RPR Expands Commercial Focus in 2019

Since 2012, RPR has offered REALTORS an exclusive resource to support clients and customers in the commercial marketplace. In an industry of rapidly evolving technology and strong competition, RPR has consistently worked to improve its commercial resources, including the RPR Commercial Mobile app.

In 2019, RPR is further expanding its commercial programs and features through:

• Expanded licensing of commercial data
• High value commercial product integrations
• New strategic outreach programs focused on building stronger relationships with commercial brokers and franchisors.

Expanded data licensing increases RPR active commercial listing counts in 2019

RPR has more than 665,000 active commercial listings and 43 million off-market properties to-date, including a direct partnership with Catylist, licensing over 100,000 listings representing more than 45 associations across the country. Additionally, RPR is pleased to announce the execution of an agreement with Brevitas, which will add 40 thousand commercial listings nationwide.

An integration between Brevitas.com and RPR's comprehensive database gives REALTORS® an instant competitive advantage. Real time insights into commercial property are critical to making informed decisions. The connection to the data provided by RPR will be invaluable to the REALTORS® listing and searching on Brevitas.com. We're extremely excited about our partnership.

Ardian Zagari, Co-Founder & CEO
San Francisco, CA – Brevitas

RPR is working with two additional national commercial listing platforms with each currently reviewing data licensing terms. These partnerships, along with the new collaboration with Brevitas, gives RPR the potential of adding almost 200,000 commercial listings in the first half of 2019. This would bring the total number of active listings on the RPR Commercial platform to more than 850,000 properties, all exclusively for REALTORS® as a benefit of membership.

RPR also continues to support NAR's Commercial Leadership on the Commercial Listing Platform initiative. With balanced results from members on the value of multiple systems, RPR is collaborating with each of the selected companies, allowing members to choose the public listing platform they prefer. Each platform will provide a data feed to RPR, which will allow members to access properties and network with REALTORS® nationwide.

The value of Commercial integrations – Valuate® case study

RPR is investing resources to create integrations with products that create easy, streamlined business solutions for members. It's not just about what each product can do, but how the products interact together producing the most straightforward experience for agents and brokers.

For example, Valuate® is an analysis program that allows REALTORS® to present and market investment properties from both the RPR website and mobile app. Since its integration with RPR in 2016, Valuate® has evolved as the REALTOR'S®'s go-to tool for projecting investment returns, comparing multiple properties and scenarios, and assessing risks resulting in the best investment opportunity for the client.

With the RPR and Valuate® teams working in tandem on studying member usage and applying member feedback to continuously improve the experience, more than 125,000 REALTORS® across the country have adopted this offering and produced more than 270,000 analyses for clients on properties valued at more than $261 billion.

Valuate® is an easy to use analysis tool within RPR that makes evaluating an investment property common sense. Most programs take hours to learn and still are too difficult or not practical to use. This is why most REALTORS® give up using investment software. Thank you RPR for bringing this member value to us!

Mike Vachani, MBA, CIPS, President and Managing Broker
Provenio Realty & Investment, Los Angeles, CA

Commercial Brokerage Outreach in 2019

In 2011, RPR released its Broker Tool Set (BTS), a suite of products and features for brokerage firms and franchises, including:

• Company Branding
• Affiliated Services Support Modules
• Market Data Tool
• Broker Automated Valuation Model (AVM)
• Brokerages ability to insert custom PDF pages into all RPR reports

Today, BTS participation includes over 8,000 companies representing over 520,000 REALTORS®, including 186 of the top 250 brokers in the U.S. As a measure of success, RPR usage in companies utilizing company branding is 45 percent higher than those that are not branded. This serves to increase RPR's overall value through increased adoption, and also supports the tremendous investment companies make into their brand by extending it to the RPR web and mobile platforms—as well as all the reports agents create for consumer use in buying, selling and leasing properties across the U.S.

In 2019, RPR is extending that success to identify, research and engage key franchisors, brokerages and offices in a new Commercial 100 program (C100). This will focus on offering top commercial firms and divisions with high value programs and support, such as customized monthly webinars, commercial branding on the RPR site, reports, the mobile app and best practice articles to help each respective company share the value across their markets.

A couple of the most engaged C100 companies include SVN and First Weber Commercial. At the start of 2019, RPR was invited to join SVN's preferred vendor program, which was created to support more than 1,000 commercial professionals. This program identifies key commercial products and services that benefit SVN and their franchisees across the country.

With career development a top priority, First Weber Commercial has collaborated with the RPR team to customize trainings, so their agents can maximize the RPR resources. Many commercial practitioners at First Weber have integrated RPR for their business as a result of learning the depths of information they can make available for their clients.

I made six figures on a deal thanks to resources I have as a REALTOR® and national retailers have referred me to other businesses based on the depths of data, analysis capabilities and informational reports they receive as a result of choosing me. It was a no-brainer for me to share the importance of this resource with the SVN Corporate Team so my colleagues across the country take advantage of RPR.

Deena Zimmerman, Vice President
SVN Chicago Commercial Chicago, IL

First Weber Commercial Division couldn't be more pleased with the ever improving and evolving RPR product for commercial/investment real estate. RPR's database of properties is robust and superior in most rural areas. The support staff have been very proactive in delivering training in a wide variety of methods and the cost cannot be beaten as it is included in REALTOR® dues.

Dan Lee, Vice President
First Weber Commercial Madison, Wisconsin

RPR is looking at 2019 as a pivotal year to expand the value of both REALTOR® membership and RPR's array of commercial resources to agents and brokers nationwide. If you would like to learn more about RPR Commercial products, programs from brokerages and franchises, or about its preferred partner program for commercial firms, please connect with us.

To view the original article, visit the RPR blog.