WAV Group would like to congratulate the Lone Wolf board of directors for expanding their ranks to include Real Trends President, Steve Murray. It’s a great move and brokers should celebrate!
About Lone Wolf: If you are not familiar, Lone Wolf is among the largest technology providers in the real estate industry with a focus on broker back office solutions where they are the market leader. Their accounting solutions have a profound market share – likely exceeding 50% of all brokerage firms in America. Last month, Lone Wolf acquired Instanet – making Lone Wolf either the #1 or #2 provider of forms and transaction management solutions for brokerage. Lone Wolf has a vast array of tools that complete the full footprint of any technology
stack that brokers want to deploy in their business today. If a company is looking for a complete lead to close solution, Lone Wolf may be the only company that has the entire system.
About Steve Murray: Real Trends has been consulting with the broker community for decades and Mr. Murray is clearly the most experienced consulting firm at putting together brokerage mergers and acquisitions. Murray has a keen eye for helping brokerage firms develop profound and meaningful value in their company as an asset. When you look at business development and operations through that lens, Real Trends is expert.
WAV Group Observations
Lone Wolf is a company in transition. Lone Wolf founder, Lorne Wallace continues to lead the company as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He has handed the operational reins of the company over to CEO Patrick Arkeveld. The remaining director positions are held by the company’s investment banking firm, Vista Equity Partners.
Vista Equity Partners are masters at delivering the same kind of advice to software companies that Murray provides to brokerages. Companies need to set goals for customer acquisition, customer retention, lifetime value of customers and dozens of other KPIs. Vista delivers a vast amount of experience helping companies manage those KPIs and benchmark against their other portfolio companies to keep the business in line with excellence.
Call for Celebration
The problem with running a software company like a software company is that there is a risk of not staying grounded in the needs and relationships that you have with your customer. We have seen this time and time again in real estate as some of the greatest software companies on earth have fumbled badly in real estate (Microsoft, Google, etc). The real estate industry is complicated, incorporating unlimited variables that network independent contractors, brokerages, franchises, State REALTOR® Associations, Local REALTOR® Associations, Multiple Listing Service Providers, bankers, insurance companies, title companies, real estate attorneys, and other service providers together. Murray is not only deeply experienced in the industry but has analyzed the best practices for brokerages operating in this environment. He will be a great contributor to the board in helping pursue the broker-centric software as a service business of Lone Wolf.
