Matt Fischer spent over two decades building products outside real estate before taking the CEO seat at Lone Wolf Technologies this past February. Fischer succeeds Jimmy Kelly, who has remained with the company in an advisory capacity.
Fischer joined Lone Wolf from Bullhorn, a Boston-based software company that builds cloud-based tools for the staffing and recruiting industries. Fischer spent 22 years at Bullhorn helping scale the business from a single-product startup into a multi-product market leader serving more than 10,000 customers worldwide.
Fischer was also recently named to Inman’s new advisory council of senior executives from brokerage, technology, lending and real estate services.
The council is part of “Inman 2.0.” It’s CEO Tom Bohn’s effort to remake Inman from a news publisher into a broader media, membership and community platform, built around persona-driven editorial, AI-enhanced journalism, an evolving Inman Select membership and community infrastructure for real estate professionals.
Four months into his new role at Lone Wolf, Fischer isn’t shy about what he sees in the real estate industry: a fragmented tech stack and too many point solutions chasing artificial intelligence.
Fischer recently sat down with Inman to talk customer experience, why he thinks best-of-breed beats “super-app” proptech platforms, what he notices about real estate media — and his other life as a licensed commercial pilot.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: You took over as CEO at Lone Wolf in February, so it’s been a few months now. What has been your top priority since assuming the role?
Matt Fischer: I came into the business to do a few things, and there are several commitments I’m making to our customers and to the industry.
The first is ensuring we deliver an exceptional experience: How responsive we are, how well-versed our people are in our products and our customers’ challenges, how we consult with them, and how we make sure they’re getting value from the product, rather than being transactional with the customer base.
That’s No. 1: putting our customers at the center of how we think and what we do. I’ve already made a number of changes at the executive level, bringing in people who are really good at driving that kind of transformation from a customer experience perspective.
And it’s not just support. It’s how we listen and observe what customers need from our products, and make sure we have ways to collect feedback and build joint roadmaps and success plans with them. The more customer-focused we become, the better the outcome for everybody — for the industry, for us and for the customers. It’s a win-win. That’s commitment No. 1.
The second is rethinking how agents and brokers use our software and the entire journey they’re on. That was interesting for me, coming in from outside the space with fresh eyes, to see how fragmented the technology experience is in this industry. That’s a huge opportunity for unification and for driving AI across that workflow.
I call it AI, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you call it. The people using our technology should find it easier, faster and more intuitive. It should enable brokerages to reduce costs and agents to be more productive with their time. So we’re taking a fresh look at all of it — transaction management, top-of-funnel products, wherever we can drive that level of productivity for our customers.
You mentioned coming from outside the real estate space. What else have you noticed in proptech and real estate technology that’s different from your background?
Technology leaders often switch verticals, and I think an outside perspective is valuable because it lets you look at things with fresh eyes and without bias. You just look at how people are using things today and think, “Okay, that could be better. I can use technology to fix that.”
The fragmentation surprised me, and the sheer number of tools people need in the real estate industry. The way technology is shaped based on the channel you’re buying it from is also interesting. The agent is the one using it, but maybe they got it as a member benefit and only have a portion of what it can do, or maybe they bought it directly and get the premium version, or maybe they got it through their broker and get some other combination.
That complicates things, but it’s also kind of unique to this industry. At the end of the day, there are many permutations of how the technology comes together, depending on what agents need, who they work for and which associations they’re part of. That was a learning experience for me, and it’s been interesting.
The other thing is AI. There are a lot of point solutions hanging around doing a little bit here and there, such as transaction coordination, compliance, digital advertising and more. I have a pretty strong viewpoint here, and I think it’s true across almost every vertical: Those point solutions exist because the platform players haven’t driven AI through the process yet.
And all those point solutions further the fragmentation problem, because now you’re telling agents and brokers to go find even more tools that don’t integrate or work together. So you’ve solved some problems but created new ones. That’s a big opportunity for companies like Lone Wolf and other platform providers to build this first-party, as part of our own solution, so people don’t have to go buy point solutions and stitch them all together.
Nobody actually wants to do that, and it doesn’t drive the level of efficiency it could. I’ve seen that in my own vertical and in many other places, and I think it’s true here, too. It’s a big opportunity for us to help drive that.
AI is table stakes in every vertical right now, and many people I’ve talked to say there will be more consolidation, with everyone chasing the so-called “super app.” What’s your view on how Lone Wolf approaches that?
I don’t agree with the super app thing. I don’t think that’s where it’s going. The level of depth you need at different steps in the process means there will be best-of-breed applications for each step. Being the best at transaction coordination, transaction management, forms and compliance is a very different skill from being the best at CRM, front office or digital advertising.
I think it’s more about needing an open ecosystem and a platform. Take Lone Wolf as an example. We’re providing the rails for the hard stuff: transaction coordination, management, compliance and back-office operations. We provide the rails, the ecosystem, the APIs. But if a customer wants to bring some other CRM they use, okay, fine.
AI might change this a little, but I don’t think there’s a scenario where it becomes one huge, monolithic thing in which one provider is awesome at everything. I don’t think that’s true.
I think the platform that wins is the one that does the hard stuff, makes it easy, has an open ecosystem, the right APIs and the right integration points, so a brokerage can pick and choose, stitch things into the platform and have it all work well together. You go from 20 point solutions to maybe three.
The idea of the new Inman Advisory Council is to gather opinions from people like you about what the real estate industry needs from media and community platforms. From your perspective, what does the industry really need from a trade media source?
From what I can tell — and again, this is with outside eyes — there’s a spectrum in update velocity and in how “salacious” the news is. It’s my observation that some of it feels almost tabloid-y. You’re getting hit with tons of updates that maybe aren’t inflammatory, but it feels that way. Then there are outlets that are a little slower to give you information, but probably better vetted and less inflammatory in tone.
There’s also just a lot of it, a lot of ways to get information. Coming from the industry I came from, there were a couple of associations, but I wasn’t getting five emails a day from three different outlets as I do now. I have a folder, and it’s like, “I can’t even keep up with this.” That’s been interesting to me.
I don’t know whether that’s beneficial, because there are different audiences here. Do real estate agents consume media at a different velocity than I would? I just don’t have enough information to say whether the audience is getting what it needs.
That’s a general statement about all media right now — we’re inundated with so much information. So many industries are going through monumental change, and media is no different. What excites you about it, and what concerns you?
It’s funny, I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. The opportunity is something like an AI-based triangulation service. The hardest part — and this has nothing to do with real estate specifically, it’s a broader comment — is that there’s so much content, and so many post-publishing revisions buried in footnotes you’ll never see. All you remember is the headline, even after it’s corrected later.
There was recently an analysis of the political bias of different LLMs, and it was something like 91 percent left-leaning across the board, except for Grok, which was closer to 50-50. That tells you that you don’t really know what you’re getting, and you have to read the same story across different sources and do your own work to triangulate. I find myself doing that constantly. I read it on CNN, then Fox, then check Twitter. It’s frustrating, honestly, because you don’t really know what’s going on.
Obviously, the level of discourse in real estate isn’t nearly as consequential. But I still think the same dynamic applies: the velocity, the different sources. You read about the same story — whatever it is, say the Chicago MLS situation — six different ways. And just like with AI, that puts a lot of burden on the consumer to piece it together.
What’s one thing you’re excited about with the Inman Advisory Council?
I’m pumped about it. If you look at everyone in the room, it’s a well-rounded group. Having been part of advisory councils like this before, my sense is that a good cross-section of people leads to real debate about industry direction and how everyone can support each other.
Selfishly, coming into this space, we’ve got some historical baggage at Lone Wolf, and I’ve got a new way of thinking about and running this business — the customer focus, the innovation, AI. I want to make sure that resonates and actually delivers the results agents and brokerages expect from a platform provider, so a group like this gives good perspective on that.
Last question, and more of a personal one. I noticed on your LinkedIn that you have an FAA pilot license. Was there ever a point when you considered becoming a commercial pilot, and what led you down the path to becoming a tech CEO instead?
I actually am a commercial pilot; I’ve just never flown professionally. I love aviation. I got my private certificate right around the time I graduated from college and have been flying for about 25 years.
I love it as a hobby. It’s one of those interesting things where you need good physical coordination — stick-and-rudder skills — but you also end up having to be pretty well-versed in physics, meteorology, avionics and a bunch of other stuff. It’s unique that way, and it’s a great utility, too. I use it with my family. We fly around, and I’ve flown for charity work.
But I never wanted to do it professionally. If I ever did, it’d probably be flight instruction and teaching other people to fly and helping them pursue their passion. Being an airline pilot was never in the cards for me.
A coalition of consumer protection, housing, civil rights and fair competition groups urged federal regulators Wednesday to investigate Compass’ deal with Midwest Real Estate Data to expand private listing networks nationwide.
The move escalates watchdog scrutiny of limited-access listing channels at the same moment that Zillow, Compass and MRED have returned to federal court in Chicago.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, the groups argued that Compass’ agreement with MRED — and similar arrangements with other MLSs — could reduce listing transparency, weaken competition among brokerages and raise fair housing concerns.
“We urge you to investigate whether the agreement constitutes an unlawful effort to reduce transparency and fair competition for homebuyers and sellers,” the groups wrote.
The coalition also framed the issue as one of housing affordability and market access, warning regulators that “dominant firms” should not be allowed to use “consolidation and exclusive listing practices to reduce transparency, entrench market power, and limit fair access to housing opportunities.”
The letter was signed by the Consumer Federation of America, American Economic Liberties Project, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Consumer Action, Demand Progress Education Fund, National Consumer Law Center, Rise Economy and Woodstock Institute.
Groups warn of private listing harms
While this week’s hearing in Chicago centers on Zillow’s listing access standards and MRED’s decision to cut off Zillow’s listing feed in May, the letter focused more broadly on the expansion of private listing networks and the consumer, competition and fair housing concerns raised by limited-access listing channels.
“These deals raise significant anti-consumer concerns as they threaten to reduce transparency and undermine competition in residential real estate markets,” the coalition said in the letter.
In April, Compass struck a deal with MRED to expand the Chicago-based MLS’ Private Listing Network nationwide. Compass also offered to subsidize part of the cost of joining MRED for the first 100,000 Compass agents who join MRED as full members. Since then, Compass has also announced similar agreements with Bright MLS, Realtracs and MLS/CLAW, according to the letter.
The watchdog coalition argued that those agreements could reduce consumer choice, impede price competition and increase steering incentives by encouraging transactions within affiliated broker networks. They also warned that private listing networks could limit buyers’ access to homes for sale, particularly in tight housing markets.
“Buyers may never even find out about houses for sale, putting their dream of homeownership further out of reach, in already tight national housing markets with limited inventory,” the groups wrote.
Fair housing concerns also featured prominently in the new letter. The groups cited prior Zillow research on MRED’s Private Listing Network in metro Chicago, which found that homes in majority-white neighborhoods were more likely to be marketed through private channels than homes in majority non-white neighborhoods.
“By controlling who can even see houses for sale, these private networks raise broader concerns about the selective exclusion of protected classes of consumers,” the groups wrote.
Letter lands as Zillow, Compass and MRED return to court
The letter landed as Zillow, Compass and MRED began a two-day preliminary injunction hearing in the Northern District of Illinois. The hearing is expected to determine what restrictions remain in place while the broader antitrust case proceeds, including whether Zillow can enforce its listing access standards against MRED listings and whether MRED can withhold its listing feed from Zillow.
Zillow has argued that Compass and MRED are using private listing networks to restrict access to inventory and undermine competition. Compass and MRED have accused Zillow of using its platform power to dictate how listings are marketed.
Zillow has also moved to compete for earlier-stage listings. This year, the portal announced Zillow Preview, a coming-soon channel launched with initial participation from Keller Williams, REMAX, HomeServices of America, Side and United Real Estate. Zillow has framed the channel as a public-facing alternative to private networks, but the move underscores the broader industry scramble for control over listing visibility before homes fully hit the open market.
Zillow sued MRED and Compass in May, alleging the companies conspired to threaten its access to Chicago-area listings unless the portal displayed Compass listings that Zillow said violated its listing access standards. MRED later cut off Zillow’s feed on May 20, before a federal judge ordered the MLS to restore Zillow’s access two days later.
CFA’s most recent publicly available Form 990, covering 2024, does not identify Zillow as a major funder. When asked whether Zillow provides financial support to CFA, a Zillow spokesperson told Inman the company does not provide major financial support to the organization, though they added that Zillow has sponsored some CFA events over the years.
Inman has also reached out to Compass and MRED for comment on the CFA-led letter.
Watchdog pressure is not new
Watchdog pressure on Compass has been building for several months. Consumer advocate groups and elected officials have increasingly scrutinized Compass’ growth strategy, including its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, its growing market share in major housing markets and concerns that private listings could lead to more in-house transactions.
In April, the Consumer Policy Center released a report finding that Compass had built commanding market share in several major housing markets and was increasingly keeping transactions within its own network at rates that outpaced many competitors.
The report, based on 5,000 recent home sales across Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Diego and Austin, found that the combined Compass and Anywhere entity held between 30 percent and 39.5 percent of unit sales across all five markets studied. In Washington, D.C., the report found Compass’ double-ending rate reached 41 percent.
The new letter also cited earlier calls from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers for federal regulators to scrutinize Compass’ acquisition of Anywhere. In a December letter, Warren and Sen. Ron Wyden urged the DOJ and FTC to investigate Compass’ acquisition of Anywhere. In a separate February letter, Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer raised concerns about the impact of the deal on housing costs and competition.
Compass has previously pushed back on criticism of its private listing strategy, arguing that sellers deserve more choice in how their homes are marketed. The company has also said its private exclusives are accessible to agents outside Compass and that its agents are expected to act in their clients’ best interests.
Meanwhile, Zillow has framed its listing access standards as a consumer transparency measure, arguing that homes marketed to some buyers should be made broadly available to the public. MRED has argued that Zillow’s rules overstep the portal’s role and interfere with how brokers and MLSs serve sellers.
The consumer groups closed their letter by urging federal regulators to ensure that dominant firms do not use consolidation and exclusive listing practices to reduce transparency or limit access to housing opportunities.
“One company should not be able to monopolize access to the American Dream,” the groups wrote.
Want to win in 2026? ERA Realty’s Gino Caropreso writes that brokerages must prioritize agent growth and success metrics that are systematic, measurable and repeatable.
For years, the real estate industry has treated agent churn as a recruiting problem. That view is too narrow and, in 2026, increasingly too costly.
The movement we are seeing among mid-level agents is often less about chasing a bigger split and more about searching for a business environment that feels clearer, more stable and more responsive to their needs.
Learning signals a need for direction
Inside ERA Real Estate, we have been watching that pattern closely through our learning programs, including work with more than 7,000 agents who have participated in Coached Up — our exclusive yearly coaching program for affiliated agents and leaders — since 2024. The signal is difficult to ignore.
According to our internal data, agents who engage in at least one learning experience show 92 percent retention, 16 points higher than those who do not. They also take 12 percent more listings.
At ERA, participation in training programs has grown fivefold since 2024. To me, those numbers do not simply show demand for classes. They show a hunger for direction and resources that support their growth both personally and professionally.
That is why I believe the central issue behind today’s churn is not talent. It is not even compensation, at least not primarily.
Real estate professionals — especially those producing roughly $1 million to $5 million in annual volume — are asking a practical question: “If I stay here, what does next year look like?”
When a brokerage cannot answer that with specificity, movement becomes much more likely.
Coaching turns ambition into structure
That view is consistent with how ERA President Alex Vidal has publicly framed coaching and leadership. In commentary across industry outlets, he has repeatedly emphasized that agents do their best work when leaders pair ambition with structure: a plan, accountability, coaching and support that extend beyond motivation.
Our argument is simple but important: Agents generally want to accomplish big things, but they need a plan and a coach. And if leaders want greater loyalty, they need to guide their people in a way that helps them build deeper relationships, better habits and clearer business discipline.
The broader market data in 2026 reinforces the point. Recruiting Insight’s 2026 Agent Migration and Brokerage Model Performance Report found that agent mobility accelerated sharply this year, with external moves up 25 percent quarter over quarter in Q1 and roughly 50,000 brokerage changes projected nationally for 2026.
Just as notable, the report found that internal office-to-office transfers rose 38 percent year over year, suggesting that many agents are not simply trying to leave organizations; they are trying to find a better fit, better support and less friction.
The same research argues that leader execution matters more than brokerage-model labels, and that internal movers often outperform external recruits in both retention and productivity.
What brokerage leaders must do differently
That should be a wake-up call for brokerage leaders. In a market where productive agents are constantly assessing alignment, brokerages cannot rely on recruiting efforts alone.
They need a strong vision and a culture that aligns with what their agents want. They need onboarding and training that accelerates confidence. They need coaching that is reinforced locally, not delivered once and forgotten. And they need to make the value of staying more visible than the promise of leaving.
Here’s what that could look like in your brokerage.
- Establish a regular and reliable in-person learning cadence.
- Share wins publicly to create a supportive, collegial environment.
- Create and communicate recommended self-directed learning courses aligned to key goals.
- Make annual business planning table stakes for every agent.
- Help agents build a plan that aligns to their goals and check in with them quarterly to discuss progress.
- Encourage agents to develop peer-to-peer mentoring relationships.
If we continue to interpret churn as a pure recruiting contest, we will miss what many agents are really telling us. They are not looking for a new logo or more leads. They are looking for a path forward. If there is one lesson we’ve learned through Coached Up and thousands of coaching conversations, it’s this: Agents don’t simply want a place to work. They want a place to grow.
We call this the raving fan philosophy. Ultimately, our agents are the experts. If we want to retain their expertise, let’s inspire them to move from good to great.
The brokerages that win in 2026 (and beyond) will be the ones that make growth feel less ambiguous and success feel more repeatable.
Gino Caropreso is Vice President of Learning at ERA Real Estate. Get connected on LinkedIn.
Home prices rose just 0.8 percent in April, but Case-Shiller data shows values fell in real terms for the 11th straight month as inflation outpaces growth.
U.S. home prices rose just 0.8 percent year-over-year in April, according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. It’s a number that sounds like growth but functions like stagnation once inflation is factored in.
That’s because April marked the 11th consecutive month that home values fell in real terms, with 3.8 percent inflation running roughly three percentage points ahead of nominal price gains. The national index ticked up only slightly from March’s 0.7 percent annual pace, extending a stretch where housing has been treading water rather than building wealth.
A stark regional price split
The regional split tells the sharper story. Chicago posted the strongest annual gain among the 20 cities tracked, up 6.5 percent, followed by New York at 3.8 percent and Cleveland at 3.2 percent.
Seattle was the weakest market, down 2.3 percent year-over-year, with Denver, Tampa, Dallas and Phoenix all posting declines between 1.6 percent and 1.9 percent.
That’s a nearly nine-percentage-point gap between the best- and worst-performing metros in a single month, a divergence that’s become the norm rather than the exception.
“Geographic dispersion remains pronounced,” said Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Midwest and Northeast markets are still leading moderate growth, while many Sun Belt and Western metros see ongoing declines.”
The pattern holds across the broader composites.
The 10-City Composite rose 1.8 percent annually, up from 1.5 percent in March, while the 20-City Composite climbed 1.1 percent, up from 0.9 percent. Both remain well below the pace needed to outrun inflation.
Month-over-month, the picture gets murkier depending on which adjustment you’re reading. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the National Index rose 0.8 percent from March, reflecting the market’s typical spring bounce.
Strip out seasonal effects, though, and the National Index actually dipped 0.1 percent, with the 20-City Composite essentially flat at -0.04 percent.
Godec pointed to the six-month trend as the more useful signal. There was a 1.35 percent national increase over the past six months, offsetting a 0.5 percent decline in the six months before that.
“This represents a modest shift in direction, but remains limited in the context of rising costs,” Godec said.
Higher rates keep price growth in check
Mortgage rates are doing much of the work to keep that shift modest.
After dipping below 6 percent earlier in the year, 30-year rates climbed back to 6.3 percent in April, Godec said, keeping financing costs elevated enough to cap price growth even in markets with real demand.
“In this higher-rate environment, home price growth remains constrained, with housing largely treading water in nominal terms and falling in real terms,” Godec said.
A separate release from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, using purchase-only data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, showed prices actually fell 0.1 percent month-over-month in April, though they were still up 2 percent from a year earlier.
FHFA’s data showed an even wider regional split than Case-Shiller’s.
Seasonally adjusted monthly changes ranged from -0.8 percent in the Mountain division to +1.0 percent in New England, while 12-month changes spanned from +0.2 percent in the Pacific division to +4.4 percent in the East North Central division.
FHFA’s next report, covering May data, is due July 28.
As AI systems begin interpreting real estate catalogs through both structured data and storytelling, listing copy is regaining strategic importance, not just for marketing, but for discovery and search relevance. Troy Palmquist talks about the narrative shift.
For many agents, listing descriptions are a marketing afterthought: helpful, but second in importance to structured filters, photos and floorplans. With the increasing adoption of AI LLMs, even those who favor thorough and well-written property descriptions may have developed the habit of plugging in a list of features and adding the output as a last-minute bit of marketing polish.
Now, however, with the announcement of Orpi’s rollout of its property catalog, optimized by proptech company Kleio to be natively readable by agentic AI systems, property descriptions are taking on a new importance, becoming part of how properties are interpreted, matched and surfaced in conversational search.
As home search becomes more automated, AI won’t just read the data in your listing. Increasingly, it will read the home’s story.
The shift away from filter-first search
On a recent trip to Paris, I saw firsthand how different property discovery works outside the U.S. Because there is no dominant MLS-style system funneling listings, buyers and agents must navigate a fragmented online landscape to find listings.
No matter which side of the pond you’re on, real estate discovery, whether through U.S.-style MLSs and home search portals or European-style brokerage listings, has traditionally been structured around rigid inputs:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Price
- Location
But AI systems are looking for more than that. They’re interpreting intent and nuance, changing what “searchable” means.
According to Philippe Wellens, co-founder and CEO at Kleio, AI agents are looking for more than structured information, so narrative content found in the property description now becomes data the AI can use to satisfy the search.
Philippe Wellens
Wellens gave a concrete example of how AI uses narrative. Say a potential buyer is “looking for an apartment in a very fancy-looking building designed by a specific architect” and “built in the 70s.” A traditional filter search from a portal would have made most of those details irrelevant, but they are meaningful for AI matching.
Now, architectural history, building character, qualitative descriptors and neighborhood context are no longer “color copy.” They’ve become searchable.
The return of the human-written description
In my conversation with Wellens, I pointed out that I’m not a big fan of AI property descriptions. I find them fairly generic and rarely convincing. As AI search becomes increasingly integrated with home search, however, that generic, AI-generated copy simply won’t be enough, since input quality determines output quality.
Wellens said that well-structured input that’s rich in detail becomes a selling point when combined with the personalization potential of AI. Kleio’s system can personal property descriptions for individual users, moving key details to the top because they matter to the potential buyer.
That means description writing is now a hybrid of marketing and data design, and agents who gather and communicate richer lifestyle and intent data improve discoverability inside AI systems. That includes capturing:
- lifestyle intent (distance measures, maintenance and condition, multi-generational or investment potential)
- features that matter emotionally, not just numerically
- contextual detail AI systems can actually use
Amber Tkaczuk
“Hiring a professional copywriter for my property descriptions was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my listings,” Omaha, Nebraska, team lead Amber Tkaczuk said. “It frees up my time to focus on what I do best, and honestly, the quality of the writing shows.”
“My copywriter stays current on compliant language requirements, so I never have to worry about what can or can’t be said in a description,” she added. “The result is listings that are not only legally sound but actually compelling — the kind of copy that makes buyers stop scrolling and start booking showings.”
As AI increasingly becomes the avenue that connects buyer and property, the listing description will no longer be the final item on a marketing checklist. It becomes one of the primary inputs shaping whether a property is surfaced at all in AI search.
That elevates one of real estate’s oldest content disciplines into something newly strategic.
Troy Palmquist is the founder and principal at HomeCode Advisors. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Roomvu, the artificial intelligence video marketing platform for real estate agents and brokerages, recently launched Engage Pages, a landing page tool built directly into its Engage platform that turns social media clicks into booked appointments.
The pitch is conversion over vanity metrics. Most marketing tools optimize for views, but Roomvu is betting that agents care more about what happens after the view.
Engage Pages gives agents and real estate professionals personalized, on-brand landing pages in under five minutes, with the idea that every click from a social post, video or ad should have a clear path to a client.
Inman recently caught up with Sam Mehrbod, Roomvu’s CEO and co-founder, who told us more about Engage Pages, the latest trends in real estate marketing, and what he’s most looking forward to at Inman Connect San Diego in July.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: Can you tell me more about Roomvu’s Engage Pages?
Sam Mehrbod: We saw that agents were spending a lot of time and money on websites that nobody actually visits. A website is really a storefront: you need one, but the cost is high, and the return is low. You’re paying maybe $1,000 a year just to showcase your listings and a bio.
What we wanted to do was make it easy. We started with a mini website, but agents wanted more customization. So we built an MCP that connects to AI models. It pulls in your listings, testimonials, AI portraits, your voice DNA, neighborhood FAQs, everything. We connected that to an HTML creator that builds a beautiful landing page from a simple chat command.
And then we realized hosting was another friction point, so we host it ourselves. It’s free. Agents can just say, “add my team member,” “remove this bio section,” “I’m a first-time homebuyer expert,” and it updates. The goal is SEO, and now AIO, at a price point that works for solopreneurs.
It sounds like another pain point it solves is its intuitiveness. It doesn’t require web design skills.
Exactly. It’s a chatbot. You tell it, “I want a landing page for my open house,” and it builds it with lead capture, email notifications and an AI receptionist. Before this, any change meant talking to a developer. For us as a tech company, one design change could cost 60 man-hours across a designer and developer, maybe $4,000 to $6,000. Now it’s a command.
Where do most agents’ marketing budgets go right now, and where do you think they’re wasting money?
Think of an agent as a mini enterprise. They’ve got a subscription for email marketing, one for video messaging, one for AI avatars and one for ChatGPT. It multiplies fast. The winners in this new AI era are the platforms that consolidate all of that into one super app. The idea is, have one conversation and say, “I want this done,” and it’s done. I think the new era of marketing is more of a marketing butler. “I have a new listing. Just post it for me.”
A couple of years from now, how automated is agent marketing going to be?
We’re already there. Let me show you. So if I go to Claude right now and say, “What are my listings?” it connects to the Roomvu MCP and pulls everything in. Then I can say, “Schedule open house for Sunday from 10 to 12.”
It understands what I meant and schedules it. Then, if I say, “draft an open house social caption,” it creates the content and schedules it directly in my Roomvu dashboard.
That’s the whole shift: Up until now, everything was one-way. You pushed data into a tool. Now it’s two-way. You have a real conversation, and the tool acts on it.
Some consumers seem wary of AI-generated content. Is there a risk that agents lose authenticity if they automate too much?
A few ground rules. First, AI headshots are the safest. Nobody can tell, and agents readily promote them. For video, the key is mixing formats. Use a teleprompter to read AI-written scripts, but also shoot real, authentic stories on camera. That balance keeps it from feeling purely generated.
For avatars specifically — eight seconds max. Under eight seconds, people feel like they’re seeing the real person. Beyond that, they can usually tell, and conversions drop.
The other thing is voice. We ask agents a series of questions to define their tone, their cadence and their phrasing. That way, the content sounds like them, not like a generic AI. If it doesn’t sound like you, engagement falls off.
How important is video marketing for agents right now, and what are the agents who are doing it actually doing right?
Think about the agents producing 19 to 20 deals a year. They’re not doing it through cold lead gen. They’re doing it from their sphere, people who already know and trust them.
Video serves two purposes for that group. One, it reminds people you’re still in business (that’s actually the number one reason people don’t call their agent after five or six years — they assume they’ve moved on). Two, it positions you as a thought leader.
Which social media platforms should agents prioritize?
YouTube is still the most durable. Facebook has become pay-to-play for business content. If you post business-centric content on your personal channel, you actually get penalized. Instagram is still impactful. LinkedIn gets fewer views but higher-quality ones: people with jobs, with purchasing power. It’s a quiet network that quietly drives real leads.
TikTok — we see agents getting a lot of views but fewer leads. The demographic is still getting their lives together, not buying homes. Also, adding branding or a phone number to a TikTok video limits your reach. That said, the “get on TikTok now before it becomes the next Instagram” argument has been around for five years, so I’m not sure that’s landed.
What are you speaking about at Inman Connect in July?
I’m doing a one-and-a-half-hour hands-on workshop: Creating your AI twin.
Attendees bring a laptop, and we build their first avatar together using HeyGen, step by step. They walk away with an actual avatar — it’s no longer a mystery. They’ve made it; they can use it.
What conversations are you most looking forward to at the conference?
I think we’re going to see SaaS consolidation in real estate marketing similar to what we’ve seen with brokerages. Marketing budgets are shrinking, and the tools that survive will be the done-for-you ones, not the complicated platforms that require agents to learn a new interface.
The new version of software looks like a chat or voice assistant that acts like a human working for you — a listing assistant, a transaction coordinator, a marketing manager. AI agents aren’t just a buzzword anymore. We’re closer to that reality than we’ve ever been.
The biggest negotiation mistake in real estate has nothing to do with price. It has everything to do with ego. Negotiations fall apart because agents make it about themselves.
In this episode of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered, Lisa Lippman, the No. 1 broker at Brown Harris Stevens for 11 consecutive years, unpacks one of the most overlooked skills in real estate: negotiation.
Lippman explains why the best negotiators remove their own emotions from the process, keep clients focused on the end goal and never let ego derail a transaction. It’s a simple lesson, but one that separates average agents from elite professionals.
Highlights
From working alongside Barbara Corcoran to building one of Manhattan’s most respected real estate businesses, Lippman shares the habits, mindset and professionalism that have kept her at the top for more than a decade.
The conversation also explores:
- The No. 1 negotiation mistake agents make
- Why luxury real estate isn’t nearly as glamorous as TV suggests
- What Lippman learned working alongside Barbara Corcoran
- Why first-time buyers remain some of her favorite clients
- The daily habits that create long-term success
One of the most fascinating moments comes when Lippman shares that younger clients are now finding her through AI, not because AI can replace an agent, but because it recognizes the value of her experience and advice. As she puts it, clients tell her they chose her because she provides insights they couldn’t get from AI alone.
Whether you’re a new agent looking to improve your negotiation skills or a seasoned professional wanting to sharpen your approach, this episode is packed with practical advice you can use immediately.
Connect with Lisa on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and online at bhsusa.com/agents/lisa-k-lippman.
Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered is now exclusively on Inman. Tune in for agent- and team-focused content on Mondays and leadership interviews on Wednesdays each week. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
James Dwiggins is the president of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Keith Robinson is the president of strategy at NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Follow Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered Podcast on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or TikTok, and subscribe to their YouTube Channel.
After more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, I’ve seen more predictions than I can count. And today, agents are surrounded by questions about what’s going to happen.
Will interest rates go down? Will inventory open up? How will AI impact operations? What part of the cycle is this?
These are valid questions, and as I speak to different agents around the country, the uncertainty behind them is real.
But the problem is when the uncertainty pulls focus away from what actually helps drive results in any market.
Instead of trying to forecast the future, effective agents should concentrate on what they can control right now, no matter what happens next.
Consistency beats reaction
When things feel unpredictable, it’s easy to become reactive. But scrambling to adjust messaging or chase the loudest headline can create noise instead of momentum.
Instead, it’s important to build an ecosystem that creates consistency across all aspects of the business, because consistency builds trust. And trust is what makes agents stand out against the competition.
The strongest agents operate with clear systems, so clients know what to expect regardless of conditions. That means showing up across all aspects of the client journey from preparing for a presentation to marketing a listing to keeping a relationship warm post-closing. Across every stage, make sure your system is working for you.
Local expertise cuts through national noise
Most market narratives are built at a national level to explain broader trends or impacts. But as you know, real estate is local. It’s personal.
What works in one market can fall flat in another. Sometimes even from one neighborhood to the next.
The most effective agents don’t try to compete with headlines. They treat the headlines as context, not direction. National headlines explain trends. Local expertise drives results.
Clients don’t need more commentary. But they do need to know how trends will impact them specifically. Ground the big-picture trends into what’s happening in your own neighborhood for more local, better informed decisions.
The right technology simplifies, not distracts
Rapid market shifts can push agents toward the fastest fix. When things feel chaotic, it’s tempting to chase the next tool, platform, or AI-powered solution. But the agents who perform best invest in solutions that work together without adding complexity.
Technology creates an advantage only when it’s integrated into how an agent actually works. The agents performing best right now aren’t chasing technology for technology’s sake. They’re choosing solutions that work together. They’re using technology to help them understand local demand, respond faster to consumer interest, and stay consistent in how they communicate value, even as conditions change.
The truth is no one can consistently predict the housing market.
But the goal isn’t to be right about what happens next. It’s to build a business strong enough to perform in any market.
When conditions change — and they always do — the agents who succeed are the ones who invested in their systems, their skills, and their tools to excel in any market.
REMAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than REMAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. To learn more about REMAX, please visit www.join.remax.com.
The text came in a little after 7 a.m.
I’d already finished my workout and was standing in my kitchen, halfway through my second Americano. Quad shot. No sugar.
Ding.
“New group iMessage,” Siri announced through my AirPods.
Before I could stop her, she rattled off the participants. Four phone numbers. Only one name was saved in my contacts. Siri read it aloud.
One of the most influential leaders in residential real estate.
She had my attention.
“Take the article down, or there will be consequences. We will pull all support immediately.”
I smirked.
Somehow, a threat sounds different when it’s delivered in Siri’s impossibly calm voice. She has a remarkable ability to make everything sound both pleasant and urgent. She’d probably make an outstanding CEO.
I took another sip of coffee.
The article was an op-ed we had run the day before, a hard look at how one of the largest players in the industry is perceived by some. It found its mark.
What happened next is the part worth telling. My editorial team went back through the piece line by line, re-verified the facts, checked the sourcing again, and looked hard at whether the sharper commentary was fair. They corrected only one inaccuracy the company called out, and they concluded the rest of the work held.
The reason matters. Running a flattering profile of a powerful company is easy and worth nothing. The harder test, the one that shows what a publication is made of, arrives at 7 a.m. when someone important wants a story to disappear.
Inman does not work for the biggest brokerages, the loudest portal or whoever is writing the largest check this quarter. We work for the agents and brokers who do the job, the people sitting across the table from a buyer or seller, trusting them with the largest financial decision of their life.
The industry is consolidating quickly. A few players are now large enough to assume that what serves them serves everyone, and they are not always wrong. Whether they are right in a given case is a question someone has to be willing to ask in print, without checking first whether the company also sponsors a conference.
Concentrated power makes independent coverage harder and more necessary at the same time. Without it, an industry settles for stenography, where the largest players narrate their own story, and everyone else applauds on cue. A demand to delete a story before breakfast is a tell. No one confident in their position asks you to erase it.
None of this is naive. I have covered enough of this business, and enough industries before it, to know how the machinery runs. Every beat has its dark corners, and the line between sponsorship, influence and editorial integrity is a tightrope I walk in daylight.
Sponsor Inman Connect and want your executive on a panel? If the executive is interesting and has something worth hearing, sure. Run it by the team first. That is a trade I will make any day of the week.
Select costs an agent $200 a year instead of $2,000 because $200 keeps the work within reach of the people who need it and keeps our lights on. Commerce pays for the building. It has never set the editorial line, and it never will. The day a check can buy a verdict is the day the subscription stops being worth anything to the person who paid for it.
If an organization would rather take its support elsewhere because we would not unpublish a true story, that is its call. We will wish them well and keep reporting. The story stood yesterday and will stand tomorrow, with or without their support.
To the agents and brokers reading this: The text was, in a backhanded way, the best feedback we could have gotten. It meant the work reached the people it was meant to unsettle. Telling you the truth when that truth inconveniences someone powerful is the job, and most of the trade press will not do it.
There is a Springsteen song I have come back to for most of my life called “No Surrender.” It is about people who hold their ground when folding would be easier, who keep the promises they made when nobody was watching. That is what my team did this week.
You can trust this publication because it cannot be leaned on, and that holds regardless of who is on the other end of the phone or what time they call. We cannot be bought, and we will not be bullied. We work for the people reading this.
No surrender.
Support our mission to hold power to account by becoming an Inman Select subscriber today.
Thomas M. Bohn
CEO, Inman.com
Google’s home listing ads program is beginning to take shape for agents and brokers, with Bright MLS preparing to make active brokerage listings eligible to appear in mobile Google Search results this week.
Bright — the country’s largest MLS by subscriber count, with 101,000 members — announced this month that it has partnered with HouseCanary to display active listings in Google Search through HouseCanary’s ComeHome platform. The integration is expected to become available on June 30, with listings expected to display shortly after, according to Bright.
The announcement offers one of the clearest looks yet at how Google’s HouseCanary-powered home-listing experience may work in practice. For agents and brokers, the program appears to have two distinct components: free listing exposure through participating MLS and brokerage feeds, and paid lead opportunities through Google Local Services Ads.
Listing exposure depends on MLS and brokerage participation
Bright told subscribers that active listings will be eligible to appear in mobile Google Search property carousels, where the MLS said they may be positioned above traditional portals. Bright said the display comes at no additional cost to brokerages and will prominently show the listing agent’s name, brokerage and contact buttons.
But Bright also cautioned that display is not guaranteed. Listings are surfaced based on Google’s algorithm and the consumer’s search parameters, meaning agents should not assume every listing will appear for every relevant search.
The integration is not a direct feed from Bright to Google. Bright said the connection is powered through HouseCanary’s consumer platform, ComeHome, which has been supplying listing data for Google’s home-listing ad experience.
Participation appears to depend first on MLS and brokerage-level decisions, rather than individual agents simply uploading listings to Google. Bright said brokerages can opt out of the program through the Bright Syndication Dashboard.
A solo agent can advertise through Google Local Services Ads, but getting listings into Google’s home-listing display appears to depend on whether the agent’s MLS or brokerage is participating in the listing feed.
HouseCanary’s own FAQ makes a similar distinction. Listings in the program are exclusively sourced from participating MLSs, according to HouseCanary. Brokers who want listings available for the Google program must join a participating MLS or coordinate with their existing MLS to establish a feed. Agents, in turn, need to be licensed with a broker in a participating MLS.
HouseCanary says eligible listings include active listings and, in some cases, pre-market listings, while commercial, rental and land listings are generally not included. Depending on each MLS’ rules, brokerages can either opt in or opt out of the feed.
Even then, display is not guaranteed. HouseCanary says all eligible listings from participating MLSs are available for display in active markets, but Google surfaces listings based on relevance to consumer queries.
Agent leads come through Google’s Local Services Ads
The paid side of the program runs through Google Local Services Ads. Bright told subscribers they will not be required to pay for leads as part of the listing-display program, but agents who choose to advertise alongside listing content through Local Services Ads will pay for leads.
Google’s Local Services Help page also offers more detail on how that side of the program works. Home Listings Ads display for-sale listings directly on Google Search and include listing agent, price, images and neighborhood data alongside promoted buyer’s agents, according to Google. Potential buyers can engage with the ads to call or message a local buyer’s agent.
As with other Local Services Ads, Google said agents pay only for leads, not clicks or impressions. To use Home Listings Ads in Local Services, agents need a verified Google Business Profile, a Local Services Ads campaign linked to that profile and must opt into Buyer’s agent or Seller’s agent job types.
Google said the format is available in U.S. markets on mobile and requires agents to have an active Local Services Ads account and pass the company’s standard verification process.
The listings themselves are provided by ComeHome, powered by HouseCanary, according to Google. Google said Local Services Ads automatically surface the appropriate ad format for searches such as “homes near me” or “real estate agent near me.” Pricing varies dynamically by market, and the Home Listings Ads format does not serve on Google Maps, according to Google.
The distinction between listing display and paid lead generation is likely to matter as more MLSs and brokerages consider joining the program. For agents, getting a listing into Google’s home-listing experience may depend on whether their MLS or brokerage participates. Getting themselves surfaced as a promoted agent, by contrast, runs through Google’s Local Services Ads system.
More feeds are expected
HouseCanary has said the broader program is continuing to expand. In prior conversations with Inman, the company said it was working with additional MLSs to coordinate more feeds so more brokers and agents can have listings displayed in the program.
The company also said it expects more partners to be announced in the coming weeks. Bright’s integration appears to be one of the first examples of that broader expansion becoming visible to agents and brokers.
The program has already drawn attention from major portals and brokerages because it sits at the intersection of listing distribution, agent advertising and lead generation. Zillow previously told Inman that it does not view Google’s expansion into home listings as an immediate threat to its business, arguing that Google is moving into a pay-per-lead model Zillow says it has been moving away from.
From the brokerage side, eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja had also previously framed the program less as a portal threat and more as another place to display listings. Pareja previously told Inman that eXp is sending all active and coming-soon listings for eXp Realty and NextHome into the program.
For agents, the more immediate takeaway may be simpler: Google’s home-listing ads are not a single switch they can flip. Listing exposure depends first on MLS and brokerage participation. Paid lead generation depends on Google Local Services Ads. And the value of either side will depend on whether consumers use the new experience to find homes and contact agents.