RE/MAX LEADERS SHINE AT INMAN CONNECT NEW YORK 2020

Kicking things off on Tuesday morning was RE/MAX SVP of Marketing and Communications Abby Lee. Lee spoke on a panel titled “Marketing Trends for the Roaring Twenties” alongside eXp CMO Mitch Robinson and Sotheby’s International Realty CMO Brad Nelson. The experts identified three trends: the use of video, personalization, and a higher level of customer service. The takeaway for audience members was that they need to approach marketing in a consistent and simple way so that personal connections may be established and maintained. As moderator Katie Lance said in the opening monologue, “If relationships are king, content is queen.”

ABBY LEE

What are you hoping to take away from this experience?
“It’s interesting to get outside of the brand and see what others are doing. Find out what they like about different aspects of the industry, what they are struggling with and hear about the future of the industry.”

How many Connects have you attended?
“Probably at least 15.”

Next up was RE/MAX Chief Customer Officer Nick Bailey, speaking one-on-one with moderator Joe Rand of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Bailey was there to help give agents business-building direction as well as to dispel myths around the industry’s latest topics by identifying them as “Distraction or Disruption.” Ultimately, Nick boiled it down to getting past the noise and putting the customer’s needs first. Challenging an industry obsessed with leads, Bailey said, “The quality of the lead is determined by the quality of your response.” He continued, “There are more leads within an agent’s phone than anything else out there.” That’s why RE/MAX invested in First, the coaching tool that identifies contacts within your database who are most likely to move in the next year. It was to ensure RE/MAX agents don’t miss an opportunity from within their own network.”

NICK BAILEY

What are your plans for this week at Inman Connect?
“Connect with friends across the industry, meet other leaders and ask a lot of questions.”

How many Connects have you attended?
“I don’t even know, it’s been that many.”

On day 2 of the conference, technology took center stage with RE/MAX panelists part of three different discussions. First up was Rob Lyszczarz, President of RE/MAX Select. Rob was joined by Ro Malik of Conversion Monster and team leader of Chicago Homes 360 as well as BoomTown’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Shannon Williams to discuss how the industry finds, manages and makes a return on their lead purchases. “I think if you have that quality-first engagement, you also need to have the handoff between the first person and the agent be of equal value. If there’s no synergy between parties, the consumer experience is reduced,” Lyszczarz said.

ROB LYSZCZARZ

What is your take on this event?
“I always look at this like Tomorrowland for real estate. It’s fun to share thoughts and ideas with the real estate community and to try to anticipate what the future holds.”

How many Connects have you attended?
“Six. This is my second time speaking.”

Then came RE/MAX Capital Realty owner Kendall Bonner, who along with kwELITE CEO Jeff Cohn, shared the best and most well-received tech products that they’ve implemented recently. While Bonner is a vocal advocate for the First app, which RE/MAX recently purchased for the network’s exclusive use, she also implored agents to use technology to offer closed captioning on video so that viewers can watch them without turning on the sound. “Over 80 percent of people watch online videos with the sound off,” she said. “If you are not putting closed captioning on your video, people are just going to keep scrolling.”

KENDALL BONNER

What are you most excited about being at Connect?
“The diversity of topics and being exposed to things I didn’t even know existed. Just learning. I haven’t had a chance to see all the vendors yet. I’m excited to learn about new tech. For example, what’s the next First.io? That’s what I am looking forward to and don’t want to miss.”

How many Connects have you attended?
“This is my first!”

RE/MAX Project Manager of booj Angelica Olmsted spoke on the Listings and Consumer Eyeballs panel alongside Suzanne Mueller, CEO of Industry Relations at realtor.com, and Andrew Flachner, Co-Founder and President of RealScout. They discussed launching real estate search portals and tech’s contribution to making the transaction easier, which was timely with RE/MAX planning to reveal its new consumer search app and remax.com in February.

ANGELICA OLMSTED

What is your impression of Inman Connect?
“Since I’m a tech person and not an agent or Broker/Owner, I’m a different audience member. But being here and hearing what people are saying is validation for what we are doing. It’s like ‘Ok this is what we’re hearing in the industry, and we are not only on track, but we are exceeding on the deliverable.'”

How many Connects have you attended?
“This is my first!”

On Thursday morning, RE/MAX Holdings CEO Adam Contos took to the stage during a panel discussion entitled “Here’s How to Win in the New Decade.” He was joined by Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider and EXIT Realty CEO Tami Bonnell to discuss how their companies are working to better connect with consumers. The conversation focused on serving the consumer, which in turn also best serves the agent. To do this, Contos stressed the importance of self-care and not losing track of the human element of the business. As Contos said, “Let’s not forget what our business is based on and that’s people.”

ADAM CONTOS

What will you take away from Inman Connect?
“I love hearing from people across the industry, what’s in their hearts and minds. And I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned along the way to help keep agents and brokers focused on what matters so they can continue to grow.”

How many Connects have you spoken at?
“This is my third appearance on the Inman stage – two in New York and one in Las Vegas last year.”

Finally Debra Beagle, Managing Broker/Owner of The Ashton Real Estate Group with RE/MAX Advantage, opened the “Teams in 2020: Living the Team Dream” panel alongside Sarita Dua, Principal Broker of The AskSarita Team with Keller Williams. Beagle gave the audience insight into building and scaling a team and how she ultimately moved past the fear of continually adding payroll with each new agent by realizing the profitability that comes along with growth within a team. She also stressed the importance of collaboration saying, “A lot of agents are specifically attracted to the community spirit.”

DEBRA BEAGLE

What’s your takeaway from Inman Connect?
“I love StartUp Alley. There are so many things we’ve found over the years from being here. I remember in 2012, Zillow was on stage at Inman as the new kid on the block. Another one I learned about here was BombBomb. And last year, it was Earnnest. Today, over 50% of our clients use Earnnest instead of giving us checks. We are very into tech and going paperless.”

How many Connects have you attended?
“I’ve done a lot of them, from New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Palm Desert. 2012 was my first Inman Connect.”