The Broker Public Portal Appoints New Chairman and Three Additional Board Members

The Broker Public Portal (BPP), the largest agent-backed brokerage in the US, has reshuffled its board as the company seeks further innovation and expansion.

The BPP represents 850,000 real estate agents and brokers and serves over 120 MLSs.

Its new chairman is Dana Strandmo, an industry veteran with a leadership background including Chief Administrative Officer at Homeservices—the largest residential real estate services company in the United States.

Strandmo said:

“I am honored to accept the position as the new Chairman of the Broker Public Portal and work alongside such accomplished brokerage professionals and MLS Executives on the board.

“Together, we will harness the collective knowledge and experience to drive innovation, push boundaries, and lead the BPP to new heights of success.”

Meanwhile, another three board members have been appointed:

AnneMarie DeCatsye is CEO at Canopy and one of the most well-known figures in the United States real estate industry. She serves on the MLS roundtable, on which recently-appointed BPP Vice Chair Rebecca Jensen also serves.

Charlie Hunt is President at HUNT Real Estate and highly involved in the New York State Multiple Listing Service Board of Directors, as a Director and Secretary for the Upstate New York Real Estate Information Service, Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors, Greater Rochester Association of Realtors and Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors.

Dave Wetzel is the President and Chief Executive Officer of MLSListings, and designated CMLX3 (Certified Multiple Listings Expert) which is the most comprehensive MLS industry leadership program. Wetzel was a Silicon Valley software and technology executive at companies including IBM, Siemens and Cisco Systems across fields such as Product Management, Marketing, Software Architecture, and Software Development.

The Broker Public Portal was founded by a group of agents in 2014 with the intention of creating what they saw as a fair alternative to third-party listing portals like Zillow.

The firm partnered up with Zillow's rival CoStar in 2016 with the intention of using CoStar's portal as a high-profile "poster boy" for the BPP movement. The symbiotic relationship made sense for a lot of reasons—but the relationship soured and ended in September 2022 when CoStar decided to take on Zillow alone with Homes.com.

BPP returned to a "square one" situation in terms of having an agent-backed portal to compete with Zillow (and now CoStar). It now seems that BPP's decision to pack its boardroom with powerful, experienced agents will hopefully bring ideas and users to a new-look, consumer-facing marketplace with gravitas.