Peoplework Profile: Paul Griffin and the New Hampshire Association of Realtors

dotloop

June 20, 2013 | comments

Paul Griffin, Executive Vice President of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors® since 2002, joins us for this edition of our Peoplework Profile series, to discuss the value of dotloop to his association’s members.

Involved in real estate since 1982, Paul has served as a senior manager with the largest provider of MLSproducts and services, responsible for sales and account management in the western states. He then spent 10 years as a nationally recognized management consultant, providing technology guidance to MLSs and associations throughout the U.S. as well as a number of organizational development engagements including business planning, strategic planning, and organization audits.

Take it away, Paul.

Tell me a bit about your background and the Association.

I’ve been Executive Vice President of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors® since 2002. NHARhas been serving the residential and commercial real estate industry throughout the state since 1933. We currently stand at 5,000 members with programs in communications (internal member outreach and external public relations), risk management, professional development and political advocacy. Member services include an annual convention, forms library for listing and selling real estate paired with dotloop for forms delivery, and a legal resource service where members can send inquiries to our legal counsel.

Walk me through your technology offerings before adding dotloop. What other real estate technology tools have you used or offered throughout your career history in addition to dotloop? What necessitated a change?

I have been involved with numerous technologies throughout my career, both directly while employed by an MLS products and services provider and indirectly as a management consultant. Starting in the mid-1990s, I worked with start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas that developed internet-based ecommerce systems, community-oriented systems (the predecessor to social media), web-based conferencing systems, and real estate transaction management systems.

Are there any specific strategies/goals/challenges that your Association faces that you needed to address?

We are continually examining the need to balance the products and services offered at the state level and the local level, as well as what is offered by our real estate brokerage members to ensure we don’t compete and to provide meaningful to value to our members.

What were your reasons for partnering with dotloop?

The technology is spot-on, the people are awesome, and for once, we are offering a technology service that is relevant to the way the world works.

Why and when did you choose dotloop and how does it differ from other real estate technology tools that you’ve offered your members in the past?

We’ve had an ongoing dialog with the folks at dotloop for the past 2 years. They stayed in touch with us, and one day offered us an opportunity to deliver dotloop to our members that we just couldn’t ignore. There are no other technology tools currently available that match the elegance and simplicity offered by dotloop for what they deliver to our members.

How did you come across dotloop? What was your role in the selection process?

I first learned about dotloop on the trade show floor at a NAR-Midyear conference in Washington, DC. I worked with the dotloop account and sales staff to finalize our formal relationship, which started in the fourth quarter of last year.

What feedback have you received from your members?

Our members that use dotloop, love dotloop. We have also heard that their clients love working with them and using dotloop. There has been some pushback, but it’s been primarily smaller offices that don’t have the transaction volume to justify an automated system of any kind.

How has dotloop changed the way you or your members work together with others? What is the impact of dotloop on your business?

I have heard that ease of use and streamlining the transaction process has been a real benefit to our members, and to their clients.

How many agents in your association are using dotloop? How have members responded to using dotloop? Any anecdotes to share?

The most recent figures show that we have over 800 activated users, which is over 22% of provisioned users.

Describe one way that dotloop has surprised you.

Your responsiveness to inquiries is outstanding – the staff is great!

How do you see the future of real estate evolving? How do you see technology, like dotloop, changing the current buying and selling transaction process for agents and buyers?

I believe it will go primarily mobile and that it will happen very fast, with consumers being the catalyst that forces the transition.

What does peoplework mean to you?

Peoplework means humanizing the transaction and letting technology handle the mundane tasks.
Thanks for taking the time to go through your story with us, Paul! You can learn more about the New Hampshire Association of Realtors at www.nhar.org or find them on Twitter.