The former Global Head of Community at Inman will drive innovation and brand strategy in her new role at REALM to help enrich the member experience.
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Real estate industry veteran Laura Monroe has joined luxury real estate platform REALM as executive director for innovation, the company announced on Wednesday.
Julie Faupel
Monroe began her new position on Tuesday and will lead her first REALM Innovation Summit for the community’s members Oct. 1-2, 2024. In this role, Monroe will drive innovation and brand strategy for the company to help enrich the member experience.
“With Laura Monroe joining the REALM leadership team, our members can look forward to even greater access to industry-leading insights, strategies and connections that will help them continue to excel in their respective markets,” REALM CEO and founder Julie Faupel said in a statement.
“Laura’s reputation for fostering collaboration and innovation within the real estate industry complements REALM’s brand-agnostic approach and commitment to elevating the standards of luxury real estate. Her ability to connect people, ideas and resources will enrich the community, offering members fresh opportunities for growth and partnership.”
Most recently, Monroe served as Inman News’ Global Head of Community, where she grew the company’s network of over 400,000 agents, brokers, executives and thought leaders through marketing and technology.
She told Inman that REALM felt like a very natural transition from her work at Inman, given the similarities in the type of collaborative community the company was seeking to develop.
Laura Monroe
“[REALM was] one of the only other companies that I saw actually making a strategic move into, not just membership, but understanding what that community and sense of belonging means for the people that are part of it, and actually having the members as collaborative and strategic partners and building out the vision for what they want REALM to be,” Monroe said.
“What really clinched it for me was, instead of just talking about real estate all the time and finding ways to bring value to their real estate businesses, they’ve taken a very holistic approach to bringing in strategic partnerships and conversations and niche, internal community meetups around wellness,” Monroe continued. “We have some luxury partnerships that we have shared knowledge in — we have a course development around luxury and what it means to be luxury. So there’s internal initiatives that really drive a holistic approach to the entire luxury lifestyle.”
Monroe has held a number of social media and marketing positions in the past, including launching her own consultancy agency in 2017, Cadence Consulting Agency, and serving as vice president of marketing and strategic development at client feedback platform RealSatisfied for about two years. She also served as a listing and marketing coordinator for a top Bay Area Keller Williams team for nearly a decade.
Monroe expressed her gratitude for the greater Inman community that she has become so close with and helped cultivate over the last few years.
“I don’t think I would have been able to really, truly understand what a privilege working with a community [is] without having such a deep, wonderful connection with the Inman community,” she said. “I have such a huge and deep sense of gratitude.”
In conjunction with Monroe’s onboarding, REALM is launching a series of new offerings to its 550 members across 150 brokerages this fall.
REALM Vista is a tool through which listing agents can give live video tours of off-market properties to other REALM members while protecting clients’ privacy and anonymity. REALM Link is new affinity groups within the REALM network that will allow agents with similar niches — equestrian, health/wellness, luxury developments, etc. — to connect with one another. REALM Empower is an 11-week class led by Équité founder Dr. Daniel Langer, after which agents will receive a certification upon completion.
The company is also launching a WhatsApp for members and strategic partnerships with member brands like Gagineau and Rivian.
Correction: This story was updated after publishing to specify that REALM includes members from 150 different brokerages, and to correct the spelling of Équité, from the previously misspelled Equite.
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