Regan McGee, founder and CEO of the award-winning platform Nobul Technologies, has created a revolutionary consumer-centric real estate technology company that connects home buyers and sellers to the proper real estate agents who best fit their needs.
The American Business Awards has recently honored Nobul for its Open Digital Real Estate Marketplace.
The company also recently announced that it is now available throughout the state of Texas, which has become part of a national U.S. rollout strategy for the company. Texas has become the second most populous state in the country for relocation with more than 500,000 people moving to the Lone Star state every year. With the rise of homes for sale in Texas and more than 30 million people living in the state it became a perfect fit for Nobul Technologies.
CEO, Regan McGee, explained the need for his platform after realizing how antiquated the real estate market is in today’s technological online world. Read below to see how he’s bringing that technology to the real estate industry and learn why he founded Nobul.
I’m really excited about your project. What inspired you to create Nobul?
I saw the way the real estate industry worked, and I knew there had to be a better way to do it. Prior to this, I worked in real estate investing and development and realized the industry had operated the same way for about a hundred years. I looked at other industries and thought, “why does real estate function the same way it always has? It is the biggest industry in the world, and it is the most archaic.” It is so hard to change an industry that has functioned the same way for so long. There were some law changes that came into effect which governed how real estate trading was regulated in Canada and we saw what had just happened in the United States. That’s when I knew I could create something that would actually benefit people, something that would be helpful to buyers and sellers in real estate. From that day forward I feel like I have really been on a mission to help people with the biggest transaction of their lives.
Tell us a bit more about what your role entails?
As the CEO, I’m ultimately responsible for everything within the company. If anyone has problems that they can’t figure out I step in and help them. I’m here to help us propel our mission forward in all ways that I can. We are building the world’s first technology platform for real estate. People can now buy and sell real estate entirely on one platform. It’s not an easy thing to do because it’s not the traditional way of doing things in our industry. That’s why a large part of my job is also making sure our company helps people make these important transactions smoothly. Ultimately, my job is to make sure that the company moves forward in all ways possible.
How is Nobul disrupting the real estate industry?
We are focused on putting the power in the hands of the consumers for the first time. The way it functions largely, outside of our platform, the consumer doesn’t really have any power. The agents have access to all the data and there are a lot of institutions in place that are trying to keep it that way. We give the consumer, namely buyers and sellers, the ability to actually see if they’re getting a good real estate agent. They can see good data on the agents, for example what their list and sale ratio and what their average price point is and can see what the agent is actually going to do for his or her commission. It is almost like an RFP where the realtor puts out to the buyer or seller, here are the services I’m going to provide, and this is how much I’m going to charge you. It all happens in a real-time dynamic environment. As a buyer or seller of real estate you get agents that are competing for your business and they undercut each other.Thereby, lowering the commission that the buyer or seller is paying, and they’ll increase their services.
Nobul is fundamentally changing everything. The way agents traditionally sell real estate is to buy ads or send out flyers. The problem with this for a buyer or seller is that they have no idea whether or not the agent is a good one or a bad one. All they see is that the agent is good at promoting themselves. Their data can be manipulated, and it can be very misleading with very little work on the part of the agent.
Nobul changes the power dynamic. It’s not just good for buyers and sellers but is also beneficial for the agents. If someone is a really good agent they can show that via the data we provide through the system. It’s a great improvement from clients listening to a presentation with a bunch of hand-selected data points.
How does a realtor become a member of Nobul?
The good news is they don’t need to leave their brokerage to do so. All they do is come on our platform, create a profile with their license number then they tell us how they make money. They tell us what type of deals they want to see, what areas they work in and answer other questions to determine what kind of deal flow to provide to them.
There are no upfront cost to agents and no subscription. Agents only pay a success fee when they close a deal. We spend millions of dollars a month getting them high quality deal flow, helping orchestrate that deal, refining our technology and working with security agents. From an agent standpoint there is absolutely no risk. We do de-rank agents that don’t provide good service. If you are a good agent that provides great service, it helps your ranking and you’ll do better on Nobul. So, if you’re a good agent on our platforml, you get all the business you could possibly handle.
How do you make money on this?
We charge the agents on our platform a fee that comes out of their commission. Again, there is no risk for them. Instead of them having to buy ads, we have some agents on our platform with hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads on major text browsing platforms and have seen absolutely nothing from it. On our platform, because you are not shelling out any money; you’re only paying if you close deals, so there’s no risk to the agent for signing up with Nobul.
We are also building out other aspects of our platform. Mortgages are coming online and so are all the other aspects of a real estate transaction. Buyers and sellers never pay a fee and are never seeing ads. We are a totally consumer-centric, transparent company. So, as a consumer you get the same agents you received in the traditional way, but you don’t pay anything for it and get all the accountability that we provide though Nobul.
How do you see the effectiveness of technology in real estate?
The industry has actually been a really early adopter of technology, but it’s all been to benefit the agent. It is all built around getting the agents more deal flow. We have a different mission. We want agents to get deal flow as well. At the same time, we are providing the consumer with the best possible value.
There has been a shift in the way real estate is doing business now, using technology. In the past, agents would take customers and drive them around to see 60 houses. This past year in the U.S, more than 60% of people bought their homes sight unseen. People are able to do a lot of their searching online. Its time saving for everyone. If you think about the amount of time that it would take a realtor even to hand-write a contract versus now which auto-generate offers, it makes the lives much easier for real estate agents. The factor that sets us apart is that we are helping the agents and also the buyers and sellers because there really hasn’t been a lot of focus on helping the consumer.
I believe real estate technology is extremely important and I’m glad we’re finally doing it to help the consumer.
Why did you pick Texas as a market?
More than half a million people are moving to Texas every single year. That’s been happening for the past seven years; it’s a huge relocation state. The market there is great.
The biggest challenge in Texas right now is that some people feel as if the market has become so expensive that people can’t afford to buy there anymore. Yes, because Texas is booming real estate prices have increased but the reality is that the prices are still relatively affordable for a lot of buyers.
The average Texas household is significantly more than the national average. It has a world-class economy, one that is more important than many countries. It’s a great job market and incomes are on the rise. Texas is a great place to do business.
If we only had those 500,000 transactions a year, then we would be an extremely successful company, but of course we are in a lot of different areas, too.
Are you ever coming to New York?
Yes, and I love New York. The last time was there was in 2020 right before COVID. I have spent a lot of time there and am looking forward to spending more time in that great city.
You have won a couple of awards. Tell me about them.
Yes, we have won some big ones. CNBC’s Upstart 100 which honors the top 100 startups in the world, that’s a big deal. For an organization like CNBC to pick 100 top startups in the entire world, you have to be really doing well to get on that list. We have also won Deloitte’s Fast 50 Companies to Watch. We won that last year. It is likely we will win more Deloitte’s awards this year. One of the things that we really like about the Deloitte’s awards is that it is a consulting and accounting firm, so they actually look at your financial statements. It is not just all smoke and mirrors. They actually look at what you are delivering and then the rank you off of the math. We just won a Stevie Award and I won a Game Changer award a couple of years ago.
What do you see in the future, in the next 5 to 10 years or so for Nobul?
We will be helping to transform the industry. We will be providing solutions previously not available to buyers and sellers. If you’re buying and selling real estate now, you have to go to all these different people like your mortgage company, insurance company or your realtor, etc. We are providing all that all in one platform. So, you’ll be able to buy and sell real estate the same way you do everything else in your life. Hopefully, we will be helping millions of people. We will help shape more than 1% of the United States GP. I look at us helping to reshape the industry and help people and provide real value to people on their biggest single asset. We’re going to do a lot of good for a lot of people.