Realogy Introduces Productivity Hub, Its New Open Technology Product Suite

(Above) Credit: Realogy

Realogy has announced that it will be launching the Realogy Productivity Hub, an innovative open technology platform comprised of end-to-end product offerings aimed at creating value for its agents and brokers, as well as their clients.

The Productivity Hub’s agent-facing feature set will consist of multiple product modules (each with a slew of products within it) that address the different needs of its brands, brokers and agents:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Consumer experience (brand and brokerage consumer websites and apps)
• Transaction management
• Lead management
• Analytics and reporting

While the transaction management, lead management and analytics and reporting functions are still in development and will be deployed at a later date, Realogy is addressing the consumer experience and CRM by expanding on its current strategic partnership with OJO Labs through their RealSavvy product. OJO Labs acquired RealSavvy in October 2019, and Realogy is working with the OJO Labs team to collaboratively build a new consumer experience.

“The Productivity Hub will provide our agents with the best-in-class tools that they need, and it will be a mix of products that we create in-house—such as Agent X, our new Learning Platform, our Agent Payment Portal, Social Ad Engine or our forthcoming Leads Engine and transaction management tool—and products that we natively integrate through strategic partnerships, such as the one we entered into with OJO Labs to build upon the RealSavvy product,” says Dave Gordon, chief technology officer of Realogy.

“The Productivity Hub is the next evolution of offerings from Realogy. It is a powerful ecosystem for all of our brokers and agents, one filled with products that we believe are the best in the industry,” explains Simon Chen, executive vice president of Product and Innovation, Realogy Franchise Group. “As the first affiliate network of brands to roll out an end-to-end platform more than five years ago, we are uniquely positioned to learn from what we deployed and used in the past. For example, we know that real estate agents and brokers don’t want to be restricted by technology that is built through closed architecture and dictates what tools they must conform to. This is why our open platform will provide our affiliates with the flexibility to leverage Realogy’s offerings in combination with other best-of-breed products and tools provided by our integration partners. We also understand that the data that powers the Productivity Hub needs to be clean, deep and accurate. Realogy’s size and scale allows us to be uniquely positioned to have data that fills those needs.”

The goal of Realogy’s Productivity Hub is to provide agents, teams, brokers and Realogy’s brands the opportunity to build their own customizable tech platform to drive their performance and productivity. To accomplish this, it is powered with Realogy’s world-class analytics, on top of a massive data repository, and is designed to evolve with the changing needs and expectations of the industry.

“An ecosystem is only as good as the data that it uses,” adds Gordon. “Realogy’s AI Lab in Emeryville, Calif., built a centralized repository for all of the data it gathers across all of its brands and business units. This repository, commonly called a data lake, leverages Realogy’s size, scale, history in the industry and nationwide coverage to fill itself with unparalleled data assets, and then augments that data with external sources, such as local MLS. This allows us to incorporate artificial intelligence through machine learning into the products that are a part of the Productivity Hub.”

The new open ecosystem is the first major venture that will come out of Realogy’s Technology and Data organization, led by Gordon, and their recently announced Product and Innovation organization, led by Chen, which aligns business ownership with product management to create a unique partnership between product, technology and brand teams.

“Our approach to creating any product is to begin by partnering with our agents and brokers to gather feedback on features and functionality, as well as support, training, operations and change management,” says Chris Padilla, vice president of Products, Realogy Franchise Group. “This allows us to fully understand what opportunity areas need to be addressed before readying a product for full availability. With that in mind, we are currently in pilot with Coldwell Banker for our new consumer experience and CRM, will shortly begin our pilot with our Expansion Brands (Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and ERA), and then over the remainder of this year we will begin piloting with our other brands.”

“The functionality and look of the new website, apps and CRM is very clean and crisp!” says Rudy Vincent, a sales associate at Coldwell Banker United, Realtors®, who is piloting the new hub. “I really like the thought of having this full integration throughout all of our product suite, making it even easier to keep in touch with our sphere. Our abilities as REALTORS® to stay in contact with the right leads at the right time is everything, and this new product suite is clearly designed to help us do just that. Realogy and Coldwell Banker Realty strive to put agents first, and they are going above and beyond to maximize our time through smart new products and tech, all while continuing to give us the tools to better help our clients. I can’t wait to dive deeper into this pilot and use these products when they are fully rolled out.”

“OJO Labs and Realogy have come together to provide consumer facing tools for agents to create new relationships and deepen the ones they already have,” says Chris Heller, chief real estate officer of OJO Labs. “I know the challenges agents and brokers face. It is obvious that the Realogy team is being very smart about their strategy for launching these products. They are ensuring that their agents are a part of the process and will be set up to immediately benefit from the productivity this platform will provide.”

The new product offerings will consist of the following features, among others:

• Collaborative Search: Enables agents to work closely with buyers on their online search, providing them insight into their clients’ activity through interactive Collections where agents and consumers can collaborate and work together in real-time
• Mobile Optimized: Web and native app experiences that are optimized for mobile, enabling customers and agents to quickly and efficiently manage their search experience on any device, at any time
• Comprehensive Property Search: Full MLS search, including rentals and commercial listings when available, supplemented with Realogy’s internal data
• Content Management: Flexible and highly customizable content management capabilities that allow brands and brokerages to fill their websites with only the content that they truly want
• Contact Nurturing: View, edit and uniquely manage contacts and deliver relevant information at the right time to efficiently interact with clients and deepen relationships
• Robust Communications: Integrated email, voice, text and calendar with branded templates that can be personalized for each company, office, team or agent
• True Open Architecture: Integrated with all existing and future consumer platforms, lead management sources and transaction management systems, allowing flexibility and greater usability

“At OJO Labs, we’re on a mission to help people navigate some of life’s most complex decisions through an easy-to-use consumer service and access to top industry experts,” says John Berkowitz, co-founder and CEO of OJO Labs. “OJO Labs serves consumers directly, while partnering with the best brokers and agents to create a truly incredible home-buying experience. Our partnership with Realogy enables us to arm top brokerages and agents with the tools they need to guide homebuyers through one of the most high-value, emotionally charged decisions they’ll ever make.”

“Realogy has always considered itself a real estate company; however, a major reason we are an industry leader is that we understand the need to be data-driven and technology-forward,” explains Chen. “This announcement forms the foundation of an exciting suite of tools for our agents and brokers. We’re thrilled by the fact that the industry’s best and brightest third-party products and solutions are already starting to reach out to be part of the Productivity Hub’s technology ecosystem, as well as the network of six brands and over 300,000 agents that it serves globally. This is the exact universe that we envisioned when we first decided to deploy the Productivity Hub through open architecture. We want this to be comprised, at its core, of the products that have a goal of making the home-buying and -selling process easier and more efficient for consumers, agents and brokers.”

For more information, please visit www.realogy.com.