It began with a problem that urgently needed to be solved. For nearly two decades, the U.S. real estate industry has been shaped by tech companies out of Silicon Valley that have made real estate less personable, less transparent, less efficient and more expensive. This is a problem that has negative implications for everyone in real estate. First, it affects all professionals in the industry. Agents are pushed out of business and prevented from building an online presence, and service providers are unable to effectively advertise and grow to their target audience. Consumers are hurt as well; the largest online platforms for real estate publish old data, yielding complexities and misinformation for buyers and sellers. More importantly, they miss out on the opportunity to connect with the best professionals in their area that are integral to the home sale or purchase process.
This is not a sustainable model.
It took one individual—a real estate agent of 23 years– to suggest an alternative: refusing to conform to a business model that companies like Zillow have been pushing on the industry since the early 2000s. Ryan Poole was determined to put people back at the core of real estate, and to empower the individuals that make the industry possible in the first place. As technology continued to evolve, more businesses emerged with the goal of automating real estate, monetizing every interaction, and making the process more and more expensive. The industry demanded change.
Poole realized the gravity of this problem. As an agent, he drew from his personal experiences to craft a solution. What was missing from pre-existing real estate technology? What technology did he wish that he had when he was starting as an agent? How could recent and accurate data become more accessible for buyers and sellers in a world inundated with information? How could he build a lasting online presence to create a powerful professional network?
He compiled the answers to these questions to pioneer RealTrade, an online marketplace and integrated social platform that unifies everything in real estate. It’s the first of its kind in real estate technology, promoting a viable way for all parties in real estate to search, connect, and succeed together.
A digital platform for real estate has no utility when it only serves the few people that created it. Thus, RealTrade puts the community at the forefront; created by people in the industry, the company’s vision is to empower agents and service providers to create something better for buyers and sellers, and the industry as a whole. The end goal is for buyers and sellers to connect with the best players in the industry and build lasting relationships. Since the birth of RealTrade in the summer of 2021, the Founder’s vision to foster an expansive, trusted real estate community has been fulfilled–and this is just the start.
RealTrade has undergone a website redesign, expanded its platform throughout the South Florida region, and invited paying service providers in the industry to join the platform. Other big accomplishments for RealTrade over the past year include getting trademarked, hosting multiple sponsored real estate networking events, starting a podcast, and growing our social media presence across multiple platforms. Today, we have 700 agents from over 90 different brokerages, over 40 service providers, and thousands of buyers and sellers using RealTrade to connect and facilitate business. No other digital real estate platform is doing all of these things.
But this is just the beginning of RealTrade’s story and the future of the industry. RealTrade is rapidly growing and advancing, and will aim be the number one digital platform for real estate. Each day, more real estate professionals are creating accounts on RealTrade and consistently using it to grow their professional business and network.
We are anticipating a sustained 20% month over month growth, with a tipping point in 2024 and have investors leaning in on a seed investment round to help us expand and grow over the next 12-18 month period. With these funds, we plan to take multiple steps to fund RealTrade’s expansion and long term profitability. RealTrade’s next step is expanding beyond the South Florida real estate market, with the hope of eventually fostering a nationwide community on our platform. Additionally, we are in the process of developing a mobile app for a more accessible and efficient RealTrade experience that integrates the platform into day-to-day life for our amazing community. Finally, we want to scale RealTrade to grow and fund our hard-working team--specifically in our marketing and development departments. In summary, this funding is intended to directly contribute to our community of professionals, the rapidly growing real estate technology sector, and the minds behind RealTrade.
If this story resonates with you and you would like to be a big part of it, reach out to us. We would love to have a conversation about the amazing investment opportunity that is available and break down RealTrade’s critical role in the real estate industry. The democratization of real estate happening right now within our platform is the only sustainable way to improve the careers of real estate professionals, make the industry easier to navigate for buyers and sellers, and allow the real estate industry to flourish for years to come.
Contact our Founder/CEO Ryan Poole: ryanpoole@realtrade.io with any inquiries.
