Key facts
- Howard Hanna CEO Hoby Hanna was not among the initial participants of the Open Real Estate initiative.
- Hanna has agreed to meet with Open Real Estate founders to learn more about the initiative.
- Hanna expressed skepticism due to past industry initiatives like Project Upstream.
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services was notably absent from the list of founding firms for the newly launched Open Real Estate initiative. CEO Hoby Hanna stated that while he would have liked to be involved from the start, he has agreed to meet with the initiative's founders to understand their goals, governance, and funding plans. Hanna expressed curiosity about the initiative's ultimate objective and whether it can be successfully implemented, especially given his past experience with the disbanded Project Upstream, which faced challenges with too many stakeholders and disparate interests. He indicated that Howard Hanna, which has invested significantly in its own platform, HannaList, would need to thoroughly assess the initiative before considering participation.