Why White Label Real Estate Technology Is Changing the Way Agents Close Deals | Michael Walliser

Michael Walliser (00:00)
Really that we are broker owned, broker built. We are designed in order to make you perform better. again, we’re not creating another portal that is branded in our portal’s name. We’re not asking you to drive traffic to yet another site. Everything that we do is completely white labeled. It’s all built in that agent’s name. And so we want you to maintain that trust with your client.

Scott Bursey (01:52)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey. And on today’s show, we’re looking at the future of the industry with a guest that is completely changing the way we think about the transaction process. We’re joined by Michael Walliser of EasyDigz and Carolina Land Experts, an exceptional operator who brings deep expertise to the investment markets. Michael, thanks for joining us today.

Michael Walliser (02:16)
Scott, thank you very much for having us.

Scott Bursey (02:18)
It is just wonderful having you here. And for those of our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us, where did your career begin and what’s your focus now, Michael?

Michael Walliser (02:28)
Sure. My journey actually became started out of a need for housing. I started buying foreclosures before they were cool. And, you know, the first one that I bought had a hole through the floor and, know, you could see straight through the walls, the back of the house. My real estate broker was like, do not do this. Go buy a brand new townhouse. That’s going to be your way forward. And that was in 2004. As we started buying foreclosures, we noticed them start to tick up.

And it gave us an in actually when the market did start to turn because we already had relationships with mortgage servicers, things along those lines, and really started to kind of pivot our business to that investor and institutional side through the downturn from 2008 to 2010. We started doing acquisitions for other investors and then property management on top of those portfolios. And then really by about 2012 started building some of our own rental portfolios.

We did some resale, but we started to see the long-term value and appreciation just in our specific market and started to hold on to some more of those. Over time, we got contacted by ⁓ other institutions looking to acquire and we landed some contracts as a broker doing acquisitions for national level, you know, purchase to rent ⁓ and build to rent communities. And so we did several million dollars in acquisitions for a couple of them.

assisted them in getting resources and service providers in place, and then landed some contracts with the state of North Carolina doing their dispositions. And through this entire period, we kind of just watched what it looked like for an institutional level asset holder in order to transfer properties from a single asset holder into multiple asset holders. And typically when you see two institutions,

Transacting properties, there’s not really that many brokers involved. It’s more of just like attorneys and they write down the asset list on the contract and it’s one and done. However, when you have disparate parties, transacting, you need to be able to customize for everybody’s needs, workflows. know, everyone doesn’t have a system and form to operate in. So we saw what the acquisition side looked like for the state of North Carolina. We started doing dispositions, saw what that disposition side looked like. And in 2018, 2019, we started to say, hey, listen, if we can compile both of these workflows.

into something that’s more consumer centric and was really able to adapt to how people were doing business today is when we started to put it together and then the pandemic happened and that both pushed us back on the back foot because we were kind of nervous and also kind of unleashed a whole torrent of workflows and new capabilities and ways that people were accustomed to working that actually ended up leading to our advantage. And for the past six years, we’ve been strictly focused on building platforms to help agents bring value to their clients and

enhance that client experience.

Scott Bursey (05:49)
Well, I can tell you’re going to bring a ton of value to our discussion today. And Michael, what caught my attention about you is the way you’ve been able to bridge the gap between cutting edge tech and the human side of real estate.

Michael Walliser (06:01)
It’s a difficult one. know, a lot of times real estate is a very personal and relationship based business and it’s kind of a verse to change and it should be because as people work with someone, they’re building that trust relationship. And if that evolves rapidly, you’re having to leverage more on that trust relationship that you have with your clients or your real estate practitioner if you’re the one purchasing. Having worked with a lot of investors, it’s great. If someone buys three or four houses through you, they kind of know the system and it works well. But then how do you do that for the first time person?

and you still need to be able to communicate that same level of trust. And that was one of the core things that we brought in is like, hey, listen, if we can create a centralized space, then instead of continuously asking for your trust with this advent of technology, if we can keep it core, it in an agent’s name, and just maintain that relationship, it makes it easier to adopt new technologies and features because you’re not saying, hey, trust this platform, don’t do that anymore, now trust this one. And it helps a lot kind of bridge that emotional and personal gap.

between what are we trying to do as far as pushing the industry forward and also maintaining a relationship.

Scott Bursey (07:01)
Absolutely, and you do it so well. Michael, what unique element in your technology or your team culture gives EasyDigz ⁓ definitive repeatable advantage when closing deals, in your view?

Michael Walliser (07:13)
One of the key things that happens for us is really that we’ve been able to, because of the systems and tools that we’ve built, you can go out to your customer, set a precedent, say, this is the series of events that’s gonna happen straight out of the gate, and you know and you hit those. And that really reassures people through processes, especially when we’re dealing with government dispositions. There’s a myriad of hurdles and there’s all kinds of loopholes and everything else that we have to go through. Sometimes these contracts…

processes are a year long. And so in order to build that customer trust, you have to be able to go into them and say, exactly when this happens, the next step is, this is roughly how long you’ll be waiting. Exactly the next step is. And by building a core system that’s kind of synchronized around your entire workflow, they know where to go to find out. They know who to contact. They know who to update. And they’re not left just kind of like searching for that person’s phone number and giving them a call to find out what’s going on. And I think kind of just building that

synchronous environment that allows people to know what’s happening next and then hit those metrics has really helped us a lot.

Scott Bursey (08:11)
That was a masterful breakdown. And Michael, given your operational focus, what is the single biggest bottleneck in your current acquisition pipeline that you’re still working to solve, even with new technology?

Michael Walliser (08:24)
So if we speak over the past 18 months, probably it is the heated inventory market. We’re coming out of the pandemic. We’re seeing a lot of changes. If we consolidate that into the past 60 to 90 days, it really starts to be people being unsure about where the market is going. So you have sellers that are a little trepidatious about lowering the price too much ahead of the market. And then you also have buyers

who think that the sky is falling right now and they can price under everything. And so to be an intermediary to try and acquire properties right now is a little bit of a sticky space and that’s just market dynamics. We try and utilize a lot of our own equity for a lot of acquisitions. So we’re not running into many financing, but it’s more so just finding the right deals and how we fit in.

Scott Bursey (09:07)
And this is the million dollar question that our listeners want to know. With the rapid evolution of AI, where do you see the greatest near term opportunity for EasyDigz to deploy new technology? Not just for lead qualification, but to personalize the seller experience.

Michael Walliser (09:58)
One of the ways that we really try and enhance the seller experience, if I caught that question correctly, is again, just by being able to set precedents for what’s happening and so they know right out of the gate exactly what they’re paying for. One of the things that we’ve seen, you know, post a lot of the 2025 lawsuits and agreements is that we have, you know, we have to as a broker, as a licensed broker, be able to state our value to our clients.

and we have to be able to set that precedent of what they should be expecting can happen. And without having that personal face-to-face, it makes it a little bit more difficult and also, at least in North Carolina, now we have to a lot of times have agreements signed to work with someone before we ever show them a house. So how do you present that value to someone and go in and say, I’m willing to work with you and I’m willing to show that, you know, to act on your behalf?

without saying I’ve also invested in my business. I’m doing these things to make sure that you know where our source of communication is, that I am reinvesting in myself, my technology data set, to make sure that you know that you’re getting the best possible services moving forward. And that really is it.

Scott Bursey (11:02)
Let’s touch on leads for just a little bit. Given the current market environment, what is the single most efficient and budget friendly channel you rely on for consistently generating highly motivated leads?

Michael Walliser (11:15)
it’s going to be sphere of influence. know that sounds a little bit, you know, it’s a little bit played out. However, if you look at it historically, interesting thing is even the NAR says that like 85 % of people say they would absolutely use their broker again. And that same goes with everybody in the real estate business. People would do it. The issue is, is we don’t stay in touch. We don’t continuously state value. We don’t continuously bring value. And inadvertently, only 20 % of people end up going with that same person again. So by continuously being

At a place in the market where you’re able to say, hey, we’re here, we’re happy to help, we can bring value continuously even when we’re not getting something from you, our sphere has just again proven to be the source of a lot of our work.

Scott Bursey (11:53)
Focusing marketing dollars on proven, efficient channels is the fastest way to be profitable and to scale.

Michael Walliser (12:01)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. If you can find those channels that are working for you and just reinvest into it and make sure that you’re gathering the metrics. I know there was one point in time that I was contacted by a marketer that was like, Hey, you know, we promised we’re going to the, you’ll get leads out of this. And it was like $2,000 a month. And in my mind, I went through, looked at all my spreadsheets and I was like, listen, here’s the guy. Here’s the deal. I’ve spent over $35,000 getting leads that like have not turned into nothing. Like I’ve spent $35,000 on leads that have gone nowhere.

So how do I know that this resource is the one that’s gonna get me anywhere? And so if you can locate that channel and continuously just hit it and just feed back in that network, it’s huge.

Scott Bursey (12:37)
Absolutely. Great breakdown on that as well. And Michael, from an operational standpoint, if you were restricted to monitoring just one key metric weekly to gauge the health of your overall acquisition pipeline, what metric provides the most immediate visibility?

Michael Walliser (13:34)
⁓ That really is going to be looking at your funnel. How many items do you have coming in at the top of it? And I know so often people look at their pipeline as just the next deal that they have closing. And it really should be, how many people are you talking to on a daily basis that have something going on? Are you maintaining a relationship with any of your service providers? The number of times that we’ve had home inspectors show up and just be like, hey, this thing’s a pile of trash. This agent wants me to look at it before they list it. And like, it’s not going anywhere or whatever that is.

All of those things can happen. maintain your relationship, continuously reach out, bring value to your sphere around you. yeah, again and again, it’s proven to be worthwhile.

Scott Bursey (14:08)
Absolutely, the right metric provides immediate operational visibility. Measuring that truly matters, not just activity, you know, through disciplined performance. And I gotta ask you this, what key takeaway would you like our audience to know about your operation?

Michael Walliser (14:25)
Really that we are broker owned, broker built. We are designed in order to make you perform better. again, we’re not creating another portal that is branded in our portal’s name. We’re not asking you to drive traffic to yet another site. Everything that we do is completely white labeled. It’s all built in that agent’s name. And so we want you to maintain that trust with your client. We just want to be the platform that you utilize in order to build that relationship.

Scott Bursey (14:50)
That is awesome. And if somebody wants to reach out, follow your journey, perhaps collaborate with you. What’s the best way for them to reach you, Michael?

Michael Walliser (14:58)
⁓ All of our socials if you’re interested in fun real estate based memes feel free to check out our Instagram We publish a bunch of funny stuff tends to be a bit more light-hearted a lot of our business stuff is on LinkedIn We do some Facebook marketing as well as well as easydigz.com if you go in there We’ve got blogs that are updates about all of the current market situations. We provide you know we do regular Out you know market outlooks everything else we publish all of that on LinkedIn as well

Scott Bursey (15:23)
Awesome. Michael Walliser, everybody. Michael, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Michael Walliser (15:28)
Scott, sincerely appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (15:29)
And for our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value out of today’s episode, please subscribe. We have more conversations coming up with exceptional operators, just like Michael. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.