Real Estate Magazine was excited to attend this year’s OREA’s Reality conference in Toronto. 

One of the panels we observed was Real Estate Tech and Innovation: What’s How, What’s Not, and Where We’re Headed. 

These panellists are at the helm of companies leading the way in innovating proptech and the real estate industry. 

Natalka Falcomer 

OJO Home Canada

First up, Natalka Falcomer, president of OJO Home Canada. Falcomer is leading the development and expansion of OJO’s personalized home buying and selling experience in Canada. 

OJO’s president says technology can enhance the customer experience and help showcase the realtor’s value.

“The realtor ensures a safe, efficient, and successful home buying and selling journey. Your value remains front and center by matching you with people who want to buy a home,” she says.

Though Falcomer is at the forefront of the company’s growth in Canada, OJO is an Austin-based proptech company focused on improving homeownership. 

The company calls itself matchmakers, but for the homebuying journey. OJO helps consumers by enabling them to customize their search, connecting them with the industry experts they need, and equipping them with the financial tools necessary. They leave their clients feeling prepared to buy, sell or own.

Reuven Gorsht 

Deeded

The next panellist is Reuven Gorsht, CEO and co-founder of Deeded. 

Deeded’s goal is to make real estate transactions frictionless, affordable, and transparent for everyone involved. The company promises to connect you with real estate lawyers who offer transparent pricing and guide you through a streamlined, transparent, and virtual real estate and mortgage closing experience. 

Gorsht shared the experience that left him wanting to create a more seamless closing process; we imagine many realtors have found themselves in similar situations. 

Hours before he was scheduled to pick up the keys to his new home, Gorsht received a call informing him there was a document missing. That meant he wouldn’t receive the keys to his new home as expected, leaving him and his family homeless for a few days. 

One minor hiccup can turn into an avalanche, and Gorsht says he created Deeded to prevent this situation from happening again.

“It’s a big domino effect, and it has a big emotional impact on everybody involved,” Gorsht says. 

Lynette Keyowski 

REACH Canada

Meet the final panellist, Lynette Keyowski, managing partner at REACH Canada.

A prodigy of the National Association of Realtors, REACH says it’s dedicated to assisting companies in connecting with the real estate industry. 

It supports companies in innovating the real estate industry, which helps small businesses and millions of realtors and consumers and, in turn, the economy, Keyowski says.

She adds, “What we do is work with technology solutions to really help power what’s needed in the industry, and we do that in conjunction with this amazing group of people that we get to work with every day called real estate agents.”

Top app for businesses

Moderator Simeon Papailias, co-founder and managing partner at REC Canada, asked the panellists which apps they could not run their business without. 

A few were mentioned, but the first one at the top of every panellist’s list? 

Slack.

If you haven’t heard of Slack, simply put, it’s a messaging app for businesses. It’s an easy platform to stay organized while communicating with your entire team. Not only did every panellist admit to using it, but the team at Real Estate Magazine relies on it to stay connected.

Here are some tools that were also mentioned for project management:

• Asana
• Monday.com
• Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)
• The notes app on your phone

And a couple of tools mentioned to help create a good work/life balance:

• Strava(tracks physical exercise)
• Oura Ring(keeps track of your body temperature, blood oxygen levels, heart rate and more)
• Setting up the bedtime function on your phone to remind you when it’s time to start winding down

The best app of them all? One that you will use says moderator Simeon Papailias. 

Papailias urges, “I strongly recommend to everyone in this room the best CRM, the best app, the best anything is the one you will commit to and use. Understand that. All the fancy apps, all the newest, latest and greatest, mean nothing if it

REM Editorial Team