Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

It is important to surround yourself with a group of trusted advisors to support your personal and business growth. One of the important elements of achieving personal financial independence is finding a group of mentors, subject matter experts, loyal confidants, respected experts and, my favorite, a personal wingman. 

Here are the things you need to consider when locating and assembling your tribe to help your business grow.

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Important roles

When you think about this group as a real estate professional, it is important to think big picture.

Consider the following types of professionals to be in your group:

• Mortgage broker
• Accountant/CPA
• Financial planner 
• Bookkeeper
• Commercial and/or residential insurance broker 

Why do we want to do this?

A trusted advisor will tell you the hard truth! If they feel you could execute your mission differently or better, or you are overlooking something important, they are there to speak the hard truth in a kind way so you understand that certain actions could really help you accelerate your business or could really be a bad idea.

Even more than being helpful, your trusted advisor will likely make great referrals to you because they trust you and like to work with you. 

Common characteristics

Some characteristics of trusted advisors who will speak the hard truth to you:

• Altruistic: Trusted advisors prioritize their client’s needs over their own, acting as part of their clients’ teams to find the best solutions. 
• Ability to listen: Trusted advisors listen attentively, ask questions, assess situations and offer recommendations while respecting corporate culture. 
• Deep experience: Clients are impressed by advisors who confidently discuss real-life applications of rules and concepts. 
• Independence and courage: Trusted advisors challenge clients and say “no” when necessary, prioritizing the client’s best interests. 
• Empathy and service orientation: Trusted advisors understand clients’ needs and emotions, building relationships based on empathy and a genuine desire to help. 
• Adaptability and insights: Trusted advisors help businesses adapt to new challenges and market shifts, keeping strategies agile and effective. 

How can this circle of trusted advisors really help you grow your business? 

A CPA/tax preparer can assist in helping you structure your business so it is more profitable, analyze your business results and prepare financial strategies that help create new sales and grow profits. The CPA should also help you reduce your tax and potentially explore traditional retirement possibilities that you can discuss with your financial planner.

Mortgage lenders will help your clients get the best mortgage to suit their needs, thereby helping you make sales.

Insurance professionals can help your clients get the best rate on insurance or help you close a deal by finding the resources to assist your clients in sticky situations. Insurance professionals can also help you purchase the right type of insurance for your home and business at the best prices.

Financial planners can help your clients restructure their portfolios to make them more attractive borrowers to the mortgage lender. They can also help your client grow their wealth. 

By the way, the financial planner will also want to help you do this with your assets. Many times, financial planners will work hand in hand with your CPA when it comes to tax planning and investment strategies for your portfolio.

Attorneys are there to keep us out of trouble and to protect us and our clients. If they are outside-the-box thinkers, they provide a sounding board for you and your clients when negotiating tricky contract changes.

So, get networking, get interviewing, and find a few trusted advisors who can help you grow your business. Look to other friends in your current network for referrals, and take your time getting to know your experts so that you know how to best capitalize on their skill sets. Remember to schedule regular time to network with your group to create synergy. 

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Publicly traded real estate software company reAlpha Tech Corp (AIRE) has shipped what it’s calling a “super app” that will provide a free solution for end-to-end homebuying representation and services powered in part by an artificial intelligence called Claire.

In an Aug. 20 press release, reAlpha directly referenced new rules put in place as part of a settlement between the National Association of Realtors and a class of consumers seeking restitution for the way real estate commission payment has traditionally been structured.

The application will not charge a commission for its use by a homebuyer and includes human intervention and suport by a licensed sales professional, according to the release. It offers home search and onboard title and escrow services.

The application was called Claire at one time, but its new iteration reflects a deeper integration with the AI and a more comprehensive consumer-first experience in the mobile environment.

“This launch is timed to coincide with the real estate industry’s shift in light of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) recent settlement to eliminate the standard 6 percent sales commission when purchasing a home. These rule changes went into effect Aug. 17, and reAlpha believes such changes make its commission-free offering to be even more compelling for property buyers,” the release stated.

In summary, the application is a digital buyer services solution. Highlights include “commission-free homebuying,” the support of Claire, its AI real estate agent, and AI-based natural language home search and recommendations.

Claire offers 24/7 support for general app use, as well as insights on the market and answers to concerns on the homebuying process, including offer submission and negotiations. It can also review and distill transaction documents, the company said. This would include home inspection overview, settlement statements and more digestable analyses of contracts, addenda and other pertinent paperwork.

“At reAlpha, we know buying a home is the biggest and most important decision many people will ever make,” said Mike Logozzo, president and chief operating officer of reAlpha, in the release. “We believe in leveraging AI to create a more personalized and supportive homebuying experience. The reAlpha super app is designed to provide homebuyers with all the tools and support they may need to find their dream home, at a great price and with the best experience, all from their mobile device.”

The July 2024 acquisition of Hyperfast, a title company licensed in Florida, Virginia and Tennessee, will allow reAlpha to offer built-in title services, and, when more meaningful, custom homebuyinig needs arise, the company’s licensed agents can step in. The company also said in the release it plans to offer mortgage services and home insurance options as it assembles a portfolio of industry service providers.

The company acquired an AI investment analysis tool in 2023, at which time the company was focused on income property.

An Inman report stated that the company sold a retail-grade fractional investing platform providing a wide range of users the ability to establish a stake in Airbnb homes and other STR opportunities. Its GenA product uses its AI to create marketing content for STR hosts, similar to what many tools in the residential sales space do for listing agents.

Email Craig Rowe

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Against the backdrop of major new rules for the real estate industry, class notifications have now begun rolling out to consumers who might be impacted by the National Association of Realtors’ landmark antitrust settlement.

The settlement was first announced in March and stems from homeseller lawsuits alleging NAR and major real estate companies conspired in ways that broke the Sherman Antitrust Act. The settlement resulted in a number of new rules governing things such as agent commissions, as well as an agreement by NAR to $418 million. Similar settlements from major franchisors and brokerages have brought the total pot to more than $980 million.

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The class notifications are meant to inform consumers that they could be eligible to collect some of that money. The first day they could go out was Aug. 17 — the same day that NAR’s new rules went into effect.

A pair of recently filed legal documents sheds light on the process by which notifications will reach consumers. The first document, filed on Aug. 7, outlines a website, www.realestatecommissionlitigation.com, that features information about the settlement — including the amount of money up for grabs and the conditions for being a part of the class.

Class members in general will be people who sold homes via any of scores of multiple listing services in the last several years. The exact dates that qualify vary according to the MLS. The website walks consumers through the process of submitting a claim, and also has information on related settlements from companies including Anywhere, Keller Williams and others.

Claims are due by May 9, 2025.

The Aug. 7 document additionally details email and postcard notices that are also being used to alert consumers of the settlement.

The second court document, filed on Aug. 14, asked the court to let the parties involved in the case withdraw money from the settlement funds to pay for the process of notifying class members.

NAR’s settlement received initial approval in April. A final approval hearing is scheduled for Nov. 26.

In the meantime, agents, brokers, MLSs and other real estate industry members are racing to both adopt and understand the implications of the new rules. However, despite the sweeping scope of those rules, interviews with more than a dozen real estate professionals on Monday suggested that the rollout is so far going relatively smoothly.

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Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Buying Beverly Hills, the Netflix reality series showcasing agents from The Agency and the luxury properties they represent, has not been renewed for a third season.

The reason has to do with the number of views versus cost of production, Deadline reported on Friday.

The series premiered in 2022 and a second season had dropped on Netflix in March. The Agency founder Mauricio Umansky had teased in his book, The Dealmaker: How to Succeed in Business and Life Through Dedication, Determination and Disruption, that future seasons of Buying Beverly Hills set in international locations where The Agency operates were a likely next step for the series.

The Agency did not respond to Inman’s request for comment by press time.

In addition to the senior Umansky, the show featured Umansky’s daughters, who are agents at the luxury firm: Farrah Brittany, Alexia Umansky and Sophia Umansky. Umansky’s estranged wife, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, also made appearances on the show.

During Season 2, the senior Umansky delved into his feud with the Hiltons, whom Richards is related to, after he became one of the top agents at Rick Hilton’s firm co-founded with Jeff Hyland, Hilton & Hyland.

“I think I got kind of f-ked by Hilton & Hyland,” Umansky said. “And when I say f-ked, you know, like, today I’m happy, but there was a hundred agents at Hilton & Hyland. They did a billion dollars [sales volume] for the first time [on an annual basis]. I was 19.6 percent of their production.”

Umansky had asked for equity and partnership status in Hilton & Hyland but was denied by its co-founders.

The show’s second season also explored the family’s challenges while Umansky and Richards went through a separation, with moments of tearful processing by the former couple’s daughters.

“Our life has just changed so much,” Sophia Umansky said after Mauricio explained to his daughters what had happened during the first episode of the show’s second season.

Buying Beverly Hills also featured the firm’s more seasoned agents Ben Belack, Jon Grauman, Michelle Schwartz, Melissa Platt, Adam Rosenfeld, Zach Goldsmith, and newer agents Joey Ben-Zvi, Brandon Graves and Sonika Vaid.

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Email Lillian Dickerson

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Chicago’s Dream Town Real Estate, a 450-agent, six-office independent, has answered the call of industry change by integrating new required buyer representation forms into its automated content distribution solution, a part of its in-house CRM called Client Connect, Inman has learned.

The intent is to make the new agreement process less burdensome on the agent to execute and easier for buyers to understand, as any digital workflow tends to do. Real estate documentation is often associated with being clinical and easily refused by prospective clients, whereas a web-based, auto-populated document helps the relationship coalesce in less time.

“This tool allows their brokers to more easily adapt to the industry changes required to administer buyer-broker agreements to all buyers who seek representation, as required by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) legal settlement,” an Aug. 15 press release said.

Client Connect is the company’s customer relationship management software, and its mobile iteration furthers the pace of the agreement’s delivery and electronic signature, according to the company. Brokers then approve the document and allow the agents to move forward in accordance with NAR’s agreement.

Efficient methods to execute formal buyer agency — the new national standard for buyer representation brought on by a legal settlement between the National Association of Realtors and a class of consumers regarding how commissions are paid — are moving quickly into the market to help agents, brokers and consumers move forward in business. Buyer agency agreements were already standard practice in many markets, though not required in some, but the new rules remain vague to much of the industry.

Inman reported that on Aug. 6, NAR updated its FAQ to specify that an MLS participant working with a buyer can enter into the written agreement with the buyer “at any point but must do so by no later than prior to the buyer ‘touring a home,’ unless state law requires a written buyer agreement earlier in time.”

Under the settlement terms, just marketing services to a buyer or just talking to a buyer on the seller’s behalf — for instance, at an open house or showing a client’s listing to an unrepresented buyer — does not mean you are “working with” a buyer, according to NAR’s FAQ.

However, providing actual brokerage services to a buyer, i.e. identifying potential homes, arranging a showing with the listing agent, negotiating for the buyer, presenting the buyer’s offers or performing other services for the buyer, are “working with” a buyer, the trade group said.

“Buyers agency is very dynamic, and with this new settlement requirement, we needed to create a tool that would enable our brokers to generate buyer-broker agreements on the fly,” said Yuval Degani, founder and CEO of Dream Town, in the press release. “The simplicity of just texting a link makes the conversation simple. It helps to administer the required contract with a multitude of buyers easily.”

Degani has also launched a training series for agents to better understand how to move forward with leads and clients in light of the changes.

Dream Town opened in 1998.

Email Craig Rowe

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Luxury brokers Oren and Tal Alexander are reportedly preparing to make a return to lead Official after the firm’s other cofounders relinquished ownership last week.

Oren and Tal had stepped away from their leadership roles at Official in June after they were accused in multiple lawsuits of sexually assaulting and raping women since at least 2010. After the lawsuits were made public, several more women came forward alleging that they had been victims of the brothers in the past, as well as of Oren and Tal’s other brother, Alon. Allegations have been reported in several news outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

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The Alexander brothers are also now reportedly subjects of an FBI probe.

All three brothers have denied the allegations against them.

Official’s three other cofounders, Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel had seemingly been working to chart a path forward for the firm without the Alexanders even as developers distance themselves from Official and agents leave for other firms.

However, exit negotiations between the Alexanders and Official’s other cofounders were unsuccessful, and Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel left the firm, effective last Thursday.

“We could not be more disappointed that we were not informed by Tal and Oren of these lawsuits and threats too our firm, and that our talented teams are now prevented from continuing Official on its path,” Oge said in a statement about the cofounders’ departures. “These allegations are disturbing to us all, but importantly they are clearly opening up dialogue around the brokerage industry’s culture toward women at large.”

James Cinque, an attorney representing Oren and Tal, told Business Insider at that time that the brothers “never said they were going to leave” and that “they want to continue with the business.”

“The Alexander brothers are excited about their new lineup and will be announcing details very soon,” Cinque added.

The Alexanders’ headshots had been removed from Official’s website, but, as of Thursday, those headshots and accompanying bios are back. Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel have been removed from the site as cofounders.

The brothers are reportedly trying to retain Official’s remaining agents, sources told The Real Deal, and will rebrand the brokerage with Tal as the new face of the company.

At this point, several agents in California, New York and Miami have left the brokerage. Despite having made a push for expansion on the West Coast just about a year-and-a-half ago, the firm now retains only one agent in the region: in Aspen, where it launched operations only about six months ago.

The LA-based Tyrone McKillen, Brent Watson and Marco Salari have all now left Official, as well as at least seven agents in New York and Miami.

Since the sexual assault and rape allegations against the brothers came to light, they’ve stepped out of the spotlight, removing their accounts from Instagram. They have been seen in Bridgehampton, at a Barry’s Bootcamp class in Miami, and Oren, at a DJ booth in Ibiza, according to The Real Deal.

Tal also submitted a notice of commencement for a waterfront home he has planned in Miami Beach, the development of which is being led by The Alexander Group, helmed by the brothers’ father, Shlomi Alexander.

Official launched with backing from white-label firm Side in 2022 after spending about a decade at Douglas Elliman. However, Oren and Tal’s licenses are no longer active with Side, according to a firm spokesperson. It is unclear when or if the brothers will reactivate their licenses, and with what firm.

Cinque did not divulge many details on the rebrand or any additional plans of the Alexanders other than, “we are in a quiet period and will absolutely announce plans once final,” according to an email sent to The Real Deal.

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Email Lillian Dickerson