Join us for an exciting masterclass featuring top experts from the real estate industry as they share their insights into the most impactful innovations to adopt in 2025. These groundbreaking tools and strategies will benefit all sides of the industry, from agents and brokerages to franchises, MLSs, portals, proptech, and more.

The panel features leaders from top companies revolutionizing real estate:

• Vanessa Martin | Co-Founder, Tether RE
• Audrey Whittington | SVP, Local Logic
• Chris McGoldrick | Founder, ListAssist
• Pierre Calzadilla | Co-Founder and COO, Upfront
• Derek Hooper | CEO, Knokd

In this masterclass, you’ll learn more about:

• Agent Safety & Productivity: Explore cutting-edge tools for 24-hour monitoring, SOS alerts, mileage tracking, and more to empower agents while keeping them safe.
• Data-Driven Consumer Engagement: Learn how to convert homebuyers with neighborhood insights tailored to their lifestyles using robust datasets and engagement tools.
• AI in Real Estate Marketing: Discover how AI-powered tools streamline listing descriptions, optimize SEO, and create branded content that resonates.
• Financial Innovation for Agents: Understand how just-in-time financial products like early commission access are reshaping how agents achieve their goals.
• Revolutionizing Listings: Dive into the evolving landscape of “Coming Soon,” exclusive, and off-MLS listings that give agents and clients more flexibility.

What’s On the Wishlist for Real Estate in 2025?

Our panelists kicked off the discussion by reflecting on what they believe the real estate industry truly needs as a holiday gift in 2025, considering all the recent changes. Several key themes emerged: simplicity, a focus on consumer-centered priorities, financial insight, fostering certainty, and fully embracing the era of information.

Simplicity

The real estate industry has faced a whirlwind of challenges in recent years, leaving many professionals feeling overwhelmed by the layers of complexity. With competing priorities, evolving technologies, and varying leadership opinions dominating the discourse, it’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals. Yet, for many agents, the question remains straightforward: How do I continue to do business effectively?

In 2025, simplicity should be the guiding principle for innovation. Real estate professionals need tools and solutions that streamline their processes, not complicate them further. Companies must focus on making agents’ jobs easier by cutting through the noise and emphasizing efficiency.

Consumer-Centric Priorities

The real estate industry is navigating significant regulatory and industry changes, making simplicity and consumer focus more critical than ever. Agents must prioritize what’s best for their clients — a principle that should guide both their decisions and the regulators shaping industry policies.

While new technologies flood the market, they often add layers of complexity, pulling agents away from what truly matters. Instead of chasing the latest tools or the next big lead, agents should focus on fostering relationships. With the right investment in their existing networks, there’s ample business to sustain growth. Tapping into spheres of influence presents a massive, often underutilized, opportunity to deliver real value to clients.

Financial Insights

In light of recent economic shifts, real estate agents need tools and services that help them manage their time, income, and finances more effectively. With the potential for commission compression and a forecasted decline in transactions, 2025 could bring tighter margins. Agents must approach their finances wisely, ensuring they are equipped to navigate a more competitive market.

This focus on financial management extends to client transactions as well. Safeguarding deposits and ensuring smooth, secure escrow processes should be top priorities. Reliable financial tools, both for agents and their clients, can provide the support needed to move money safely and efficiently. By partnering with trusted financial platforms, agents can ensure secure transactions while building confidence with their clients, ultimately fostering trust and professionalism in every deal.

Fostering Certainty

What the real estate industry could use most right now is a sense of certainty. The past two years have been marked by upheaval — lawsuits, regulatory shifts, and unpredictable market dynamics — leaving many professionals on edge. History shows that people rarely operate at their best during periods of prolonged uncertainty, and the industry has felt the weight of this.

As we look ahead to 2025, fostering stability and clarity should be a shared goal. With clearer guidelines, fewer disruptions, and a focus on steady growth, the real estate landscape has the potential to rebound, empowering agents and clients alike to navigate the market with confidence.

Embracing the Era of Information

As we enter 2025, it’s clear that this will be the era of information. A consistent theme throughout the industry’s recent challenges — particularly highlighted by ongoing lawsuits — is the need for better dissemination of knowledge. Helping both agents and consumers become more informed about the real estate process is critical to building trust and driving success.

Whether it’s educating agents on best practices, guiding sellers through their options, or providing clarity around financial tools and safety measures, the focus must be on delivering information in an ethical, streamlined, and impactful way. Information isn’t just power; it’s the foundation for fostering professionalism and empowering everyone involved in the transaction.

➡️ Agent Safety & Productivity

In the past year alone, 30,000 real estate agents were victims of violent crime, with an alarming average of 2,500 agents assaulted, raped, or murdered each month. On top of this, the industry loses 25 agents annually to homicide. These statistics are staggering and likely underreported, but they highlight the pressing need for better safety measures in the real estate sector.

Tether RE is a comprehensive safety platform designed with the agent’s needs in mind. In addition to providing crucial safety features, it integrates productivity tools to ensure that agents not only stay safe but also have a reason to use the platform regularly.

The foundation of Tether RE is its 24-hour safety monitoring service, powered by live nationwide dispatch centers. These centers can immediately send help to an agent’s precise location in case of an emergency, ensuring that agents are never truly alone — whether or not their safety contacts are available.

Tether RE offers four key lines of defense:

1. Buyer Verification: This feature verifies that buyers are who they claim to be, confirming property ownership and conducting criminal background checks before agents meet in person. Tether RE ensures that these checks comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, protecting agents from potential litigation.
2. SOS Alerts: The SOS button allows agents to quickly alert emergency services if they feel unsafe, whether during a showing or personal time. Unlike a traditional 911 call, agents don’t need to speak a word. The app uses precise location pins to dispatch help, even in situations where speaking may be dangerous.
3. Proximity Safety Timer: This automatic safety countdown starts when an agent arrives at a property and stops when they leave. If the agent fails to check out on time, the dispatch center calls to ensure their safety and sends help if needed. This feature works quietly in the background, sparing agents from having to remember to activate it.
4. Impact Struggle Alert: This alert detects sudden movements, such as a fall, physical attack, or car accident. This feature ensures help is sent immediately if an agent experiences a serious event, even if no one is nearby to assist.

While Tether RE is designed to save lives, it also integrates productivity features to make it a tool agents are motivated to use. The platform is branded for individual agents, allowing them to customize and seamlessly integrate the app into their business operations. Agents have also requested the ability to gift Tether RE to clients as a closing gift. This will allow agents to maintain branding connections and potentially benefit from repeat business when clients buy or sell again.

The platform has garnered interest from other sectors as well. Many users have expressed interest in Tether RE’s consumer-focused features, such as a safety-only version for families, seniors, or college students. The consumer product, launching soon, will include core safety features without the agent-specific productivity tools.

➡️ Data-Driven Consumer Engagement

Local Logic focuses on the data that exists outside the physical property — everything beyond property details like square footage, active listings, and sold prices. We provide insights on what you typically can’t change, such as neighborhood amenities, demographics, climate, schools, and market conditions.

Whether you’re moving across town or relocating from another area, understanding what it’s like to live in a neighborhood is crucial. It’s not just about knowing the property value — it’s about understanding the local environment, the amenities, and the market dynamics.

Location data can be overwhelming, with endless charts and graphs that may not resonate with consumers. The key is to present this information in a clear, digestible, and meaningful way that helps people understand the local context, without getting lost in complicated data.

When agents embody local expertise, consumers are more likely to reach out for advice, even if they are browsing large portals. If agents were to lose that connection, the value they bring would diminish. Consumers need that on-the-ground perspective — something online portals can’t fully replicate.

We’re launching a new product in January called IO (Insight, Outside) Reports, which offers a combination of lifestyle and market insights for any given location, offering agents a comprehensive tool for client consultations. These reports aim to provide consumers and investors with the information they need to make informed decisions that align with both their lifestyle and budget. 

These reports can be implemented in various ways, including through a site license model for brokerages and proptech companies. For brokers or MLS platforms, these reports can be accessed through a single sign-on or embedded as a widget. Additionally, an API will be available for easy integration.

Agents can also leverage these reports in different ways. They can offer them as lead generation tools on their websites or use them for prospecting by sending them to potential clients. Some agents have even found them valuable in negotiations, helping sellers understand how their property compares in the current market.

➡️ AI in Real Estate Marketing

ListAssist is groundbreaking tool that revolutionizes the home search experience on real estate websites. It allows real estate companies to offer the world’s most personalized home search experience directly on their existing sites.

The platform seamlessly integrates into a website’s search bar, offering a simple onboarding process. Traditional home search starts with broad categories like zip codes or school zones, but ListAssist takes it further. It enables consumers to describe exactly what they want in a home — whether that’s a specific feature, neighborhood, or type of property — and then delivers personalized listings with match scores without ever leaving the website.

The product’s success lies in its simplicity and the ease with which consumers adopt it. Unlike traditional home search engines that require a learning curve, ListAssist mimics the way people search for everything else. Just like searching for a restaurant (“sushi restaurant with good parking in Auckland”), ListAssist lets users specify exactly what they’re looking for, making the search process more intuitive and effective.

ListAssist’s performance has quickly outpaced similar products, including those launched by Zillow, which debuted at a similar time. By comparing customer searches and results from ListAssist partners like Howard Hanna, it becomes clear how much more accurate and efficient the system is. For the first time in a long while, ListAssist is offering a superior search experience that rivals the big portals.

In an industry where the dominance of real estate portals is a common pain point, ListAssist provides a solution by giving consumers a reason to start their property search on a real estate agent’s website rather than a third-party portal. When consumers have a great experience using ListAssist, they’re more likely to return to the site, bypassing the outdated zip-code-based searches that are common on most websites.

This advanced search capability doesn’t just enhance the user experience — it also gives agents and brokerages valuable insights into what consumers are searching for in their communities. For instance, one ListAssist client discovered a rising demand for cottages, which is a property type they hadn’t previously been able to filter for. Another client saw significant interest in properties with assumable loans, a feature they hadn’t realized was so sought after. This first-party data is invaluable for tailoring offerings to meet the specific needs of buyers in the area.

➡️ Financial Innovation for Agents

Upfront is a financial platform designed specifically for brokerages and their agents. It offers a modern financial solution that addresses the unique challenges faced by real estate professionals.

To put it in context, other industries, like trucking or manufacturing, allow businesses to access funds quickly when they have pending invoices. However, real estate agents are often left with few options when they need quick access to funds. When the new year rolls in, agents face significant fees — marketing, MLS, desk, and membership fees — all due at once. If cash is tight, they often have to resort to predatory loan sharks or awkwardly request a commission advance from their broker, which can be an uncomfortable situation. Alternatively, they might rely on personal credit, but these options are far from ideal for the industry.

The issue with commission payments is clear: In some markets, agents can wait up to 90 days to get paid, and if they want to accelerate that process, they face exorbitant fees — sometimes as high as 30%. Upfront seeks to address this broken system by offering a financial solution that underwrites the agent’s business, not their personal finances.

Upfront partners with brokerages rather than working directly with individual agents, ensuring a streamlined onboarding process. The platform is designed for active, producing agents and provides a full suite of financial services, including commission advances, savings options, and even automated charitable contributions. It’s tech-agnostic and white-labeled to the brokerage, allowing agents to manage their finances and optimize cash flow with ease.

One of the key features of Upfront is its speed and affordability. Agents can access their commissions in as little as five minutes with fees as low as 5%, which are fully tax-deductible. Unlike other services that use predatory practices like compounded interest or high rates for emergency advances, Upfront offers a single, low fee with no hidden costs.

Upfront’s mission is simple: to provide agents with the tools to manage their finances efficiently and maintain financial health, without relying on outdated, industry-specific credit solutions.

➡️ Revolutionizing Listings

Knokd is an internal brokerage platform designed to share off-market listings — those not yet or never intended for the MLS — within a brokerage.

When buyers search for properties, listing portals are the go-to place, with MLS feeds acting as the “source of truth” to the public. However, industry insiders — brokerage owners and agents — know that this doesn’t tell the whole story. There are listings within your brokerage, often off-market, that buyers may not have access to through public portals. These listings may not be ready for the MLS or are simply not meant for it, but they still represent valuable opportunities for prospective buyers.

One of the significant challenges brokerages face today is navigating off-market listings, especially with regulations limiting how agents can offer these listings to sellers. Agents often rely on inefficient methods, such as Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, email blasts, or verbal announcements during sales meetings. These methods are not scalable and leave buyers in the dark about available off-market opportunities, reducing the value provided to both buyers and the brokerage community.

With buyers now beginning their searches on public portals — only 21% of buyers contact their agent first — it’s clear that agents can no longer simply wait for buyers to reach out. Buyers may not realize that agents have exclusive off-market listings that could be a perfect fit for their needs.

Knokd offers a compliant platform for sharing off-market listings, catering to both Canadian and U.S. clients while navigating local regulations. The platform functions as an internal brokerage network that provides all the features of a listing tool, but for properties not yet ready for public exposure. By using Knokd, agents can offer prospective buyers access to off-market listings that they won’t find on public portals, creating a deeper and more personalized search experience.

For sellers, Knokd provides the ability to maintain privacy and leverage a specialized marketing plan rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all strategy. When brokerages embrace this opportunity, they unlock the value within their own networks. By using the platform, agents can engage with clients earlier in the buying or selling process, attracting those interested in off-market listings. Leading brokerages across the nation have successfully used this approach to draw in buyers and sellers, and to differentiate themselves from listing portals.

Knokd’s platform also ensures compliance by maintaining an audit trail of how off-market listings are shared. While regulation is necessary, it shouldn’t hinder the ability of professionals to serve their clients and close deals. The company provides a full-service solution, offering agents custom sign-up links, client profiles, saved searches, auto email alerts, and comprehensive marketing kits to help agents attract buyers and sellers interested in accessing off-market opportunities.

Knokd’s core product operates within a closed network limited to the brokerage itself, meaning no public exposure of the listing. Only agents and validated clients within the brokerage network can view the listings. In Canada, the Realtor Cooperation Policy allows for the sharing of exempt listings and “coming soon” listings within 3 days. In the U.S., the platform functions as an internal network, with visibility restricted to the agents and invited clients of that specific brokerage.