American computer scientist Alan Kay once defined technology as “anything that wasn’t around when you were born.” True enough, but that covers a lot of ground, especially on the leading edge of today’s technology developments. As a real estate broker, you need to focus on what’s currently coming down the pipeline that could have a meaningful, positive impact on your business.
Identifying and supporting those new technologies is one of the key goals of the REach® accelerator program. Over the past five years, REach® has screened thousands of emerging technology companies that are eager to grow in association with the real estate industry.
Each year, seven to 10 of the best are selected to participate in a nine-month program that gives them access to some of the top minds in the real estate industry, helping ensure their products and services are designed in ways that provide optimum benefit to real estate professionals, while also supporting your role as being essential to consumers and real estate transactions.
Recent Success Stories
Perhaps the strongest class yet, the REach® class of 2017 includes nine companies: Adwerx, Centriq, HouseCanary, immoviewer, Notarize, Occly, Pearl Certification, Relola and TrustedMail. Over the past year, these nine companies participated in hundreds of mentor meetings and numerous demo days, and accessed an online insight panel comprised of over 30,000 industry practitioners.
One company, immoviewer, also found a new CEO as a result of its mentor meetings. Jeff Turner, previously president of RealSatisfied (a Placester company) stepped into his new role in October.
In another noteworthy development, the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) venture capital fund, Second Century Ventures (SCV), recently announced an investment in 2017 class member Notarize, a remote notary platform. Additionally, SCV has made a second investment in Trust Stamp, an identity authentication company that was a member of the 2016 REach® class.
New: Special Offers
In conjunction with the 2017 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, two former REach® companies announced free offers exclusively for NAR members:
Relola – Makes it easy to showcase your local market expertise on an interactive map full of the places, listings and businesses in your community. In addition to creating a powerful new marketing tool, your updates can automatically post to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Sign up for a free account at relola.com.
Trust Stamp – Verifies prospective clients’ identities, using software that scours public records, social media profiles and other sources of information to present a “trust score” for prospective clients. REALTORS® can now get the tool free of charge at truststamp.re.
Now Accepting New Applications
Do you know a tech start-up that is targeting the real estate industry for future growth? Encourage them to apply to join the REach® class of 2018. For more information, visit narREach.com/apply.
Get Involved
Sign up to participate in the REach® online insight panel, where you will receive first access to the new technologies introduced by next year’s class. Panelists select one or more companies, then receive a free test account and exclusive discounts in exchange for providing feedback.
REach® is a Second Century Ventures (SCV) company. SCV is a venture capital fund that has been fully capitalized by the National Association of REALTORS®, but operates independently (i.e., it is not funded by current NAR membership dues).
Matt Lombardi is senior vice president, Marketing, Events & Alliances for the National Association of REALTORS®.
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