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100 Most Influential Real Estate
People
Inman News has compiled a list of the 100 most influential
people in real estate, reflecting the industry's best and
brightest, as well as outside figures whose actions influence
the home buying and selling business. The following 23 names
were chosen for the technology and online real estate
category. 
Ian Morris
CEO, HouseValues
Ian Morris led the successful initial public offering of
HouseValues in late 2004. The online real estate marketing and
lead generation company continues to grow with new product
offerings and expanded agent and broker clients, and is
aggressively eyeing the online share of real estate
advertising dollars. The high-energy Harvard grad first made
his mark on the real estate world about nine years ago when he
started working for Microsoft's online real estate business.
For a full profile of Morris, click here.
Mike Long
CEO, Homestore
When Mike Long agreed to take on the chief executive role
at Homestore, the company was engulfed in controversy. The
company was dealing with restructuring a new management team,
tangled up in shareholder lawsuits and picking up the pieces
after an accounting scandal that rocked the real estate
industry. Under Long's watch, Homestore has settled a major
shareholder lawsuit, restructured its pricing model and
consistently improved earnings results.
Allan Dalton
CEO, president,
Realtor.com
When Allan Dalton speaks, Realtors listen. Revered as a
real estate marketing expert, Dalton became chief executive of
Realtor.com in 2002 after a five-year stint with NRT. In his
speeches to real estate agents across the country, Dalton
emphasizes a Realtor's focus on marketing homes, rather than
on selling homes. Most recently, Dalton developed the Real
Estate Marketing EXPO, a high-impact marketing program he's
taking on the road to cities nationwide to teach the secrets
and systems of top-producing agents.
Craig Newmark
Founder, customer service
representative, craigslist.org
Brokers throughout the country may not have known who Craig
Newmark was five years ago, but most do today. As founder of
craigslist.org, a network of local online community and
classifieds Web sites, Newmark has made an imprint in the real
estate industry whether he knows it or not. Craigslist has
empowered many consumers to search for apartments without
paying broker fees and to brave the for-sale-by-owner
world.
For a full profile of Newmark, click here.
 Richard Sommer, HomeGain
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Richard Sommer
CEO, HomeGain
Richard Sommer took the reins of HomeGain in 2004 and has
been working to expand its reach ever since. An industry
veteran, Sommer previously worked at IndyMac Bank but couldn't
turn down the chance to help grow a company. HomeGain recently
was acquired by Classified Ventures, and Sommer plans to focus
on growing the company's network of agents and brokers,
providing high quality leads and helping agents convert those
leads to closed sales through increased use of technology.
For a full profile of Sommer, click here.
Dan Jauernig
President and CEO, Classified
Ventures
Dan Jauernig heads up Classified Ventures, a joint online
classified advertising venture owned by six of the nation's
leading media companies. The company recently acquired
HomeGain in a move that will propel the company into the
online real estate space.
Tom Reddin
CEO of Real Estate, IAC Financial
Services and Real Estate
InterActiveCorp's online real estate juggernaut has come
together under a one-stop shop known as RealEstate.com, and
Tom Reddin is positioned in the driver's seat as the company's
CEO of Real Estate. Some pieces of the portal include
LendingTree, ServiceMagic, iNest and Domania. Reddin said the
company is focused on aggressively growing revenue
opportunities.
Doug Lebda
CEO, IAC Financial Services and
Real Estate
Founder and CEO, LendingTree
Doug Lebda turned industry heads when LendingTree started
airing commercials offering online mortgage loan-comparison
services. The aggressive "When banks compete, you win" slogan
is now synonymous with the company. The North Carolina
entrepreneur turned industry heads again when Barry Diller's
InterActiveCorp in 2003 bought LendingTree in a deal valued at
more than $600 million. Everyone is watching to see how much
market share LendingTree will gain.
 Barry Diller, InterActiveCorp
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Barry Diller
Chairman, CEO,
InterActiveCorp
Barry Diller sent chills down the spine of the real estate
industry when his company purchased LendingTree in 2003,
marking the beginning of a real estate buying binge for the
corporation. IAC now owns RealEstate.com, as well as
ServiceMagic, iNest, Domania and others. The media mogul's
entrepreneurial track record and capital that backs his ideas
make him a highly influential figure in the real estate
industry.
Stu Siegel
CEO, eNeighborhoods
At 41, Stuart Siegel is a sharp business leader and
technology pioneer. Prior to becoming CEO of eNeighborhoods,
Siegel served as president, CEO and principal of Getko Group,
which became the largest compiler of home sale data in the
United States and Canada. He co-founded eNeighborhoods with
the vision of providing real estate professionals with
neighborhood information that would be important to them.
Microsoft and InfoWeek named eNeighborhoods the fastest
growing real estate software in the U.S., and the company
continues to gain recognition among agents.
For a full profile of Siegel, click here.
Udi Manber
CEO, Amazon's A9
In November 2003, Udi Manber became CEO of A9.com,
developing innovative search technologies like the A9 Toolbar
and A9.com Yellow Pages. A9, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has
about 26 million images of business storefronts and entire
downtown blocks in 15 total U.S. cities for consumers to
search through. The search engine, which launched in September
2004, promises to make searching the Internet more effective
for consumers.
Ken Galpin
CEO, Most Home Corp.
Most Home Corp. has emerged as a leader in the online lead
business for real estate. The company continues to innovate
through technology, providing leads to agents' mobile devices,
as well as the process of weeding out the online lookie loos
through a consolidated call center. As CEO of the company, Ken
Galpin is in a position to influence more changes in online
lead generation and management processes.
Colby Sambrotto,
ForSaleByOwner.com |
Colby Sambrotto
Chief operating officer,
ForSaleByOwner.com
At ForSaleByOwner.com, Colby Sambrotto is responsible for
implementing all new lines of business such as
Yourloanhelper.com, Forclosuretimes.com, automobile listings
and all Web site enhancements. He has helped build the Web
site into more than just a place for homeowners to advertise
their homes. The company last year won a landmark lawsuit
against the California Department of Real Estate in which the
court ruled that Web sites do not need to obtain a real estate
license to advertise homes for sale.
Michael Montsko
President, Weichert Lead
Network
Weichert took the lead in lead generation and conversion
processes a few years back with the launch of the Weichert
Lead Network. Michael Montsko oversees the program, which
includes a multimillion-dollar Internet marketing campaign to
drive traffic to the site, a 40-employee call center that
receives the information and calls the consumer within minutes
to qualify them, and an underlying computer program that
decides which agents to call. The $10 million-plus technology
initiative resulted in more than 5,000 closed transactions
through the lead network in less than two years, according to
estimates in late 2004.
Mark Lesswing
NAR vice president, director,
Center for Realtor Technology
As director of the National Association of Realtors' Center
for Realtor Technology, Mark Lesswing has made a lot of
progress in keeping Realtors abreast of current technology
issues. The Center has published informative reports on
various security issues facing brokers, MLSs and agents, and
has developed a tool that converts Web-based leads into cell
phone calls, to name a few accomplishments.
 Joshua Sharfman, C.A.R.
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Joshua Sharfman
Chief technical officer,
California Association of Realtors
Sharfman also serves as the CEO of the California
Association of Realtors' Real Estate Business Technologies
subsidiary, charged with delivering the group's new
transaction management system. Sharfman will play a key role
in getting the system off the ground and widely adopted, which
could serve to change the way much of the industry conducts
business.
Marty Frame
Senior vice president, product
development, Homestore
Marty Frame is the one to watch for any new technology
developments at Homestore. The company recently announced it
would be taking the anticipated pay-per-performance system for
Realtor.com in a different direction than previously
announced, but gave no details about what the new direction
will entail. New technology systems that may or may not be a
part of those plans would fall under Frame's direction.
Saul Klein
President, co-founder Internet
Crusade
Over the past 14 years, Saul Klein has traveled more than 1
million miles delivering a message on technology and its role
in the future of the real estate industry. Klein is creator,
author and instructor for NAR's e-Pro certification program,
which aims to help agents thrive in the competitive world of
online real estate. Klein also helped build some of the most
recognized online communities in real estate, including the
RealTalk e-mail discussion group.
Randy Hollister
Founding partner of
LeadRouter, recently acquired by Cendant
Randy Hollister, a Realtor and broker who has been active
in the industry since 1978, is a founding partner of
LeadRouter, the company behind the online lead generation
platform of the same name, which was recently acquired by
Cendant. He also co-created the LeadRouter, LeadPhone and Do
Not Call Sentry real estate applications. Before starting
LeadRouter in 2002, Hollister served as Realtor.com's national
customer training manager. He started and led its national
speaker program for five years. He also has served as the
executive director of the Scottsdale Association of Realtors
in Arizona.
Justin McCarthy
Head of local sales,
Google
Google refers more traffic to real estate Web sites than
all other search engines combined, not a surprising fact given
the search site's increasing ubiquity. As head of local sales
for Google, McCarthy's decisions impact real estate
advertisers. McCarthy said in late July that the search-engine
giant is seeing much more traditional full-service brokerages
engaged in online marketing compared to last year. When Google
first started offering pay-per-click advertising, "we didn't
see big brokerage brands," McCarthy said. "We're seeing that
now though."
 Darren Ross, Stewart
Information Services |
Darren Ross
Director of electric commerce,
Stewart Information Services Corp.
Darren Ross is no stranger to the paperless real estate
transaction. As director of electronic commerce for Stewart
Information Services Corp., Ross researches and implements
paperless real estate transactions, electronic mortgage
transactions and e-closings. Ross has more than 18 years of
Information Systems and IT management experience and
co-authored many real estate industry data standards. He is
currently working on industry standards for electronic
mortgage transactions and XHTML SMART documents as well as
various business and technology standards for county and
municipal courts and recorders/clerks offices.
Brian Boero
CEO, VREO
Brian Boero is leading VREO, a real estate marketing and
software company that recently merged with Criterion Corp.
Criterion's flagship RedTablet PC mixed with VREO's Web
marketing service for Realtors promises to revolutionize the
way agents conduct business.
Joel MacIntosh
CEO, WolfNet
Technologies
MacIntosh founded and heads WolfNet, which provides lead
generation and management technology to real estate
brokerages. WolfNet's systems are helping a lot of traditional
brokerage companies embrace and make the most of their Web
presence.
For a full profile of MacIntosh, click here.
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Copyright 2005 Inman News | 
