Collabra’s Russ Cofano: ‘Sick brokerages’ will cause the real estate industry to suffer
In a new episode of the “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered Podcast,” hosts James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson speak with Collabra Technology CEO Russ Cofano to dive into cooperative compensation and the National Association of Realtors‘ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), among other subjects.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. To start the episode, Cofano dives into his viewpoints on the NAR lawsuit settlement changes and the controversial practices that stem from it.
Cofano: There’s some good things about it and there’s some questionable things. The legal industry understands that they can make a lot of money because of the nature of real estate. The industry is made up of creative, entrepreneurial people who aren’t always long-term thinkers. Agents are also going to find it more difficult to manage their duties to their clients in terms of gaining commissions.
Robinson: How do we get the leadership on the same page with agents in terms of answering key client servicing questions?
Cofano: Over the last 20 years, the industry has walked away from leadership through business models. They’ve given individual agents and teams ownership, and it’s having a cascading impact on industry economics and things like CCP. It’s low oversight, heavy body count.
Robinson: How much of this is merely the chaos of change when you have an external shift in the market? Will this normalize in six more months?
Cofano: I think it’s an amazing time to be in this business. There is immense opportunity. But it’s not a three-month, six-month deal. We’re going to see some really interesting anticipated and unanticipated things.
Dwiggins: What’s your take on cooperative compensation?
Cofano: I think the sooner the industry can walk away from CCP, it will help us. Regardless, if we don’t handle the underlying economic issue of sick brokerage companies, the industry will eat itself from inside. There needs to be strong brokerage entities — that’s the biggest thing I’m concerned about. The CCP will work itself out.
Dwiggins: Tell us a little bit about Collabra Technology.
Cofano: Most real estate agents are great salespeople, not great marketers. So, we came up with the concept of a store builder. It features a data and analytics component that helps agents understand the power of their digital presence, and it leverages the philosophy of demand generation as opposed to lead generation. Demand generation is high level and high funnel, building awareness and perspective about the value of the brand.
On our advertising platform, an agent can create a fully optimized ad that goes out to Meta, Instagram, Google or Bing. Agents need to understand that portals are the newspaper of the 21st century.
To end the conversation, Cofano offers advice to agents and brokers for success in the 2025 housing market.
Cofano: If I’m a brokerage leader today, I’d talk to as many people to understand where the opportunities are. I’m going to become maniacal about understanding the pain points of my agents and delivering on those specific pain points. Everything else can go aside.