The real estate industry is full of conferences, but the one I circle on my calendar every year is the CoreLogic Clareity Conference, a sold-out event in Scottsdale, Ariz. during Feb. 26-28. Founded more than 20 years ago by legendary real estate consultants Gregg Larson and his partner Matt Cohen, Clareity repeatedly delivers a forum whereby the best industry leaders and innovators share ideas and best practices.
Clareity24 released its agenda, and it looks to be another remarkably well-curated collection of sessions. There was some concern that the event would take a turn for the worse when CoreLogic acquired Clareity in 2017, but that did not happen. The sold-out event continues to include all vendors who play a role in delivering the services that MLSs depend upon to successfully power professionals serving the home buying and selling consumer.
The Welcome Reception is sponsored by ShowingTime+ on Monday, Feb. 26. Attendees arriving early can join colleagues for golf, a boat cruise, or indoor kart racing.
Day 1
The conference officially gets underway early on Tuesday with the now-famous “Technology & Real Estate Trends” update by Gregg Larson. Each year, Larson reaches outside the industry to find the most interesting emerging technologies and trends that have potential to change the real estate industry. Gregg has consistently identified emerging trends well before they make an impact. A few years ago, he provided data showing how Wall Street was entering the single-family home market, converting new home stock into rentals. Today, investors are purchasing 1 in 5 homes.
Gregg’s presentation is followed by the leading legal advisor to MLSs, Mitch Skinner from the firm Larson Skinner. Joining Mitch are Claude Szyfer and Ed Zorn, who will have an open and candid discussion about the legal environment facing MLSs today.
The late morning sessions begin with Mitch Robinson of startup publisher Real Estate News on the hot topics of the day, followed by Chris Gough and Soham Bhonsle discussing Wall Street trends impacting residential real estate. Realtor.com, a long-standing partner of the National Association of REALTORS®, will provide an update on the portal’s efforts before keynote speaker, Dr. Radhika Dirks, presents a talk on the future of AI.
After lunch, Dr. Mathew Kallumadil will discuss the “Practical Ways to Nurture Innovation” before a Data Sharing session panel with Nicole Jensen, Joseph Szurgyi, Turan Tekin, and Jason Romig.
Monday afternoon continues with Sam DeBord and Chris Haran talking about RESO 2.0 and the work that MLSs must complete to maintain their RESO certification. Getting all 520 MLSs to upgrade their listing distribution services is required by NAR® for Association-affiliated MLSs, but requires proactive planning.
MLS executives from leading system providers – Kevin Hughes, Matty Epstein, Kevin Greene, Scott Quinn, Carlos Grass, and Kelly (Pantis) Robinson – join a panel to discuss the latest innovations by their companies to improve and enhance the systems used by agents and brokers. Then, a discussion with Dan Troup, the new CEO of the Broker Public Portal, follows this session.
The two sessions wrapping up the day include “Recalibrating the NAR/MLS Relationship” with Denee Evans, Tim Dain, Brian Donnellan, and Bob Hale. The nationwide commission litigation has shaken the foundation of the relationship between MLSs and NAR because of the widespread uncertainty around NAR’s value proposition and future viability. The last session of the day will be delivered by industry leader Errol Samuelson on the Zillow portal strategy.
Day 2
Tuesday’s first session is an update on the Realtors Relief Foundation by Michael Hunstad. This non-profit organization is having an impact every year on housing-related relief in the wake of disasters. A session on “Big Data: How Property Insights Power a Healthy Real Estate Ecosystem” follows, with Leonard Kiefer and Michael Toner. Traditionally, there is always an economic update, but this year, Selma Hepp and Skylar Olsen will deliver dual economic updates in a fun setting.
“Cyber Security & Ecosystem Vulnerability Management” will be a great topic featuring James Turgal, Bill Young, and Dave Hicks from Optiv cyber security services. Remember, 2023 was the year where the industry faced crippling downtime from hackers holding MLSs and other firms’ hostage and keeping them offline for weeks at a time. Then Matt Cohen and Rob Tennant will talk about “Contracting for Security.”
The final session is a “Fireside Chat” destined to be one for the ages, featuring five of the most legendary leaders in our industry who are now in retirement – John Mosey, Carl DeMusz, Bud Fogel, David Charron, and Yvette Acuff. Each of these amazing panelists dedicated their professional careers as founding explorers who contributed to the emergence of the MLS from listing books to today’s electronic database applications. I cannot wait to listen to their thoughts on the challenges our industry faces today.
Myself and Kevin Hawkins of the WAV Group will be attending this year’s event. From the very start so many years ago, the Clareity team has graciously welcomed us to this event. Kevin and I will be collaborating on an event recap to memorialize the key takeaways from our perspective. If you would like to meet with us, please reach out to schedule a time during a meal break, coffee break, or cocktail party.
