In December, RISMedia honored more than 230 individuals as 2019 Real Estate Newsmakers. Each person made headlines over the past year; whether it was through charitable work or notable growth, they all made a positive impact on the industry in their own way.
Here, we highlight a few who were chosen as RISMedia Newsmakers in the Trailblazers category:
Tracey Anderson, Director of Knowledge & Learning at C21 Canada
Tracey Anderson and fellow Newsmaker Mandy Streisel launched the CENTURY 21 Canada Concierge program in 2018 to increase engagement, productivity and retention in the industry. The fast-paced program builds sales representatives’ confidence by identifying their skills and areas that could use improvement.
"The only aspect of the real estate industry that remains the same is change," says Anderson.
Chung Meng Cheong, Chief Product Officer at realtor.com®
Under Chung Meng Cheong's leadership, realtor.com debuted enhanced home search this summer, aligning with its brand campaign "The Home of Home Search." The features are functional—improved loading times, for one—and enhance the experience for users, with collapsible details and the history of the property, dates of open houses, hours the listing has been on the portal, and more.
"Searching for a home is a very stressful process, especially in today's market," he says. "The new realtor.com web experience puts more listings at our users' fingertips and makes it easier to compare homes side-by-side."
Karina Lopez, VP of Marketing & Operations at ONE Sotheby's International Realty
In her role, Karina Lopez oversees the marketing team that runs ONE Sotheby's International Realty’s branding and services its more than 800 agents. She is particularly proud of two changes that her company made this year to help agents improve their performance.
"We have implemented two great tools this year," Lopez explains. "One was a proprietary marketing automation system for our agents that allows them to seamlessly create marketing materials for their listings, and a CRM, which was a strategic alliance with Contactually."
Myron Lo, Chief Strategy Officer at ReferralExchange
In the past year, ReferralExchange has expanded its business footprint into the marketing analytics space by providing market intelligence to title offices across the U.S. Under Myron Lo’s guidance, this revenue stream has become a primary driver for ReferralExchange’s growth.
"As one of the best kept secrets in the industry, it is satisfying to see ReferralExchange and the ReferralExchange team earn some well-deserved recognition," says Lo. "With over 100K of the best real estate agents already in our curated network, we are building on this momentum to continue to provide the best possible real estate experiences for our agents."
Charles Williams, Founder and CEO at Buyside
At Buyside, Charles Williams and his team focus on agents and provide them with the tools they need to connect with consumers in any price range and location. The company looks at a multitude of sources and aggregates data when prospective buyers view homes and engage in other online actions related to real estate.
"Our entire team stepped up to deliver the strongest year Buyside has ever had," he says. "We welcomed dozens of the largest brokerage firms in the country to the Buyside platform and worked side-by-side with our clients to deliver massive ROI."
