[photopress:cashier.jpg,thumb,alignright]Did you find everything OK Ma’am? That’ll be $725,000. Suzy at register 4 will help you with the loan paperwork and we’ll have this all ready for you to move into in 30 days. Thanks for shopping RDC Realty.
Did you find everything OK Ma’am? That’s a really good choice, but did you notice that the house with the view is on sale today at only $699,950? The owners have already moved out of state, and need to close on this house before they can buy a home in their new state. John? Can you take these nice people back through both houses?
Did you find everything OK folks? Didn’t see anything you like? Oh, you did see something you liked, but it has a “hold” ticket on it. Would you like to leave your name and number so we can call you when another one like it becomes available?
Return on aisle 1! Return on aisle 1! What seems to be the problem ma’am? The inspector said the roof is leaking? Well we can patch that up for you, would that be OK? No? You want a brand new roof? Let me get the seller on the phone and see what we can do.
((Ring))…((ring)). Good morning, RDC Realty. You would like to see the house on 123 main at 4? Hold please. Mary? Can you meet the Smiths over at 123 Main at 4? Good. Hello Ma’am. Yes, we can have someone meet you over there. No there’s no extra charge for that. The seller is paying a sufficient commission to cover our costs. Mary will meet you there at 4 sharp.
Joe? What the heck is happening over at aisle 10?! There’s a big line over there.
Oh, that’s the new self check out lane.
What about Suzy in aisle 4? She’s doing her nails again!
Oh, the people in the self check out lane already have their loan documents. They got them online before they came in to purchase.
What’s going on over at aisle 6?
We’re adding four more self check out lanes. Aisles 6 through 10 will all be self check out lanes.
You’re not advocating transparent choices for consumers, are you Ardell?
You’re gonna get your big R revoked if you aren’t careful. 😉
What on earth is this post about?
Does RDC Realty offer a 90 day no-hassle return policy with a move-in-move-out-no-fee-clause? Only in line 11 you say.
I’m clueless…I guess I must’ve missed something. Hilarious, interesting and well-written.
I know a good read because I can’t understand it. Very G.S.
Ardell,
That is hillarious!! The self check out lines will come and go with the markets just like they did in my local Safeway. First there were two isles, then six, then two again. Your post does catch the tempo of a buzzing real estate office well.
Ardell: this may be off topic, but can i request to you post stats on the east side markets like you used to in earlier months.
No problem Sandy. I put a couple of things on my blog the other day and am still working on stats. My guess is that November is picking up, based on my experience. October looked quite alarming. I have more closings this month than any other month this year, except maybe April. I’ll try to get them up this weekend before my family arrives for Thanksgiving. But I will do them again in early December and of course early January, as it appears that the market may be better in November and December than October and possibly the preceding month or two as well.
Ardell, regarding November picking up I also noticed that a few homes in the sub $700k range that I pass almost daily on my runs which takes me through most of 98033 and parts of 98052. (Above $700k there seems to be nothing happening from my limited view.)
The obervations I made is that the homes that recently got “Sold by” signs:
1. Were listed by the big brokers but sold by Redfin.
2. Were on the market for many months before finally getting the “Sold by” in November.
Is this something you have observed to that Redfin is increasing their market share of buyers? Also, is there any common factor you see to this slight pickup? Are sellers starting to budge on prices or is it more that jumbo’s are somewhat easier to come by?
Hi tj,
I’ve been doing a huge amount of analysis and am not ready to post the results yet. Lord knows I don’t want to post half truths and get clobbered for it 🙂
I went off on a tangent and spent considerable time checking the market and Redfin to answer your questions. Last Glenn mentioned in public, at Inman back in August, he said Redfin had a 2% or so market share. That seems to be the case as applied to Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond. So since 98% of the market is not affected by Redfin activity one way or the other, I don’t think that is a factor.
I broke down the individual stats for total area and Redfin separately for all of 2006 and each quarter of 2007 the 10/1 to date. Nothing surprising or out of line there, so maybe you are simply noticing the Redfin signs more than you would others.
I can’t post individual data for any Company. But since Glenn mentioned the 2% marketshare that matched my findings, back in his Duet with Lennox Scott at Inman in San Francisco, I can answer your question. I think we just all notice the Redfin ones more, even though they only represent 2% of the total sales.
Thanks Ardell!
It looks like it shows the scewing of a very small sample. The only homes(2) I noticed on one of my frequent routes that had “sold by” signs where both Redfin. And I agree that the novelty of Redfin probably also attracts more attention. Again thanks for following up!