In our latest real estate tech interview, I’m talking to Lief Larson of Workface, another of the companies in the REach incubator.

Without wasting anymore time, here’s a bit more from Lief…

What do you do?

Have you ever walked into a business and been wowed by a salesperson who delivered an incredible, high-touch buying experience? Sure you have. Since the dawn of time, people have bought from people. And people have bought from people because of the one-to-one relationship.  This is no different in real estate.  It’s about authenticity, trust, and the personal touch.  However, most homebuyers and home sellers are living on the web today.  I founded Workface to help agents to be available in real-time for web-based video, audio and text chat with clients.  It can be installed on agent pages, property listings, broker websites, social media, and beyond.  Agents can use it to connect via chat live with web-based customers and do so from their desktop, laptop, smart phone or tablet.

Why do you do what you do?

I have a vision of a future real estate world where all agents become a digital wrapper around the homebuying experience and are live and available in real-time to chat with clients. My motivation here is to help consumers.  Buying a home is a very scary process.  You want to be informed, educated, and confident about one of the largest investments of your life.  However, despite all the incredible wealth of information available online, it’s still great to talk with a knowledgeable REALTOR®.  My mission with Workface® is to make doing business on the web a more human experience.

What are you most excited about right now?

Understanding where a customer is geographically is so, so important in the real estate business. To determine where the customer is, you are relegated to using IP Geolocation technology.  Unfortunately most of this technology is based on 10+ year old technology and it’s just terrible.  It yields results in a 40-mile proximity with about 80% success.  However, Workface has exclusive technology that can map the customer to a radius as small as 100 yards with probability as high as 98%.  This is an incredible advancement in understanding where the customer is physically which, in turn, makes the agent engagement experience much more relevant.  No other chat technology on the planet can get this level of pinpoint accuracy and we’re so excited to begin rolling this out.

What’s next for you?

I’m spending most of my time at the end of my nose.  We have so much we are trying to get accomplished with Workface.  Other than working to build a world-class company, I’m climbing Mount Rainier in May and I’m spending a fair amount of time in outdoor pursuits.  I’m behind a computer at least 12 hours a day, so it’s great to disconnect and go off the grid on occasion; I love reconnecting with the natural world.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

There are actually two causes.  First, I’m a huge fan of Make-A-Wish Foundation and their mission to help children with life-threatening conditions to connect with life experiences.  Many of the people Make-A-Wish helps have their lives cut way too short.  To bring happiness, joy, adventure, accomplishment, and stories into their lives is a cause without equal.  Second, I believe in the mission of Face It Foundation.  Face It is a group working to address depression issues in males, especially helping with education and providing treatment options.  The guy running the group, Mark Meier, has dealt with some very deep depression and he found a way out.  His story is very inspiring.  He really puts his heart behind the foundation and he even rode a bicycle across America to raise awareness and help break the stigma of male depression.

Thanks to Lief for sharing his motivations and current projects. If you’re interested in connecting with him further, you can find him on Oh Hey World and LinkedIn.

We’ll be featuring other real estate tech entrepreneurs in the coming weeks. If you are an entrepreneur in the real estate vertical (past or present), and want to be profiled, please follow the steps outlined here. Remember, you can always discover other people in the Geek Estate community here.