Bloomkey Broker

Lawrence Bunnell

Lawrence Bunnell - Internet Real Estate Broker

Lawrence Bunnell is Managing Partner and the Principal Broker of Bloomkey, an Internet based, real estate brokerage company offering consumers online, flat-fee, 'a la carte' real estate brokerage products and services. Lawrence has been a full-time licensed REALTOR® since 1984 and is currently a licensed real estate broker in California, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

As a flat fee, Internet broker Lawrence was named as one of the Top 10 Real Estate Professionals by the Richmond Association of REALTOR®s for 2004, 2005 and again in 2006 and as a Top Producer by the Northern Virginia Association of REALTOR®s for 2007.

Throughout his career, Lawrence has been recognized as one of the nation's top selling residential professionals by such leading real estate organizations as: the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the Richmond Association of REALTOR®s (RAR), Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Electronic Realty Associates (ERA) and RE/MAX Real Estate. His track record for selling homes has placed him among the top 1% of real estate professionals in the country.

Lawrence has long been a proponent of choices for consumers in real estate services. Since 2003, he has been a lobbyist for unrestricted competition in the real estate industry. He opposes the imposition of required, minimum service laws and regulations which would serve to limit consumer choices and drive up the cost of obtaining professional real estate services.

Lawrence has appeared as a panel speaker at Inman's Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco for a discussion of alternative real estate models. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Canadian Competition Bureau regarding competition and free trade in the real estate industry. His letters, comments and articles on real estate and technology have appeared in numerous offline and online publications including REALTOR® Magazine and Inman News.

Prior to forming Realty Thrift, LLC, dba Bloomkey, Lawrence first originated the idea for a national online, flat fee real estate brokerage firm while completing a Post-Baccalaureate Program in Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealty University. In 1997, he co-founded the Internet start-up company IRESCO, later homebytes.com, inc. homebytes.com became the first real estate company to be licensed in all 50 states and was the first national company to offer fixed fee REALTOR® MLS listings on the Internet. homebytes.com received over $30,000,000 in venture capital from firms such as America Online (AOL), LandAmerica, Gro-Tech Capital and FBR Venture Technology.

Lawrence started his career as a sales associate and new homes sales manager in 1984 for a Richmond, Virginia based real estate firm, Bowers, Nelms and Fonville REALTOR®s (now The Long & Foster Companies). He has served as Principal Broker of ERA Bunnell & Co. Realtors and InSight Realty, Inc. Licensed as a real estate salesperson in 1984 and as a real estate broker in 1987, he has represented thousands of residential resale, new homes, investment and commercial buyers and sellers. Lawrence attended Rollins College, obtained his B.A. in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1983 and Post-Bacalaureate Certificate in Information Systems from VCU in 1998.