[photopress:2_1.jpg,full,alignright]We just can’t be the only ones not reporting on this. That’s all I can say. It’s a sad day. Click on every word in Greg’s post for the full scoop heard round the world regarding Redfin and Web 2.0.
Maybe they should have closed for holiday during Glenn’s honeymoon. I never called my office once during my honeymoon…hope Glenn is doing the same and shutting out all forms of communication!
Try this one…it’s quicker.
[photopress:wedding_1.png,full,alignright] You are cordially invited to a two week Moratorium on “Sticking it to the Man”. I know Greg and others have been having a lot of fun poking at Redfin, but I would like to announce that Glenn Kelman of Redfin is getting married this weekend.
Glenn and I discussed not discussing anything we discussed at our little tete-a-tete. But I would be remiss if I did not publicly congratulate him on his upcoming nuptials. Let’s give him the gift of being able to focus on his Once in a Lifetime Event, by applying the old adage, “If you don’t have something NICE to say, don’t say anything at all”.
I remember the first time I heard about Redfin. I was at a listing appointment and a young couple thinking about selling their condo in Issaquah said, “Did you see this really cool site?” They pulled up Redfin on their computer and showed me how they could “fly around” looking at property. They LOVED it. You can hardly run into a buyer, especially younger ones, here in the Seattle area who have not heard about Redfin. That is a fabulous accomplishment and it is time to give credit where credit is due.
So if you have something really NICE to say about Redfin, say it here! If you don’t have something nice to say, then let’s keep it zipped for a couple of weeks, and cut the guy some slack, so he can enjoy his pre and post wedding time.
Congratulations Glenn!
Today’s theme? Fun with real estate!
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I’ve heard a rumor, and I can’t figure out how to verify this using custom searches on Locator, but is it true that 20% of residential properties don’t appear on the MLS feeds to the Redfins and Homevalues of the world (as well as Windermere, John L. Scott, etc.). I was told that a good 1 out of 5 properties don’t have that checkbox selected that gives the MLS permission to ‘advertise on the public web’. First off, I’m surprised that so many agents would bypass the exposure; however, if they are doing it either making individual decisions, or by encouragement from their brokers, the net effect is chilling on the disintermediation plays. Consumers searching for properties using these discounters (or any of the major brokerages web sites), and not having the services of an agent to find the best properties using Locator, are shortchanging themselves.
Can anyone confirm or otherwise clarify this information? If true, it’s a dirty little secret.
As I was doing my normal Sunday online reading, I found this NY Times article about discount commissions that really was a featurette for Redin. In the article, there are anecdotal comments about seller’s agents not being willing to show Redfin buyers their listing. There is also a quote from our own Marlow Harris of 360Digest.com alluding to the possibility that these stories may be more PR than truth (my words, not Marlow’s). A Windermere agent is quoted as saying that such claims are “absolute absurdity.”
So I have a couple of questions. First, are there a significant number of listing agents out there that will look down on buyers who use non-traditional brokerages (even to the degree of making themselves unavailable to show the home) or is this just great PR spin? If there is any truth in the claims, I presume that these uncooperative agents take this stance because they don’t feel like they are paid to fill the traditional role of the selling agent (e.g. showing the home). If that’s the case, then why don’t these listing agents incorporate a variable rate commission (similar to the strategy builders have used for some time to address the selling agent who magically appears after the site agent has done all the work of “selling” the buyer on the new home)? NWMLS rules would allow it, so why is it not being done?
Yesterday’s list of ten stories was fun to write… So in cleaning out the 400+ unread stories that had accumulated in my feed reader, I came up with these ten stories for today:
UPDATE: After playing with the service, Joel goes so far as to give Reply.com the 3-finger salute.
Just for fun, I started recording notes on real estate conversations I enjoy following and I decided that when the list hit ten, I’d hit publish:
When I wrote my “Baby Takes a Bow” piece which took about 30 seconds, I knew I was opening Pandora’s Box, and would have to back up my one liners with some extensive writing on each topic outlined therein.
My definition of Pandora’s Box is the one one that attributes “the box” to a “woman’s womb” from which new life springs forth. While I do not necessarily agree with Inman’s new three part series on negating the mls offering started yesterday, or all of David Barry’s undertakings around the country, clearly I am not the only one trying to pry open Pandora’s Box. The box WILL be opened! Whether the DOJ or David Barry choose in the end to take the ultimate credit, truth is, it is just simply time for the box to be broken open by everyone at once.
If we all take out our respective crowbars, the box will open. Who takes credit for having opened it, and clearly David Eraker and those who came before him will deserve some of that credit as well, who takes the ultimate credit is irrelevant. In fact the DOJ is my best hope for getting the credit, so that the “new life that springs forth” will be on a national scale as only the DOJ can do best.
In this quote from my most recent beginnings of a very long explanation, you will quickly see just WHO Zillow can replace, which by current accounts and statistics may be up to 90% of the industry as it exists today.
“If you stand up from the computer with the value in your hand before you go to the house, and you stand by that value after you arrive at the house, because the computer “SET” the value…you are giving the seller the equivalent of a Zillow produced valuation…which is FREE. Any agent who thinks a computer spits out a home “value” via a CMA Program, is easily replaced by Zillow.”
To some extent, those who wrote those great CMA programs, like IRIS/Lightning and Top Producer and way back to Coldwell Banker’s very first CMA software which predated them all, are responsible for agents believing that a computer can value a home.
To a greater extent large brokers, and local mls classes, that mislead new agents into thinking they can “value a home” on day ONE after they receive their license, by using these programs, are even more responsible for this thinking.
When the Pareto Principal changes from an 80/20 rule to a 90/10 rule, as was told to me in Real Estate Broker Classes, with only 10% of agents being competent, then it is time. It is time for Pandora’s Box to be opened. It is time to stop that snowball from rolling down the hill, it is time to stop that train that doesn’t seem to have brakes. It is time to roll back the clock and begin again.
Contrary to Inman’s new series, we do not have to roll the clock back 35 years to the beginnings of the mls. We only have to back up to the day that buyers were supposed to become “1st class citizens”, and begin anew from that point. Because an agent who cannot value a home for a seller, cannot with any sense of credibility, value one for a buyer either.
David’s dwindling influence at Redfin has met it’s happy PR end. Now it is Glenn full-time, all the time! 🙂
While we’ve had a few run-ins with David Eraker in the past, he always kept his chin up and I wish him the best. It will definitely be interesting to see if he sticks with real estate for his next venture.