By: KeyCrew Media
Ask a title rep what they want from agent data, and the answer often sounds like a scoreboard. Which deals did I win? Which did I lose? Who went with a competitor? Mike Simon, founder and CEO of AgentBrief, knows those questions well, and he has a name for the habit behind them: vanity.
“They just get so caught up in vanity or seeing their name in lights or confirming things that they already knew,” Simon said. In his view, that habit costs reps the one thing data should give them, which is a reason to reach out today.
AgentBrief tracks real estate activity 24/7 and alerts title, escrow, insurance, and home warranty professionals when an agent they follow has new business. Some users still come to it looking for something else: confirmation of deals they already closed, with their own name on the transaction. Simon doesn’t see the value in that. “You know you did that deal. You know you won it. You know you lost it. Me telling you that again is not a good use of your time and not a good way to invest in technology,” he said. “What you really should be worried about is, what is the next deal?”
Closed Deals Are a History Lesson
A record of closed transactions shows who an agent worked with last quarter, which deals went to the rep, and which went to a competitor. In Simon’s view, that makes it a history lesson. It can’t tell a rep which listing that agent took this morning.
“They look at data just for history, and they don’t look at data for opportunity,” he said.
The appeal of looking backward is easy to see. Closed deals are concrete, settled, and easy to argue about. Acting on something new means reaching out before anyone knows how it will turn out, and that is less comfortable.
Ask the Data a Different Question
Data answers whatever question a rep brings to it. Ask who won the last deal, and the answer is a scoreboard. Ask what changed today, and the answer is a reason to call.
Simon puts the better question plainly: “You have an opportunity to take data and use it for something productive, proactive,” he said. “What’s new? How can I use what I learned the next time there’s an opportunity for me?”
AgentBrief’s alerts are built around that first question. A rep learns the moment an agent they follow lists a home, changes a listing’s status, schedules an open house, or closes a deal, and each alert arrives with an AI-crafted message, so what’s new comes with a reason to reach out.
The second half of Simon’s question matters too. What a rep has learned from past deals still has a job to do.
Where Past Transactions Still Earn Their Place
None of this makes an agent’s track record useless. Simon is clear that it has a role, as long as it isn’t the whole job. “I have no issue with you using historical data to educate yourself,” he said. “But historical data does not provide opportunities.”
Used well, that record is preparation. Knowing how many transactions an agent closed, which vendors they lean on, and what they may like or dislike about them helps a rep anticipate objections. That is the purpose of AgentBrief’s Vendor Diversity Index, which shows which vendors an agent tends to work with. In Simon’s words, this kind of information “is good for objection handling or to create a more valuable presentation when you’re trying to sell your product because you know what this person is used to doing.”
The test is what the information gets used for. If an agent’s track record makes the next conversation sharper, it is doing its job. If it replaces the next conversation, it isn’t.
What Asking “What’s Next” Looks Like
Simon’s favorite example is a title rep who leaned on open house alerts instead of new listing alerts. He’s careful to say it wasn’t the textbook way to use the platform, but it shows exactly the shift he’s describing.
She would choose the agents she wanted to build relationships with and watch for their open houses. Then she’d stop by with a small gift bag of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, two things open houses seem to run out of. She’d introduce herself, say she wanted to support the open house, drop off the bag, and leave. No pitch.
Those visits turned into relationships because she showed up at the right moment with something useful and memorable. “We weren’t built to deliver toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but we were built to give that user knowledge that at this moment in time, this agent probably needs toilet paper and hand sanitizer,” Simon said.
An agent’s closed deals couldn’t have told her when to show up. An open house alert could. The same holds whether a rep sells title and escrow services, homeowners insurance, or home warranties. None of them will win the next agent by proving they won the last one.
The questions worth asking each morning aren’t about whose name is on the last deal. They’re about who just listed, who is hosting an open house this weekend, and what would make that agent remember you.
About AgentBrief
AgentBrief tracks real estate activity 24/7 and delivers real-time alerts, production data, and AI-crafted messages that help title, escrow, mortgage, insurance, and home warranty professionals reach real estate agents at the right moment, with the right context.
Disclaimer: This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.
