I know many of you have been asking for this. I’ve been looking for a good quality recording but hadn’t found one with both the introduction and my presentation. Enter, Mike Canova from GAMLS who shared this video with me at the recent RESO Conference. I took the video and edited it a bit by inserting the slides from both presentations. Still blown away how great Andy did on the introduction. Please share and enjoy!
Listing Bits Episode 86: A Deal Tracker Built for Agents – with Vijay Gopalswamy of Trackxi
In 2021, Vijay Gopalswamy’s real estate business was growing like gangbusters. And at one point, he had 32 active transactions.
Which meant Vijay was spending every morning with his team, going over each transaction and asking, ‘Did you send this? Did you follow up with that? Did this contract get signed?’
But when he looked at the transaction management software on the market, Vijay realized that it was built for brokerages, not agents.
So, he set out to solve his own problem.
Vijay is Cofounder and CEO of Trackxi, a deal tracking software platform that helps agents visualize the next step in each transaction and provides full transparency for the consumer.
On this episode of Listing Bits, Vijay discusses his successful career in mechanical engineering and explains how he became an accidental real estate agent.
Vijay describes what differentiates Trackxi from other transaction management solutions and how it serves teams, transaction coordinators and new agents.
Listen in for insight around the visual nature of Trackxi’s tracking system and find out how the app can help you demonstrate your value prop with clients and grow your real estate business!
What’s Discussed:
How Vijay moved to the US to pursue his Master’s in mechanical engineering
Vijay’s successful 20-year career in engineering, finance and sales with Daimler
How Vijay became an accidental real estate agent
How the challenge of managing 32 open transactions inspired Vijay to build Trackxi
The advantage of a dedicated app that does one or two things well
Why Trackxi is a deal tracking software platform (vs. transaction management tool)
What differentiates Trackxi from other transaction management tools
How Trackxi serves teams, transaction coordinators and new agents
How Trackxi’s tracking system provides transparency around the agent’s value
How Trackxi’s visual dashboard delivers a State of the Union of an agent’s business
What to expect from Trackxi’s hands-on onboarding process
Connect with Vijay Gopalswamy:
Email vijay@trackxi.com
Resources:
The Close Picks for Best Transaction Management Software for 2023
Our Sponsors:
Trackxi
One thing I’ve discovered about myself is that I really enjoy the beginning phase of starting a company. Building a team, fleshing out the idea of a product, branding, positioning, pricing, billing, go to market, etc. Once that part is done is more of a matter of managing and optimizing (which I kind of like too). That’s why I always enjoy talking to new vendors, hearing their ideas, and if I like the idea/founder seeing if I can match them with the right people.
That’s exactly why I’m started working as an advisor with Trackxi. Trackxi is a deal tracker software solution for agents, teams and transaction coordinators, it also so has light CRM. It’s more a project management solution than a “transaction manager”, it doesn’t have any MLS integration or does it incorporate forms natively. In that way it’s a very opinionated piece of software. Trackxi is pre-loaded with deal workflows (tracks?) that agents can share with their clients and other people involved in the deal. It has a kind of “pizza tracker” data viz element that clients can view to see what tasks have currently been completed, what tasks are in progress, and tasks that haven’t been started. Which I think will be great for buyer’s agents showing their value.
You can use Trackxi to track pretty much anything. One client used it to plan her wedding. I think beyond tracking deals you can make templates like “First 90 days as a real estate agent”, “Kick start your real estate business.” , etc.
Another reason I’m working with Trackxi is their co-founder Vijay Gopalswamy. Vijay lives in Portland, Oregon and is bootstrapping the company. Vijay started as an agent and later a broker team leader and Trackxi was born from some of the lessons he learned with starting that team. Vijay is a pretty humble guy and has an interesting background. I interviewed him on Listing Bits that I will share later today.
I’m actually not sure what being an “advisor” really means. But I am having super fun working with Vijay; brainstorming messaging, positioning and company strategy. Our hope is that these discussions and work translate to getting Trackxi available to more agents. To find out more about Trackxi please visit their website here.
VestaPlus
My thanks again to VestaPlus for sponsoring this month’s Vendor Alley. The team at VestaPlus has put together a great website that highlights the benefits of VestaPlus. The website is also a good resource to learn about the other products/features offered by VestaPlus such as Neighborhood Snapshot(tm), ShowingsPlus(tm), and Checkmate(tm) (which was recently adopted by CWMLS).
Listing Bits Episode 85: A Less, But Better Approach to Real Estate Software Design – with Damien Huze of Lone Wolf Technologies
Among Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles of Design is the idea that good design is as little design as possible.
Less, but better.
And Damien Huze believes that the next evolution of real estate software will apply this concept, offering fewer high-quality apps that work together in a fluid system.
Damien is Senior Design Manager and Principal Designer at Lone Wolf Technologies, a software company working to build an end-to-end solution for real estate.
Damien served as Chief Design Officer at W+R studios before the Lone Wolf acquisition, and he is responsible for the design of Cloud CMA, one of the most popular apps in real estate.
On this episode of Listing Bits, Damien explains how making design a priority benefits companies building web-based apps and why he defines design as a skill aimed at problem-solving.
Damien describes how Lone Wolf is working to combine the tools of proptech into a single streamlined experience and shares his team’s user-centric approach to the problem of simplifying real estate.
Listen in for insight on the power of relentless focus and learn about Damien’s vision for designing real estate software that delivers more with less.
What’s Discussed:
What Damien learned from growing up with creative parents who immigrated to the US
How making design a priority benefits companies building web-based apps (and why so few do it)
How Damien thinks about design as a skill aimed at problem-solving
What Lone Wolf is doing to bring several real estate apps together in a single end-to-end solution
Why Damien believes the next evolution in real estate software is ‘less but better’
Lone Wolf’s upcoming announcement at the T3 Technology Summit
What it means for good software to have an opinion vs. being too flexible or customizable
How Damien’s team brings a user-centric, design thinking approach to simplifying real estate
Greg and Damien’s take on the advantage of simple tools that get the job done
The well-designed product that’s had the biggest impact on Damien’s life
Why relentless focus boosts productivity and how Damien applies that tenet to design
Connect with Damien Huze:
Resources:
Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles of Good Design
Our Sponsors:
6%? Hold My Beer
In this first week of the Sitzer Burnett trial is all about the plaintiff presenting their case. And it seems that the plaintiffs are all about showing training materials, and slides from previous conferences that use the 6% as proof that the “fix is in”!
The poor consumer has been tricked in to thinking that this percentage was never negotiable. Hell, the whole reason for scripts in the first place was that CONSUMERS WERE ALWAYS TRYING TO NEGOTIATE. Has anyone brought that point up?
Also, this….
Less software?
Next week Lone Wolf Technologies will reveal its new platform at the T3 Technology Summit, and I’m super excited about it. Why? Let me tell you a story.
At W+R Studios we were bootstrapped, so we needed to grow organically. Our product strategy centered around making core features of an MLS system better.
CMAs on MLS systems suck? Let’s make a better one. Enter Cloud CMA.
MLS system’s client portals and listing alert emails are ugly. Let’s make them pretty (and easier to use). Voilà , Cloud Streams.
Searching on MLS systems too complicated? Let’s make something simple. Boom, Cloud MLX!
The problem was two fold. In order to grow we needed to add new products (more software) and at the end of the day is that we had 3 different software apps, each of them great in their own right, but they didn’t really work together. Also if you wanted all three you had to buy each one separately, and have 3 separate logins, and 3 separate onboarding scenarios, 3 different times you entered a credit card number, and 3 separate…you get the point.
We solved most of this by creating the “Cloud Agent Suite“, but really only scratched the surface of what was possible, then we were acquired in December 2020.
So this problem of “simplifying real estate” has been on the minds of our (W+R) design team for a very long time. How do we bring all of this together to create an end to end solution that makes sense, and still grow? Can “less software” be the answer?
Turns that the problem was about to get bigger. Starting in 2020 Lone Wolf acquired 5 companies in 9 months (including W+R); HomeSpotter, LionDesk, Terradatum and Propertybase. Now you had 9 (at least) separate logins, 9 separate… you get the point.
When I left Lone Wolf I was starting to see the green shoots of this work. Most of it on the backend led by Sean Wheeler, Lone Wolf’s CTO. One login, one credit card, one database of contacts for all products, etc. Jimmy Kelly, Lone Wolf’s CEO, talked about their effort and the concept of “less software” on a post on Inman News titled “Real Estate Doesn’t Need More Software“. I was also privy to see some of the earlier mock ups from the design group, which were super impressive.
But, like any good meal it all comes down to ingredients. Lone Wolf from my estimation has the best ingredients in the market. The products they acquired (and the teams behind them) are not only best of class but have high adoption rates and great partnerships. Now it comes down to presentation and taste. And I have full confidence in the design chops of the team behind this. I had a chance to interview, Damien Huze, who was W+R’s Chief Design Officer and now a principal designer at Lone Wolf on my Listing Bits podcast which should drop this week.
Am I biased? Absolutely. Am I still a fan of simple focused software applications? You betcha. But I’m a bigger fan of people. So I look forward to seeing how this particular group of talented people proves less software is better.
Burnett v. NAR: The Lawsuit That Could Upend the Housing Market
What if we told you that a high-stakes trial in the real estate and technology industry is about to unfold, with potential implications for consumers and the future of the housing market? Today, Rob and Greg are joined by Ed Zorn, Vice President and General Counsel at CRMLS, and they dive into the details of the ongoing Burnett v. NAR trial, exploring the various legal aspects and arguments that could lead to a major disruption for home sales.
Join us as we discuss the application of the “per se” standard, the challenges faced by the Burnett, and the pivotal role of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in this episode of our podcast. Don’t miss this heated discussion as Rob and Greg once again do their best to save the real estate industry.
Watch us on YouTube!
Connect with Rob and Greg:
Our Sponsors:
This podcast is produced by Two Brothers Creative 2023.
Words can’t hurt?
Driving my daughter to tennis practice today we got to talking about words.
She said that she was always confused by two sayings she heard:
“Stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” And another one, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
I stared at her, speechless, as she grabbed up her backpack and exited the car.
“Love you, Dad” she said. Which made me feel good.
Inman News’ Andrea Brambila is “live on the scene” for the Sitzer | Burnett case
I don’t think they allow phones or recording devices in the courtroom for the Sitzer | Burnett lawsuit but Inman News has sent Andrea to cover the courtroom case and they have posted a website, for “live updates”. I don’t think anyone has as much understanding of the issues more than Andrea so I’m glad they sent her!
You can check the Live Updates site here.
