the other honorees this year, visit RISMedia.com/2020-Newsmakers.
Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s senior editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com.
