November 16, 2025
November 16, 2025
November 16, 2025
WHAT 1,000 REAL ESTATE AGENTS TAUGHT ME ABOUT BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
Before I ever wrote a line of code or built my first app, I spent years doing something that would shape everything I build today: managing operations for one of the most ambitious real estate companies in the country.
Before I ever wrote a line of code or built my first app, I spent years doing something that would shape everything I build today: managing operations for one of the most ambitious real estate companies in the country.
At Real Estate Exchange (REX), I joined as employee number 30. I launched the Denver market — their sixth — and over the next several years helped scale operations to serve over 1,000 agents across 35 metropolitan areas in 25 states. The company raised $250 million. I wore every hat you can imagine: business development, enterprise sales, product management, compliance, partnerships.
It was chaotic, fast, and the best education I could have asked for. Here's what it taught me about building technology that actually works.
The Tools Were Never Built for the People Using Them
The single biggest frustration I watched agents deal with, day after day, was software that wasn't designed for how they actually worked. Every platform we evaluated was built by engineers who had never spent a day in the field. The dashboards were impressive in demos and useless in practice.
Agents don't sit at desks. They're in cars, at showings, on the phone. They need to pull up a client's history in ten seconds, not navigate through four tabs and a dropdown menu. The tools we had were designed to collect data for managers, not to help the people doing the actual work.
That disconnect — between who builds the software and who uses it — stuck with me. It's the reason everything we build at Novus Broker starts with one question: what does the person holding the phone actually need right now?
Process First, Technology Second
When we launched new markets at REX, the instinct was always to throw technology at problems. New CRM. New automation. New integration. But the markets that launched successfully were the ones where we mapped the process first and then figured out which parts technology could improve.
In Denver, I built our entire transaction management workflow from scratch. Not because I wanted to — because we had to. We were a non-MLS company entering regulated markets, which meant the standard playbook didn't apply. Every contract review process, every compliance checkpoint, every agent workflow had to be designed from zero.
What I learned is that automation only works when you understand the manual version first. If you automate a broken process, you just break things faster. We reduced contract processing errors by 35% — not by buying better software, but by redesigning the workflow and then automating the parts that were genuinely repetitive.
Scale Exposes Everything
When you're running operations for a handful of agents, you can get away with manual workarounds. Spreadsheets, email chains, sticky notes — it all sort of works. But when you go from 6 agents to 1,000 across 25 states, every crack becomes a canyon.
The compliance requirements alone were staggering. Each state has different regulations, different disclosure requirements, different timelines. What works in Colorado doesn't work in Texas. What's legal in Nevada might get you fined in California. We had to build systems that were flexible enough to handle all of that without requiring someone to manually check every transaction.
That experience gave me a deep respect for two things: the importance of building systems that scale from day one, and the reality that most small businesses never get the chance to learn that lesson until it's too late. They're so busy surviving that they don't have time to build the infrastructure that would help them thrive.
That's the gap Novus Broker exists to fill.
The People Closest to the Work Know the Most
One of the most valuable things I did at REX had nothing to do with strategy or technology. It was simply listening to agents. The people doing the work every day — handling transactions, talking to clients, navigating the messy reality of real estate — they knew exactly what was broken. They just didn't have anyone asking them.
When I started building Seshi, our session tracking app for service providers, I took the same approach. I talked to personal trainers, massage therapists, stylists. Not to sell them something, but to understand their day. What I kept hearing was the same story: they're incredible at what they do, but they're drowning in the admin side. Client tracking, session notes, follow-ups, revenue visibility — it's all done on scraps of paper, scattered notes apps, or not done at all.
They don't need a complex enterprise CRM. They need something that works the way they work — quick, mobile, and simple enough that they'll actually use it.
Negotiating $10 Million Deals Taught Me to Start Small
At REX, I negotiated enterprise service agreements totaling over $10 million annually with institutional partners. Big numbers, big stakes, long timelines. But the deals that actually closed and performed well almost always started small. A pilot program. A single market test. A handshake agreement to try one thing and see if it worked.
The same principle applies to building products and implementing automation. The businesses that succeed with AI and automation aren't the ones that overhaul everything at once. They're the ones that pick one problem, solve it well, and build from there.
When we work with consulting clients at Novus Broker, that's exactly how we approach it. We don't come in with a 40-page AI transformation roadmap. We find the one workflow that's eating the most time and fix that first. Then we move to the next one.
Why I Started Novus Broker
Before REX, I spent time at Greystar and continued working in real estate operations. But I kept coming back to the same realization: the people who keep businesses running — the service providers, the operators, the solo practitioners — are chronically underserved by technology.
The enterprise world gets custom-built platforms and dedicated IT teams. Small business owners and independent professionals get whatever free app they can find and a prayer that it doesn't lose their data.
I started Novus Broker Technology because I believe that gap is closeable. The tools exist now — AI, no-code platforms, modern mobile development — to build genuinely useful software without a $5 million budget. The missing ingredient isn't technology. It's someone who understands the work well enough to build the right thing.
That's what those years working with 1,000 agents gave me. Not just operational experience, but a fundamental conviction that technology should serve the people doing the work — not the other way around.
At Real Estate Exchange (REX), I joined as employee number 30. I launched the Denver market — their sixth — and over the next several years helped scale operations to serve over 1,000 agents across 35 metropolitan areas in 25 states. The company raised $250 million. I wore every hat you can imagine: business development, enterprise sales, product management, compliance, partnerships.
It was chaotic, fast, and the best education I could have asked for. Here's what it taught me about building technology that actually works.
The Tools Were Never Built for the People Using Them
The single biggest frustration I watched agents deal with, day after day, was software that wasn't designed for how they actually worked. Every platform we evaluated was built by engineers who had never spent a day in the field. The dashboards were impressive in demos and useless in practice.
Agents don't sit at desks. They're in cars, at showings, on the phone. They need to pull up a client's history in ten seconds, not navigate through four tabs and a dropdown menu. The tools we had were designed to collect data for managers, not to help the people doing the actual work.
That disconnect — between who builds the software and who uses it — stuck with me. It's the reason everything we build at Novus Broker starts with one question: what does the person holding the phone actually need right now?
Process First, Technology Second
When we launched new markets at REX, the instinct was always to throw technology at problems. New CRM. New automation. New integration. But the markets that launched successfully were the ones where we mapped the process first and then figured out which parts technology could improve.
In Denver, I built our entire transaction management workflow from scratch. Not because I wanted to — because we had to. We were a non-MLS company entering regulated markets, which meant the standard playbook didn't apply. Every contract review process, every compliance checkpoint, every agent workflow had to be designed from zero.
What I learned is that automation only works when you understand the manual version first. If you automate a broken process, you just break things faster. We reduced contract processing errors by 35% — not by buying better software, but by redesigning the workflow and then automating the parts that were genuinely repetitive.
Scale Exposes Everything
When you're running operations for a handful of agents, you can get away with manual workarounds. Spreadsheets, email chains, sticky notes — it all sort of works. But when you go from 6 agents to 1,000 across 25 states, every crack becomes a canyon.
The compliance requirements alone were staggering. Each state has different regulations, different disclosure requirements, different timelines. What works in Colorado doesn't work in Texas. What's legal in Nevada might get you fined in California. We had to build systems that were flexible enough to handle all of that without requiring someone to manually check every transaction.
That experience gave me a deep respect for two things: the importance of building systems that scale from day one, and the reality that most small businesses never get the chance to learn that lesson until it's too late. They're so busy surviving that they don't have time to build the infrastructure that would help them thrive.
That's the gap Novus Broker exists to fill.
The People Closest to the Work Know the Most
One of the most valuable things I did at REX had nothing to do with strategy or technology. It was simply listening to agents. The people doing the work every day — handling transactions, talking to clients, navigating the messy reality of real estate — they knew exactly what was broken. They just didn't have anyone asking them.
When I started building Seshi, our session tracking app for service providers, I took the same approach. I talked to personal trainers, massage therapists, stylists. Not to sell them something, but to understand their day. What I kept hearing was the same story: they're incredible at what they do, but they're drowning in the admin side. Client tracking, session notes, follow-ups, revenue visibility — it's all done on scraps of paper, scattered notes apps, or not done at all.
They don't need a complex enterprise CRM. They need something that works the way they work — quick, mobile, and simple enough that they'll actually use it.
Negotiating $10 Million Deals Taught Me to Start Small
At REX, I negotiated enterprise service agreements totaling over $10 million annually with institutional partners. Big numbers, big stakes, long timelines. But the deals that actually closed and performed well almost always started small. A pilot program. A single market test. A handshake agreement to try one thing and see if it worked.
The same principle applies to building products and implementing automation. The businesses that succeed with AI and automation aren't the ones that overhaul everything at once. They're the ones that pick one problem, solve it well, and build from there.
When we work with consulting clients at Novus Broker, that's exactly how we approach it. We don't come in with a 40-page AI transformation roadmap. We find the one workflow that's eating the most time and fix that first. Then we move to the next one.
Why I Started Novus Broker
Before REX, I spent time at Greystar and continued working in real estate operations. But I kept coming back to the same realization: the people who keep businesses running — the service providers, the operators, the solo practitioners — are chronically underserved by technology.
The enterprise world gets custom-built platforms and dedicated IT teams. Small business owners and independent professionals get whatever free app they can find and a prayer that it doesn't lose their data.
I started Novus Broker Technology because I believe that gap is closeable. The tools exist now — AI, no-code platforms, modern mobile development — to build genuinely useful software without a $5 million budget. The missing ingredient isn't technology. It's someone who understands the work well enough to build the right thing.
That's what those years working with 1,000 agents gave me. Not just operational experience, but a fundamental conviction that technology should serve the people doing the work — not the other way around.
