Proptech Pulse: Lauren Henss on Modernizing Brokerage Strategy

Listeners will discover how modern real estate brokerages can boost agent technology adoption, execute strategic cross-market alliances, and build flexible proptech ecosystems. Host Kyle Hunter welcomes Lauren Henss, Inman Advisory Board member and VP of Marketing & Strategic Initiatives at First Team Real Estate, to explore the future of brokerage strategy. Together, they outline a practical roadmap for shifting from legacy self-promotion to empowering agents as trusted client advisors. 

The conversation highlights First Team’s bi-coastal partnership with Brown Harris Stevens, illustrating how strategic collaboration delivers expanded listing reach without forced corporate consolidation. Lauren also details how engaging top producers through pilot focus groups eliminates tech fatigue and drives organic software adoption. Furthermore, she outlines how customized career pathways allow agents to build scalable, sellable business assets. 

With deep executive experience across global consumer brands and real estate leaders like Compass, Lauren provides authoritative guidance for navigating rapid industry consolidation. In today's trust-driven economy, her insights offer timely strategies for brokerage leaders seeking agility and sustainable growth. 

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 

Everyone, thank you for joining Proptech poets. I'm very happy to have Lauren Henss with us today. Lauren, hi. Thank you for joining. 

Lauren Henss 

Thank you for being here. Glad to be here. 

Kyle Hunter 

Oh good deal. We're coming in live from 1000 watt signal, where we're learning all the marketing and all the new cool stuff from the leaders of the industry. Yeah. And so, Lauren, I'd love to start out with, you know, you've been in places outside of real estate, you know, to say the least. Some very large companies. What made that transition to real estate and what kind of things did you bring, you know, through that transition? 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah, 

Lauren Henss 

I think like the difference when when I look at it, I've always been on the intersection of marketing, human behavior and technology. So every single thing that I've aligned has transitioned to me now. So to be able to have it and be the best, best of both worlds from brokerage and technology is something that I have always loved. 

Lauren Henss 

So coming here, it was having the marketing point of view from large consumer brands as well, right? But also working on the real estate side. So being able to analyze what is the ultimate things that are important to that consumer and basically architect that journey from every single brand experience that they have at the brokerage. Right. And your brand is the sum total of experiences one has for you. 

Lauren Henss 

So what you do is you literally take that and you take that life cycle and you apply it to the agent. So obviously we have our behind the agent thing, which is what we do. But you do it both ways. So not only are you doing it for the consumer, you're also doing it for the agent. And that gives me an outside perspective from big brands that are working, that are evolving and constantly innovating. 

Lauren Henss 

And so it never stops. 

Kyle Hunter 

So you're able to translate really your past learnings where you did work directly with the consumer to really giving that to your agents, which are your customers, obviously your buyers and sellers, but really all throughout that process. 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah. And then also in addition to that, from that business acumen standpoint, tie that to the overall growth of the company. And what are the growth goals of the company? 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. 

Kyle Hunter 

So there's been a lot of announcements recently. And you know, I know that you've been around a long time and have a very large brokerage 2200 agents now, something like that. But yeah. Tell us a little bit about, you know, where since you've been there, like what you guys have done. I know one that hit the wire was the Brown Hair Stevens partnership. 

Kyle Hunter 

Tell me a little bit about how you guys got there. 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah. So for Brown, Harris Stevens, they are an incredible independent brokerage obviously on the East Coast. And I've admired their marketing. I've admired who they are as a company. And we have a lot of similarities in terms of our core values, how we market, how 

Lauren Henss 

we put really value the agent and put them in our entire circle of what we do. 

Lauren Henss 

And it met out of a great conversation with Matt Leone, who we talked about, and we had been following each other for a while, as well as Jared, Anton. And we just we just talked and we're like, wait, we have a lot of similar values and growth goals and I think that's important. Do you are you on the same growth trajectory together and can you when you're evaluating a partnership, do you make each other better. 

Lauren Henss 

Right. Do you take each other to the next level. And when I met with him we just absolutely clicked. And we're like, this can actually be something really great because I think everybody right now is consolidating, right? Which we talked about. And I don't think you need to do that. I think you can have I think there are other options out there to have the best of both worlds for the agents, for the consumers and collaborate versus consolidate and still giving that freedom of choice. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah, 100%. I you know, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jared Anton for actually a podcast. And he was just delightful to talk through. And and he gave some really great feedback on how he works with agents. And I think it translates to building that market and then having a market like New York and Southern California, while there's differences, a lot of 

Kyle Hunter 

similarities. 

Lauren Henss 

There's a lot of similarities and there's a lot of our feeder markets and secondary markets, which is perfect. So when they get like double the coverage in terms of marketing power that they have, that is an opportunity and luxury events and opportunities for their listings to be featured and highlighted in different ways, and them as the agent, as a brand, that's unheard of, right? 

Lauren Henss 

And to be able to do that seamlessly, I think, is an advantage for both of us, as well as the consumer and the agent. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. So turning back to you for a minute, I know that you were with compass. You help grow that brand obviously. Toll brothers, others. What kinds of things did you take from learnings there to your position now at First Team? 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah, 

Lauren Henss 

I think from me is you have to really be like, you have to be a take a luxury brand. Well, not a luxury brand. I would say a legacy brand. So a legacy brand is known. Everybody knows who you are. And I think you have to balance. And this is a big thing of marketing. I do not care who you are. 

Lauren Henss 

It is what it's in it for me. Why is it relevant and why should I trust you? We're in a trust economy right now, and I think it's important that when you're moving from a luxury brand, because you have both things to straddle, you have the brokerage brand and you have the agent brand. And some people say you have to do one or the other. 

Lauren Henss 

You actually have to do both. But what happened is, is it's taking it from the brokerage brand, from a legacy brand that is absolutely known, good brand, but taking it to where it is trusted and it's understood, and you have people wait for you, right. And they admire that. And then also at the same time being behind the agents, the agent is in the ambassador of who you are, because a lot of times brokerages are like, look at me, look at me. 

Lauren Henss 

They're not buying because I'm first team. They're not buying from the agent because their first team, now they want a quality brand, of course, but they don't care. If I've been in business for 50 years, a person who's buying from, you know, an agent doesn't care. My job is to make it obviously a great modernized brokerage where they want to be, and I'm the brand that powers them. 

Lauren Henss 

We are. But also at the same time, I turn those agents into advisors because advisors are the ones that are going to win. So anything that I can do to do that, I'm going to do it. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. You know, that really resonates with with our industry and Lone Wolf. Lone Wolf is a legacy brand. We've been around 35 years, and so there is a bit of stability there. But you got to continue to remake and and stay in front. 

Lauren Henss 

You've got to remake and you can't be everything to everybody. And that's one thing that 

Lauren Henss 

everybody like asked me on podcasts. They're like, I believe in attracting the few and repelling the money, and that's the way I am. And because I want agents that I often say this, I don't want brand renters who just hang their license and don't be there. 

Lauren Henss 

I want ones that are innovative. I want ones that are passionate. I want ones that believe in teamwork, and I want ones that grow. We build career paths, so that's who I want. I want that hunger. I want those good people full of integrity with that match our values. 

Kyle Hunter 

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Kyle Hunter 

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Kyle Hunter 

And so that leads me to the next question. You know, one of the things under your portfolio you mentioned was technology and bringing that and bringing that change. We and the real estate technology space understand that change is hard to agents. A lot of times they have things that they're familiar with and they want to use. Adoption is always something that you it's yeah. 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah. 

Kyle Hunter 

And so I know that when you came on you underwent a lot of changes. I know you guys do use a couple of our products broker metrics being one. But tell me about that transition. I know that you went kind of from one vendor to another vendor. How are you able to bring the agents together and keep them from revolting when it's like, hey, you could do this now, or you bring this change that maybe it's not what everyone wants to happen. 

Lauren Henss 

I think you need to look at you need to look at your agent population, and you need to analyze and you need to first of all, they need to be involved. But it's also you are the experts. At the same time, you need to analyze and cater to the 80%, not the 20% who aren't producing, because sometimes those are the loudest in the room. 

Lauren Henss 

You need to make sure when you're doing that, you need to analyze it from the agent life cycle, because my whole goal is to have them close more deals in less time, and have them be seen as that strategic advisor to their clients. Right? So I'm looking at every interaction that they have per day and analyzing what system does that go through? 

Lauren Henss 

What does that do that if I'm this, am I getting frustrated and mapping out an entire roadmap of what that does? And our team was incredible. Like our head of it, Jim lodges shell everybody, but it's also getting them in. You have to have agents as ambassadors. And so you need to let them try stuff. And BP let me know where it's broken. 

Lauren Henss 

I mean, obviously we have you and I have the tech background. So they may not have that. There's some that do, but not always. But get those small focus groups in and get those ambassadors and champion them, give them incentives. You know what I'm saying? Give them a marketing credit, right. Or whatever, because the agents want to be like other agents that are thriving. 

Lauren Henss 

They're like, I want to be like them. So you give them the power to do that. The other thing is, is you can't keep you can't select products that are just bandaid features. There are too many products out there right now where everybody's launching a new feature. Nobody has asked the agents, is this a feature or the brokerage that you really want before we build the feature? 

Lauren Henss 

And I think what's going to happen is there's going to be less tech, more in terms of things that offer the entire experience, but it's going to be better. Yeah. And I'm also I also think you're going to see more partnerships of Best of Breed, where different prop tests are going to come together and be like, hey, I'm better with you, and we're going to bundle. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah, it's almost like you read what Lone Wolf is. Our direction is yes. 

Lauren Henss 

I did. By the way. But yeah, because it is you know, it is. 

Kyle Hunter 

You. 

Lauren Henss 

Know. 

Lauren Henss 

One ecosystem and I think that's what they want because they, I think that is the future. And it needs to be since everything is moving so fast. 

Kyle Hunter 

Well, and being able to, you know, to your point, when you're bringing change to agents, it needs to be seamless. You do have to have a little bit of push and pull with them. But yes, you are the brokerage and you have a direction and you've made a strategic decision to change the technology. You feel it's going to be the best for them. 

Kyle Hunter 

But to from lone wolf perspective, we feel that we should be open. To your point. I think you mentioned making a change from a provider that maybe was a closed minded. 

Lauren Henss 

Or closed closed. 

Kyle Hunter 

Off and didn't want to connect and made a choice that you felt you wanted to go after the products that that were best fit in their class. And so, you know, we agree, you know, we should be we would love all of our customers to use all of the products. But we understand that there's different needs based on different circumstances. 

Kyle Hunter 

And so having that open API ecosystem is kind of important to to be relevant. And then the other point you brought up is instead of more technology having just better technology, and that's something that we've harped on, which is going to be tricky with AI. I mean, we have folks on stage that are vibe coding. 

Lauren Henss 

I know. Right? So they're going to have six new products by the end of this three. 

Kyle Hunter 

Day show. 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah. 

Lauren Henss 

I think I think the only I think also brokerages are getting and they are 

Lauren Henss 

more tech savvy and they're smarter. So when we're looking for partners, I look for them. I don't look for vendors, I look for strategic partners. I look for ones that are going to help me grow revenue. I look for ones that are going to hit my business goals. 

Lauren Henss 

I look for ones where I get to constantly. I get to be an advisor. I get to build new features with them based off the use cases that I'm seeing. That's what I look for. I want ones who want to have skin in the game as much as I do. And then there are those true partnerships, and I think it needs to move more to that. 

Lauren Henss 

I think some of them are there, but not not everywhere from a provider standpoint currently. And that's like something that is extremely important to me. 

Kyle Hunter 

And I love that. We started restarted our customer advisory board a couple of years ago, and we're now actually in the second year of that. But bringing in our customer advisors to really be part of the building process and, you know, giving direct feedback and being critical, saying, you know what? This does not work. I don't know why you guys are thinking this way, because, you know, we know that having users in early on and not saying, here's what we built, do you like it or not, is important to have that feedback to say, does this resonate because you're going to take the best product folks that have or are tied in and listen, but 

Kyle Hunter 

at the end of the day, it has to be relevant and used. And ironically, we had a user advisory board and there was a couple directions we thought that would be really cool. And it was like, not really, this would be cooler. And so that's the exact type of feedback that I think is helpful. And companies that are doing that, I feel, to your point, have a better hand in what's actually needed 

Kyle Hunter 

in. 

Lauren Henss 

Well, yeah. 

Lauren Henss 

And sometimes you need to optimize that. Sometimes it was a great feature and it no longer it is then you need to build something else. I mean, there's been several times I know that I've been in this field and I'm like, this was a great idea. And then obviously we have different things. We have news, we have consolidation. 

Lauren Henss 

We're like, oh, we need to build something else now, right? And I think it's important. I think the key word for brokerages is agility. 

Kyle Hunter 

Agility. 

Lauren Henss 

Number one being advisor number two being out gyle. Number three being exceptionally curious if they have all three of those things I think agents and brokerages will be successful. 

Kyle Hunter 

Yeah. You know curious I love that because that's one of our. At Lone Wolf. Being curious is super important. Knowing, asking that extra question, doing, figuring out why something's happening the way it is. And, you know, I think it's critical to really any industry and any role that you're playing. I want to wrap on this question to give you a little time on it. 

Kyle Hunter 

I know that I understand that you've recently done an expansion beyond and you have a great leadership team. Tell me a little bit about how you know what went into that decision process and really where you guys are going with that and how that came to fruition. 

Lauren Henss 

Yeah. 

Lauren Henss 

So our leadership team is amazing. We obviously have Anna Bennett, who is our VP of recruitment, and obviously she's fantastic business development. We have Michelle who's our CEO. We have Kaela Pooley who is obviously our general counsel. We also have Leah Hall, who is our broker of record. And then we have me who is marketing strategic initiatives. And the when we did the female leadership team, 

Lauren Henss 

it came about where Michelle was just looking for the best. 

Lauren Henss 

And we all happened to be women like that. 

Lauren Henss 

I mean. 

Lauren Henss 

She will flat out say. 

Lauren Henss 

That and. 

Lauren Henss 

I admire her about that. But what I admire her very much about is she gives us permission. We know what we need to do, and we're allowed to run to hit that goal. 

Lauren Henss 

There is no anything in terms of we know we are all bold, we all know what we want and what lanes we need to operate to get that goal done from an expansion standpoint, Anna is the best in the business at what she does, and she was able to identify these other markets, and we found a lot of interest where we're like, hey, we can really flourish in this market and give an operating model that they don't have. 

Lauren Henss 

And our big thing is to build unique career paths for our agents, right? That's what we do. So we don't sit here and put you in a box and say, you're at this GCI, here's your career path. We will meet with them, three of us and be like, where do you want to go? Where do you want to be in the next five years? 

Lauren Henss 

And we will help you turn that from becoming a team leader to doing a community office, to then having a syllable asset at the end of the day. So we work with you to do that, which is unheard of anywhere else. And having the access to the three of us and actually five of us on a regular basis, and it just took off from there because people are like, hey, I want the individualized, not only career paths, I want to be own my own business. 

Lauren Henss 

I want to have my own brand. I want to have that independence, but I also want to have that firepower to where I know that it's still big enough, but it's still boutique enough. But I still have the innovation that somebody else where I'm not going to be a number. And we did that and it just took off. 

Lauren Henss 

And we luckily have some amazing, amazing teams that have come from recent competitors that are just like, let's go. 

Kyle Hunter 

And so how many states are you in now? 

Lauren Henss 

So we are now in California, Washington, Arizona, in Idaho, and more plans for definitely some more before the end of the year. I can I can. 

Lauren Henss 

say all of us. I can't say all of them. 

Lauren Henss 

But definitely in final conversations now. So yeah. 

Kyle Hunter 

So I did actually have one more question or actually more of an acknowledgment. So congratulations. You are on the Inman Advisory Board. 

Lauren Henss 

Thank you. 

Lauren Henss 

So much. 

Lauren Henss 

I'm excited. I don't know what you guys are doing, but. 

Kyle Hunter 

I know that it's just an absolute all star group. So Matt Fisher from Lone Wolf new CEO is also on it. That's how. 

Lauren Henss 

I know I love it, I love. 

Kyle Hunter 

It, but I think that's going to bring a lot of new energy to in men. And I think it's going to bring, you know, just a broad understanding of the market. So again, congratulations. 

Lauren Henss 

Thank you. 

Kyle Hunter 

It'll be announced. 

Lauren Henss 

Before we leave. I hope I hope it. 

Lauren Henss 

Is too. It'll be fun. 

Lauren Henss 

It'll be great. 

Kyle Hunter 

Well, Lauren, thank you so much for the time today. 

Lauren Henss 

Thank you. 

Lauren Henss 

It's such a pleasure. Loved our conversation. 

Lauren Henss 

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.