by G. Sax, Director of Growth Management, RESO
This week’s interview is with Ivaan Nazaroff, Solutions Partner / Solutions Architect at CoreLogic. We talked about what keeps someone interested in a job for more than 20 years, how “solutions” gets to be part of a person’s title and the interesting history of his hometown. Enjoy!
Q1: You have been at CoreLogic for a long time. What interesting challenges are there for you to keep the job compelling after so many years working for one company, and what is it specifically about RESO that has kept you in our midst for so long?
Ivaan: I initially worked for Tarasoft on the MLS software now known as CoreLogic’s Matrix. CoreLogic had split off from First American, and shortly after that, they acquired Tarasoft. I became part of the scenario 22 years ago.
Before Matrix, Tarasoft had Titan, which was sold directly to agents and connected to MLSs via modem. I was hired to work on it, but I never actually did.
What keeps things interesting is that I keep being afforded and accept a bevy of new opportunities and challenges. And it’s not always related to Matrix, which I’m okay with.
Lately, I’ve been given an opportunity to elevate my influence in the organization, and that doesn’t happen everywhere. There are endless opportunities to work with smart people on interesting problems.
And that’s also what makes me stick around with RESO. There were tensions about things being made and built, which RESO helped defuse. At the time of its creation, RESO was full of smart people, and it still is today. This is a good idea, and I want us to keep doing it as an industry.
RESO also affected my job directly, so it was hard not to take notice.
I was recently telling people why the gatherings are so important. Yes, we could do the same things in a workgroup meeting, but meeting in person, breaking bread, having a drink, listening to good music together…it builds trust. So when you are arguing about something, you remember those good times and you give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s obvious to me why RESO exists, but it’s not always obvious to the money people. We need to reiterate the value of it as often as it takes.
Q2: Your LinkedIn profile says you are a Solutions Partner / Solutions Architect. I assume that you weren’t born into such a cool job title. What led you to this in your career?
Ivaan: LinkedIn, eh? I don’t do social media. I don’t even typically do social. The only reason I have a LinkedIn profile is for some of the learning opportunities.
But to answer the question, I started as a computer programmer. When you’re working for a startup, and there are only three other people, you wear many hats: customer care, database administration, sales, product development, etc.
You keep specializing and diversifying as the company grows and more people get hired. I found myself thinking more about the software architecture, how the big blocks fit together and how we can build them for different integrations from the same code base. In Matrix, all customizations eventually become just rows in the database.
I kept being asked to think about bigger, more abstract problems. I’m the guy that knows the reason why we did some of the things we did at the time we did them and might’ve done differently now. I’m also the guy that tries to keep things in perspective.
Before Tarasoft, I worked for Trowelex, a heavy equipment rental company for industrial job sites and such. Every day was different, but Mondays I serviced portable toilets – stuck the big vacuum in there – for three years. Dirty but honest work.
It wasn’t until I was at Tarasoft for five or seven years that it felt like I was there for as long as I was working at Trowelex!
I also did birthday parties as a clown with my wife.
RESO: What?!?
Ivaan: Yes, we did clowning. I did the traditional silent clown – you never speak with the nose on. My wife was a not-silent clown, because if two clowns are quiet, the five-year-olds get freaked out. We did juggling, face painting, balloon animals, magic, all of it. Exhausting fun!
Q3: You live in Krestova, an unincorporated community in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is quite beautiful but quite remote, and it has a fascinating history. How long have you been there and what can you say about living there that appeals to you vs. being in a city or suburb?
Ivaan: I like to visit the cities, but I don’t think I could ever live there. I live a bike ride away from my childhood home. Growing up, my kids could visit both sets of grandparents without touching pavement.
I am part of that history you speak of. My dad’s sister and my wife’s father were taken to New Denver Institution, which was used as a government-run Residential School to assimilate the Doukhobors.
And my wife has been part of what has spurred a response from the Canadian government in the 21st century to account for something that happened in the 1950s.
My wife was attending a provincial conference for parents advisory council leaders, and the British Columbia Ombudsperson was also in attendance as a guest speaker. She was able to capture his attention, and their conversation eventually led to an official “apology” from the Attorney General’s office and the Premier of British Columbia.
A big part of my life is about investment in the community itself, a community I believe in, a community I love.
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.
