Morgan Carey

Shannon - as is my understanding we most certainly did not "tie" - it's not like 2 of the judges voted for REW and 2 for DS - Inman decided to take it upon themselves (Based on Brian's suggestion) to call off the judging altogether - basically declared it a "no contest". I can't speak for DS - but I can assure you that Real Estate Webmasters does not support this decision nor were we ever invited to be involved in it's process. We were simply told after the fact - (after we had done our part and committed to the contest AND the presentation / judging process) that Inman arbitrarily changed their mind. I can say with absolute conviction that I feel we were lured to Inman under false pretense, were lied to during and after the "contest" and would never have participated had we known that so many contestants dropped out AND the contest was called off. As far as I'm concerned Inman should be paying both of our bills for travel, accommodations and expenses as they used us for their own gain and failed to deliver on their end.

Andrew - so I was not the only one who didn't hear anything about this "tie"? I have to admit I was CHOKED that noone gave us any updates and I asked via email several times - finally, instead of the answer to my question as to who won, I got an email from the Inman Staffer in charge (not Brian) telling me the finally released the video (that I had posted on my blog several days earlier) thanking me for doing such a great job, and if I wanted to watch the video, I would have to pay for it! Well - needless to say, in my response I was less than amused. My reply demanded an answer to the "who won" question - and the response I got was - oh, we all decided together that there would be no winner. That sent me through the roof! I never agreed to that, and I don't remember ever even talking about it. Brian was good enough to call me and calm me down a bit - and somehow managed to convince me that even though I still didn't remember any mention of this at all, I "could" have just missed it. Now that I see your post also stating you weren't aware it wasn't going to be awarded a winner - I think my initial reaction was correct. I am quite sure what was actually said was "you are both winners in my books" - which of course any reasonable person would not assume meant the contest was off. I mean if there was no contest - why were there judges? We went through this entire process with "competition" in mind, and noone ever informed us otherwise - I am convinced of that now. I never even received a follow up other than the email telling me I needed to pay to see myself on video. Nice This blog post - (which is insulting and clearly thrown together with a complete lack of effort) - was only created after I explained that we had been cheated out of any PR opportunity - we had people waiting to blog about the winner (and second place) app and with Inman not updating us, our window was closing fast. Brian's response was "I am really sorry, I'll make sure they have something up by the end of the day" Brian / Inman - this post just doesn't cut it, and is indicative of the entire way this contest was run. We held up our end as contestants - in fact on my side, I flew developers from CANADA spending thousands of dollars - to compete against teams that no-one told me had dropped out until I got there (with the exception of Diverse), and for a prize and glory that was swept under the rug. I don't want people to think this is sour grapes I would have been happy to see Diverse win - they did a great job, and I know their team put in just as much work and were just as creative as we were. They deserve mad props! This is about being lied to, disrespected and having something that myself, and more importantly my team, poured their hearts into only to be told at the end - thanks suckers, now go away and be quiet too, because you should be thankful you got to stand on our stage. I tried to let this go and handle it privately - but this post is insulting and it's comments from our very worthy competitors made me realize that I wasn't crazy - I didn't miss anything and Brian - now I just feel like I was lied to. I don't know you - but I chose to listen to you and give you the benefit of the doubt - I now feel very foolish and taken advantage of. You mentioned that I should want to be "in with Inman" because of all their influence and contacts - I have to admit that intimidated me a bit at first, and made me swallow my pride even when I knew I was right - but I think I need to stand up for myself here and say: If this is Inman - If I have to give up my integrity to "get in good" - Then Inman can keep their contacts and they can keep their influence - I would rather do no business ever again, than have to be the kind of guy who compromises all that he is for a buck or a reference. We met some great people in San Francisco and I want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement. I want to thank the judges that participated (all awesome folks) and most of all I want to thank Diverse Solutions - you guys are tops in my books and I would love to develop along side you (or compete) any time. I do hope you get the apology (private or public) that you deserve.

And we are STILL TIRED :-) Seriously - I want to thank Inman for putting on such a fun event - win or loose (we hope we win) it was a great time. Probably best of all, was to give some of my guys the exposure and a bit of celebrity - they really dug having all these industry folks recognize who they were and they even knew what an IDX was lol. Win loose or draw I think it's a win for everyone and I hope more folks show up to compete in next years event - I know I have it in my calendar.