Two acquisitions gave company valuable new tools
Companies pursuing new technology tools and revamps have a few choices. They can develop what they need themselves, buy it off the shelf, form partnerships or acquire firms that do what they’re looking for. As a real estate technology executive, Jason Romig has so far pursued option four.
Romig (pictured) is senior vice president of product and engineering for RE/MAX LLC, the global real estate retail franchise arm of RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. He’s a chief information officer or chief technology officer equivalent for the company as it relates technology deployed to franchisees or real estate agents.
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Romig describes what he does in straightforward terms.
“My job is to understand what our real estate franchisees and our members need from a technology point of view, and then build solutions for both people that acquire franchises or [are] broker-owners, as well as our real estate agents that are out in the field selling real estate every day,” Romig explained.
Strategic acquisitions
At least two key acquisitions have been part of the equation since Romig came on board in 2018. Early in his tenure, RE/MAX holdings acquired booj, a start-up whose CRM platform is now a centerpiece for agents.
RE/MAX Holdings snatched up First.io in 2019, a start-up that gave the company data science knowhow and machine learning combined with human interaction to help real estate professionals better leverage their personal network. In April 2020, RE/MAX announced the launch of Megaphone, a new in-house marketing tool designed to help drive traffic to online listings, websites and social media pages through use of an easy-to-learn platform.
All of those things follow what Romig said has been his overall initial mandate: to advance technology as part of RE/MAX’s overall value proposition as it relates to its membership.
His thinking on this started even before he became an executive with the company.
“I came into RE/MAX [initially] as a management consultant to put together a product strategy and roadmap for how we were going to redeploy or reinvent technology as part of our overall road [for] the real estate business,” Romig explained. “They needed to really double down and spend some money and… time building up the technology portion of what we offer to our franchisees.”
This effort, he said, was just as important as the RE/MAX brand itself, its signature balloon and other marketing efforts.
Building technology at the company has also involved adding more tech pros to help nurture and maintain tech infrastructure.
According to Romig, RE/MAX had 75 tech team experts on staff supporting the company’s different brands when he came on board, and now the number hovers close to 300. At RE/MAX LLC, the figure has grown from between 35 and 40 to about 175 today. Many of the staff gains came from the company’s acquisitions, he said.
In-house benefits
Romig explained that RE/MAX’s focus on acquisitions has helped differentiate the company in the marketplace. That’s not possible in the same way with off-the-shelf systems and technology, he said, a reality that informed RE/MAX’s development strategy.
“If you’re using off the shelf, one of the things we struggle with as a business is how do we grow? How do we make our value proposition just a little bit different than what somebody can go buy off the street? What’s the reason to come to RE/MAX versus any other brokerage? So that was part of the conversation,” Romig said.
His and the collective technology team’s decisions affect a lot of people, including 140,000 real estate agents in nearly 9,000 offices across more than 110 countries and territories.
First.io has been a particular standout addition to the roster of technology tools, Romig said. Its app helps agents spot friends, family, and acquaintances who seem more likely to sell their home within the next 12 months. The company said agents win an average of eight listings in their first three months of using First, and that its agents are 50% more productive than those who don’t use it, according to company data from 2020.
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“It’s the right way for us to further our agents’ business that we wouldn’t have if we were just licensing these tools of the shelf,” Romig explained. “In the case of First, it doesn’t exist off the shelf… the only way you can use it is to be a part of RE/MAX so there is a little bit of a balance that we have to play.”
On the other hand, in-house technology can be more complex to update than working with an outside partner or off-the-shelf product, but, Romig said the effort is successful with prioritization and focus.
“For us, it is a simple conversation that comes down to what I said earlier, which is how… we provide what we view as the best agents in the business a little bit of a competitive advantage,” Romig said. “Technology just as a whole is part of what people expect when they purchase a franchise and when they sign agents up to be part of their franchise.”
