On the last day of Inman Connect, Managing Director of Bain Capital Matt Harris dropped this bombshell to the digital disruptors: financing is shifting away from the challengers to the facilitators, those that offer technology serving traditional Realtors and lenders. Harris said that the money is going to “next-generation listing marketplaces that serve Realtors, that serve the industry by facilitating traditional transactions.”
On the heels of that proclamation, Homesnap, the technology of Broker Public Portal, announced a fresh round of funding totaling $14 million. Here is that news release, echoing support for a company that’s backed by a major real estate industry initiative:
Broker Public Portal Gets Financial Boost as Homesnap Lands $14M Funding
Funding will fuel agent growth and engagement
ROCKVILLE, MD, February 14, 2018 – Broker Public Portal (BPP) announced today that joint venture partner Homesnap, the public-facing brand of the BPP, has raised a $14 million Series B investment 
round led by Updata Partners, with participation from Moderne Ventures and individual investors. Homesnap is the highest-rated and most-installed home search and mobile productivity app for real estate brokers, agents, and clients. BPP with Homesnap is now available to 125 MLSs serving over 800,000 agents. More than 20 million consumers visited the Broker Public Portal in 2017.
BPP recently announced it grew 150 percent in its first year since it launched as Homesnap. Homesnap reported its revenue grew 250% year-over-year from 2016 to 2017, with 71% of the 
nation’s Realtors® accessing Homesnap Pro. This new investment brings the total capital raised by Homesnap to $32.8 million, which includes investor Revolution Ventures, the venture capital fund founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case, Tige Savage, and David Golden. The new capital will be used to support the ongoing development of Homesnap products and accelerate the adoption of Homesnap by agents and consumers.
“This is strong investor affirmation of what we have been saying – that Broker Public Portal has something companies selling ads do not: MLS- and especially broker-ownership that always puts 
industry stakeholders’ interests first,” said John Mosey, Vice Chairman of BPP. Mosey also heads up NorthstarMLS, which supports over 17,000 REALTORS® in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. “This huge boost in funding is going to help accelerate the growth of BPP with Homesnap. And as BPP has promised, Homesnap is fantastic technology that will keep on getting better and better,” he added.
Steve Barnes, co-founder of Homesnap, said the new funding would support the development of new premium tools that allow agents to further increase productivity in the field and will expand Homesnap’s suite of automated digital marketing services for agents and brokers. Homesnap also provides robust recruiting and retention tools – all online and all mobile. “This is a win for agents, brokers, consumers and the real estate industry,” he said.
Mosey said he believes the investors have taken note of the rapid rise of BPP with Homesnap because of its remarkable industry support, which has translated into loyalty among brokers and agents and high satisfaction among consumers. Real estate agents have invited more than 19 million clients and contacts to access MLS listing data, and 8.5 million consumers have engaged with their agents through Homesnap.
According to Inman News, real estate investment by venture capitalists has gradually shifted from the challengers to the facilitators – that is, those offering tech that serves traditional Realtors and lenders. “We look at over 4,500 real estate related technology companies every year, and Homesnap has created a value proposition for the industry that outshines almost everything else we’ve seen. One of the many attractive things about Homesnap is that it was built with the best interests of agents, brokers and our industry in mind. This has made all the difference in driving adoption of Homesnap across the country,” said Constance Freedman of Moderne Ventures.
Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is designed to help real estate professionals generate listing exposure and leads and encourage prospects and clients to connect and collaborate directly with an agent. Agents and brokers receive free leads from the Broker Public Portal, in contrast to the large marketing portals, and home searchers are always connected directly to the listing agent, who is best able to answer questions about the listing. A real estate industry-born technology initiative, Broker Public Portal with Homesnap now features over 100 million property records and over 59 million active and sold listings.
“Homesnap delivers what consumers and agents want, and what the real estate industry needs. Now investors are saying we want to be part of that success too,” said Homesnap CEO John Mazur.
Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is the only national online home search experience that gives consumers access to the same real-time information as the professional REALTOR®, directly from the MLS, free of advertising clutter. Agents pay no additional fees to have their listings exposed to millions of consumers every month other than their regular MLS dues. Agents’ contact information appears exclusively next to their listings for free, and other agents are not allowed to pay to advertise on those listings.
About Broker Public Portal
Broker Public Portal, LLC is a collaborative effort owned and operated by real estate brokerages and MLSs to deliver with Homesnap a better home search experience defined by simplicity, integrity and common sense. Homesnap provides the same comprehensive, real-time data directly from the MLS used by real professionals, the people who sell homes, not ads. Broker Public Portal with Homesnap follows industry-defined Fair Display Guidelines: there are no display ads from other agents or brokers on one’s listings, and all inquiries are sent to the listing agent or broker for free. More information can be found at http://www.brokerpublicportal.com and https://www.homesnap.com/bpp.
About Homesnap
Used by millions of consumers, Homesnap is the highest-rated mobile real estate app. Homesnap Pro, the professional version of Homesnap, is also the fastest-growing mobile app for agents – now available to every agent in over 120 MLSs with over 800,000 members. Homesnap with Broker Public Portal is ad-free. It is the only national online home search experience that gives consumers access to the same MLS information as the professional REALTOR®: comprehensive, accurate and timely real estate property information available, including listing data, property tax records, census data, geographic boundaries and more. Learn more at Homesnap.com.
Fantastic update and incredible news I’ve been praying for, for the last 17 years, Kevin! This year, 2018, is the year of new beginnings in so many ways, in the lives of many industry leaders and those who will come aside those leaders with a blueprint to, not only compliment what has been set into motion through the BPP but bring the R.E. Industry together as ONE to benefit society while ridding America of homelessness.
Be and live blessed my friends!
Drew, thus far, our experience has been that Homesnap rises up into the top 10 sites in a metro area with organic adoption within the first 12 months. If the MLS pushes adoption, it rises faster and lifts higher into the top 10. As you may recall, the big traffic multiplier will occur when Homesnap is integrated into Matrix MLS customer portal. Today, CoreLogic sends about 100 million consumer email alerts each month out of Matrix nationwide. When that traffic acrues to Homesnap, good things should happen.
Drew, thus far, our experience has been that Homesnap rises up into the top 10 sites in a metro area with organic adoption within the first 12 months. If the MLS pushes adoption, it rises faster and lifts higher into the top 10. As you may recall, the big traffic multiplier will occur when Homesnap is integrated into Matrix MLS customer portal. Today, CoreLogic sends about 100 million consumer email alerts each month out of Matrix nationwide. When that traffic acrues to Homesnap, good things should happen.