LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--REAL Messenger (REAL), the social app for real estate that puts agents back in control of their business, today announced it will be the title sponsor at Inman Connect Las Vegas. The in-person event with an accompanying virtual component will take place August 3–5 at the Aria Resort and Casino. REAL’s co-founders Thomas Ma and Fredrik Eklund will present sessions about the challenges of modern real estate and ways to overcome them, complementing the launch of the REAL app. As a three-day leading event for the residential real estate community, Inman Connect joins thousands of professionals (agents, brokers, executives, tech professionals, financial executives, entrepreneurs and investors) for an exploration into the rapidly evolving real estate industry marketplace.
REAL’s co-founder and chief visionary Fredrik Eklund, founder of Douglas Elliman’s Eklund | Gomes Team and Bravo TV alum (“Million Dollar Listing NY” and “Million Dollar Listing LA”), will lead a session titled “The Social Transformation of the Modern Real Estate Agent” on Wednesday, August 3 at 9:40 a.m. Later in the day, at 12:45 p.m., on the expo stage, REAL’s CEO and co-founder Thomas Ma, a successful Hong Kong entrepreneur with experience in proptech and startups, will discuss “Top Trends The Modern Real Estate Agent Needs to Take Advantage Of.”
In addition to these sessions, REAL will host its launch party on Tuesday, August 2 at Drai’s at The Cromwell Hotel from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. The launch party is the official ICLV welcome party and will be co-hosted by the Eklund | Gomes Team and Society Group PR. On Thursday, August 4, REAL will close out the week with a cocktail party, Cocktails at Connect, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., to celebrate its launch with Inman Connect attendees.
“With Thomas and Fredrik’s well-known successes in the real estate industry, we are excited to welcome REAL as our title sponsor,” said Joe Arendt, VP of Brand Partnerships at Inman. “We recognize how important it is for agents to elevate their presence and stand out in the industry today. REAL is an exciting new way for agents to grow their networks, generate leads, and stay connected with other industry insiders.”
With a key focus of REAL being on community and uniting agents, sellers and buyers in a network to communicate with ease, the company sees Inman Connect as the ideal place to celebrate its launch.
“Inman Connect is known as the prestigious event in real estate and the best event for the industry,” said Thomas Ma, CEO and co-founder of REAL. “We are excited to celebrate the launch of REAL with the brightest minds in real estate and we are excited to share our insights with a group of talented professionals familiar with the challenges that modern proptech platforms present.”
About REAL
REAL is the social app for real estate that puts agents back in control of their business. For the first time, agents can generate free leads without expensive online ads, labor-intensive emails, or extraneous and ineffective cold calls. REAL helps agents build professional relationships online with interested prospects, keeping them connected and enabling the agents and their prospects to engage with one another at any time. They can do this all through REAL’s social platform designed exclusively for real estate. REAL agents curate their feature images, content and chat topics to reflect their expertise and knowledge. When future buyers and sellers browse REAL’s online magazine, they view content curated by agents and follow those whose interests align with their own. REAL was co-founded by Hong Kong real estate entrepreneur Thomas Ma and Fredrik Eklund, co-founder of Douglas Elliman’s Eklund | Gomes Team and former star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing NY & LA.”
About Fredrik Eklund
With record-breaking sales and socks as colorful as his personality, Fredrik Eklund has become an icon in real estate and on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” series, appearing as the only cast member to star in both the New York and Los Angeles versions. Co-founder of The Eklund | Gomes Team, co-founded by John Gomes, the dynamic duo have secured over $15 billion in closed sales over the last decade and have become a staple of New York, California, Texas and Florida real estate. Consistently ranked on industry hot lists, including The Hollywood Reporter Power Brokers and Variety’s Real Estate Elite, Eklund | Gomes continues to sit on the top, bringing in $4.5 billion in sales in 2021 alone. In 2022, they notched the priciest sale of the year for New York at 432 Park Ave., for $70.5 million, and are taking their momentum to Nevada where they are expanding this summer.
About Thomas Ma
Thomas Ma, who hails from one of Hong Kong’s leading real estate developer families, became successful in his own right when he ventured into tech. Ma became an active business leader in proptech and subsequently brought his passion and in-depth understanding of real estate from international waters to the U.S. market. He saw the industry shift toward large proptech platforms, presenting steep financial hurdles for agents and decided to develop a new way for agents to showcase their listings. This led to him co-founding REAL, giving agents back control of their listings to generate leads and maximize their online presence. Prior to launching REAL, Ma created HOJOJO. The rental marketplace and leasing management system helped corporate landlords maintain every aspect of their rental properties — from receiving offers to collecting rent payments. Now, as the CEO of REAL, Ma is leveraging his past learnings to introduce an emerging technology to the U.S. real estate industry.
