Real estate technology company Goby Homes has announced the launch of its communication platform, designed to improve the transparency, document management and security of residential real estate transactions. Simultaneously, the company announced that the National Association of REALTORS® recently recognized Goby Homes founder Terrence Nickelson with its iOi Innovator of the Year Award.
The company says Nickelson was primarily driven to solve the problem of failed real estate deals, noting that nearly a quarter of a million transactions—over 760 daily—fall through each year in the U.S., representing significant losses of value, trust, and time. He also pointed out that nearly 50% of real estate businesses have experienced some form of cyberattack in the last two years.
“Despite countless tools available, transactions still fall apart because key information gets missed, roles and responsibilities are unclear, and real-time transparency is almost nonexistent,” Nickelson said. “Without a shared source of accountability, confusion builds, leading to friction, a poor client experience, and ultimately, fallout.”
The company says Goby Homes addresses these issues by introducing alignment, visibility and structured collaboration to every transaction. Nickelson’s personal experience of nearly losing a home purchase for his aunt underscored the problem’s importance.
“Seeing her miss out not only on the home she envisioned for her family but also on the opportunity to build wealth through homeownership motivated me to find a better way,” Nickelson said. “My mission is to improve the homebuying and selling experience and ensure that clients ultimately get what they came to us for.”
Nickelson is tackling industry challenges such as the high percentage of failed or delayed home sales and increasing cyber threats by offering a secure, central hub to streamline the process for all parties, aiming to reduce delays, eliminate blind spots, and help more deals reach the closing table faster, the company said.
The iOi Innovator of the Year Award recognizes leaders like Nickelson, who are driving the advancement of real estate through innovation. Last year’s recipients included Pritesh Damani, Chief Technology Officer at The Real Brokerage; Inés Hegedus-García, Managing Partner at Avanti Way Realty; and Kathleen Lappe, CEO of DirectOffer. This year’s award to Nickelson was just presented at the 2025 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings.
“We believe technology advancements are fundamentally driven by the individuals creating ideas and building innovations,” said Dan Weisman, director of Innovation Strategy for Strategic Business at the National Association of REALTORS®. “NAR’s ‘iOi’ (Innovation. Opportunity. Investment.) Innovator of the Year Award celebrates the innovators and the solutions they’ve built to empower real estate professionals to exceed goals and grow their businesses.”
“Receiving the Innovation of the Year award is a tremendous honor,” Nickelson added. “It reinforces my belief that while technology plays a crucial role in streamlining processes, in the real estate industry, particularly when dealing with our clients’ most significant investments, there’s truly no such thing as a completely ‘end-to-end’ platform driven solely by artificial intelligence. The nuances of each deal demand the experience and know-how of seasoned professionals. Our platform is designed to empower these professionals by providing them with better tools, not to replace their invaluable expertise.”
Nickelson was also the recipient of the ‘Innovation Impact Award’ presented by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) during the Responsible AI Symposium, was selected as one Equity Angels’ Catalyst Program participants, and will be featured at Blueprint, the proptech industry’s largest global gathering later this year.
The Goby Homes communication platform is available now for brokers, agents and clients at https://gobyhomes.com/.
