Vision
Create an agent-forward real estate company offering the best offices, technology, and management in the business.
- Build software, networks, and technology to the highest available standard to work with agents instead of against them.
- Create an office environment (facilities) that supports mobile-first technology, enabling agents to work from anywhere at any time.
- Be the best real estate company in the world.
Obstacles
Being different is challenging, and achieving excellence from scratch is an uphill battle. Doing both and what has never been done before is nearly impossible.
- Intero wanted to build tools from the ground up. New technology and agent resources unmatched in the industry.
- Nearly every office was created from scratch – the best design, the best furniture, and the best leadership.
- The market is the market, and the Intero foundation had to be built quickly and without compromise.
Results
Intero Real Estate Services
If I had known then what I know now, I probably would never have accepted the role of Vice President of Information Technology and Facilities for a startup real estate company. And I would have missed one of the most exciting projects ever.
The call from Gino Blefari, Founder and CEO of Intero Real Estate Services, wasn’t entirely unexpected. At the time, I was working with my friend Dave Duran on several web projects for our development firm, Internet Technology Group, while trying to weather the fallout from the 2000 tech crash. Gino said he needed help launching a new company—no name, no secret sauce yet—just a bold vision to build the best real estate company in the world. I was in.
We held a few meetings, took a flight to Colorado to pitch Mercury Companies on funding the venture, and soon after, Intero Real Estate Services was born. The original plan was straightforward: launch five offices and recruit a few hundred agents within the first two years. No problem. We planned to connect the offices using frame relay, roll out one of the largest VoIP networks in the Bay Area, and develop innovative software for an industry still waiting for its breakthrough app. But that was just the beginning—we also had to build out the physical offices, find technology partners, hire office managers, and start recruiting agents.
I’m leaving out plenty of details, but it was an all-out, “hair-on-fire” period – made even more intense by the fact that I was getting married in the middle of it. That didn’t slow Gino down at all. He kept pushing us to build more, build better, and build faster. A lot faster. We launched 17 offices in just two years. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the people and companies that made it possible – including Gino – but I could never have done it without the support of Scott Steele at J.M. O’Neill, Brook Crossman at Cisco, Nancy Kusich at Herman Miller, and many others. For two consecutive years, we worked seven days a week, 16 hours or more a day, turning vision into reality. The result was nothing short of extraordinary – hailed as one of the greatest real estate success stories in recent memory.
Founded in 2002, Intero is a pioneer in real estate and the fastest organically-grown company in the history of the industry. The company was founded on delivering an innovative and unique experience for agents, buyers, sellers, and investors.” – LeadingRE
Intero had made it big—17 offices opened and 1,500 agents recruited. At that point, I made the decision to step away, focusing on strengthening a marriage that’s now in its 23rd year and caring for my daughter, who was born five weeks early, along with her sister, who arrived just a year and ten days later.
So what did we do in those two years? 17 offices connected together on Frame Relay using Cisco hardware from end to end, including Call Manager and Unity Voicemail. Newly built CRM from our development partner, AgentAchieve. Docusign. Zip Forms. Full support for Macintosh and Windows platform computers, and tools designed around mobile computers. Remember, the iPhone didn’t come out until 2007, but we were supporting the Palm Pilot long before mobile devices became mainstream. I had my hands in everything for two years.
Facilities. Technology. Operations. Everything. I learned in the trial by fire fashion that is so much a part of the Silicon Valley heritage, and as much as I shake my head about how much work it was, I’m so proud of what we accomplished.