Dallas Lesbian Creates Website That Lets You Rate People

Finally, the sense of pleasure that you get when you write a particularly scathing (or complementary) review on a website like Yelp! can be extended to the people you see every day. Dallas dynamo Lacey Brutschy has real estate in her blood and is poised to revolutionize the way we do "social" with a new site called Exxempt.com.

"You can rank everything and everyone, and hold the world accountable," said Brutschy.

Her new website Exxempt.com, which is set to launch on March 4, allows you to 'review' everyone you cross paths with, from the incredibly lovely guy to whom you give your dry cleaning, to the impeccably dressed girl who greets you in the lobby in your high rise, from the next door neighbor who ignores your pleas to turn down the music at 2 a.m. every single solitary Wednesday, to the guy who you are sure spits in your eggs at brunch. "No one is Exxempt," as the site's tagline reminds its users.

That is the kind of knowledge that Brutschy believes people deserve to have. Her website idea grew from a Dallas real estate site to a social media site, a Yelp meets TripAdvisor meets MySpace meets Facebook meets Twitter sort of thing where truth telling is the only way in go in the name of finding and building the kind of community you truly want to be a part of.

You can rank people by five main categories: intelligence, sense of style, humor, dateablity and character. And you can do the rankings both professionally and personally so you know if these are people you want to live with, hang out with, work with, heck -- even date.

Brutschy's family has long been involved in the ownership and management of commercial real estate. Brutschy was eight when she started working for her dad, sweeping, putting cement blocks on the roof to keep it from blowing off in a hurricane, picking up cigarette butts. She characterizes her upbringing as "Conservative and strict. But surprisingly humorous."

Born in LA, Brutschy lived in Carmel until she was six, and then her family relocated to Hilton Head, SC. At 16, she worked as a property manager until she left for college at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas in 2005, where she graduated at the top of her class.

Although SMU was very conservative and Brutschy felt like "a square peg in a round hole," she admitted it was "really easy to find people to be with whether you're a super fratted out, double-popped collar kind of guy or a guy doing fire poi in a black box theater."

Brutschy majored in film and broadcast journalism and, during her down time, worked at the Dallas Voice. When she graduated, she began working in reality TV and indie movies. But it wasn't long before her dad said he could use her back home in the family business and Brutschy heeded the call.

"I did everything from fixing the AC units to installing toilets, doing all of the cosmetic updates with my parents to leasing the units to doing the taxes to acquiring and negotiating properties, even on the courthouse steps from tax sales," said Brutschy. In those two years, she also built the company's website, HHICommercialProperties.com, and got her real estate license in November 2009, both of which were about to pay off for her. Big time.

A professor that worked for a Dallas real estate firm said he could get her a job, so she moved back and began selling residential real estate at Keller Williams, and later moved to Carolyn Shamis, saying, "It was great to take this woman's legacy and further it in a totally different way."

Brutschy thought that Carolyn Shamis needed a new website that allowed people to rate their realtor, noting that, "There's no accountability and everyone gets their three percent commission even if they don't really advocate for their clients." But the broker had other ideas.

Brutschy maintained that people deserve to know who's working for them, and her website idea grew from a real estate site to a social media site that allows you to rank not only businesses, but individuals. It's the site that helps you figure out where you belong.

"No one is doing it in the free-market attitude, no-holds-barred way that Exxempt.com is," said Brutschy. "I met with a web developer who I found on the side of the road holding a sign that read 'Web designer needs work badly.' So I said 'I don't know who you are, but if you're that hungry, I want you on my team.' And when I saw his qualifications, I was hooked."

Together, they created Exxempt.com, which is scheduled to launch on March 4 with an exclusive, invite-only, kickoff party at one of Dallas' hottest venues. Dallas' top influencers will be there.

"I hope it gives people a place that they didn't have before. It's a great tool for people to find where they belong," said Brutschy. "It doesn't matter if you've lived here forever or are just moving here. The goal is to help you find your people and see what each neighborhood is."

A cool feature of Exxempt.com is that it allows you to follow where the top five people in a neighborhood are going. If you like where they've gone, you'll probably want to go where they're going. You can even make introductions between people if you think they'll get along.

"The interpersonal connection. That's what we want to promote," said Brutschy. Exxempt.com is all about belonging. Everyone belongs somewhere. The trick is finding your place, telling the truth about who you are, where you go and what you like.

"It's fun to be cool. Everyone wants to belong. And the truth is everyone is cool. It's just a matter of who they are allowing to decide what cool looks like for them," she said.

The site will also provide feedback about people and places. Brutschy is steeling herself for the fact that not everyone is going to take such honestly well. But, she said, consumers deserve the truth and Exxempt.com is going to tell it.

"It's hard to receive honest feedback. Some people won't be able to take it the right way and will be really hurt and bitter. But this is an accountability site," said Brutschy. "Everyone says they want a higher standard. They want to know why someone broke up with them or why a customer was unhappy. I know it's important and I also know it will cause controversy, because getting reviewed can be really in your face. But if people tell you the same thing over and over, then it's probably true and you have the opportunity to fix it."

Exxempt.com is not the only big thing Brutschy has in the hopper. She's also poised to work with an organization that helps LGBT people get out of Rwanda and Uganda, where it's illegal to be gay, and assist gay people to assimilate elsewhere. She foresees buying boutique hotels with some of the space designated for refugees to live while they get back on their feet.

"I really see myself being able to give other people purpose and belonging. My definition of success is being happy with yourself and being able to make the world for people around you easier and better," said Brutschy.

Success is clearly in the cards for this self-confessed nerd who is as quirky as she is successful, selling more than $10 million in real estate in 2014 and with already more than $2 million under contract in 2015. She's a '90s rap fan and will flatten anyone who challenges her at karaoke.

"I'm phenomenal on the mic," she teases, and anyone who's heard her drop "99 Problems" at a karaoke bar can vouch for that. The future holds a lot for this lesbian real estate and web geek with a passion for service to others.

"Knowing that the world was affected by the change that I helped to make, that's what would make me happy," said Brutschy. "My uncle used to write blank checks to kids who needed money to go to college. I think that's pretty cool, to be able to change someone's life like that. That's what I'd like. That's what success is."

Disclosure: Lacey Brutschy and the author Jenny Block are romantically involved.

For more information, visit www.exxempt.com