Courted is a software that lets agents find other agents for multiple reasons, whether to refer work, recruit team members or even seek advice or mentorship. It’s an ideal tool for higher-producing agents wanting to broadcast their expertise and empower their in-market professional network.
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Courted is an app to help agents network, share business and build teams.
Platforms: Mobile-first browser app
Ideal for: Agents and teams
Top selling points:
- Sharp, mature UI
- Network/referral search according to performance
- MLS data integration
- Geographic search
- Map-based market stats search
Top concern:
Courted is going to rely heavily on the data partnerships it can forge within each market it’s targeting, and with all the turmoil on how MLSs share information, it could slow the app’s growth.
What you should know
Courted is software that lets agents find other agents for multiple reasons, whether to refer work, recruit team members or even seek advice or mentorship. It’s an ideal tool for higher producing agents wanting to broadcast their expertise and empower their in-market professional network. However, it can be leveraged for out-of-market referrals, too.
A lot of apps are trying to counter-sell the “disruption” trend. Even though few software companies have been able to successfully dislodge the agent from the deal (at least not at scale), every proptech wants to prop itself up by championing agent.
Well, Courted is one of the few that’s doing more than offering lip service.
The intent of the software is for agents to meet agents. It can be loosely described as an industry-focused LinkedIn. Or HomeLight for only agents.
Users create profiles that become populated with local MLS performance data. The more deals you’ve done, the more robust your Courted account will look. It pulls in everything, too: DOM record, average sale price, annual volume, neighborhoods in which you excel, years in the business, property types sold and buy- and sell-side history. It’s impressive.
In-app messaging facilitates connections, and a slick map search can visually sharpen search results all the way down to which agents perform the best on specific streets — a critical stat when you want to build a team to dominate a wealthy suburb or high-end urban neighborhood.
In places where high-rise dwellings are popular, as in Courted’s first city of Miami, the app can help users find out which agents sell the most units in a particular building or even that building’s most popular floor.
The software also does a bit of marketing on behalf of its users through a series of “awards” graphics that highlight market milestones and accomplishments. Agents can repurpose these badges in social environments and listing presentations, for example.
The company is active in Miami, and it has data ready for Southern California, San Diego and Denver. It’s eyeing Washington, D.C. and the mid-Atlantic, too.
Courted reminds me of some of my favorite data-rich apps, like TopHap, Core Present (DashCMA) and the now defunct-but-ahead-of-its-time MyPlanIt. It deftly maneuvers agent performance information into any shape needed to inform those seeking it. It can be whatever you want it to be.
The software depicts an agent’s performance in simple, visual lists and charts, and transaction cards show deals done over time.
Open house invites can be carefully curated by searching for those agents active in a particular zip code or neighborhood, and recruiting tactics can be bettered by searching for years of experience, price points or total volume.
I’ve found that those developers who understand how to deftly wield data rarely run dry on more ways to do it. There’s a lot of potential here. Even I have ideas for this app. But there’s also sound intrinsic business acumen here. The industry doesn’t need another lead app or way for consumers to find homes.
What the industry needs is a way to find itself, a digital mortar to bind agents to their markets and to their value in the transaction. The more often smart agents can find each other, the smarter their market becomes.
Courted isn’t unlike Side, the team-oriented boutique brokerage builder. It wants good agents to find each other, knowing that’s how the industry will best emerge from its current state of uncertain evolution.
What I see here is a better-looking multiple listing service, a more able-bodied machine pumping out cooler, more valuable products from the raw (data) material.
Its founder Sean Soderstrom told me during our demo that instead of building another app for property search, he wanted to build one that put agents at the center of search.
“An agent’s network in the community is an indicator of future success,” he said.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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