Read on Twitter
OK, let’s dig in. This is going to be a long thread.
Jack Ryan seems like a smart guy with his heart in the right place. That’s not enough. Important people are listening to him and facts matter. https://twitter.com/gregrobertson/status/1334745741865091073
Jack Ryan seems like a smart guy with his heart in the right place. That’s not enough. Important people are listening to him and facts matter. https://twitter.com/gregrobertson/status/1334745741865091073
Choices are good, whether on price, service, or product. In Seattle we’ve had every compensation model under the sun for decades (MLS4Owners, Redfin, Faira, MySecretAgent, FSBO markets).
You’re all welcome to the competition.
You’re all welcome to the competition.
We have to document the misrepresentation of facts. Because a mountain of half-truths becomes a monument to false premises. And people with friends in high places make decisions based on those premises.
There is an interminable parade of people with big ideas coming to real estate that lack the experience in the industry to “know what they don’t know.”
I was one of them, even 10 yrs into the business. So let’s chalk these misrepresentations up to simply, “Didn’t get it yet.”
I was one of them, even 10 yrs into the business. So let’s chalk these misrepresentations up to simply, “Didn’t get it yet.”
Begin rough quoting of podcast: “At Goldman Sachs trading prices were going down, why not in for transactions in real estate?”
This is a well-worn opening storyline. Insert another industry and ignore the flimsy false equivalence. We’ll return to this.
This is a well-worn opening storyline. Insert another industry and ignore the flimsy false equivalence. We’ll return to this.
“We’re a full service brokerage firm, we find homes for buyers and sellers, do real time bidding, making predictions, better algorithmic trading.”
Great--bring us better intelligence and tech.
Great--bring us better intelligence and tech.
“You can’t change the outcome or cost structure, service level if you use the exact same process (MLS)--you have to use a totally different process.”
Binary questions oversimplifying concepts will repeat.
Binary questions oversimplifying concepts will repeat.
“One of the MLSs on the West Coast wanted to do Coming Soon and they (NAR) said no you can’t.”
This is simply not true. NAR policies allow for Coming Soon if any market wants to adopt it. The monument is beginning to be built...
This is simply not true. NAR policies allow for Coming Soon if any market wants to adopt it. The monument is beginning to be built...
Access to the lockbox is where things start getting fast and loose:
“Why are we not allowed access to/why are we not allowed to show the home? You can’t get access, even though you’re not a registered agent in California.”
Greg called this out. And what is a registered agent?
“Why are we not allowed access to/why are we not allowed to show the home? You can’t get access, even though you’re not a registered agent in California.”
Greg called this out. And what is a registered agent?
In the vast majority of cases, the listing agent will:
-Have an open house
-Ask the seller to open the door for a keyless agent
-Schedule a time to open the door for the keyless agent who can’t afford the $100/mo to make the showing process reasonable for their clients.
-Have an open house
-Ask the seller to open the door for a keyless agent
-Schedule a time to open the door for the keyless agent who can’t afford the $100/mo to make the showing process reasonable for their clients.
This is a huge point. The boogeyman evil listing agent who doesn’t want the home to sell and wants to restrict showings is the scarecrow that many other conclusions rest upon. It’s simply false in most cases.
“The industry is out of touch with the internet age. As these commissions come down, and they will, and it’s not us it’s the internet...if you’re a middleman, the internet is putting your job in some pressure. It’s not just us it’s the internet and AI is doing it.”
The agent-as-middleman concept continues to be a weak analysis. Consumers can see all of the inventory and access it directly if they want to. Yet they hire agents for additional professional services: consultation, process management, contract negotiation, etc.
“As you bring the price of the transactions down, the transactions go up (stock vs home). Fees go way down transactions go way up. The value of underlying asset goes up.”
Greg couldn’t let this one slide again.
Greg couldn’t let this one slide again.
Some sales could increase. But there’s no reasonable person who believes we all want to move significantly more often. The physical and emotional human friction of a home sale and move negates all comparisons to stock, cars, travel, etc.
Even if we love a home, we HATE moving.
Even if we love a home, we HATE moving.
The flimsiness really set in here. “Our people are W2 employees so they can use technology to make better decisions. Those independent contractors only use human intuition to remind themselves, ‘I’m just going to call Rob today’.”
It’s insulting when independent contractor agents are broadly painted as feckless and unsophisticated. The best agents I know are high tech, doggedly responsive, supremely organized, automated and almost all are ICs.
Yes, there are a lot of low producers, but the high producers are involved in the vast majority of sales. Of course, though, binary is easier, so IC=bad, employee=good.
Get ready: “Our agent might get a push notification and say to a client: ‘Maybe we should increase the price of your home because our AI says other homes nearby have sold for more. Maybe we underpriced it.”
My client, whose home I haven’t been able to get sold yet, should RAISE their price. 
Boom. AI. Don’t @ me.
Boom. AI. Don’t @ me.
“Why does a seller, when hiring a listing agent, have to hire a buyer’s agent? Can a plaintiff’s attorney pay a defendant’s attorney?” 
(Yes, the emojis are coming.)
(Yes, the emojis are coming.)
A seller doesn’t have to, they have the option of making the offer. Even if they do, they may not pay it if a buyer comes directly to the listing agent.
Buyers and sellers are negotiating toward a mutual agreement, they are not parties in conflict like the attorney example.
Buyers and sellers are negotiating toward a mutual agreement, they are not parties in conflict like the attorney example.
“If they would give away the rule making authority of course we’d join (the MLS). Let’s say we had an idea like the realtors in CA like we wanted to do coming soon and the nar and the mls shut it down.” 
That didn’t happen. Also, this tells of a lack of understanding of the broker cooperative. It literally exists to provide the rules under which cooperation can proceed with certainty and efficiency.
