Proptech Pulse: Tech-Enabled Relationships with Laurie Weston Davis

Discover how to balance technology adoption with authentic relationship building in real estate. Laurie Weston Davis, broker-owner of Better Homes & Gardens Lifestyle Property Partners and the original "Geeky Girl," shares nearly 20 years of wisdom on using technology to enhance—not replace—human connections.

🎯 Key Insights:

• The "problem-first" filter for evaluating new technology solutions
• Why technology should inform your outreach, not automate it
• Leading by example to drive successful team technology adoption
• Navigating AI implementation with strategic caution
• The dangers of "drip, poke, and touch" automation in relationship-based businesses

🔑 Essential Quotes: "Our company is 100% relationship based. We don't buy leads... it's about the people and they know you and trust you and love you."

"The best technology is the kind that can let me know who I need to be talking to right now... but they're not going to talk to the person for me necessarily."

"My filter generally is: is it solving a problem that I already have?"

"Don't be transactional. Really build the relationships because they will serve you a lot longer."

🏢 About Laurie Weston Davis: Broker-owner with three offices in North Carolina (Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Banner Elk). Started in 2006, serves on NAR's MLS Issues and Policy Committee. Known as the original "Geeky Girl" for helping agents navigate early social media and digital tools.

📋 Topics Covered:

• Relationship-first business philosophy and "core 10" strategy
• Technology as intelligence vs. automation
• AI adoption best practices and potential pitfalls
• Generational differences in technology acceptance
• Client-centric technology selection criteria
• Simplicity over complexity in tech stack management

💡 Perfect For: Brokers, agents, real estate entrepreneurs, and anyone seeking authentic technology adoption strategies that strengthen rather than replace human relationships.

🎧 PropTech Pulse delivers actionable real estate technology insights in just 20 minutes.

#PropTech #RealEstate #RelationshipBuilding #TechnologyAdoption #AI #RealEstateBroker #AuthenticMarketing #CRM #GeekGirl #BetterHomesAndGardens #ClientRelationships #RealEstateTechnology

https://www.lwolf.com/podcast

Transcript

Kyle Hunter: Hello everyone. Thank you for joining Propt Tech Pulse today. we have a great guest today, Lori Davis with Better Homes and Gardens Lifestyle Property Partners.

Kyle Hunter: And, Lori, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Laurie Weston Davis: Gosh.

Laurie Weston Davis: So, I am a broker owner here at our office in Pinehurst. We have three offices, one Pinehurst, one in Southern Pines, and one up in the mountains of North Carolina in Banner Elk. I started in real estate in 2006, so I'm getting close to that 20 year mark or 19, I've probably held just about every position there is to have in the real estate world. I've been an agent. I've had a team. I'm a broker. I've served on all of the different boards.

Laurie Weston Davis: I was president of our local association and I currently serve on NR's MLS issues and policy committee at the national level, which has been a whole lot of fun. lately. Yeah.

Kyle Hunter: That one's keeping you busy,…

Kyle Hunter: good deal. So, I understand that you also founded the Geeky Girls. tell us a little bit about that.

Laurie Weston Davis: So, that was kind of back when, tech was really just entering the industry, I would say. I started in around 2011ish really getting into more the tech side of real estate.

Laurie Weston Davis: Social media was really coming into play at the time. I got on to Facebook and, Twitter in the very beginning back in the day. And then also, Instagram came along, Pinterest, all the fun things. And there was just a huge explosion of social media primarily in the real estate space. And then…

Kyle Hunter: Mhm. You were the go-to,…

Laurie Weston Davis: then came even more and more tech through the years. But in the very beginning I really became the geeky girl because I knew how to run the copier in the office.

Kyle Hunter: Nothing.

Laurie Weston Davis: Yeah. I wouldn't say I was exceptionally skilled at anything other than I could make the copier do what I was supposed to do and in the very beginning we were building websites. That was when brokerages had individual websites for agents. They still do but you and…

Laurie Weston Davis: agents didn't know how to set them up. So I started helping people set up their websites and then suddenly I was the geeky girl.  So our company is I would say 100% relation

Kyle Hunter: Gotcha. …

Kyle Hunter: so that's cool. So, that really helps lead that technology introduction that you have with the space and understanding what the needs are in the real estate area. so maybe tell us a little bit about your philosophy behind a relationship first approach to technology.

Laurie Weston Davis: relationship based. We don't buy leads. just have never done that. We're a fairly small area. I mean, Pinehurst is a village. and that's where our main office is out of. And just our philosophy since day one has been you, it's a relationship thing. It's about the people and they know you and trust you and love you. And we coach our agents really in the beginning to really focus on their core 10 people that really know them and those are the people who are going to the first name out of their mouth when the discussion comes up about real estate is going to be their name.

Laurie Weston Davis: So it can be clients, it can be family, it can be very close friends, but those are your core relationships that you have to nurture and then you build out from there.  But that has just really been our thing and it's turned out to be pretty successful.

Kyle Hunter: No, and…

Kyle Hunter: it makes sense. real estate is certainly a belly industry and something that keeps the relationship close. obviously your sphere is important and having technology that kind of fits in with relationships and…

00:05:00

Kyle Hunter: and understands how an agent does business and how a brokerage works with their agents and all of those are relationships that have to work.

Laurie Weston Davis: Mhm. Sure.

Kyle Hunter: Even obviously on the competi competing side, as co-ops, you have to work with your competitors. So,

Laurie Weston Davis: 100%. I mean, that's extremely important.

Laurie Weston Davis: And being able to work through anything you have to work through during a transaction and having that solid relationship with other agents is super important.

Kyle Hunter: Yeah, absolutely.

Kyle Hunter: So, I got a question for you. when do you have technology that impedes what you're looking to do and really creates more versus when it actually helps and…

Kyle Hunter: assists. And what's your kind of philosophy on how those work together?

Laurie Weston Davis: …

Laurie Weston Davis: again, I started way back in the day and we went through a lot of iterations of technology coming into the real estate space. there were a lot of things in the early days where the campaigns were you'd get the same email from five different agents kind of thing. they were just very copy and paste kind of stuff. And I think that's probably not a great way to go. And we used to kind of make a joke about don't drip on me, don't poke me, don't touch me. that's not great relationship building, way to do it. So, I think it has to be a more genuine connection. and I think for me, the best technology for that is the kind of technology that can let me know who I need to be talking to right now.

Laurie Weston Davis: that they're not going to talk to the person for me necessarily,…

Kyle Hunter: Mhm. Yeah.

Laurie Weston Davis: but there's going to be key things that the tech can recognize that says, "Hey, this person is somebody you need to be in touch with right now." and that sort of thing. I think that those are the super helpful things from truly relationshipbased business. Mhm. Mhm.

Kyle Hunter: I know over the years there's been lots of CRM and I remember years and years ago before really the internet where there would be top producer was kind of the dominant player for many years and we did many surveys and just asking agents and really understanding what do they use and barely any of them used over 20%.

Kyle Hunter: And that was always the thing, you never really use over. So, you want things that maybe instead of make you busier,…

Kyle Hunter: just make you more effective and have it easier for you to have those relationships and…

Laurie Weston Davis: Mhm. Excuse me.

Kyle Hunter: connect with your clients and, maybe not overkill and, maybe not everything, but enough to really help engage with what you're looking for. so let talk to a little bit about how you do adoption. So when you implement technology it could be the best…

Kyle Hunter: but if your enduser is not actually doing anything with it or using it then it's not going to be effective.

Kyle Hunter: how do you approach that with your agents and also maybe yourself?

Laurie Weston Davis: So I think that is the biggest hurdle of all brokerage and…

Laurie Weston Davis: and associations and anywhere that's trying to get agents to adopt anything even to open an  So, it's always a challenge. So, you're going to have to prove to them why it's going to be helpful. And also, I think it's important to lead by example. if you want them to do it, then you better be doing it as and I think for many years agents were really just inundated with products to try to do and it was overwhelming. So, I try to filter out, for my agents. I get to see all kinds of different things.

Laurie Weston Davis: So, I try to look at things and test them and do them before I implement them with our agents so that they know that at least I think it's going to be really helpful with whatever they're doing and the businesses that they're building. and my filter generally is when I'm first looking at anything is it solving a problem that I already have? do I have this problem and is this piece of technology going to do anything to make this better?

Laurie Weston Davis: Unless it's something really special for some reason, then I'm probably not going to waste a lot of time on that. and that's really my first, …

00:10:00

Kyle Hunter: Yeah. …

Laurie Weston Davis: my first filter. Mhm.

Kyle Hunter: and I think that's great. I mean, you hit on something, doing it yourself, and so I guess that's part of the geek girl, mantra. but doing it yourself and showing and kind of leading by, hey, I'm gonna get in and try this. I know over the years we've had a lot of success with smaller groups, pilot groups that go out and test that that are generally leaders or early adopters and, it kind of goes through the different phases of adoption.

Kyle Hunter: And you have those that get out early and start using it and really take advantage. And then that can help usher in the next group of agents that maybe, were a little bit not stuck in their ways, but h we're not going to be first, but let's make sure it works. and…

Laurie Weston Davis: Nothing. Yeah.

Kyle Hunter: to your point, it has to solve a problem. And you said, there's a lot of noise out there and there's a lot of, new shiny pennies and different things that, agents will sometimes think this is going to be the next great thing, but really is it just taking up their time? Is it making them busier or are they working smarter and actually using it to, create that relationship and help them? so definitely, adoption is key.

Kyle Hunter: Switching gears a little bit. what is the future of the human connection to the digital world?

Kyle Hunter: Meaning, today, we wear technology on our wrists, we have it in our phones, we do these things. Where do you think kind of that next level of technology and how that fits into the real estate space?

Laurie Weston Davis: I mean,…

Laurie Weston Davis: we haven't heard it a million times lately, but obviously is the big gorilla in the room. And …

Kyle Hunter: Oops. Yep.

Laurie Weston Davis: I was in the very beginning, which was not that long ago, I was a little hesitant just because I think people were jumping in a little too fast and could potentially get themselves in trouble using some AI tools. when you're getting it to write a description for a property and you're not super careful reading it back yourself to make sure that it is 100% accurate and you put that out there and there's some terrible mistake in there, you can end up in a lot of trouble.  So, I think, it's a great tool and it's getting better and better every day. And I think as time goes by, it's going to be even more personalized. right now, when I ask a question and I get the answer back, it's kind of sounding like, the tool or whatever.

Laurie Weston Davis: But I would hope eventually as it learns, it can learn more and more from me and what my voice sounds like and…

Laurie Weston Davis: how I speak to people that I can use it to create something that is much more personalized sounding at least. but yeah, I mean I think that's obviously the thing that we're all going to be looking at here in the immediate future.

Kyle Hunter: Yeah. No,…

Kyle Hunter: I'm actually in San Diego for the Kotality event this week.

Kyle Hunter: And it's hard to go 10 minutes without dominating the conversation. and to your point, there's a lot of value in the future and I think that there's a lot of things that are really cool right now that's happening quickly. but also it's not perfect. And I think that taking that advice that …

Laurie Weston Davis: I'm Yeah.

Laurie Weston Davis: Hello. Thanks. Yeah.

Kyle Hunter: you can't just let it go and not double check.

Kyle Hunter: you have to always really understand what's happening just so that you're not going to get in trouble. And so we've seen some mistakes that have came up. but it is powerful. There are a lot of cool things to help you but at the same time it can create a lot of extra noise. So you got to find that balance and understand that.  And I guess speaking of that, what are some takeaways that our agents that are struggling with all of the technology noise and doing things that maybe aren't the core to the real estate business.

Kyle Hunter: How do you coach your agents that maybe are struggling with, balancing that load of how much should they actually go knock on the doors versus have AI script some sort of flows to try to, generate business and how do you manage that?

Laurie Weston Davis: as the geeky girl, I love technology, and one of my favorite things to do is when I'm at one of the big events is to walk the vendor hall and talk to everybody and learn what's new and what's going on. and I guess one of my biggest issues is when I'm talking to someone and they have created this great product, they think, for real estate agents, and yet they have no idea what a real estate agent does.  and you think it's going to work great, but maybe not. So, for I think I tried to tell them to keep it simple. There's no reason you have to use, 20 different products, at, find the things that really help you. and the other piece of it is that are going to help your clients.

00:15:00

Laurie Weston Davis: I mean, that's really the ultimate goal here is if it's going to make the transaction easier for them, if it's going to help you communicate better with them. ultimately the customer is the person that we're trying to satisfy here. So, I think that has to be, a big part of the focus. agents are busy. They should be and they don't have a lot of time. So, keeping things easy, simple, giving them the opportunity to have some training so they don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, I think just obviously, like I said, keep it simple. Figure out what's going to work for you and your clients.

Laurie Weston Davis: Again, you need to be where your clients are. And depending on where you are and what your business is like, what's going to work for you it may be very different is what's going to work for another agent.

Laurie Weston Davis: So, I wouldn't say necessarily if somebody across the country thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread, it might not be for you. take the time to kind of look at things and figure that part out.

Kyle Hunter: Yeah. No,…

Kyle Hunter: that's great advice.

Kyle Hunter: And I know there's a lot of different levels of technology and their knowledge my agent and I won't mention her name, but she's in Tallahassee where I'm from and she's my age. but she is still stuck on doing things the old way and even though she's older and I've pressed her so hard to get on some of the new technology,…

Laurie Weston Davis: What? I don't know.

Kyle Hunter: but she just loves it the old way.

Laurie Weston Davis: Mhm.

Kyle Hunter: And then on the flip side of that, my parents agent, is an older gentleman and he's the top of the tech. He knows exactly what's going on. but with that said, do you find a generational difference? I know I just kind of countered that argument, but is there kind of a balance in…

Laurie Weston Davis: Yeah. Yeah,…

Kyle Hunter: how you manage and deal with the different technologies and the people use it? play

Laurie Weston Davis: 100%. I mean, we're in a market where when I first started in real estate many years ago, a lot of our agents were older. they were retirees that had decided they could sell real estate. And we're resort retirement community in Pinehurst.  So the vast majority of agents back then were definitely older and they didn't like technology and I had several opportunities to teach classes and try to teach them how to do things and people fought it terribly in the beginning but the biggest smile I think I used to get was with somebody that was in one of the classes that I did was like why do I need to do this?

Laurie Weston Davis: And I'd say, You don't. But your friend over here is going to do it. And if that gives them a better connection to this consumer, then that consumer is more likely to use them than they will be to use you." And I had a lot of people kind of that light bulb came on and…

Kyle Hunter: Yeah.  Yeah, absolutely.

Laurie Weston Davis: then once they were willing to give it a try, they got really sucked into it and they liked it,  But we all have that fear of the unknown. But it doesn't matter what your age is. And I'm not young e either So one of my sons is very much into the tech world and he has drugged me kicking and screaming at times into things that I didn't think I wanted to do or know about so much.

Laurie Weston Davis: But, we're all getting there and we're getting to the point where a large number of agents are coming into the business and they're younger and are the digital natives that, we may not be.

Kyle Hunter: Lori, I have one last question for you. What parting advice would you give to agents and brokerages alike how do you thread the need to have that close relationship with the use of technology?

00:20:00

Kyle Hunter: Just overarching, what would you think?

Laurie Weston Davis: I mean,…

Laurie Weston Davis: I think it's just important to find the tool that's going to help you to know I think when you need to be talking to someone. I mean, that's the easy thing and they're out there. and you want to make sure that whatever you're doing is helping you create the genuine conversations with clients and it's not the old drip poke and touch routine. but yeah, we have, the most, I guess, wonderful group of clients that we interact with all of the time. It's not just during the transaction.

Laurie Weston Davis: And that's probably my biggest I guess takeaway is don't be transactional.

Laurie Weston Davis: Really build the relationships because they will serve you a lot longer in a lot deeper way than any of the other kinds of things. So, thanks was gone.

Kyle Hunter: Lori,…

Kyle Hunter: it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me today and, thank you all listening to Prop Tech Pulse. Have a great day.