Tue
Redfin hiring again?
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
[3] Comments
Apparently so, from this ad posted on Craigslist. Why not just re-hire the people they let go? Is it so they wouldn’t have to pay health insurance?
With all their technology, heat maps, search functions, blogs, forums, statistics, pie charts and graphs, Redfin should have just entered the market with a traditional pricing structure and no rebates. They could then have the best agents with no labor costs, as those agents could be very successful. Redfin would be happy, agents would be happy, clients would be happy, and I’d be hanging my hat at Redfin.
With their technology and marketing skills, they’re already offering something better than the average brokerage, they don’t have to give a discount on top of that. They could charge the actual costs of their services instead of giving so much away (like their profits) and combine the best of today’s technology with the high-touch techniques of traditional agents. They would be an awesome force in the real estate business.
Instead, what they’ve done is challenge the rest of the real estate establishment to meet them technologically, and many have stepped up to the plate with their own new innovations. I have a new interactive map on my website that has a following function, so that it appears that every listing is MY listing. My firm is also offering agent and home videos online and a home-planning service that emails buyers new listings that fit their criteria as soon as they hit the market. We even allow buyers to review and submit offers online, if that’s what they want to do. Though we’ve been online before Redfin was even “born”, real estate brokerages might not have made the move from static searches to map searches. I still find them slow and buggy, but for some folks who aren’t as familiar with the neighborhoods, they may find the maps preferable.
Maybe now’s the time for Redfin to sell their technology to another firm who can actually make money with the concept. It’s just so brilliant, what with the blogs, the forums, the meet-ups, the FAQ’s, the outreach to Amazon, Microsoft and Google employees.
Thanks for all the ideas, guys.
(NOTE: The original job listing was removed, but a new ad for Contract Agent for Redfin was posted on October 22nd.)
Where they are going wrong is the fees or cost structure. It simply cost money to move products. Yes, people want all of the discounting and free stuff they can get, but at the end of the day they hardly sale or buy real estate, so they want the expert(s) helping them. Hence, we slide back to the traditional model. The smart companies are supporting realtors and figuring out how to put as much control into the realtors hands. Why the realtors? Well, I hope because they are the experts. I live in AZ and when I traveled to Oregon I met Ruth Khiel (Tradmark is cows) I hope I spelled her name right, but she was my realtor I used. Yes, I am a local super star in AZ, so I should be able to do business on my onw in OR, right? I guess if I was stupid I could try. They have their customs, traditions, etc, which are different than AZ real estate. Hence, I hired me a realtor in OR who knew the makret. I did not even ask for a referral, because that was her money for her work.
I recall seeing the 60 Minutes episode on Redfin some time ago and recalling that it seemed a very interesting business model though the story wasn’t completely informative at the time. Your perspective is very interesting in that they may have better technology and capabilities that would well differentiate them while charging higher commissions. We don’t have Redfin in the Phoenix area. The closest I can think of would be ZipRealty which is an interesting business model as well. However, Zip doesn’t pay its actual realtors very well which means they are always going to be faced with having realtors keeping their eye on the next brokerage to go to once their business is up and running.
I find that Redfin, ZipRealty, Help-u-sale, assist you sale, etc all failed models. Our market landed up in this mess by a few things: A) President Clinton deregulating Mortgages, B) Banks being slow to react as it grow out of control and as it spun out of control, C) limited experienced real estate agents who were not making enough money per file to care. I want to focus on C: it costs XYZ to stay afloat, and when you have to give money away to do business are taking away from your ability to service the client. I feel these companies create unethical places to do business. I am not suggesting anything about commissions or fixing them, etc. I am just saying when it costs so much to do business, and you are never really getting past that level as a realtor you will not focus on the client 1st.