How NAR Invests in New Tech & Innovation with Ashley Stinton

The pace at which technology evolves is astounding, and nowhere is this more critical than in the real estate sector.

In our latest episode, we're exploring how the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is investing in groundbreaking technology and innovation. 

With expert guest Ashley Stinton, we're getting an insider look at these transformative efforts. We chat about the structure and goals of the REACH program, the current cohort of innovative companies, and the broader impact on real estate professionals.

Ashley's background in consumer goods and her venture into real estate sets the stage for a deep understanding of these intersections. You'll also hear about the unique challenges and solutions at the forefront of the industry right now.

Make sure you don't miss this insightful discussion on the future of real estate technology and innovation. Listen to the full episode to get the inside scoop directly from an industry leader.

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• How NAR's Second Century Ventures supports tech startup
• The REACH program and its impact on PropTech companies
• Insights on current industry trends and future tech innovations

Links from this episode:

• Get to know more about ​​Ashley Stinton: https://www.nar.realtor/ashley-stinton
• Connect with Ashley:  ashley@scv.vc
• Learn more about NAR: https://www.nar.realtor
• Email NAR for more information: hello@narreach.com

1ae5b43598204883b524f061d4880e6d10fca88c (for podfollow.com)

Transcript

Ashley Stinton [00:00:00]:
Our goal is to bring companies into REACH, give them that really important and necessary exposure to the marketplace, feedback from the realtor community, and then support them with additional capital through second century ventures in those consecutive fundraising rounds that they have. So typically you'll see in the second century ventures portfolio, those are going to look like later stage companies because they've been through REACH before. They're a few years out of REACH.

Matt Fagioli [00:00:31]:
Hey, guys, welcome back. I'm your host, Matt Fagioli, and today's special guest, all the way from Chicago, is Ashley Stinton, who is the managing director of NAR-REACH, which you're going to hear all about today. Welcome, Ashley. How are you?

Ashley Stinton [00:00:48]:
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate the opportunity.

Matt Fagioli [00:00:52]:
Yeah, we're really excited about this, and I know all of our agent and broker listeners are going to be excited to hear about REACH. Of course, I've been, you know, connected to REACH for many years, but most people, I think, don't even know that NAR has a thing called REACH and what that is. So I want you to tell us all about that, but will you please just tell everybody a little bit about Ashley first, and then we'll talk about REACH?

Ashley Stinton [00:01:15]:
Yeah, absolutely. I grew up in consumer goods. That's really where I started my career. Freedom and Coca Cola spent a lot of time in that industry, a very complex industry in and of itself. Thought I would try something a little less complex. And so I pivoted to real estate and found out very quickly just as complicated, you know, just as much of a thorn in the side. But interestingly enough, Home Depot was one of my largest clients in the consumer goods space. And so that actually lent itself to a lot of overlap with what I do now.

Ashley Stinton [00:01:43]:
Home Depot has a venture arm and are very interested in the tech and startup space as it overlaps with real estate. So that's the lightning round of how I got here. Here.

Matt Fagioli [00:01:53]:
Cool. Well, that was a good. And you teed it up well, to explain REACH a little bit, if you could.

Ashley Stinton [00:01:58]:
Yeah, absolutely. So REACH, we don't mean it to be a secret, but maybe it is our best kept secret here at NAR. So second Century Ventures is NAR's venture capital arm. We are a subsidiary of NAR, created in 2008, and the intention and the mission is to support technology that keeps realtors central to the transaction, keeps them central to the consumer. REACH was created a few years after SCB was incepted in 2013 as a scale up program really born out of the need for a lot of startup founders to receive a deeper connection to second century ventures and to NAR more in depth coaching and guidance, mentorship, strategic introductions within the real estate space. So more than just providing the capital to these incredible startup founders, but providing a more intimate relationship that allows them to build their products, launch their products, really hand in hand with real estate professionals, not just around them or just for them, but genuinely with them.

Matt Fagioli [00:03:00]:
Well, you know, and I'm sure you've come across this all the time, but so many people that launch products that come where the founders come from outside of real estate, you know, it's like entering, you know, a different planet entirely.

Ashley Stinton [00:03:15]:
Absolutely.

Matt Fagioli [00:03:15]:
The way, you know, nobody seems to understand how things work and then the idea of what agents actually want and need. And I know you guys bridge that gap a lot. Well, I'll tell you what. Can you tell us a little bit about the current cohort, who's in it and what do they have to offer? And I know there's seven companies now.

Ashley Stinton [00:03:35]:
Or you've got eight on board. Yeah, for a 24 cohort. Really a good range of solutions, which is what we're always trying to accomplish. We typically pick about eight companies per year and the goal is bring a range of solutions. So some of those are going to be for adjacent verticals like title, mortgage, insurance and they're each going to have different key stakeholders. So some of them might be more mls or association facing, some might be more broker facing and some might be more agent facing. Some are just great solutions for the industry as a whole. So you can expect to see that kind of range of solutions really in every cohort this year we tried to really focus on what are some right now needs from the market and from the agent population.

Ashley Stinton [00:04:18]:
And of course those long term needs and those long term solutions thinking more 510 years out. So a mixture of social commerce, AI tools that are good for lead gen and client communications, a negotiation platform, alternative financing models, pre sell renovation solutions. So good mixture there, deal management system. Again, a range of solutions that some are going to help agents and brokers excel at their communication with clients. Some are, they're going to help them bring more efficiency to the transaction. Some of them, when I mentioned alternative financing unlock really focused on getting more people access to the capital they need to either purchase additional property or get into their first home. So kind of looking at the full transaction, everything you need from the beginning to the end and even post close. Cool.

Matt Fagioli [00:05:12]:
Awesome. Can you give us a quick rundown of the eight companies?

Ashley Stinton [00:05:15]:
Yeah, so we've got chirpiest, which is a social commerce platform. Thinking. Think about the shop ability of a listing, how much consumers look at listings these days, long before they're ever ready to buy or sell. And even just for the fun of looking at your neighbor's property or property in another neighborhood. If all of that cool furniture and virtual staging solutions, if all of that could be shoppable, very, very aspirational. They work across a couple of different verticals as well. Perlin, which is a really impactful set of AI tools driven around everything from efficiency but also fair housing. Really leaders, I think strong leaders in the AI space, tracksi deal management solution.

Ashley Stinton [00:05:59]:
Vijay and team realtors themselves. This is a team that took a pain point in their own business and went to solve for it. So think of the Asana or the Trello, but built specifically for real estate. So it's great when there's, there's technology from other verticals that can, that can pivot. They don't all necessarily do that with the realtor insight. And so that's why we're really, really fascinated by the tracksy team. Unlike I mentioned, alternative financing. They're working with us on a suite of new tools products in addition to their, their current product, which is leading in the home equity space.

Ashley Stinton [00:06:32]:
Then we've got scout. So lead Gen, heavy on, on focusing on stirring up new leads and using AI to do that cocoon, which has an iHome dashboard. This is a really impactful tool for powering and more analytically driven and data driven decision making when it comes to home maintenance, home renovation, which could be part of the sale or the prep for sale or could be, you know, post transaction, everything that a homeowner is focused on within their home while they're living in it and keeping the realtor top of mind as part of that notable is a fantastic sale home prep solution. So it's financing, very fast, efficient financing for the client, paid at close, but things that not everyone thinks about, like the floors get refinished and you need to rent an Airbnb for a couple nights or landscaping and all those costs that come up. And so it's financing for all of those home prep and renovation costs and final offer negotiation platform. So bringing more clarity to the negotiation process, I like to look at it as both buyer and seller walk away feeling absolutely great about the ultimate price because everybody was involved in a clear and transparent way throughout that. But agent driven, important to note, fully agent driven platform there. Did I forget anybody? That sounds like eight, right?

Matt Fagioli [00:07:55]:
I wasn't counting, but it's a long.

Ashley Stinton [00:07:57]:
List of we have a large portfolio. So we do have 250 companies total. So just had to make sure I got the numbers right there.

Matt Fagioli [00:08:04]:
Wow. Yeah. So I won't ask you to run down the whole 250, but I bet you could. And this is just once a year, the cohort, is that right?

Ashley Stinton [00:08:12]:
Correct. Yeah, we run an annual cohort. It runs from April to November. Very much hinged around those two big industry events, the Realtors legislative meetings and Trade Expo and the NAR NXT event at the end of the year. That gives us the right amount of time to onboard the companies, bring them to some industry events, then we tweak, we refine, we give them mentorship, we give them guidance, and we graduate, quote unquote, graduate at NXT with a demo day. And its incredible to see the change that these companies make throughout the year with that exposure to the marketplace, with that exposure and guidance from the Realtor community.

Matt Fagioli [00:08:48]:
Thats awesome. Well tell us a little bit about the companies that what a company looks like, thats a good partner for REACH versus second century and how you look at incoming companies that way.

Ashley Stinton [00:09:02]:
Yeah, obviously we're looking at market demands. What are the solutions that the market needs most? Of course, but there are tons of incredible solutions out there. So what also makes a good investment for us typically is a company around Series A, about a million ARR. That would be kind of the middle spot. And so what that affords us is the ability to look at both later stage companies and earlier stage companies, if that's, that's kind of our middle spot there. And I would say that's pretty commensurate with the class that we took in this year and classes of recent. We are a scale up, so we can take companies across a variety of stages. We have taken pre IPO companies and we have taken very early stage companies as well.

Ashley Stinton [00:09:43]:
Our program is as bespoke and as curated as it can possibly be because we want the eight absolute best solutions out there, regardless of size and stage. But that series a millionaire is the sweet spot.

Matt Fagioli [00:09:56]:
Yeah. And then, so, and how does that compare to what second century is doing?

Ashley Stinton [00:10:01]:
So second Century ventures is typically to support our portfolio companies with follow on financing. So our goal is to bring companies into REACH and are really, our preferred path is to bring companies into REACH, give them that really important and necessary exposure to the marketplace, feedback from the realtor community, and then support them with additional capital through second century ventures in those consecutive fundraising rounds that they have. So typically youll see in the second century ventures portfolio, those are going to look like later stage companies because theyve been through REACH before. Theyre a few years out of REACH.

Matt Fagioli [00:10:37]:
Trey, gotcha. Cool. Awesome. When we had our conversation a week or so ago, I guess still were just coming off of the DC meetings. Lots of important stuff happening there. Can you talk a little bit about what you saw there and what the climate is in the industry in general and how it relates to what REACH is doing?

Ashley Stinton [00:10:59]:
Yeah, it was actually a really, really incredible week in DC. A lot of critical thinking there. Obviously, this is a very unique year we're living in with everything going on in the news and an election year, there was a lot to cover. There was some really good election coverage from NAR's DC team overlaid with really how they support candidates. They're bipartisan and approach a lot of commentary around a lot of retirement happening on Capitol Hill. And so how that impacts the selection of new candidates that Realtor party is going to support and a very mindful process for how to support those find and then support those new candidates. If anybody's curious about how that whole process works, because we could tie up all of today's session on that, but I don't want to do that. The Advocacy Scoop podcast is a new podcast coming out from Shannon McGann and Patrick Newton with NAR.

Ashley Stinton [00:11:52]:
So if you want to know anything and everything, Bob, the advocacy arm of NAR, highly recommend tuning into that one for all our listeners here. So in addition to the election party, election coverage, realtor party coverage, some of the topics that I was really tuned in on was client communication. Of course, capital Gains was a, was a significant topic there. Tax reform and capital gains, AI, huge topic across a variety of committee meetings and programming sessions. And then, of course, the affordability crisis. So tackling that from both the supply side but also from the financing side.

Matt Fagioli [00:12:29]:
Can you talk a little bit more about AI? That's obviously huge buzzword, huge subject, lots of conversation around that, and I think that everybody's confused about what the heck to do with that. So what's the latest that you're hearing on AI as it in real estate, what that's going to do to, you know, kind of legislation and oversight, all of that, you know, as much as you can?

Ashley Stinton [00:12:57]:
Yeah, absolutely. It was, there were some very significant and important conversations happening in DC related to AI, which, you know, in my lens feels like a constant moving target. Feels like the moment we have it figured out and the right way to kind of wrap our understanding around it, you know, it changes something, something new comes out that really challenges our thinking around what makes it, what makes it reliable, what makes it transparent. So a lot of conversations in DC were around that. So with all of the legislation that is on the docket, how can the real estate community contribute to that? And what does that mean? And so a lot of the conversation, again, around the fairness of it, the reliability of it, the audit ability, if that's a word, the ability to audit it, but also some, I think, really important conversation about explaining it, a lot of it, it feels like on any given day, depending on the article you read, I mean, it can go way over my head on any given day if it's not articulated in terms of what is its actual impact, what is its meaningful impact, how is it driven. So I thought that that was actually a really important one. I don't think you can take 2 million real estate professionals in the United States and explain it one way, and it works for everybody. So understanding the, the genuine positive impact, what are the challenges that we need to look out for and then how to wrap the policy and the legislation around, what makes it reliable, what makes it fair, what makes it safe, how do we avoid copyright issues? So not there yet, again, continuing to be a moving target, but a lot of, I guess advancing the conversation to that next step.

Ashley Stinton [00:14:39]:
And how can real estate be an active participant in that conversation on Capitol Hill?

Matt Fagioli [00:14:45]:
I think the biggest subject, and you already mentioned it, is affordability. And we're in a season where nobody can afford anything. I for one, I have children in their late twenties and they're both homeowners because dad has been in the real estate industry forever. I guess that had something to do with it. But they tell me, they say, dad, none of our friends can afford to buy right now, and these are all highly educated, high income earners and still they feel that way. What did you hear in DC about where we're going with all of that?

Ashley Stinton [00:15:20]:
Yeah, a lot of conversation around supply. And I think the takeaway was there's just no one single answer there. We certainly lean into our REACH commercial program to focus on some of the more supply focused technologies, whether that be 3d printing or different substrates, efficiency just in building in general. So the conversation DC wasn't, here's the one single answer to get behind, but I think also some interesting conversation around creative solutions, co ownership, home sharing, and there's something called Padsplit that's actually been doing this for a while, but I think those solutions will become more and more popular. A lot of the conversation in DC was also then what does that transition look like if there's a lot of folks who are for the foreseeable future going to focus on renting, how can we make renting the absolute best sceNARio as a path to homeownership? And so whether that be solutions like steak, for example, earning cash back as a renter, so that renters are saving for a down payment, so that they are getting those timely payments. How can we improve credit scoring models? So they're taking into account things like rent payments and all those other, all those other areas of our life where a renter is doing really good things with their money but they're not getting credit for it, which then bleeds over into getting the right financing to get into home ownership. So there was also a lot of conversation about alternative financing solutions and where those can be the most beneficial for different populations. Because for some folks, it's buying up into a house that they feel like they can't afford today.

Ashley Stinton [00:16:58]:
How do we get them into that, that house? Where do they need those extra bedrooms? They need that extra square footage for their family. Maybe it's aspirations of owning additional property and that's become maybe a landlord. So what kind of financing does it take to own second and third homes or even beyond? So conversations around all the different needs across homeownership and those paths into it. We have a couple companies in our portfolio that are focused on that path to homeownership. Stake is one of them, Landis is another. And then unlock in this year's cohort, again, leaders in this alternative financing category, very well connected with capital markets and genuinely interested in market feedback from real estate on how to create that fine intersection in alternative financing in the most fair capacity possible. So fair lending is a big emphasis for our conversations with them this year.

Matt Fagioli [00:17:54]:
Awesome. Thanks for all of that. One of the things I want to ask you about, I think realtors listening to this, lots of great new services come from some agent who had a great idea, who built something for themselves and then up it comes through the ranks. So for that guy or girl who's listening to this as man, I've got this great idea, or I've already launched something or whatever, what's the path for that person to, you know, bring something forward and, and get the attention of REACH with their new thing?

Ashley Stinton [00:18:31]:
Yeah, I mean, we love to engage with every entrepreneur, even at those earlier stages, even if they're a little early for the REACH program. We like to connect early, stay in touch as they continue to grow until we get the timing right. Our inbox. Hello@NARREACH.com. Is a great way to REACH out. Let us know what you're working on and if we can, you know, connect maybe at an upcoming industry event, that's a great way to connect with us as well because we can also then connect those aspiring founders to our existing portfolio who can kind of, you know, give them the ropes, help them understand what was their path to actually bringing this idea to life. We also have a program called REACH Labs which is working with about, I hope I get this number right, 16 different realtor associations or MLS. This is a non financial commitment to the companies that are featured, but it is intended to help showcase a few solutions, maybe three solutions per quarter at each of those participating labs as a way for these earlier stage companies to get some market exposure, but really importantly get feedback from the realtor audience on how is this idea landing? How is this product landing? Have we built it right? Have we priced it right? Have we made it accessible in the ways that you would use it in your business? So that's a great way for early stage companies to get involved as well.

Ashley Stinton [00:19:51]:
We have some companies who have gone through fen featured at REACH Labs and then gone on to our scale up program. So that's real grader corded final offer. So it's a great way to bridge technology that might be regional in nature at first, start off on a local level and then ultimately bring them up to the national scale up program.

Matt Fagioli [00:20:12]:
Nice. That's so cool. And on the labs program, is that something that information is available and flowing from the national level or is it all at the local level?

Ashley Stinton [00:20:23]:
It's a two way communication. We probably need to update our website with what those participating labs look like. They are constantly evolving. Andrew Ackerman, who runs the program was with us in DC, always looking for new associations and MLS's that are interested in are participating. Um, but startups can actually go online and fill out a form to raise their hand and say, hey, I'm in this area and I'm interested, consider me. But then we also vice versa. If we get really good ideas that are a bit early for our program, then we will share them with our REACH labs as well. So both directions.

Ashley Stinton [00:20:55]:
We're sharing ideas in both directions.

Matt Fagioli [00:20:58]:
That's awesome. And are there any schedule for the 16 association events and all that? Or how does that get, is that being handled locally?

Ashley Stinton [00:21:07]:
Yeah, that is being handled locally. So each of the associations scheduled their own innovation showcases. Typically it's quarterly for each of the associations, but they set the dates for those. So the best way to get tuned in would be to, for a founder, seek out your local association, ask them if they're participating in REACH labs, and then just ask them for their calendar of showcases for the year ahead.

Matt Fagioli [00:21:29]:
Oh, awesome. Last question. When is the timing for people that want to apply for REACH 2025?

Ashley Stinton [00:21:37]:
Yeah, great question. Timing starts yesterday in terms of us looking at solutions for 2025, and then we want to engage with folks that want to participate next year. We want to engage now. We want to get to know those products now. Officially, the applications will open in late October, but again, we love the opportunity to meet in person at these industry events and get to know the teams, the founders behind these products long before that application process starts. So if you've got a great idea for real estate, send us a note. Find us at upcoming events. We'll be at the IOI event at the end of August.

Ashley Stinton [00:22:12]:
We'll be at blueprint. We'll be at risk media. We'll be at the RESO event in Dallas. We'll be at NXT in Boston. So lots of opportunities to connect.

Matt Fagioli [00:22:22]:
Awesome. Well, Ashley, thank you so much for being with us. It's been incredible information. What's the best way for everybody to reach out?

Ashley Stinton [00:22:29]:
Hello@NARREACH.com. That's the best way to find it. And my personal email is Ashley Vac.

Matt Fagioli [00:22:37]:
Awesome, Ashley, thanks again. Hope you'll come back and join us again soon.

Ashley Stinton [00:22:41]:
Thanks for having me.