Andrea Brambila from Inman News

““Rand will be the key industry liaison for the BPP, meeting with individual MLSs and brokers to encourage them to join the BPP and expand this rapidly-growing industry movement.”
Rand will remain the Chief Creative Officer for New York-based Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate (BHGRE) | Rand Realty, the 103rd largest brokerage in the U.S. by transaction sides last year, according to Real Trends. He will still lead the firm’s career development, educational and training programs for its 1,200 agents, but he will no longer serve as the firm’s general counsel.”

Joe Rand is a great choice. He is a master communicator, and I devoured his book, How To Be a Great Real Estate Agent, in one sitting.

“That will free up some of his time to purse a lofty mission: “My two-year goal working with the BPP with Homesnap is to make it the number one real estate search site in the country. We have an opportunity to take the BPP to the forefront of the conversation about our industry’s future,” Rand said in a statement.

Wait, what? Take over Zillow in 2 years? I have to wonder if he was misquoted.

Asked how he will get consumers to give Homesnap a try, Rand said, “I think a lot of people are confused about the BPP mission of creating a better portal for clients, agents, and brokers. We haven’t always explained it well. But I’ve been around the country talking to brokers and agents, and I know how much they need this. It’s a lot better to have an amazing product that we haven’t messaged or marketed well, than the other way around. When we do that side-by-side ‘taste test,’ agents will realize that they have to get the clients on this platform.”

Here’s the rub. Getting real estate agents to do anything (as most of my readers know) is like herding cats (at best). Add to that, beat Zillow in two years (if the quote is correct), from a position that is essentially part-time?

I’m not exactly sure how the leadership structure at BPP works, but if this is their strategy, someone needs to put down the bong. This can’t be taken seriously.

Broker Public Portal Selects HomesnapNew national home search imagined by people who sell homes, not ads

“The BPP launch will include an iPhone app, Android app, and mobile and desktop website. The experience will be free from ads and paid agent placement. Instead, consumers can easily collaborate with their own agent, or connect instantly to the listing agent, ensuring information and answers from a pro who truly knows the home, neighborhood and local market conditions.

For real estate professionals, the BPP launch will include Homesnap Pro, already the leading mobile app for agents to access real-time listing information, collaborate with their clients and work with each other.”

Nice scoop for RISMedia Inman News. I hinted about this on Twitter earlier this week. Good for them, I don’t think the “get one year free” model to MLS providers was working out too well. Although I’m curious how this will effect those agreements with MLS providers to provide HomeSnap Pro, the way this reads I’m not sure any MLS should be paying for HomeSnap Pro any longer or in the future. Which begs the question, what’s BPP’s revenue model?

UPDATE 12/18/2016 – 4:05PM PT

Looks like a post of WAV Group (Broker Public Portal Reveals Partnership and Plan) Blog lays out a revenue model.

“The price for MLSs to participate in the BPP is $1 per MLS subscriber per month – about the same that most MLSs pay today for just a mobile search solution. For this, an MLS can now provide”

$1 per agent per month seems extremely high price, especially at 500,000 agents. Kudos to them if they actually get that! From the previous article is appears they have yet to sign an agreement.