Full transcript: Simon Berglund — Reapit: turning four major platforms into one connected system

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This is an automated transcript of the episode, lightly edited for readability. Please excuse any errors.

Simon Berglund: Thank you, Kylie. It's good to be here.

Kylie Davis: Um, so Simon, look, I'm honored that you've joined us. You're the new CEO of Reapit?

Simon Berglund: Uh, not quite. I wish. I'm the general manager for Australia and New Zealand, but I have aspirations for more.

Kylie Davis: Okay, fantastic. Okay. And, and so tell us a little bit about... Well, well, k- tell us a little bit about your background. How, how have you come to be at Reapit?

Simon Berglund: Yeah. Interestingly, I'm actually a scientist by original career and qualification, but I realized that I was too gregarious for, uh, for locking myself in a laboratory all day. So I made my way into medical sales and then over many, many years progressed through the sales and marketing function into being a managing director and general manager type, uh, type individual and in a, in this case, in a PropTech company.

Kylie Davis: Okay. And so you've come across from a risk and compliance platform previously, haven't you? Or tell us-

Simon Berglund: I have

Kylie Davis: ... a little bit about what that involved.

Simon Berglund: Yes, it was a very similar operating environment. It was a collection of companies and/or products that had been purchased by private equity with a goal to creating a singular connected platform, um, for, for its target audience, uh, which is exactly what Reapit is doing for real estate agents. Hence, my experience in how to actually get that done, uh, is, uh, is proving to be, uh, helpful in my role here.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, I bet. Um, and look, I bet it's especially, it's especially gonna be helpful this year with AML and compliance being such a big part of the PropTech or part of PropTech and the property ecosystem as we go into Tranche Two. Um, what, what are the specific, um... Tell us a little bit about the background of, of Reapit because it's a conglomeration of a lot of different businesses that have come together over the last couple of years. Where, what, what does the company look like from where you're sitting now?

Simon Berglund: It, it is... You're, you're absolutely right. It has, uh, it has, um, grown through acquisition. Uh, Reapit is a UK-based company, and we acquired the businesses in Australia, uh, that were, uh, for instance, Console, uh, Agentbox, Agentpoint, uh, IRE. Um, and, uh, as I said, um, you know, uh, aggregating, amalgamating, integrating those individual products to be modules upon a platform, uh, where the platform itself has its own functionality such as artificial intelligence and, and, and AML as you, uh, as you point out, business intelligence, et cetera. So it's, uh, it's a very similar environment.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. And how long have you been in the chair now?

Simon Berglund: Oh, six months.

Kylie Davis: Okay.

Simon Berglund: I just got my, uh, probationary, uh, "you successfully passed it" letter, uh, yesterday.

Kylie Davis: Oh, well done. Congratulations.

Simon Berglund: I know.

Kylie Davis: Good, good to know you're st- you're sticking around. Um, so, so bringing together disparate, you know, like bringing together different acquisitions, everyone's sitting usually on a different, you know, uh, tech stack. There's a lot of work that goes into to bringing, um, companies, different PropTechs together.

Simon Berglund: Yeah.

Kylie Davis: How far... And, and then making them one coherent, um, platform like you, like you outlined. How far in the journey is Reapit down that path? There's al-

Simon Berglund: Yeah

Kylie Davis: ... and there's a lot to do. I understand that too.

Simon Berglund: There, there's... Well, I, I think there's always more to do, right? But yeah, you're right. It is very complicated. Uh, it is a classic private equity play in the technology space, uh, and it's a modus operandi of, of that kind of, um- A B2B SaaS, uh, uh, private equity-focused organization. Um, but it, but yes, it is very complicated because you're dealing with products that were fundamentally, uh, de- developed over a long period of time by different organizations with different cultures, different approaches to the, uh, coding, uh, strategies and the like. So it is very complicated. Any entity that seeks to take on that obligation has, has bought itself a, a body of work for a, a number of years. Uh, we are well into it now. We, we s- certainly are in a position to now provide all of the individual products which are now referred to as modules atop the platform layer. So that's the CRM, the website management, the property management, leasing management, uh, utilities, and, uh, services acquisition, et cetera. They now sit on the platform, and the platform itself has its own functionality, as I said before, around shared services that you would use across all of those modules. Uh, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, automation, workflows, that sort of thing. Third-party integration, uh, to applications that are not ours as well is an important part of the platform. So, you know, we're, we're, uh, well o- on that journey. It's now available as a singular platform, but there is always more to do, and, uh, our product team is very, very busy.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, I can imagine. So, so what are the uniting... Or what, what are the, what's the vision and the values that Reapit have now that you've all come together and that you're lead-

Simon Berglund: Well, look, I mean, I, I... The, the vision is, is, um, uh, as you would expect, right? It's that, you know, w- we seek to help real estate agents run their entire business on one connected platform so that they can run their business more effectively, more efficiently, deliver be- better experience to their clients, which can be qui- quite diverse, right? They can be homeowners, they can be tenants, they can be investors. Uh, and they have to be able to do that, uh, also compliantly, as you mentioned, with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing coming into play. So, uh, th- that is our, essentially our vision o- of helping them run their businesses more effectively, and that sort of washes out into three main focuses. We help them manage what they've got, we help them grow what they've got, and then we help them monitor and, uh, ensure the, uh, health and compliance of the company itself, of the asset that they as, uh, business owners are building, uh, in order for them to, you know, one day retire and sell their business or, uh, or, or, um, integrate with another business. So, uh, we, we have a very clear focus on the business outcomes for our customers rather than individual module, you know, functionality, so to speak.

Kylie Davis: Right. Okay, okay. That, that's really interesting. And, and do you, do you have, um, gaps that you're looking to fill in terms of functionality? Like, um, you know, private equity companies are usually always on the lookout for the next, for the next acquisition. Are there things in market that you're... Or, or, you know, functionality in market that you're looking at bringing in or, or are you building it yourself? I mean-

Simon Berglund: No, absolutely. So it's, it's a combination. It's the classic build by, uh, question. But yes, we, we continue to look at opportunities to enhance the capability of the platform, whether it be via the acquisition of another application, uh, and/or company, or we, um, integrate it via our integration layer in the platform, uh, to a third-party application. And we have, uh, many relationships with third-party technology houses where we use their, uh, uh, technology integrated into the platform. So the, the owners, our private equity owners are very active in making sure that we fill any gaps that, uh, need to be filled. And I think it's probably fair to say that any platform company that says that there are no gaps in their platform is probably being a little bit dishonest with itself. So there are gaps, and we will continue to fill them.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. That, that... Well, this is why we've all got job security, right? There's always... There is, like we talked about, there's always this next thing to do. You mentioned integrations, and integrations are a bit of a hot potato, I guess, in the real estate and the prop tech space because you could spend your whole life integrating and, and your entire tech budget, I imagine, integrating with everyone that's already out there. How do you... And, and I imagine there's a lot of, um, there's a long queue, uh, for people to integrate with, with Reapit and, and your different platforms. How, how do you manage that?

Simon Berglund: It's a great question. It's a great strategic question, actually. Um, um, may- maybe I should, um, talk to you about a job. Um, i- it's, it's a good question because there are two ways to approach integration with third parties. You can either provide an integration environment and then whoever turns up just, uh, allow them to integrate, or you do it in a predetermined, uh, planned way where you, as we were talking about before, you identify gaps in your platform functionality and you go and specifically approach certain technology, uh, potential third-party partners and work with them to integrate their technology into yours, right? So there's, there's two approaches. I'm a big fan of the second approach, where you have a very predetermined, planned, um, series of integrations that you want to have to fill out the capability of the platform. Because, uh, a, a business, even real estate agents in this case, have many, many applications that they need to be using to run their businesses, and it's unlikely that we would ever get to the end of-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Simon Berglund: ... uh, needing to, to have functionality that is fundamentally different to what we already have. So there's always opportunities for integrations. They have to make sense, of course. They have to be, uh, well-regarded by the market, you know, well-established, et cetera. But yeah, I, I have a very deterministic, uh, pre-planned approach to, uh, third-party partnerships.

Kylie Davis: Okay. And so how do you prioritize that? Like, taking the client approach, 'cause I know, uh, you know, every client thinks that their-... do, their needs are the most important. How do you... What's the approach that REAPIT takes to prioritizing that when you do have those competing priorities of, um, of, of who to, who to put first?

Simon Berglund: Yeah. So that, again, a good question. So, so it, it fundamentally falls down to a combination of w- what are we experiencing in our customer conversations as being, you know, the number one requirement, the number one problem, the number one opportunity that they're seeking to satisfy for themselves, um, combined with, you know, us as a visionary leader in this space. I mean, two out of three real estate agents in Australia are using REAPIT technology of some sort.

Kylie Davis: Wow.

Simon Berglund: So we, we have a good exposure to what the market is doing, where it's going, what is needed. Um, and, uh, as a result, we have to, you know, make an educated, uh, decision on what is the next best integration, the next best, uh, product improvement, the next best platform improvement, et cetera. So it, it helps the fact that we are so well established. It, it helps us with a very broad understanding of what's going on, especially considering we also have, uh, very strong relationships in with the real estate institutes in each of the states. So, uh, we've got a good, a good handle on what's going on.

Kylie Davis: Cool. Okay. And so, so how... So you mentioned that, you know, two out of three real estate agency using REAPIT products. What... How, how big are you as a company now?

Simon Berglund: So we've got 800 people globally servicing a number of countries around the world. Uh, i- in my remit is Australia and New Zealand. Um, and, uh, you know, we're the, you know, the, the dominant player in, insofar as holistic PropTech is concerned, um, for applications that run a real estate agency.

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm. Um, how many people?

Simon Berglund: 800.

Kylie Davis: 800. But that's globally. How many in Aus?

Simon Berglund: Uh, 368 from memory.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, that's a good size. Um, okay. And so, so with your background, Simon, in, in sort of risk and compliance, what do you think the industry is in for this year with tranche two and AML? Like, how, how's, how is adoption gonna go?

Simon Berglund: Well, I mean, they don't have a choice to adopt. It's legislation, right?

Kylie Davis: No, well, that's true.

Simon Berglund: So, so, so that-

Kylie Davis: It is the law.

Simon Berglund: ... and that of course is... Yeah, right. Uh, that of course is different to how they feel about being forced to take on this responsibility. But look, that's, that's, that's part of the value that we bring to the marketplace, right? So we will bring, uh, an AML and CTF, uh, capability within the platform that requires very little, uh, uh, not involvement, but very little intellectual effort on the part of our, uh, customers to be a- able to actually comply. It'll simply be part of the workflow that we already have. So we will make it easy for them. And that's, that's not the other, uh, the only aspect of, of compliance that is happening, of course. I mean, uh, there's, there's been a lot of, uh, a lot of examples in the news around inappropriate use of trust money, uh, at real estate agents and, you know, we'll be solving for that problem as well in a, in an innovative way that, um, I think will excite the market. So, you know, a- again, because of the breadth of our presence, we, we have an ability to see what the AML/CTF, uh, requirements really are, but more importantly, how to make that almost frictionless-

Kylie Davis: Mm

Simon Berglund: ... for our clients to be able to comply with, uh, as during the course of their normal business activity.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Okay. The... We, we've been through a period over the last 10 years, I suppose, in PropTech where, um, everyone started out with sort of one provider, and then we've added lots more, and now we're kinda going back to the desire to have one provider again that solves all those problems. Um, what, what we're seeing is, you know, REA, Domain, um, you guys, MRI, everybody's building a trusted ecosystem, right? And bringing people into their ecosystem, whether it's the tech that they're developing or whether it's the integration platforms that they're, that they're working on, um, or working, or who the pe- partners that they're working with. The alternative is that you build your own tech stack, and then you have to manage all of that yourself. I guess, what are the, what are the benefits that you see of having that kind of centralized or trusted ecosystem?

Simon Berglund: Yeah. Uh, that's, that's a, uh, a good strategic question from the real estate agent's point of view rather than from REAPIT's, uh, 'cause you're looking at it through their eyes. There, there are, a- as you alluded to, three ways that a real estate agent, especially as they get bigger, of course, and more complex, um, that they can satisfy their tech requirements. They can either build their own tech, and there are a number of real estate agents that are doing and/or have done that, um, a- and also have decided against it and are now looking to us to replace what they've built.

Kylie Davis: Okay.

Simon Berglund: They can, uh, acquire a collection of different applications from different companies and then eventually realize that that is extremely difficult and expensive to, to maintain all those separate relationships, or they can go to an ecosystem like REAPIT. Um, the, the pros and cons that you, that you, uh, asking me about, the pros are that with a platform player, whether it's us or anyone else, is that you have that, that classic cliché, the single throat to choke, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So, um, you, you've got one point of contact, one account manager, um, who can, uh, essentially coordinate what your needs are, whether they be, uh, you know, support or looking to the future to grow their business. What are the, what are the ideas? What are we seeing elsewhere in the market that they b- might be able to take advantage of? So- The single vendor platform vendor play gives that simplicity. But then of course, the trade-off, uh, could potentially be that all of the individual applications around in the marketplace, they're 100% dedicated to the functionality of their particular product, right? So that it's, it's, you know, evidently true that they will almost always have bells and whistles that, that a platform player doesn't have, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So that is why it's important for us, uh, at Reapit, where the third party integration layer is so critical because it gives the ability for a customer to say, "Well, we'll get, uh, property management from, uh, from Reapit so that it, it connects to our CRM from Reapit. But you know what? We might wanna use a different type of forms provider or a different type of inspections, uh, uh, technology." And, you know, we don't stand in the way of that, uh, necessarily unless they're, uh, directly competitive, in which case we need to have an adult conversation about what can and can't happen. But, uh, that, that's why the integration layer is so important. So we, we tread the middle ground of giving them the single, um, point of contact for the majority of their tech stack, whilst at the same time allowing them some freedom to make some decisions around specific point solutions that they might want to, uh, have working in their organization. And, and we do that through the third party integrations.

Kylie Davis: Right. Got it. Okay, cool. Um, so you sort of got the best of both worlds, I guess, in, in-

Simon Berglund: That's the plan.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, that's the plan. That's the plan. Let me ask you a question. Are you happy with your current operational workflow? Are you really satisfied with printing, signing, scanning, and emailing contracts, and then having to wait days for them to be signed and returned? Well, I didn't think so, and I have some good news. There is a better way. Dynamic Methods is the team behind leading real estate industry tech platforms such as FormsLive, REI FormsLive, and RealWorks. With a mission to make better happen, Dynamic Methods are dedicated to providing efficiency and productivity tools, boosting form technology to real estate agencies across Australia. Each month, 50,000 real estate professionals across 8,500 agencies from every Australian state and territory use Dynamic Methods form technology, empowering more than 7.2 million transactions a year. Dynamic Methods is also proud to host quality integrations with some of the PropTech industry's most powerful technologies, such as DocuSign, Secure Exchange, Equifax, and more, putting everything you need to get forms and contracts filled in, signed, verified, and exchanged into one easy platform. So if you're ready to ditch the pen and paper, make your agency look more efficient, head to dynamicmethods.com.au/partners to learn more. This episode is sponsored by EasyPay. EasyPay makes collecting PropTech payments easy. As one of Australia's leading subscription payment providers, EasyPay is helping real estate and PropTech businesses to improve rental collection rates, transform arrears management, and increase cash flow. Built for integration with a focus on partnerships, EasyPay's platform works seamlessly with your existing PropTech software, giving you access to industry-leading features that enable complex billing and settlement to support trustless business models. Discover the power of payment automation and leverage one of the first platforms to enable the pay to payment solution at easypay.com/proptech. For almost 16 years, Direct Connect has made moving easy for over 1.2 million renters and homeowners by arranging connections to a wide range of services, from electricity and gas to internet and pay TV. With a national team of local account managers who are experts in the industry, Direct Connect are there to support your real estate business with competitive rewards for every successful connection, plus an industry-leading rewards program. The connection process is simple, and Direct Connect's always-on guarantee ensures your customers will be connected on the day they move in. Direct Connect offers a range of market-leading suppliers, and Direct Connect has now made it even easier than ever to send connections directly integrating with MRI Software's Property Tree. So in just a few clicks while processing a tenancy, you can send the connection details through and get your customers connected. To make the right connection and find out how Direct Connect can make moving easy for you and easy for your customers, visit agents.directconnect.com.au or call 1300-558-169. Simon, what are you s- what are the biggest challenges for, for Reapit in 2026?

Simon Berglund: Well, uh, I think the biggest challenges are, are probably two, may- maybe three areas, right? One is that the real estate market is a very dynamic market, meaning that, um, real estate agencies start and, and, and sell or go out of business, you know, in a very agile way. Um, sales reps within those businesses move as well w- uh, across the various real estate agents. There's consolidation going on, so the bigger groups are buying smaller groups. There's, so there's lots of change in the target market, so to speak, for Reapit. The second challenge for Reapit is that, um, is that the, uh, leg- the legislation, uh, that is being brought to bear on the real estate agents is broader, deeper, more complex than they're probably accustomed to.

Kylie Davis: In these days.

Simon Berglund: So it's not just only-

Kylie Davis: Yep.

Simon Berglund: Yeah, it's not just the AML and CTF, but you know, we're, we are, uh, part of a major consortium with, um, with, uh, Equifax, uh, MasterCard, and IDVerse, a, a LexisNexis company, uh, on satisfying a requirement of the federal government for protecting tenant data And that means their income data and their, um, their identity data. So at the moment, tenants are expected to supply all of that data, you know, usually in scanned or photographed or PDF form to, you know, two, three, four, five real estate agents as they're looking for a place to rent.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: Now, that information, of course, is reasonably sensitive and certainly, you know, from an i- identity point of view is, is, uh, is critical to be protected. So the federal government is looking to us to, you know, how can we, how can we facilitate the tenant application and approval process in a way that does not result in their private data being, um, uh, transported across the airwaves to multiple real estate agents and then stored God knows where in the real estate agent, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: Um, a- and through the consortium memberships that we, uh, that we have, um, or relationships I should say that we have, uh, you know, we've, we've built out that solution, uh, as a proof of concept, and, um, and you know, it looks to be well-regarded. So it's that kind of, um, challenge as well, uh, from the government that Reapit has to accommodate and make easy for our clients. And then the, um, the third part, uh, of it is that, uh, we just have a dynamic market. So whilst the property market is, of course, responsible for Australia being, you know, the second-highest median wealth country in the world and the second-highest average wealth company in the wo- uh, country in the world, um, it, it is, it is still, uh, very changeable, right? A single political decision can make a very big difference to what's happening. Cost of living, of course, has not, uh, helped the equation as far as tenants is concerned. Uh, it's probably fair to say that COVID has restricted supply, uh, even more so than had been prior to COVID. So there are lots of dynamics going on in what one would have to call as a basic human right, which is the right to housing-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Simon Berglund: ... and the right to live somewhere.

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm.

Simon Berglund: And that's, that's part of our mission, uh, as opposed to our vision. Our mission is to ensure that we can help real estate agents provide the, uh, you know, the perfect home, uh, home attainment experience for, uh, tenants and buyers.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Fantastic. Okay. And so, so what role do you see AI playing over the next 12 to... 12 months to three years?

Simon Berglund: So, so i- it's fair to say that we are right in the hype cycle, right at the top of the-

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: ... hype cycle of AI. Um, there's no doubt that it will play a part because there are many aspects of, um, any business, uh, but especially a real estate business that, um, uh, is so dam- dynamic with the data that it collects and has to reference in order to, to execute transactions in a very quick way, whether it be a sale or a tenancy. Um, there's no doubt that AI will play a part in, um, in a lot of the mundane administrative processes associated with, um, PropTech. A good example of that is, you know, property management is... one of the focuses for a property manager is to make sure that, you know, they control their costs very tightly, and you can't control cost as well if you're employing human beings to run an entire maintenance process, um, to, you know, uh, this, this tap is leaking, please organize for a plumber to come out, you know? If you can do that, uh, via AI and automation, then you don't need to, uh, uh, you know, spend time as a human being doing that. You can spend your time on doing higher value property management type, um, uh, exercises. So there is no doubt that in the, in the, in, in the more mundane aspects of PropTech, AI will play a part. Person- or not personally, but from Reapit's point of view, the other item that I think is important to bear in mind is that, you know, the reas- one of the reasons why we, you, you know, pl- going to platform play, so to speak, is that we are creating a single source of truth as to every contact that a real estate agent has, whether that be a tenant, an investor, a home buyer, a- anyone else involved in the decisioning, in the, in the running of their business. So all of that information that they gather on their contacts is stored in what we call the golden profile, and that includes all of their transactional history, all of the things that they've done. It's like a, a single s- data source for all of their customer, uh, relationship-type activities, and AI will play a part in that where it will, for instance, it will look at what's happening transactionally, and it will come out with a, a predicted rep- uh, a predicted recommendation for the head of sales, for instance, that, uh, that, that there's an opportunity from a managed property that is probably going to come up for sale in the near future based on these parameters, right? So that information will automatically flow from our property management module into the sales module and create a v- a lead for the salesperson to actually, you know, talk to the property manager and, and decide what they wanna do about representing that property. So AI's got a lot of applications. It'll be mostly in the mundane space at first, but then eventually will be in the s- in the more strategic space.

Kylie Davis: Right. Yeah. So you're, you're not a prop- or a believer that, um, it's really just there to help us write property listings and-

Simon Berglund: Oh, we, we-

Kylie Davis: ... crappy material.

Simon Berglund: Yeah. I mean, that, that, that is one of the examples of the more mundane, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So we've had AI, uh, AI property listing capability, uh, for a while now. Um, and, and that was just the first use case.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: But, um, yeah, it, it will certainly make its way into the, into the more mundane very quickly because that's where our, uh, you know, real estate agent customers want to see some action is, is on the con- uh, helping them control their costs.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: Uh, and then, um, uh, so that's in the manage part of that pillar that I was talking about, and then they'll expect us to be looking at how do we help them on the grow part of the pillar, and that's the AI applied to the golden profile to give them some insight into their business and how they can drive it.

Kylie Davis: Right. And so the tech that's driving those improvements from your team, is, are they, are they more LLM, um, uh, th- sort of side of AI or are they more agentic-

Simon Berglund: Uh, th- there's, uh-

Kylie Davis: ... or are they changing?

Simon Berglund: There's both. Uh, where- where you'll see the, the big, the big, um, impact in the first phase of AI making its way into PropTech is in the agentic space. That's where it'll be really quite exciting, where people will have these epiphanous moments and go, "Oh, wow, okay. That's cool. Can it do this?" Or, "Can you build an agent for that?" So certainly agentic, I think is where the excitement will be, but the, the data analysis and workflow control and the like will be the first area that we see.

Kylie Davis: Right. Okay. Okay. And so, and so when- and when you say agentic, and this is one of the c- the, the issues we have in real estate, right? Because so many words, we say the- we say a- we say agentic or agent. We, we say developer. We say all these things that, you know, sit on both sides of both the tech and the real estate, um, meaning. But when you say agentic, are you talking about AI that is just doing one little thing really well rep- and, and a whole little army of different agents, of, you know, AI agents doing different tasks? Or are you-

Simon Berglund: Yes

Kylie Davis: ... seeing agents that are able to take on kind of different aspects to a single task?

Simon Berglund: So it, it will definitely be attached to, um, the majority or the predominant volume of workflow that requires interaction.

Kylie Davis: Right.

Simon Berglund: Right? So it will be an agent from an AI point of view, but it'll be doing a component of a human being's work, not all of the human being, being's work in that business, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So the, the goal is to take away, as I said, the low-value, more mundane aspects of it, um, in order to focus the agent and, uh, other personnel within the, within the business on higher value-adding activity. But it- it's also important from the point of view of the tenant, right? So if the tenant, uh, you know, if there's a storm and the tenant experiences a tree come flying through the window, uh, they want to be able to log that, uh, submit that maintenance request or that repair request, you know, really urgently.

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Simon Berglund: Um, now, doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be actioned, but it could be, because the agentic-

Kylie Davis: Mm

Simon Berglund: ... AI within our system, i- if the customer chooses, could integrate it to a 24/7, uh, you know, emergency response, um, uh, organization that replaces windows, for instance.

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Simon Berglund: Um, but the experience of how the tenant or, or, or even the homeowner on certain occasions, if they're, they're dealing with an agent in some way, um, the, the, the experience of that is important. And if it's after hours, the agents are, of course, they're at home with their children and family, um, you know, the, at least they get a decent agentic experience rather than just sending an email and waiting till, uh, you know, till the morning for something to happen whilst the rain is flying in the window and ruining their furniture and carpet.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. All right. And so how do you see this changing... I mean, we talked, y- you sort of talked generally about it in, in, you know, higher value tasks, but how, when the rubber hits the road, what do you think the role of property managers is going to look like in the near future? What, h- how-

Simon Berglund: Specifically-

Kylie Davis: ... how is the job gonna change?

Simon Berglund: Yeah, so specifically property management and not, uh, sales agents as well? You, you-

Kylie Davis: Oh, l- let's talk about both. Yep.

Simon Berglund: Okay. All right. So from a property management point of view, at, uh, you know, at the end of the day, most real estate agents want to have more properties under management because that's how they grow their businesses, right? But as, as that grows, it tends to grow one-on-one with a requirement for more people to manage that experience or to manage that portfolio, right?

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Simon Berglund: So technology is going to evolve more and more, as I was saying, to take away the time-consuming, mundane aspects of their role in order to be a true property manager, right? So for instance, what that may translate into is they will know their portfolio, they will know where those properties are listed. Through, through, uh, automation, data sources, uh, AI, they will be proactively aware of, let's say, an average increase in the rent that can be extracted from, uh, a particular property in a particular area as a result of what's happening in other properties that they don't manage in that area. And, and then they can proactively go on the front foot and call the investor and say, "Hey, you know, uh, based on our, uh, data, th- there's an opportunity for you, uh, to, to up the rent by 12% or 9% on your, on your property, uh, o- on the basis of what's happening around, uh, the, uh, that particular property." So it's really about using technology to automate the mundane, but to augment the insights to drive growth and to better manage their businesses. To a certain extent, that commentary would apply also to the head of sales, right, or the salespeople.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: At the end of the day, they want more properties to sell, sell them more quickly, do it i- in a way that gets them more, you know, if it's an auction, more bidders so that the, the price goes up, their commission goes up. So it's really around efficiency and effectiveness. How can we use technology to drive efficiency, effectiveness for, um, for our real estate agents?

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Okay. And, and so do you see, do you see that we, that the role, that, that the property management role, like when w- as we become as, as, especially property managers become more augmented, I guess, by AI, and they're able to, to do and see different things around property, do you see that that's gonna become a service that becomes offered more to property owners as opposed to just landlords? Like to, is it a service that can then be- Shifted into owned property?

Simon Berglund: Yeah, I think the, the-- never say never, right? But that's not-- it's, it could be via the real estate agent, it could, it could be via a real estate agent. Uh, it could be via a real estate agent, it could be via directly to a third party. And what I mean by that is that if you're a homeowner, and let's, let's say, you know, you're, I don't know, pick a number, sixty-five years old, and you're really not, um, keen to, uh, to be lopping trees and mowing lawns on your property anymore, you'd, you'd rather, you know, outsource that. There's nothing to stop a real estate agent from having a relationship with that homeowner and saying, "I tell you what, we will, we will deliver you a managed service in that regard," i.e. landscaping and maintenance of the grounds. Um, they won't do it, but they'll have a relationship with a service organization that does do it.

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Simon Berglund: And that is something that could be achieved via agentic AI as well.

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Simon Berglund: So they establish the contract with the homeowner. The homeowner has a, a, an agentic AI interaction saying, "Hey, next Saturday, uh, I'd need to have my, my lawns mowed." The agentic AI will know their number, so it'll know the address. Uh, and it'll say, you know, "There's a, there's a, a landscaper in your area, uh, between 3:00 and 6:00. Uh, does that, you know, suit your, your timing?" And, and they can book that, right? So there's nothing stopping a real estate agent from offering that kind of service via its relationships with, you know, subcontractors, so to speak.

Kylie Davis: Mm. Mm, okay, cool. I'm all, I'm all in favor of this. Um. Having survived-

Simon Berglund: Well-

Kylie Davis: ... thirty years of homeownership and-

Simon Berglund: Yeah. The older I get the-

Kylie Davis: ... hot, dry seasons with my partner.

Simon Berglund: Uh, I, I have to admit, it was only about a month ago that I looked at my, uh, palm trees a-along my driveway. There's a few dead branches, and I thought, "You know what? I don't think I want to climb up there anymore and cut those off. I might get someone-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Simon Berglund: ... to do that."

Kylie Davis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We had a, we had a very similar conversation a couple months ago about getting up a ladder to, you know, paint the top of the -- to paint the roof edging.

Simon Berglund: Right. Right.

Kylie Davis: Maybe not. Maybe not. We've talked a lot about, like, the-- we've talked about AI. AI only works if the data's in, you know, if the data's in place to really run it. And, and we've talked a lot today about, um, about you guys, about Reapit creating that sort of centralized platform, which I imagine is gonna improve the data flow kind of moving around, um, moving around. But what do you see are the ch-challenges with, with, um, with data and how, um, who owns it? You know, how-

Simon Berglund: Yeah

Kylie Davis: ... how are we using it? How do we protect it?

Simon Berglund: Yeah. Gr- That's a good question. Uh, it's a more, it's a more holistic question rather than a real estate agent question, so to speak. Um, so the way we're looking at the data and, and the use of that data is, uh, in a couple of layers. So first of all, if a c- if a real estate agent has multiple applications, let's say they have a, um... Let's say, uh, they have Reapit Sales-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Simon Berglund: ... and they have Reapit PM, property management-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Simon Berglund: ... but they haven't decided to connect them up by procuring the platform layer upon which they can sit, right? Then they have two databases, right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: And those databases could have the same person in there, but it could be, you know, K. Davis in one and Kylie Davis in the other.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So there is a disconnect immediately in the quality of your data, and therefore, the actionability of your data.

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm.

Simon Berglund: So this is where our golden profile comes into play. So the whole point of our golden profile initiative is to make sure that there is only one Kylie Davis. Excuse me. And th-that, that then allows for much more accurate, less error-prone automation, artificial intelligence, insight generation when you have that golden profile. Excuse me. The other point, of course, that you're getting to is there are other data sources that come into the platform. Um, our philosophy is that the AI and d-workflows that we implement are only implemented on the individual agent's data. We don't aggregate data across multiple agents or all of our agents. Each agent's artificial intelligence and data profile is individual to them.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: And that's, that's an important part, I think, of ensuring that we, uh, that we continue to drive trust in Reapit as an organization to do the right thing by our customers. Um, but interestingly, I think where you're going is that the, the, the curious aspect is that there are many data sources available to real estate agents from other providers, right? And, and, you know, um, you know, Catalty is one and, and others, right? So the, the question is, what rights do the agent and/or Reapit have to aggregating that data to which they have permission to access because they've paid for it as a real estate agent? But how do we aggregate that, utilize it, leverage it, and provide insights at the same time as maintaining compliance with any kind of, uh, IP ownership, uh, data stewardship obligations of the supplier of that data? Right?

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm.

Simon Berglund: So that is not an easy question to answer because it is an individual conversation per data source.

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm.

Simon Berglund: Right?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Simon Berglund: So whilst as a platform player, we are keen to integrate as much as possible, we have to provide an integration capability that is mindful of data, what you could call in a way sovereignty, although that typically applies to countries. But data sovereignty in that who owns the data- Who has permission to use the data, which of course is a, could be a different entity, um, and who has permission to leverage the data to provide an additional service to the user of that data, and that's Reapit, right? There's quite a complex conversation that's different for every vendor. But it's a conversation that has to occur because data drives, uh, insight. Insight drives outcomes. Outcomes drive business success. So it's, it's something we're prepared for.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Awesome. Well, look, Simon, what... So just to wrap up, because this has been a fascinating conversation, and I thank you. Um, but what, what are you looking forward to most in 2026?

Simon Berglund: Uh, what I'm looking forward to most is actually, uh, accelerating the, the, the presence of Reapit One in the real estate, um, mindset, in the, in the mind space. Uh, it's only in recent times that we actually went live, uh, with the, with the functionality of the platform. And, uh, I'm looking forward to, yeah, a, a significant number of, uh, um, successful customers adopting and, and benefiting from the things that I've talked about, the golden profile, artificial intelligence, automated workflows, integrations to, to applications from other pro- providers. So at the end of the day, as I said, we're here to help our real estate agents maintain what they've got, grow what they've got, and then perform as a business so that they have a good, healthy, compliant business in the future for, for, uh, for sale or inheritance or whatever they choose to do with it. So that, that's the goal.

Kylie Davis: Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, look, Simon, thank you so much for your time. It's, um... W- well, congratulations on your first six months at Reapit. And, um, looking forward to many more conversations with you in the future.

Simon Berglund: Fantastic. Thank you, Kylie. I appreciate it.

Kylie Davis: Thank you.

Simon Berglund: Bye.

Kylie Davis: So it was fascinating to chat with Simon, and here's four things that I really liked about Reapit's approach to the current PropTech landscape. First of all, how they're solving the database mess with that golden profile. I love that Reapit are tackling that nightmare of duplicated messy data across multiple systems. So by creating a golden profile, they're ensuring that it's a single source of truth for every contact, so you don't end up with different versions of the same client floating around between your CRM and your property management software and everything else in between. I also like their frictionless compliance around Tranche 2. So agents have not c- got any choice but to adopt the upcoming AML and CTF regulations, and that is a daunting prospect. But I really like Simon's focus on building this capability directly into the existing workflows within Reapit so that compliance requires very little intellectual effort or manual input from the agents themselves. I also really liked the energy and effort that they are now putting into protecting vulnerable tenant data. And Reapit have come in for a bit of flack from this, um, from, uh, the tech privacy commissioner, but I did, sh- uh, record this interview before that came out. But what has been great to see is how seriously Reapit took, uh, those, um, issues that were raised by the commissioner and the work, the openness that they approached that conversation and the work that they have done throughout the entire thing. So it was refreshing to hear about how Reapit is working with groups like Equifax and ID Verse to stop the need for a, for tenants to email PDFs of sensitive income and identity data to multiple different real estate agencies. And this is the plus side. This wasn't possible, um, back in 2019, but it is now with AML in place for identities to be checked and for that to, um, have a, a role inside data protection for property management as well. And that is a real step forward for consumer privacy and data security. The last thing I really enjoyed about the interview was that, that practical vision that Simon's got for agentic AI. I loved his grounded example of what agentic AI will actually look like for the property, um, management industry. Instead of just hyping up buzzwords, he's got a really clear picture of AI handling mundane emergencies like a tenant logging that smashed window at midnight and the AI automatically coordinating with the 24/7 glazier while the property manager gets to sleep. Um, it proves that the true value of AI really does lie in automating those, that work that keeps us busy and constantly on alert and on edge, and that once that's been looked after, that frees us up for more calm, controlled, strategic, and relationship-building tasks. Now, just before we go, are you a fast-growing PropTech looking to take a new product to market, position yourself strongly through unique thought leadership and research, or are you struggling to wrangle all the strategic and tactical pieces of marketing so that they convert into real sales? Then I, Kylie Davis, and the PropTech Guru team would love to help. PropTech Guru, which is the consulting business I run with my husband, former Gartner director and media executive Mark Hollins, specializes in a service called Scalable CMO. Most PropTechs have a marketing team in place, and many of them are just one or two young marketers struggling to do all the things. But with Scalable CMO, you get the perfect mix of top-level executive thinking plus affordable and tactical executions to support, scale, and enhance your current team. To kick off, we audit your existing marketing with an overlay of where you need to get to, and we'll identify what's working and fit for purpose and what you need to do to hit your number. And then we create a strategic plan and the cost of delivery of the work required from digital marketing, CRM and automation management, content media, social media, sales structure, KPIs, and all the accountabilities. Work is executed by our team in the Philippines to ensure it's affordable, and it's overseen by Mark and I here in Australia to deliver accuracy, reliability, and domain expertise. So our goal is to get you up and running in-market and firing on all cylinders and make ourselves ideally redundant in around 18 months because we get it. No one wants to work forever with a consultant. You want marketing and positioning to get results, and we want to show you how. So if this sounds like something that could work for your PropTech, reach out. Email me at kylie@proptechguru.com.au or connect up on LinkedIn. Now, if you have enjoyed this episode of the PropTech Podcast, I would love you to tell all your friends or drop me a line either via email or LinkedIn or on our Facebook page. And you can follow this podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Apple iTunes, and anywhere good podcasts are heard. I would like to thank my podcast producer, the fabulous Charlie Hollins, podcast website editors Jill Escudero and Shira Sexsen, and our sponsors, HID, digital identification solutions for your building; Direct Connect, making moving easy; Dynamic Methods, the name behind Forms Live, REI Forms Live, and Realworks; ezipay, making collecting payments easy for PropTechs; and the PropTech Association Australia, Australia's industry body which is supporting the flourishing PropTech community. Now, if you're an Australian or New Zealand PropTech who would like to be on the show, please drop me a line via LinkedIn or email kylie@proptechassociation.com.au. Thanks so much, everyone. Until next time, keep on PropTeching.