by G. Sax, Director of Growth Management, RESO
Welcome to “Three Questions,” an interview series that introduces you to real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards with a goal of humanizing the tech side of the industry, fun included.
This week, we got a chance to sit with Al McElmon, Senior Leader of Software & Data Engineering at CoreLogic, the 2022 RESO Fall Conference Diamond Sponsor. We chatted about North Carolina, balancing clients and the importance of hair. Enjoy!
Q1: This might not be common knowledge, but North Carolina runs through the heart of RESO, based in Raleigh, and CoreLogic, based in Greensboro / High Point. What can you say about the technical acumen of North Carolinians after spending more than 16 years at CoreLogic?
Al: A lot of our tech talent is driven from the university system. We have many good schools close by in places like Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, to name a few. We get a lot of young talent coming in from the University of North Carolina (UNC), Duke, North Carolina State and other schools, not to mention the people that we pull from Research Triangle Park.
Q2: Sticking with the North Carolina theme, you are a graduate of Appalachian State, as is our Marketing Manager, Claire Northrop, who is a huge fan. The win against Michigan in the Big House in 2007 put you on the map, but much like Boise State or Cincinnati, yours is a little program that captures the imagination. Just like RESO!
But North Carolina is also the home of college basketball behemoths like Duke and UNC. Just like MLS industry giant, CoreLogic!
We believe that RESO balances the care we give to the large and small companies that are members of our organization. CoreLogic has about 100 large and small MLS clients. How do you go about balancing your client load?
Al: Before CoreLogic, I came from InnoVia, and we had a lot of small MLSs as clients. One of our core values was to configure our systems to their needs, no matter what their size was.
Ethan Bailey, Senior Director of Software Engineering & Technology at CoreLogic [and former RESO Board member!], taught me a lot about customer care and has been a fantastic mentor to me since the beginning of my career.
When InnoVia was acquired by First American and CoreLogic, a lot of our features were driven through optimal code and configuration. When we acquired Matrix, they had the same philosophy. Same for when we built Trestle. There is nothing in Trestle that’s specific to any one MLS. Same goes for our ETL platform.
It’s just how we do business, and it seems to be resonating with our clients. We try to build things that people can use in both small and larger environments.
Q3: Like Samson, is your strength in your long hair?
Al: My confidence is certainly in my hair. Also, my wife would divorce me if I cut my hair.
