Proptech Pulse: Monty Smith on Driving Real Estate Tech Adoption

In this episode, listeners will discover how to drive exceptionally high software adoption rates among independent agents without falling into the "shiny penny syndrome." Host Kyle Hunter sits down with Monty Smith, a 34-year industry veteran and Chief Operating Officer of John L. Scott Real Estate, to share operational strategies for regional brands. This conversation reveals how aligning a corporate tech stack with company culture protects broker margins and deepens client trust. 

The discussion explores systematic vetting frameworks for evaluating new software alongside focus groups to avoid passing digital trends. Smith breaks down the critical role of secure email infrastructure in combatting sophisticated, AI-driven phishing scams during active transactions. Additionally, you will see how providing hyper-local market data helps agents calmly cut through sensationalized housing headlines. 

Drawing from his national leadership experience and a master's in human capital management from Columbia University, Smith provides an authoritative operational playbook. As rapid advancements in artificial intelligence reshape the real estate landscape, anchoring your business in relationship-first frameworks is more urgent than ever. Subscribe to PropTech Pulse today and visit our website to master your technology strategy. 

https://www.lwolf.com/podcast

Transcript

Kyle Hunter 

Welcome to the Proptech Pulse podcast. Your inside look at the world of real estate technology. I'm your host, Kyle Hunter, here to guide you through the latest trends, expert insights, and game changing tech shaping the real estate world. This is your go to source for staying ahead of the ever evolving industry. Let's dive in. 

Kyle Hunter 

Hello and thank you for joining Proptech. I'm super excited to have Monty Smith here from John L Scott coming to you live from 1000 Watt Signal in Denver, Colorado. So Monty, thank you for joining today. Tell us a little bit. I know you've been in the real estate industry for a long time. You know, we go back with our coal banker roots with my dad as a broker, and you have in it. 

Kyle Hunter 

But I'd love for you to just explain what got you into real estate. And, you know, tell us a little bit about that journey. Sure. 

Monty Smith 

Well, thank you, Kyle. Very happy to be here. So, you know, I have been in the business is about 34 years as of this last May, which it seems to have gone by in a flash. And I actually started in the business in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, working for at the time, the fourth largest real estate brokerage in the country. 

Monty Smith 

And this was, of course, before all the consolidation, the Bernard organization, with Ralph Bernhardt being the founder and CEO. And I got into the business. It was how so many jobs are found. I had a had a friend of a friend who was connected to the Bernard organization. They were looking for someone with sales and marketing background and love hold it happened. 

Monty Smith 

So it it wasn't a design, but it really worked out well because I love the organization. I love the company culture. Ralph was an exciting, market leading entrepreneur in the real estate industry in so many ways. So it was a it was a wonderful place to grow up in the business. And so it was there for five years while he was still an independent. 

Monty Smith 

And then he sold to at the time it was called NRT. So became part of that. That organization stayed in Minneapolis Saint Paul, working in the Bernard organization for another five years. And then in 2002, I had an incredible opportunity to join the national staff at then NRT to work with their companies across the country. Was in that position for 17 years. 

Monty Smith 

And then, as I put it in 2019, I was on a involuntary paid sabbatical. 

Monty Smith 

And my my position, along with many others, was eliminated. And but now I'm kind of back 

Monty Smith 

to the independent, strong independent organization with John Scott in the Pacific Northwest. So I feel like I've gone a little bit full circle in the industry, but it's been a great experience and had a great opportunity to work with some incredible professionals that at all the steps along the way. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. No, that's it's a great history. You know, I my father was a Coldwell Banker broker as well. So we have that in common back when Sears owned it. And then, you know, we went down the memory lane yesterday. You know, HSF in, you know. 

Monty Smith 

All the. 

Kyle Hunter 

All the stuff anywhere, all the steps. So what would you take from your time at such a large institution like NRT? What kinds of learnings did you take to bring in to a very strong, well-known regional brand like John L Scott? But maybe not, as, you know, not not to scale. 

Monty Smith 

Right. 

Monty Smith 

Well, it's a great question. And one of the advantages of working with one of the national brands, whatever it is, it's time. For me, it was NRT, of course, and we did business in 35 major metropolitan markets. And I think in certainly when I was started in the business in Minnesota. I thought real estate was just the way real estate was done, the way deals were transacted there, the the relationships, how mortgage and title worked with real estate. 

Monty Smith 

You just if you're in one environment, you think that's the way it is everywhere. Well, the years I spent in NRT, working in a national organization taught me very clearly that real estate is indeed a locally driven business. And you you have to respect the customs, the traditions, the knowledge that resides to be or is needed to be successful in each market. 

Monty Smith 

It's just it's different. So I learned that lesson. And even with John Scott being in the Pacific Northwest, we encompass four states. We have primarily Oregon and Washington, but also have a few offices in Northern California as well as offices in Idaho. And how business is done in Spokane is different from how business is done. There's different flavors than Portland or southern Oregon or the Seattle metro. 

Monty Smith 

So it you know, again, some of the learning is with real estate, you always need to go first to local. You need to understand local. We are a business that is successful home by home, kitchen table by kitchen table. And if you try to, if you don't understand that and you try to standardize too much, you try to consolidate too much, you lose touch with a lot of what the essence of this business is. 

Monty Smith 

So I think I learned that on a big scale. But even that lesson, even in the smaller footprint of the Pacific Northwest, is still very relevant. You, you you bring economies of scale where it makes sense, but you also recognize that real estate is a local business. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. No, I mean, it's a great answer. You know, when I travel and I'm in the Pacific Northwest, it's amazing right down the street and seeing so many John Scott signs and just the, you know, the kind of that culture, being local is important and having that. So I want to talk a little bit about something that you did that I'm kind of envious of. 

Kyle Hunter 

I wish I didn't on myself or, you know, still can, I guess. But you went back to, to go and go after a master's degree at Columbia. Tell us a little bit about like, what made you want to do that and then how that translated into taking what you completed their into the real estate business. 

Monty Smith 

so Columbia, along with many other universities, has a is it 20, 25 different master's programs that are a little kind of specialized MBAs? The program that I chose, it just kept resonating with me was what is a master's in human capital management. And it's like, what in the world is that it? It is. If you think about especially the real estate business, what is it? 

Monty Smith 

The core of the real estate business? It's the people. The people, it's the relationships. It's how how do brokerages, you know, effectively educate, motivate and inspire, retain and recruit the sales force, the agents that, you know, affiliate with them and then all of those things. How do we help them communicate effectively in serving their customers? So it's, you know, if you think about human capital management, it's like how learning better, how to effectively work with various types of workforces to to achieve company goals, individual goals, and best serve our customers. 

Monty Smith 

So it really was not a divergence there. It was an incredible experience. It was two years took it, you know, two it was like two classes a week. 

Monty Smith 

But there are so many opportunities out there, and I strongly recommend people to investigate. It doesn't necessarily have to be a full time program. Far from it. There are a lot of programs that are available fully online so that, you know, it's less disruptive to your career than perhaps it used to be. 

Monty Smith 

But it was an incredible experience, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to to take advantage of it. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. 

Kyle Hunter 

No. That's awesome. I mean, I certainly would love to take your advice and go back and do one of those virtual degrees. And who knows, I might do that in, in in the short term, I do have. So so you took that journey, you got your degree, you started out as the growth officer and then moved into operations shortly thereafter at Janelle Scott. 

Kyle Hunter 

You know, that's a lot that's a lot of things that you would have to do on your plate. So maybe talk us through, you know, what all is that involved with your your business. 

Monty Smith 

in more specifically what my role is today and look, becoming CO2 in January of 2023. 

Monty Smith 

You know, talk about timing, because we all know what has happened in our industry over these past three and a half years in terms of overall volume as an industry. But it's basically I see myself as the, you know, is that facilitator, collaborator. We are very flat organization at John L Scott. We tried to be very responsive to our brokers and our field, but also thought leaders in the industry that then can be brought back. 

Monty Smith 

So, you know, I have the joy of working in that with really our sales organizations, both our company owned operations as well as our franchise or affiliate network. I work with the traditional service center, our general counsel, our CFO, our Cito, and then obviously our field leadership. So I really am I get to work with at the intersection of our value proposition and have an incredible team that is really about listening, facilitating and continuing to move our vision forward, which Linux is so incredibly great at verbalizing and sending that message and being out ahead. 

Monty Smith 

And then it's kind of up to the team, including myself, to operationalize that and bring it to our brokers and then for them to bring it to their customers. 

Kyle Hunter 

Enjoying the Proptech Pulse podcast. Don't miss a beat. Hit the subscribe button and stay in the loop with all of our latest episodes. And hey, if you're loving the content, leave us a review! It really helps us grow and reach more real estate pros like you. Also, don't forget to follow us on our social channels. We're sharing tips, trends, and behind the scenes content you won't want to miss. 

Kyle Hunter 

Find us on all the social platforms at Get Off! 

Kyle Hunter 

no. Sounds like you play golf four times a week. Yeah. 

Monty Smith 

Oh yeah. 

Kyle Hunter 

Lots of. 

Monty Smith 

Lots of times. But you know, when you when you're working with great people and doing work you enjoy, it's not work as they say. Right? 

Kyle Hunter 

So, you know, one of the things that I think falls under your purview is rolling out and distributing new tech solutions. And, you know, you use the lone wolf Salesforce solution, for which you've done a lot of advanced enhancing. I had the pleasure of going to your event last year, and I was amazed at the number of agents that absolutely loved it, adopted it. 

Kyle Hunter 

The adoption was so high. And I think in an industry like ours where, you know, if you're getting 20, 30% of adoption, it's like, yay! Okay, great. You know, where you have that adoption at, you know, upwards of I don't want to put a number on it 90%, but very high. Tell me what goes into that. Because we all know how agents can be reluctant to change. 

Kyle Hunter 

So obviously they have to see something in that to be willing to take the dive. 

Monty Smith 

Well, it is always it's a great challenge for all of us, I think, in the real estate industry and especially now in this age of AI, when everything is changing so rapidly. But fortunately, I had had some great experience in my former role at NRT in in working with field and our tech department and rolling out products and services. 

Monty Smith 

But I think part of the secret sauce that John L Scott is there's so much thought around making sure that the tech stack reflects and allows for implementation of the company culture and focus it we we really try to do our very best not to fall into the shiny penny syndrome, which unfortunately, I think all of us in real estate or have been in real estate for a long time, we see too many companies fall victim to. 

Monty Smith 

Right. Oh, this is new. This is new. We need to try this. We need to try this. And so they're always focused on rolling out something new or the latest or the greatest, because that's what some of our brokers expect us to do. 

Monty Smith 

So hopefully we're very thoughtful about rolling out new products and services. We have focus groups internally. You know, we try to roadmap as effectively as possible. But I do think and answer your question, 

Monty Smith 

because it was a surprise to me coming in to the organization a little over five years ago when I joined and I saw, like, for example, the adoption of the company provided email address, which is in excess of 85% of our brokers, both company owned and franchise, who utilizes their primary 

Monty Smith 

email business email address, the John L Scott Domain. I have never seen anything like that in residential real estate. In fact, so many companies have been part of stopped offering email because brokers didn't use it. I think the so I was shocked by this, but in learning it, it's like it does make sense because it's consistent. It's the consistent branding. 

Monty Smith 

It's also, you know, they're in one element of it. It's not the leading factor, but one element of it is with this Microsoft provide where a Microsoft shop. So it's an oh 365 email structure. We do provide a level of security for our brokers in doing business and the things they do via email, but it's just it's you know, we all know it's our brokers and agents choices, but it's just because of this consistency of branding message and the text, the tech stack supporting that and the culture, the usage is there. 

Monty Smith 

So it does. It takes a lot of it's constant, it's reinforcement, it's education, its success stories. And I think but do we approach it first from you cannot just think about rolling out a product. It is about rolling out and ongoing, ever lasting execution. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. And I think, you know, again, culture and bringing that and helping lead brokers agents to see the value and what you're offering. I know we too are 365 because of the security and the compliance. And, you know, I think even today on stage we have coders that are vibe coding something in three days. So if you think about the skill sets that they have and what, you know, today's new age hackers can do, having that security is going to be important. 

Kyle Hunter 

You know. 

Monty Smith 

I couldn't could not agree with you more. We were discussing her. But it's so true. You know, it's 

Monty Smith 

AI is just like any toolset or new technology or new way of thinking. It can be used for good or for ill. And unfortunately, what we're seeing is, you know, the the fishing attempts, the scammers in our industry as well as other industries, of course, the level of their product is has been elevated astronomically with the use of AI. 

Monty Smith 

And so, again, it's not the sexiest thing in the world to talk about when you're talking about tech stacks is your the security of your email. But it's real. And even though texting is of course a common communication and the direct. But we know generally speaking, there is still a lot of real estate business, even especially within a transaction once a purchase agreement is signed before closing, a lot of it does take place via email. 

Monty Smith 

So to have a relatively safe and secure haven to be able to interact with your customers, it's important. Yeah. It's important. 

Kyle Hunter 

Absolutely. I think that, you know, having security and building all the tools that you have has really, you know, brought a lot to John Scott as a whole. But I want to pivot a little bit to the actual location. So, you know, you hear a lot of noise. And I'm in Florida, you know, you're in Seattle and it seems like there's always some sort of news articles about things that are going on in the housing market. 

Kyle Hunter 

And because I'm in the industry, I tend to read through it and say, I don't know, is that really what's going on? And you start looking at the data and it doesn't always reflect what the media and some areas are reporting or what's really going on. Tell me, do you experience that and how do you combat that with your both your, your brokers, but also how they are pushing that information to their buyers and sellers and their customer base to combat that? 

Monty Smith 

Yeah, it's a great question. It's not only 

Monty Smith 

about things happening in your in our specific markets. For us, our primary metropolitan areas of Seattle, Portland, Spokane and then obviously a lot of other areas within our footprint as well. So you have to deal with that noise. But let's face it, we've had a lot of noise in our industry that has attracted, unfortunately, some not terribly positive headlines. 

Monty Smith 

You know, the class from class action lawsuits to recently, the spate of all of the mergers and acquisitions and industry consolidation. All of this, along with the local specific news, does create a lot of noise. And we really focus on trying to have an outlook and education and communication with, again, our office leadership as well as our brokers, and then hopefully them with their customers, as we call it, to kind of cut through the noise. 

Monty Smith 

so we provide area specific data that hopefully can help our brokers easily, easily understandable data cut through the noise of the headlines. 

Monty Smith 

And as we always say, talk repeatedly to our brokers. Just like look, our clients look to us to help them understand, help them interpret and help them cut through the noise to what's important, what's going on in the marketplace, and then customizing it to what's important to them and their real estate transaction wherever they are selling, buying or both. 

Monty Smith 

But it's it's challenging. And we all know press. We know what type of headlines, 

Monty Smith 

sell papers or get views and and interest and generate stories. And that is what it is. But we just need to calmly, rationally provide good information, hopefully data based information to your brokers to allow them to have those, those meaningful conversations with their with their clients. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah, I think it's fitting. I mean, we're here at 1000 watt signal signal and cutting through the noise is really kind of the theme. And so it's understanding your market and using data to your point. And I think you obviously do a really good job of that. Monte last question. Where is General Scott going in the next 12 months? 

Monty Smith 

Well, we get that a lot because we are we are kind of one of the, you know, we're we're privately held independents now. We are active in the leading our organization, actually a founding member of leading Re. So we are part of a national network, but we are a regional independent and very proud to be so. And certainly continuing on that track, we you know, we feel like with the history, you know, it's all about the it's the history in the region is important. 

Monty Smith 

But we're really and this is our 95th anniversary by the way, this year. So we're coming up on 100 anniversary here in 2031. But our talk track and is really more around where we're going. You know, it's certainly respectful of where we have been and our roots in the Pacific Northwest. But where are we going. And it is we are doubling down on whether it's with AI tools, with tech tools, whether it's whatever it is. 

Monty Smith 

Ultimately, real estate is about ongoing value added relationships with your clients and prospective clients and referral sources. That's always been the case. I don't see anything changing around that. It's just a matter of making sure we're bringing the new tools in an appropriate way to support that foundation. And so, yes, we do have actively implemented some AI solutions, both some consumer facing, some broker facing. 

Monty Smith 

We are analyzing and looking at bringing more, but not just for the sake of bringing AI. It's you know, again, as we talked about our tech stack, it's AI that an AI enabled tools or maybe AI based tools that are in support of our culture, our business approach and our ethos, which is all about supporting our brokers and their relationships with their customers. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. And I think, you know, the one theme that I continue to hear and whether it's people I'm talking to or interviews, is the relationship is the center. And that's between brokers and their consumers, owners and their agents and brokers. So really keeping that relationship front and center. And I think you summed it up well. 

Monty Smith 

Well, it's a there's so many pundits in the industry that have said it so much more eloquently than I could, but it is if you have relationships at the heart of your organization versus chasing transactions, and you you live by that, you're probably going to do okay. 

Kyle Hunter 

Monte Smith, thank you for joining today. 

Monty Smith 

And. Really appreciate it. Greatly enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you. 

Kyle Hunter 

Thanks for tuning in to the Prop Tech Pulse podcast. Looking to take your real estate game to the next level? Check out our cutting edge tools. Visit Al wolf.com to learn more and see how we can help you succeed. I'm your host, Kyle Hunter, and I'll catch you next time as we continue exploring the future of real estate together. 

Kyle Hunter 

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and stay connected. Until then, keep innovating and thriving in the world of real estate.