by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
This week’s interview is with Teresa Grobecker, CEO of Consortia, an early real estate blockchain company. We chatted about building a food tru–, er, real estate career, staying active, staying busy and the delights of Marin County. Enjoy!
Q1: Your background is investment banking, and you have built a career of raising capital and finding product/market fit with an enviable go-go-go energy. At what point did you decide to turn toward real estate as a loan officer, real estate broker, entrepreneur, distributed ledger specialist and a whole lot of other hyphenates (including food truck operator!), and has it been a rewarding pursuit?
Teresa: I started working in Wall Street after business school. A couple of years after I developed the medical condition known as pregnancy, I started the first online brokerage in San Francisco as a hobby.
I thought that was a placeholder. Then a few years later, a global investment bank presented an unsolicited offer to purchase my brokerage, and I thought, “Well, that’s interesting.”
I became a loan officer around 2015–16, but I didn’t really underwrite any loans until 2020. That’s when a company called United Wholesale Mortgage, the largest wholesale mortgage lender in the U.S., stupid-proofed the compliance items that I found to be complex and risky.
Their back-end tech is made for REALTORS® and mortgage loan officers. You don’t have to be a retail lender. Their platform allows me to be a broker so that I can shop the best rates for consumers, which I love.
The whole food truck operator thing…I was not good at it. It was a passion project, and I quickly decided that I was going to stick with what I’m good at, and I’m really good at pushing paper. That’s my joke about it. I’m better at that than the food truck.
Although it’s a joke, I do thrive behind the computer. But there is an excitement to being out with people. Humans are meant to be active, and the digital age has put us in chairs.
As a broker, you’re always on the go, but you’re also at the computer, cleaning stuff up or “building the machine” of your business.
I’m naturally a shy person. People find that hard to believe. Being in real estate, which is a very people-centric business, forces me out of my shell, forces me to be an active human, and I like that.
As for my Consortia work, it needs to be set free. We’re going to upload the tech stack to GitLab and see what comes of it.
The land records in the developed countries are fairly decent. There is still a need for indexing infrastructure in the developing world, whether it be land lease rights or property ownership rights.
Everything we built was private ledger, and we’re at a point now where there is enough comfort around Ethereum to build on a public Layer 2 chain. The Consortia code that’s built on Hyperledger can easily be converted to a Layer 2 protocol.
Q2: Speaking of money, you have a rich history with one of the most historically wealthy counties in the U.S., California’s Marin County. Marin has historically had a reputation for NIMBYism, as a haven for superstars and as the private playground for George Lucas’s sound and vision. Tell us something about Marin that doesn’t fit the cliché, and then share the best place to have lunch?
Teresa: One of the coolest things that I have discovered is paddle boarding in the San Rafael neighborhood known as The Canal.
I didn’t realize how majestic The Canal is. It’s historically where high-density multifamily housing is located. Apartment complexes on the waterfront have docks. It’s some of the most amazing housing in the area, with nice people that wave at you when you paddle by.
The Canal can feature six-figure yachts on one side of the waterway and modest housing on the other.
San Rafael is the largest city in Marin. As a whole, it’s easy to just put your nose up and drive through it on Highway 101, but I would recommend a visit.
The best place to have lunch is Hog Island above the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. They have one of my favorite Negronis (and views) in the county.
RESO (G. Sax): As a former Marin County resident and as someone who worked in both The Canal and Larkspur, I love these answers. For lunch, I also would have accepted Sol Food and Bay Thai!
Q3: How many companies are you currently part of and why so many?
Teresa: I’m down to just four now from seven at one time, two of which are blockchain-based.
One focuses on making the government more efficient. The other puts institutional data in the hands of homeowners.
AI and networks are finally where I need them to be for blockchain to be efficient. Oh, and I almost forgot: there’s a solve homelessness and affordable housing project that I’m working on with CoreLogic and Google. I just love that project.
I get involved in so many companies, because I like solving complex problems. It’s like brain candy. And I like being purposeful to my friends and adding value to their lives.
Three Questions is an interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards in a fun way.
