While the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed lives and disrupted every industry in America, residential real estate has emerged from this crisis about as well as could be imagined.

There are multiple reasons why this is true. Buyers who have stood on the sidelines for months have converged on the markets while summer buyers have arrived, generating competition that renders a slowdown impossible in many markets.

This industry, however, was uniquely positioned to navigate this pandemic because of the clear, consistent, and deliberate focus on technological innovation that has occurred over the past two decades. And the National Association of Realtors^® has been at the forefront of that push.

NAR is fortunate to maintain partnerships with many of the innovators and entrepreneurs who are leading the real estate industry into the future. Many of these relationships are facilitated by NAR’s strategic investment fund Second Century Ventures, one of the most active venture funds in the global real estate technology space, and its tech startup accelerator program, REACH.

The NAR REACH program helps launch and accelerate high-growth potential companies in the real estate industry by offering education, networking, and exposure in the real estate marketplace.

This forward-thinking approach – particularly the focus on property technology (affectionately known as proptech) – has essentially positioned real estate to willingly and seamlessly become what this pandemic forced the rest of the world to become.

In 2019 alone, more than $90 billion was invested in real estate technology. Investment in the proptech sector has increased 25-fold in the last 6 years.

And these investments appear even more critical in the face of COVID-19.

Founded in 2013, REACH’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies from around the world and operates five separate programs.

Firms selected for the REACH 2020 class have raised more than $50 million in capital, employ more than 340 people, and represent a market capitalization of more than $400 million.

One such company, Kangaroo, provides affordable, easy-to-use DIY smart home and small business security solutions that can be monitored from your smart phone.

Another, Earnnest, is changing how money moves in real estate, allowing buyers to securely and electronically deposit funds directly to an escrow holder. Responding to very real concerns of wire fraud in the real estate industry, Earnnest keeps agents, buyers, and escrow holders in the loop with automated emails and tracking information.

This crisis presents an opportunity for all of us to grow and adapt to the markets of the future. And the REACH program allows NAR to deliver radical and actionable innovation in all aspects of real estate at a time when equipping REALTORS^® with the technology they need to survive in a rapidly-evolving market is more important than ever.