WASHINGTON — The board of directors of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today approved an additional $9 million in funding for broker data management platform Upstream. The company behind the platform, UpstreamRE, is expected to repay the funds when it achieves profitability. The funds — $500,000 this year and $1 million in 2018 for administrative costs — will be in the form of loans and taken out of NAR’s operating reserves, which currently stand at about $75 million, John Pierpoint, NAR’s chief financial officer, said at the Realtors Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo this week. The increased funding signals NAR leaders’ willingness hedge its bets on a venture that promises to put real estate data in the control of the trade group’s 1.2 million members, rather than companies the association views as well-funded outsiders, particularly Zillow Group. Upstream announced a pivot this week, dramatically shrinking its scope. Just two years ago it promised to be …
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