Building data-driven brokerage success with York Baur

FAQ about this episode.

• What makes a platform truly open versus just claiming to be open?

  According to York, the distinction involves far more than technical capabilities. Having robust APIs represents necessary but insufficient criteria for genuine openness. What defines an open platform involves the programs, policies, and attitudes surrounding the technology. You cannot be "kind of, sort of, maybe, part of the time" open. York has observed larger players in the industry playing favorites, refusing to allow competing or overlapping technology onto their platforms. If a vendor won't allow competitors access, all the APIs in the world become useless. True openness means welcoming all comers to provide the best possible solution for any given customer. Lone Wolf demonstrates this commitment through more than 100 partners integrated into the Foundation platform, reflecting a philosophy that customer choice matters more than vendor preferences about which solutions belong together.

• How should brokers approach AI in their technology strategy?

  York recommends starting with clear business objectives rather than AI capabilities. The technology industry, including real estate technology, tends to overhype AI. From his 40-year perspective in technology, AI represents the latest form of computer-aided automation. The crucial factor nobody discusses adequately involves data quality. AI models perform sophisticated computation that depends entirely on having the right data. For AI to add genuine value at the brokerage level, you need data about your specific business: your agents and their activities, your transactions, your market share, your financial performance. If that data doesn't exist in a common, normalized platform, you cannot take advantage of meaningful AI applications. Getting your data foundation right should precede enthusiasm about AI features.

• Why does York emphasize business objectives so strongly?

  York argues that without clear business objectives, you'll make poor technology choices. The pressure to chase features comes from multiple directions: vendors selling shiny capabilities, agents who get excited about demonstrations, and industry hype about whatever seems newest. If you cannot write your business objectives on one piece of paper, they probably aren't truly your objectives. The last several years have demonstrated that durable, long-term strategy matters more than reacting to whatever seems impressive at any moment. Technology should support your stated business priorities. When those priorities are clear and your technology aligns with them, teams actually adopt the tools because they understand how the technology serves objectives leadership has identified as important.

• What should broker dashboards actually accomplish?

  York identifies multiple purposes beyond daily operational monitoring. Understanding not just overall market share but which specific market segments you're succeeding in creates marketing intelligence that helps you amplify what's working. This addresses the classic problem of wasting marketing dollars without knowing which investments are producing results. During the current period of industry consolidation, dashboards also position you for strategic opportunities. Whether you're evaluating acquisition targets or considering being acquired for succession reasons, having fingertip feel for your data allows you to respond competently to opportunities rather than needing weeks to compile basic information. Good dashboards support both proactive decision-making and validation of gut-level instincts by checking whether data actually supports what you believe to be true.

• What does "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" mean for relationship-driven businesses?

  York acknowledges that real estate excels at relationships and emotional intelligence. The industry genuinely does this well. The challenge involves tendencies to downplay or ignore data because relationship-focused leaders sometimes believe their instincts trump what numbers suggest. Sometimes leaders don't look for relevant data at all. Sometimes they see warning signals and dismiss them because they trust their gut. During challenging market conditions with substantial uncertainty, having great brokerage data helps in two ways: making proactive decisions based on evidence, and testing gut-level decisions to verify data actually supports your instincts. The measurement principle doesn't replace relationship skills. It complements them by providing validation or early warnings that intuition alone might miss.

• What advice does York offer to technology vendors?

  His primary recommendation involves partnership over independent building. Technologists love creating things and tend to believe they're capable of building everything themselves. The temptation to rebuild common industry infrastructure repeatedly produces no real value. Concentrate on genuine differentiation and outsource everything else. Platforms like Lone Wolf's Foundation provide partnership opportunities that let technology companies skip to the front of the line. With more than $1 trillion in transactions processed annually, the data foundation already exists at scale that smaller companies cannot independently recreate. Rather than reinventing wheels, partner with established platforms and focus energy on the unique capabilities only you can provide.

• Why did York join Lone Wolf?

  Two factors attracted him to the company. Culture represented the first priority, something York believes technology companies don't discuss enough. His rapport with Jimmy Kelly developed over years even while their companies competed, which suggests something important about how both approach business relationships. Beyond culture, York found alignment around conviction that open platform approaches serve the industry's long-term interests. This shared philosophy about giving customers genuine choice rather than limiting options based on vendor preferences created the foundation for joining after years of competing.

• What determines whether technology actually gets adopted?

  York emphasizes that the best technology is simply the technology your team actually uses. Adoption happens when technology connects to business objectives that leadership has clearly articulated. When leaders explain why something matters for specific reasons, people listen. Technology must support and align with those stated priorities. If stated priorities point in one direction while technology capabilities point elsewhere, teams won't adopt the tools regardless of how impressive the features appear. This alignment between business objectives and technology functionality determines whether investments produce returns or become expensive shelfware.

• Who is York Baur and what qualifies him to discuss these topics?

  York Baur is Chief Industry Relations Officer at Lone Wolf Technologies. His 40 years in technology include a computer science degree, serial entrepreneurship experience, and founding Moxie in 2012. Early career experience at Microsoft during the 1990s taught him critical lessons about open versus closed platform approaches. His combination of technical depth and business pragmatism provides unusual credibility when discussing what genuinely matters in technology decisions. He can engage with technical specifications while remaining focused on business outcomes. He has studied AI programming languages for decades while maintaining perspective about what current capabilities actually represent versus what gets hyped. For brokers trying to separate substance from marketing, York's experience provides a valuable filter.