Tech Leaders Share Insights at 2023 REALTORS Legislative Meetings

Tech leaders took the stage at the 2023 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings to discuss existing innovations and trends to help real estate agents level up their businesses. Several hundred Realtors® attended Tuesday's "Emerging Business Issues and Technology Forum," which provided insight into technologies that help agents maximize their presence on social media, streamline marketing, and attract and retain clients.

Alex Montalenti, co-founder of Real Grader, covered the importance of branding and having a well-curated social media presence. Real Grader measures, manages and maximizes the digital presence of real estate professionals. When asked about the most important thing that real estate agents should do when it comes to their social presence, Montalenti said that after setting up all social accounts, it is vital to connect with your sphere.

"Find your clients on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and connect with them," he said. "Once you've set that connection, they will follow your relationship and journey for years. With social media, you have the ability to keep in touch and stay top of mind."

Mark Choey, founder of Highnote, spoke about the importance of streamlining the process of building presentations. Highnote is a drag-and-drop presentation and proposal platform that helps agents pitch and sell listings, offers, neighborhoods and themselves.

"Agents need great presentations, and they need them fast," he said. "An effective presentation is the lifeblood of all great real estate agents."

Glenn Shimkus, founder and CEO of Prisidio, discussed the importance of organizing and safely managing all types of vital documents and information. Prisidio provides consumers with a digital vault to capture and securely share the most important information with the key people in their lives.

When asked about tips for people interested in this type of software but who are unsure how to get started, Shimkus encouraged the audience to take things one step at a time.

"It's all about tiny habits," he said. "We want to enable you – in quick bursts – to go in and get organized. When you break everything up into little chunks, you will be amazed at how quickly you can be ready, prepared and have peace of mind."

Prisidio, Highnote and Real Grader were all recently accepted to the 2023 REACH program, a technology scale-up program created by Second Century Ventures, NAR's strategic investment arm.

In another Tuesday session at the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings, real estate industry expert Marki Lemons Ryhal shared valuable insights and practical tips about how real estate agents can leverage artificial intelligence technologies to enhance efficiency, productivity and reach in their businesses.

Her session, entitled "How AI is Transforming the Real Estate Industry," highlighted the capabilities of ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, describing it as a "productive, electrifying, trained assistant." She also provided an overview of Canva's AI tools, including text-to-image generation and a translation tool that can convert text within a design to more than 100 languages. Lemons Ryhal explained how these technologies are enabling real estate professionals to create engaging and visually appealing marketing materials while catering to a diverse clientele.

She shared that many agents use AI tools to write real estate descriptions but stressed these tools are not perfect, and proofreading content remains crucial.

"We still have to adhere to license law, the Realtor® Code of Ethics, and fair housing rules and regulations," Lemons Ryhal said.