RPR shakeup. Dale Ross out, Jeff Young takes top spot.

I’ve been on the road for about 11 days and have lots to catch up on. NAR issued a press release yesterday announcing some signifigant changes at RPR.

Realtors Property Resource® Announces Retirement of CEO, Appointment of New Leader

“Realtors Property Resource® LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Association of Realtors®, announced that its founding CEO Dale Ross will be retiring as of May 1, 2018. RPR’s Jeff Young has been named chief operating officer/general manager and will assume responsibility for all RPR activities, reporting directly to NAR CEO Bob Goldberg.”

I continue to be impressed with NAR’s new CEO, Bob Goldberg. With the shut down of AMP we could see this coming. It was only a matter of time, and how high the cuts would go.

Let’s face it, when RPR first launched it didn’t sit well with the MLS community. Hubris, revenue share issues, “national MLS” fears (AMP), usage rates, and questionable tactics to force MLS providers to sign up contributed to that rift. There may have been some rational reasons for some of those choices but there wasn’t a lot of love left on both sides.

To me it’s water under the bridge. There is a new sheriff in town.

I’ve gotten to know Jeff Young over the years and he has always been straight with me. I find him pragmatic, level headed and most importantly (at least in my line of work), he can take a joke. I think he is the perfect choice for this next chapter in RPR’s life.

Jeff has a tough job ahead of him. But with Marty Frame and Karen France as part of his executive team, they have a new opportunity to re-focus what RPR is all about and how it engages with its partners.
I wish them nothing but success.