Crye-Leike's Technology Leader Joins Broker Public Portal Board

Gurtej Sodhi, chief information and operations officer of the Crye-Leike Group of Companies, has been named to the board of managers of Broker Public Portal, LLC.

Broker Public Portal (BPP) is the collaborative venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs nationwide to create a national consumer home search experience defined by simplicity, integrity and common sense.

Crye-Leike Group of Companies is the parent company of Crye-Leike Real Estate Services, the nation's fifth largest independent residential real estate brokerage firm.

BPP has partnered with Homesnap to offer the Homesnap application and a new online search tool that provides consumers with direct access to the most comprehensive, timely, and complete property information while adhering to fair display guidelines.

Homesnap, which also includes tools for real estate agents, is an alternative to commercial sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, etc. Using the Homesnap app, a person can snap a photo of any home, nationwide, to find out all about it, to see interior photos of homes listed for sale, and connect with a real estate agent to see houses that are for sale, or to list their own house for sale.

Sodhi, a resident of Brentwood, Tenn., has worked at Crye-Leike in various roles since 1994. He currently has the responsibility of ensuring that all of the company's business units utilize the best systems and processes to operate in the most effective and productive manner. He has also been on the board of managers for UpstreamRE since 2016, which is an industry initiative to aggregate real estate data that is used by brokerages in running their businesses.

Sodhi is one of seven new members of the BPP's 16-member board of managers, a board which includes executives from large brokers, medium brokers, small brokers, independent managers, and multiple listing services. Also joining the BPP board of managers were executives from Ebby Halliday, The Realty Alliance, the Austin Board of REALTORS®, Lyon Real Estate, Starck Real Estate, and Keller Williams.

"Appointment to this board fits in with Crye-Leike's overall goal to be a leader in helping guide the industry to develop the right technology and consumer experience solutions that serve its sales associates and the public better, and also in supporting the right policies like 'fair display' guidelines," Sodhi said. "The board of managers is entrusted with ensuring that BPP is working in a manner that creates value for all the parties involved in the ecosystem, including the home buyers and sellers, the sales associates, brokerages, and MLSs while providing the public with a timely and accurate source for information."

BPP created the "Fair Display Guidelines" in response to the growing concerns in the real estate industry over websites and search tools that seemed to prioritize advertisers over agent-client relationships. The Homesnap app is free from ads and paid agent placement and follows "fair display guidelines" meant to protect agent-client relationships, and route new consumer inquiries to the listing agent or broker at no cost.

Homesnap is powered by a specialized homes database that combines MLS data, property tax records, census data, geographic boundaries and more, including data from more than 50 MLS real estate databases representing the listings of more than 575,000 member Realtors nationwide.

Crye-Leike is the nation's fifth largest independently-owned real estate firm, and the largest residential real estate firm in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and the Mid-South, with more than 3,100 sales associates and 126 company-owned and franchise offices located in a nine-state region (Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Missouri), plus Puerto Rico.