by Craig C. Rowe | May 9, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Anyone is a digital homebuying and selling solution for agents and consumers looking to improve the traditional sales experience.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Anyone is an end-to-end buying and selling solution.
Platforms: Web; mobile-responsive
Ideal for: Homebuyers, sellers and all agents
Top selling points:
• Buyer/seller involvement
• True agent matching
• Agent compensation flexibility
• Multiple forms of listing input
• Offer flow experience
Top concern(s):
I’m going to need to see its full integration of e-notarization and on-board forms completion before giving it my highest review. Also, the company’s messaging needs to be carefully tailored to ensure adoption.
What you should know
Anyone is an end-to-end digital homebuying and selling experience. It starts at agent selection and home search or listing agreement and flows through to closing coordination. It ends for now before deed recording.
The light, fast user experience is based on full transparency for all stakeholders and driven by the idea that the consumer is still not best served by what exists now. Software features reflect current industry trends such as buyer agent commission format and negotiation, eliminating the “dead time” that occurs when a deal crashes before closing and even the Clear Cooperation politics impacting what properties can be viewed.
Few television critics argue about the greatness that was the “Friday Night Lights” series. One particular storyline followed an ex-quarterback turned aspiring artist’s assigned internship with a reclusive local scrapyard sculptor. In a moment of desperate self-doubt, the student asked the reticent artist why he chose him, only to watch his hopeful mentor tear apart a completed work and show a small corner of it, “This, this is why I chose you.” Or something to that effect.
This comparison doesn’t completely fit with what I see in Anyone because there is actually a lot to like, but it’s to demonstrate that what stood out to me in our demo was the little things tucked into its deal workflow that make it one of my favorite business productivity solutions of 2025.
During Anyone’s agent selection workflow, which encourages consumers to find an agent based on regional market performance data, not who their dad knows, it asks individuals to “Choose a Package.” This is where they will select if they need buyer or seller representation, and it lists what the agent provides in a bulleted list, a clean, clear services breakdown that the agent can edit upon onboarding.
This feature challenges the agent to succinctly detail what they’re good at directly for the public to digest. It also helps the agent justify what they provide in exchange for their compensation model.
On that note, Anyone makes compensation agreements very clear. Buyer agents can offer to charge a fixed price or be paid via traditional commission. The content card surfaces as part of the relationship onboarding via agreement in the Communications dashboard.
I really like that this still very controversial industry issue is so smartly made a seamless part of the business process. It normalizes the discussion. Savvy agents can use this to test which payment models resonate with their leads or exclusively offer one depending on deal conditions. The consumer has to view and confirm the agreement, and it’s then made part of the paperwork sent to the listing agent.
Should a deal fall apart during escrow, it takes merely one click of the Return to Market feature to send the listing back to the open market and alert all previously interested parties that it’s in play. There’s no dead time to “reassess marketing” or hide some invisible stigma about a home falling out of escrow.
Anyone surrounds these minor but critical features with a user interface that is nimble, consumer-facing and what I can only assume would be a joy to work with over time. It includes an in-app home search that offers a very similar experience as one would find in any of the major portals, minus the lead sales or controversy over the property’s publishing.
There are calls-to-action for the buyer to schedule a showing on their own — no sending their agent a URL or back-and-forth calendar hassles. When the buyer activates the booking tool, the agent is notified of the details. And so is the seller and their listing agent. Everyone stays in the loop.
The agent or seller can import listings easily via an existing URL or by manual input in a traditional fashion with image uploads and text descriptions. The company is working on a tool for AI-generated listing content. Anyone has 31 million properties published on its site, and database of more than 300 million records it can use to quickly get a home online. However, the seller needs an agent to formally publish and activate their property, one way Anyone ensures the agent remains a part of the solution.
Once in the search, both the agent and the seller can view its ongoing market interest, number of showings, etc., talk about showing results and consider changes. It’s all vertical, all in one place. Anyone helps users eschew multiple third-party communication methods and tools, ensuring all the data generated from the conversation remains part of the transaction, contributing to the ongoing history of the deal.
The offer flow is a smooth back-and-forth between parties with simple terms entry forms, multiple levels of approval before offer submission, opportunities to add documents, view seller disclosures, summarize terms, set deadlines and generate counter offers.
Like many online offer managers, Anyone has its parties finalize formal documents offline and upload them. However, the company is working on digital forms integrations and an e-notarization add-on to push the digital process deeper into the experience.
My discussion with the founders of Anyone, who sold a domain transaction system to GoDaddy, touched on a number of issues they’d like to see addressed in the real estate sales ecosystem. They want to see more consumer involvement, specifically from sellers, more transparency and less information hoarding, agreeable collaboration between all groups and an adoption of the idea that agents should be able to compete on price, and communicate with outcomes.
The latter bit, “communicate with outcomes,” is a precise way of saying there should be more efficiency in the process. Agents should lead with the solution, conversations should end quickly with all parties going away happy, regardless of how consequential the topic. I find those words very insightful.
The more often we communicate with the outcome, the more value we bring to the relationship. And right now, as NAR, Zillow, Compass and the MLS community bicker about who can see what when and how, the consumer is slowly being shown a better way to do it all without them.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
Article image credited to Craig C. Rowe; Canva
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by Lee Davenport | May 9, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Not everyone who’s thinking about listing a home “by owner” is set on their decision. Dr. Lee Davenport offers talking points that can help you convince them to list with you.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Have you ever wondered if homesellers who opt for FSBO (for sale by owner) listings had doubts about not using a professional? No need to guess.
According to a recent survey by Anytime Estimate, almost “three-quarters of sellers who don’t plan to use an agent (71 percent) have concerns about that decision.”
Specifically, of that 71 percent, their concerns include:
- 19 percent fear unexpected issues during the homeselling process (if they only knew the half of it!)
- 10 percent acknowledge their marketing knowledge gap
- 10 percent recognize the legal mistakes that can be made if they wing it
And frankly, they should have concerns, especially if they have not had to sell a home in the last economic topsy turvy decade — God forbid, never before.
Why?
Because there are many things that we are comfortable learning by doing that have low costs associated with them: learning a foreign language, Sudoku, the latest dance trends, etc.
However, selling a home, which for many people is one of their most financially significant lifetime transactions, requires more care. Learning real estate by doing cannot only be cost-prohibitive but could lead to you “catching a case” if an ill-informed homeseller, for example, breaks a fair housing law or commits mortgage fraud (even unintentionally).
Oh, you did not know that the homeseller cannot secretly agree to refund part of the sale price to the buyer after closing? Oh, you did not know that is lender fraud?
Oh, you did not know that a homeseller’s marketing ad should not say, “Great Christian neighborhood, perfect for small families”? Oh, you did not know homesellers should not ask, “Are you planning on starting a family?” or “Will your parents be living with you?” Oh, you did not know those all violate fair housing laws?
Although unlicensed homesellers are not held to the same standards as licensed real estate agents, homesellers still have laws to follow.
But what about the 22 percent surveyed who had bad experiences with real estate agents in the past? They tried to work with professionals, and it was a no-go.
This is one of those moments where folksy American sayings like “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” come into play.
For instance, if you have a bad experience with a grocery store, do you stop buying groceries and farm your food? Some of us might, but many of us will simply go to a different store with higher standards. I encourage disappointed homesellers to do the same regarding real estate deals.
How?
Tips for real estate agents
Although it “generally takes 10 to 25 showings to sell a typical home (resulting in an average of 2.6 offers)“, the magic of a 22-minute house-hunting TV show has likely unintentionally set unrealistic expectations for both house hunters and homesellers.
However, similar to most Instagram feeds, such TV shows are really the highlight reels of the homeselling process. It would be great if TV shows had disclaimers — like commercials that include the side effects of different medications — but since they do not, as a real estate coach, I encourage real estate agents to be sure that they set realistic expectations while reviewing their brokerage engagement contract.
To mitigate common issues, it is important to ask (and listen for) myths:
- What have you heard about this market?
- What were the pain points of your last real estate deal?
- What’s on your wishlist for selling this home?
Based on the responses, the agent can more readily address facts versus myths as well as properly set expectations going forward.
Tips for homesellers (that agents should know and proactively offer)
To expound on the questions above, one way a homeseller can diffuse anger and disappointment with a previous home closing is to list out all of the issues she had with her prior real estate agent.
Next, turn those grievances into a checklist for any upcoming interviews with prospective real estate agents. For extra razzle dazzle, use generative AI like Deepseek or ChatGPT to craft those homeselling pain points into expert interview questions.
Furthermore, homesellers should not be shy about checking a real estate agent’s credentials by visiting their state’s real estate commission website. There, homesellers can see if a prospective agent is actually licensed, has had any prior disciplinary issues or perhaps has been working with an expired license.
Also, they should be sure to check to see if their real estate agent is a “Realtor.” This means the agent has pledged to uphold the Realtor Code of Ethics, which gives an extra layer of support where the seller can file grievances (beyond what your state may offer).
In short, if 71 percent of those surveyed who plan to sell their home without an agent have doubts, such transparent information may sway them on your integrity and forthcomingness, helping them off the fence to make you their agent of choice.
Lee Davenport is a licensed real estate broker, trainer and coach. Follow her on YouTube, or visit her website.
This post was originally published on this site
by Drew Thompson | May 9, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Forget fancy cameras, Drew Thompson writes. Real estate videos that sell are about connection. This AI stack turns photos and your voice into an emotional engine that makes buyers need the keys.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Admit it. You saw The Real Brokerage’s Matt Leonetti’s legendary “Benny” video. Half the industry got misty-eyed, and the other half thought, “Where the heck do I find that kind of budget?”
The real question today is: “How fast can I deploy AI to create that same emotional gut-punch without breaking the bank?”
Good news: A tsunami of AI tools just obliterated the barrier between Hollywood magic and your marketing budget. This isn’t just a new platform; it’s a new playbook. Combine these AI engines in this specific sequence, and you’ll be churning out listing videos that stop scrolls and start bidding wars.
This recipe isn’t just simple; it’s fast, repeatable and ridiculously effective.
The workflow took shape during a recent Nashville workshop we ran at Real, where agents asked for a budget-friendly way to replicate big-budget listing films.
Introducing the ReelFeel 3-Step Stack
Think of this as your unfair advantage, your shortcut from static MLS photos to a mini-masterpiece that connects. No complex editing software, no five-figure invoices — just pure AI power doing the heavy lifting so you can focus on closing.
Here’s your arsenal and the minimal investment required:
- Motion Engine: Blonde Waterfall ($99): Transforms your listing photos into a mesmerizing, smooth video walkthrough.
- Music Engine: Suno.ai (Free tokens available): Generates custom, royalty-free instrumental tracks that nail the emotional vibe.
- Message Engine: ChatGPT (Free version works, $20 a month for GPT-4 Turbo is rocket fuel) and Eleven Labs (Optional for AI voice): Writes and voices a compelling 30-second narrative that tells the story of the home.
Total investment: Under $150
Total execution time (post-photos): Under 15 minutes. Seriously.
Ready to build? Follow this exact framework
Step 1: Motion – Animate your visuals with Blonde Waterfall
Feed Blonde Waterfall 10-15 of your best listing photos. Hit go. In about 24 hours (plan ahead), it delivers a polished 30-45 second .mp4. Imagine silky-smooth push-ins on the kitchen island, slow pans across the primary suite, maybe a twilight drone-style shot over the backyard — movements impossible to fake quickly in Canva or basic editors.
Execution tip: Don’t just use wide shots. Include three or four detail shots (that unique light fixture, the fireplace texture, blooming gardenias). These micro-cuts give the AI more to work with and make the final output feel richer and more intentional.
Step 2: Music – Score the emotion with Suno.ai
Fire up ChatGPT (Use GPT-4o if you have it). Use this prompt:
“You are an expert prompt engineer for AI music generation. Create a prompt under 200 characters for Suno.ai. The goal is a warm, piano-driven instrumental evoking feelings of nostalgia, homecoming and gentle optimism. Focus on evocative descriptions, *not* famous composers. Make it sound like a high-end film score.”
Grab the output (“Gentle piano melody intertwined with soft, rising strings, building to a hopeful, warm crescendo, peaceful homecoming vibe”). Paste it into Suno.ai, check “Instrumental Only,” and generate.
- Result: In 60 seconds? A broadcast-quality track that sounds like you paid hundreds for licensing. Zero cost.
- Pro tip: Aim for a tempo around 85–95 BPM. It feels cozy and inviting, not sluggish.
Step 3: Message – Craft and voice the narrative with ChatGPT
Back to ChatGPT. Feed it the property details and this directive:
“You are a master storyteller writing a voiceover script for a 30-second real estate video. Property: [123 Maple Lane, a 3-bed, 2-bath mid-century ranch in Franklin, TN]. Goal: Spark nostalgia and excitement. Style: Warm, inviting, first-person perspective. End with a compelling call to imagine living there. Keep it tight — under 90 words.”
Take that script. Open your preferred simple video editor (Instagram Reels, CapCut, Premiere Rush or whatever’s fastest for you).
- Import the Blonde Waterfall video.
- Layer the Suno.ai music track underneath.
- Hit Record Voice-Over. Read the script yourself. Your authentic voice connects way better than you think.
- Mic shy? OK, fine. Paste the script into Eleven Labs ($5 a month gets you started) and generate a hyper-realistic AI voiceover. Drop that in instead.
Emotion drives action.
Period.
AI just handed you the keys to the emotion factory, on demand, for pennies on the dollar.
Stop wishing you had better videos.
Execute the ReelFeel 3-Step Stack on your very next listing. Don’t just track views; track the saves, the shares, the DMs and the showing requests.
Now you have big budget impact on a bootstrap timeline.
The Skinny (TL;DR): Ditch the $10,000 production crew. Blonde Waterfall + Suno.ai + ChatGPT = Pro-level, emotionally charged listing videos in 15 minutes for under $100. This is AI leverage! Execute this now.
Want the over-the-shoulder, click-by-click breakdown? Hit the video at the top of the story. Watch it, learn it, do it.
Drew Thompson is the head of agent performance and head coach at Real. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
This post was originally published on this site
by Drew Thompson | May 9, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Forget fancy cameras, Drew Thompson writes. Real estate videos that sell are about connection. This AI stack turns photos and your voice into an emotional engine that makes buyers need the keys.
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Admit it. You saw The Real Brokerage’s Matt Leonetti’s legendary “Benny” video. Half the industry got misty-eyed, and the other half thought, “Where the heck do I find that kind of budget?”
The real question today is: “How fast can I deploy AI to create that same emotional gut-punch without breaking the bank?”
Good news: A tsunami of AI tools just obliterated the barrier between Hollywood magic and your marketing budget. This isn’t just a new platform; it’s a new playbook. Combine these AI engines in this specific sequence, and you’ll be churning out listing videos that stop scrolls and start bidding wars.
This recipe isn’t just simple; it’s fast, repeatable and ridiculously effective.
The workflow took shape during a recent Nashville workshop we ran at Real, where agents asked for a budget-friendly way to replicate big-budget listing films.
Introducing the ReelFeel 3-Step Stack
Think of this as your unfair advantage, your shortcut from static MLS photos to a mini-masterpiece that connects. No complex editing software, no five-figure invoices — just pure AI power doing the heavy lifting so you can focus on closing.
Here’s your arsenal and the minimal investment required:
- Motion Engine: Blonde Waterfall ($99): Transforms your listing photos into a mesmerizing, smooth video walkthrough.
- Music Engine: Suno.ai (Free tokens available): Generates custom, royalty-free instrumental tracks that nail the emotional vibe.
- Message Engine: ChatGPT (Free version works, $20 a month for GPT-4 Turbo is rocket fuel) and Eleven Labs (Optional for AI voice): Writes and voices a compelling 30-second narrative that tells the story of the home.
Total investment: Under $150
Total execution time (post-photos): Under 15 minutes. Seriously.
Ready to build? Follow this exact framework
Step 1: Motion – Animate your visuals with Blonde Waterfall
Feed Blonde Waterfall 10-15 of your best listing photos. Hit go. In about 24 hours (plan ahead), it delivers a polished 30-45 second .mp4. Imagine silky-smooth push-ins on the kitchen island, slow pans across the primary suite, maybe a twilight drone-style shot over the backyard — movements impossible to fake quickly in Canva or basic editors.
Execution tip: Don’t just use wide shots. Include three or four detail shots (that unique light fixture, the fireplace texture, blooming gardenias). These micro-cuts give the AI more to work with and make the final output feel richer and more intentional.
Step 2: Music – Score the emotion with Suno.ai
Fire up ChatGPT (Use GPT-4o if you have it). Use this prompt:
“You are an expert prompt engineer for AI music generation. Create a prompt under 200 characters for Suno.ai. The goal is a warm, piano-driven instrumental evoking feelings of nostalgia, homecoming and gentle optimism. Focus on evocative descriptions, *not* famous composers. Make it sound like a high-end film score.”
Grab the output (“Gentle piano melody intertwined with soft, rising strings, building to a hopeful, warm crescendo, peaceful homecoming vibe”). Paste it into Suno.ai, check “Instrumental Only,” and generate.
- Result: In 60 seconds? A broadcast-quality track that sounds like you paid hundreds for licensing. Zero cost.
- Pro tip: Aim for a tempo around 85–95 BPM. It feels cozy and inviting, not sluggish.
Step 3: Message – Craft and voice the narrative with ChatGPT
Back to ChatGPT. Feed it the property details and this directive:
“You are a master storyteller writing a voiceover script for a 30-second real estate video. Property: [123 Maple Lane, a 3-bed, 2-bath mid-century ranch in Franklin, TN]. Goal: Spark nostalgia and excitement. Style: Warm, inviting, first-person perspective. End with a compelling call to imagine living there. Keep it tight — under 90 words.”
Take that script. Open your preferred simple video editor (Instagram Reels, CapCut, Premiere Rush or whatever’s fastest for you).
- Import the Blonde Waterfall video.
- Layer the Suno.ai music track underneath.
- Hit Record Voice-Over. Read the script yourself. Your authentic voice connects way better than you think.
- Mic shy? OK, fine. Paste the script into Eleven Labs ($5 a month gets you started) and generate a hyper-realistic AI voiceover. Drop that in instead.
Emotion drives action.
Period.
AI just handed you the keys to the emotion factory, on demand, for pennies on the dollar.
Stop wishing you had better videos.
Execute the ReelFeel 3-Step Stack on your very next listing. Don’t just track views; track the saves, the shares, the DMs and the showing requests.
Now you have big budget impact on a bootstrap timeline.
The Skinny (TL;DR): Ditch the $10,000 production crew. Blonde Waterfall + Suno.ai + ChatGPT = Pro-level, emotionally charged listing videos in 15 minutes for under $100. This is AI leverage! Execute this now.
Want the over-the-shoulder, click-by-click breakdown? Hit the video at the top of the story. Watch it, learn it, do it.
Drew Thompson is the head of agent performance and head coach at Real. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
This post was originally published on this site
by Marian McPherson | May 8, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
Realtor.com parent company Move Inc. has extended its revenue gains for the second-straight quarter of 2025, according to quarterly earnings data released Thursday by News Corp.
Move raised revenue in the quarter by 2 percent — to $135 million — compared to a year prior, primarily as a result of the rental syndication partnership Realtor.com inked with Zillow early last year, the earnings data shows.
Robert Thomson
“The sustained strength of News Corp’s third quarter reflects the Company’s strategic transformation,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement. “We have pursued digital growth, realigned our assets, focused relentlessly on cost discipline and asserted the essential value of our intellectual property in a changing, challenging content world.”
Move Inc.’s lead volume fell 17 percent year over year amid continued macroeconomic headwinds and mortgage rate volatility, executives said. Company executives said the loss was partially offset by higher revenue per lead as Move focuses on crafting premium lead options.
As for traffic, average monthly unique visitors to Realtor.com’s web and mobile sites decreased 8 percent over the quarter, to 66 million, according to the data.
Thomson said News Corp’s Q3 performance reflects the conglomerate’s resilience in the face of global economic headwinds. Thomson credited a strong digital real estate segment with pushing revenue up 1 percent year over year to $2 billion, and increasing net income 67 percent year over year to $107 million.
News Corp’s digital real estate services segment, which includes Move and Melbourne-based residential portal REA Group, performed well, with revenues growing 5 percent annually to $406 million. The segment’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased 19 percent annually to $124 million.
Unlike most U.S.-based companies, News Corp uses a reporting method that ends the year on June 30. What most companies call their first quarter is referred to at News Corp as the third quarter.
Lavanya Chandrashekar
In News Corp’s earnings call, Thomson and Chief Financial Officer Lavanya Chandrashekar lauded Realtor.com’s growth through the quarter, including new audience acquisition and engagement strategies and a brand campaign featuring country music icon Reba McEntire.
“At Realtor, lower referral and lead generation revenues were more than offset by robust growth from adjacencies,” Chandrashekar said. “Realtor.com has been shifting its audience acquisition and engagement strategies to focus on higher quality consumers and leads, which resulted in a notable increase in revenue per lead in the quarter, partly offsetting softer lead volumes. Expenses at Realtor came in better than we had initially forecasted, driven by the shift of a new brand campaign to the fourth quarter.”
Thomson lauded Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales’s leadership amid an intensifying competitive landscape.
“Damian Eales and the Realtor team thrive on competition and are gaining audience and user loyalty, pulling further ahead of Redfin and Homes.com thanks to the network effect created by our media platforms,” he said. “We believe that network advantage will become more pronounced as the character of search continues to change profoundly in coming years.”
The News Corp leader cited data from third-party analytics company Comscore, noting that total visits — which differ from tracking average monthly unique visitors — to Realtor.com in March prove consumers’ loyalty to the platform.
“Based on third-party verified source Comscore, total visits to the site reached 239 million in March, representing 29 percent of market share among the top real estate portals, and a 3.7 times traffic advantage over Homes.com and 2.7 times greater than Redfin,” he said. “Our 4.5 visits per visitor is the category leader and a compelling sign of engagement and loyalty. And let’s be very clear, these are not home-brewed metrics.”
Damian Eales | Credit: Realtor.com
The earnings call puts a cap on a transformative quarter for Realtor.com, which moved its headquarters to Austin in February. Alongside the new headquarters came a fresh mission centered on advocating for progressive, affordable housing policies. The portal unveiled its first initiative, “Let America Build,” at SXSW in March and hosted a series of panels with lawmakers, homebuilders, and housing advocates working to create modern zoning policies that align with today’s inventory challenges.
“I wish we’d spend more time talking outside of the bubble to all of the community leaders that the people in this room influence and certainly who we can influence as Realtor.com and who we can influence as News Corp,” Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales said at Inman Connect New York in January. “[We need] to start challenging politicians to deal with the issue of reducing red tape, freeing up land, dealing with [the ‘Not in My Backyard’ movement] and building more homes because we as an industry will be more successful, but more importantly, society will be more successful as a result.”
Meanwhile, the ongoing rivalry with CoStar Group faded into the background, with Move Inc. reaching a settlement agreement with former Realtor.com News & Insights editor James Kaminsky, who was accused of sharing trade secrets with CoStar after being hired as a Homes.com editorial manager in March 2024.
Move, Inc. also dropped its suit against CoStar, citing the portal’s decision to lay off Kaminsky in early 2025, which they said mitigated “additional misuse” of Realtor.com data. “Our commitment to safeguarding our trade secrets remains unwavering and uncompromising,” a Realtor.com spokesperson told Inman in April.
Email Marian McPherson
This post was originally published on this site
by Christy Murdock | May 8, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
From community involvement to agent celebrations, founder Gaetano Marra has built a real estate brokerage where fun is an important part of the business plan. The former schoolteacher’s self-named brokerage started out as an indie, then joined Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in 2020, rising to become one of the company’s standouts within its first five years.
“After years of working in various roles within the real estate industry, I decided to pursue my dream of creating a brokerage that would not only reflect my values but also provide a service experience that went above and beyond expectations for both agents and clients,” Marra said.
The formula is working, according to Marra: “We’re growing by leaps and bounds! Last year, our business was up almost 50 percent year over year, while all of the major competitors in our market were down by double digits.”
With a 99 percent retention rate (and a “killer game room”), learn how this broker-owner is setting a new standard for fun, with an eye on bringing his brand of brokerage to the rest of the state.
Name: Gaetano Marra
Title: Broker/Owner
Location: Fairfield County, Connecticut
Brokerage name: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gaetano Marra Homes
Rankings: Top 20 BHGRE company in U.S.
Team size: 150 agents
Transaction sides (2024): 750
Sales volume (2024): $245 million
Awards: In just five years with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, the company earned the Founders Circle designation, a distinction that places the firm among the top 20 of BHGRE companies across the country.
What are 3 things you’d like readers to know about you and your brokerage?
1. When I started my company, I wanted to build something different, something that was more than just a business. The goal was to create an office where both agents and clients could feel at home, where relationships were built on integrity, transparency and a shared focus on achieving the best possible outcomes.
I was very intentional about cultivating a culture where people feel valued, heard and understood.
2. Another important pillar of our success is its deep roots in the local community. All of us understand that a successful business must also be a responsible and engaged member of the community it serves.
The brokerage has made it a priority to support local organizations, sponsor events and participate in initiatives that benefit the Monroe area and beyond. We’re the title sponsor of a charity golf tournament, and we support a local high school sports program as an advertiser on their digital scoreboard.
We also have strong ties to Notre Dame Prep School, a high school that is part of my alma mater Sacred Heart University.
As part of a Connecticut state mandate that requires students to take a financial literacy course, I teach a real estate course in three area high schools. I teach students how to become a real estate agent, explain how they get paid and stress the significant impact owning a home can have on building personal and generational wealth.
We offer first-time homebuyer seminars. I also host a community-focused podcast called “The Expect Better Podcast,” where we focus on life, people, business, and relationships. We have guests from local businesses and nonprofit organizations and even well-known celebrities join to share their stories.
At the end of the day, the podcast — like our business — offers a great way to forge understandings and connections across the diverse landscape in which we live and work.
3. Our 150 agents work across three offices in Fairfield County, all located in the southwestern corner of Connecticut: Bridgeport, Monroe and Newtown. We’re a diverse group in age, experience and ethnicity, with a number of agents fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French and Chinese.
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the state, with about 150,000 residents. The city is consistently ranked among the top 25 most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the U.S. According to the 2020 five-year community survey, 48.2 percent of Bridgeport’s population speaks a different primary language at home other than English. We’re proud that our Bridgeport team reflects the community they serve.
A few miles north is Monroe, a bedroom community for people working in New York City, New Haven and Bridgeport, highly regarded for its award-winning schools, beautiful parks and sustained growth in local business and industry.
Newtown, a little farther north, offers a charming New England town experience with a focus on community, good schools and a relatively low crime rate, but it comes with a higher cost of living. More than a dozen Fortune 500 companies are based in Fairfield County.
Because of the nature of our service area, we work with clients at all price points, from first-time homebuyers to move-up and downsizing clients.
Tell us about a high point in your brokerage career
Learning that we had become one of BHGRE’s top 20 companies earlier this year was absolutely thrilling! I founded the brokerage in 2018 and then joined the brand in 2020 to help me grow the business, so reaching this level of success so quickly in the company’s history was definitely a high point.
This recognition is not mine alone, though. It’s a reflection of the hard work and dedication of every agent, every staff member, and every client who has trusted us with their real estate needs.
I have the absolute best agents and staff in the business, and no one will ever tell me differently. They are the ones behind all of this, and I am so lucky to be able to call each and every one of them family.
But we are not resting on our laurels; we are in the process of expanding our footprint. I like to say we will be painting the entire state of Connecticut green.
What makes a good leader?
My approach to running a real estate company is this: They say if you build it, they will come, but the more important question is, “Will they stay?” I’m proud to say we have a 99 percent retention rate among our agents.
I don’t recruit; both new and experienced agents come to us because of our company culture. Building that culture has been central to my leadership approach, and I love that we have a team that works hard so we can play hard together.
We have sales meetings and trainings once a month to support agents in building their businesses. Every month, the agent with the most production gets a special parking spot and their picture taken sitting in the Top Agent Throne, an ornate, high-backed chair covered in green velvet.
As a way of showcasing our hardworking agents, we have what’s called the Capper Club. When an agent hits their cap of $5 million in sales, they get a custom green jacket made by a local Italian tailor, who just happens to be my cousin. For every time they cap after that, they receive a jade pin to wear on their lapel.
We also have a fun social event like a cruise or axe throwing once a month. We have a full arcade and game room in the Monroe office, with a basketball hoop, poker table and Xbox.
You know what you’re going to get at our firm: A reliable company culture built around inclusiveness, collaboration and celebration.
Email Christy Murdock
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