While you could get overwhelmed trying to wade through a now remarkably massive Trade Expo at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (NAR) Annual Convention, NAR Midyear in DC is a much different story. Navigating next week’s Midyear Trade Expo in Washington, DC at the Marriott Wardman is downright manageable, and much more intimate than its big sister.
It’s not only smaller – about 140 Exhibitors – but it lasts just two days: Wednesday, May 15 and Thursday, May 16, from 10:00 am-6:00 pm. Best of all, there are several tech firms with exhibits worth visiting, whether you want to see what’s new or what may be new to you.
Here’s a quick preview:
The Newest REACH Class
The tech highlight of Midyear for me is getting the first chance to meet the faces behind the newly announced NAR REach® Class. From Second Century Ventures, the strategic investment arm of the National Association of Realtors, REach® Growth Accelerator is a growth technology accelerator program. It helps launch companies into the real estate, financial services, banking, home services, and insurance industries.
The REach® Growth Accelerator focuses on providing early to mid-stage companies with access to NAR’s industry expertise, influence, and key relationships. The vertical focus within real estate industries and the growth stage at which most companies enter the program make Second Century Ventures unique compared to other accelerators.
All of these firms exhibit at Midyear, positioned as part of the NAR exhibit area, towards the back. At the RESO Tech Summit in Boise last week, I bumped into Todd Carpenter, Director of Strategic Investments at NAR, who was elated about this year’s class, as the deck was stacked with exceptional candidates. Indeed, the scope of the new tech offerings is impressive.
The 2019 REACH Class includes:
- Amarki (Booth 1726): A seamless, automated marketing platform that helps real estate professionals integrate their favorite systems in one place.
- Curbio (Booth 1731): Helps agents deliver exceptional results for home sellers through ROI-focused, pay-at-close renovations.
- Evocalize (Booth 1731): A platform that makes sophisticated digital marketing simple, and helps brokerages and agents collaborate to generate demand when and where it’s needed.
- Kleard (Booth 1731): A safety and productivity app that provides real-time verification for open houses and showings.
- RateMyAgent (Booth 1731): A digital marketing tool designed to help agents easily collect, share and promote verified client feedback.
- reConsortia (Booth 1731): An open, crowdsourced referral consortium that builds transparency, enhances professionalism, and provides an improved customer experience.
- Staging & Design Network (Booth 1731): The first-ever online shared rental pool for home furnishings built for the real estate and home staging communities.
More tech to checkout
If you didn’t visit last year’s REach® Class, you could check out one of its stars, now a full-fledged exhibitor: BoxBrownie (Booth 215). BoxBrownie.com is a 24/7, cloud-based, photo editing company providing a range of services for property marketing – including virtual staging. They offer a pay as you go service, with edits returned within 24 hours.
Another 2018 REach® Class member exhibiting is Quigler (Booth 704), a compliance checklist app that makes it easier to comply with Federal laws and the NAR Code of Ethics.
Need tech help? Stop by Tech Helpline (Booth 818) from the Florida REALTORS® on your way to the NAR REach® Class and get answers to your tech questions on site. Some 600,000 REALTORS® in North America have access to this top-rated technical support service, and if you don’t, ask them how you can motivate your brokerage or association to sign up. Also, get a sneak peek at the latest version of Form Simplicity, the transaction management technology created for Realtors® by Realtors®, and the one still owned by Realtors®! It shares the same space (Booth 818) as Tech Helpline.
Homesnap (Booth 100), the technology that powers the industry-born Broker Public Portal and now reaches 1 million real estate pros, is pulling out all the stops with its largest exhibit debuting at NAR this year. Grab a seat at Booth #100 for live demos of the Homesnap Pro and Homesnap Pro Plus app. 
Members from the Homesnap customer support team will be on-site to answer questions and provide hands-on tech support. Finally, Homesnap is offering a Facebook special promo at NAR Midyear in DC: get $200 of added exposure for free by stopping by the Homesnap booth and signing up for Facebook and Instagram Pro Ads.
Adwerx (Booth 1708) targeted digital ad solution is super popular with many agents. Best part: they have a deal at NAR Midyear: 15 percent additional impressions on newly purchased campaigns that can be combined with discounts you already receive from your brokerage or local association.
First-time exhibitors
In addition to the REach® Class, some key first-time tech firms are exhibiting, including:
EstimateOn (Booth 115): Real estate professionals can quickly estimate repairs and remodeling projects from their mobile device, so their clients have the information they need to make decisions at the moment, from Xactware.
GeoCV (Booth 121): Its Virtual Open House is a cutting-edge 3D+360° virtual tour using a smartphone. Open architecture allows partners to own, edit, white-label, and self-host. Applications range from construction to insurance and moving, to interior design and virtual shopping.
InvisaWear (Booth 218): Creates jewelry and accessories with hidden safety technology inside for Realtors®.
SocialChimp (Booth 524) Promises social automation for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Add these to your tech list
Perennial tech exhibitors at Midyear always worth checking out: CoreLogic (Booth 615), CRS Data (Booth 315), DocuSign (Booth CS1800), dynaConnections (Booth 110), FBS – Creators of Flexmls (Booth 609 ), Homes.com (Booth 418), Lone Wolf (Booth 109), Rapattoni (Booth 323), ShowingTime (Booth 517), and realtor.com (202)
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Full disclosure: WAV Group works with a wide range of real estate technology firms, which includes some of the firms mentioned in this column.
