{"id":1085,"date":"2007-02-27T20:19:50","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2007-05-13T19:57:26","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T02:57:26","slug":"does-redfincom-have-tougher-agents-or-tougher-clients-a-challenge-in-bloodhound-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1085\/does-redfincom-have-tougher-agents-or-tougher-clients-a-challenge-in-bloodhound-red\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Redfin.com have tougher agents or tougher clients? A challenge in Bloodhound red . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I represented the buyer in the sale of a home worth $450,000. Luxury home on the first tee of an exclusive golf course, right next to a million-dollar custom-home lot.<\/p>\n

How much did we pay? $310,000.<\/p>\n

Now the truth is, I had an ideally-situated buyer and we were working with an ideally-dys-situated seller. Fortune favors the well-prepared, but, in the end, we simply got lucky.<\/p>\n

But if I wanted to, I could present that story in such a way that, by the time I finished warming your ears, you’d want to rename Wednesday after me. (Take that, Odin!)<\/p>\n

And welcome to Redfinland<\/a>. They’re determined to take a victory lap, and let ’em. As Kevin Boer<\/a> said to me in email:<\/p>\n

In all fairness to Redfin, if the numbers had come out the opposite, the re.net would have been all over it, showing it as “proof” that they suck.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. And as much as CEO Glenn Kelman resists the characterization of Redfin.com as a discount real estate brokerage, it remains that their marketing appeal is based on saving clients’ money. It’s hard to doubt that discount-seekers would be discount-finders.<\/p>\n

But, as I discussed last night<\/a>, Redfin’s results are not a slam-dunk validation of its agents skills, zeal, rigor, vigor or charm. The much more likely explanation for the results it reports is that its clients — unlike swimmingly-besotted house-lovers — are congenitally low-balling INTJs and INTPs who do not focus on anything that can’t be expressed numerically.<\/p>\n

Tougher agents or tougher clients? There is a way to find out for sure. Last night I made this proposal to Kelman:<\/p>\n

I’ll make you a deal. Send me PDF scans of the 170 files. I’ll make a server available for FTP, and y’all can redact for personal details. I can reconstruct a transaction from the file, so I can vet the quality of the work in full, not just as regards price. For example, I can see how complicated the deals are, and how much Redfin’s buyer’s agents are bringing to the transaction. I’ll report my findings in detail, and you can get your incredible PR machine to promote them far and wide. Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I represented the buyer in the sale of a home worth $450,000. Luxury home on the first tee of an exclusive golf course, right next to a million-dollar custom-home lot. How much did we pay? $310,000. Now the truth is, I had an ideally-situated buyer and we were working with an ideally-dys-situated seller. Fortune favors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-redfincom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/281\/if-bill-clinton-ran-redfincom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":0},"title":"If Bill Clinton ran Redfin.com . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Of the two \"innovative\" cowbird brokerages discussed in this morning's New York Times, the stronger of the two is BuySideInc.com. They're rebating even more of the buyer's agent's commission than is Redfin.com, but their actual profit center is in originating the loan -- a well-understood, fast, cheap, office-job function. Even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":236,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/236\/how-to-exterminate-a-cowbird-a-comedy-in-three-acts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":1},"title":"How to exterminate a cowbird — a comedy in three acts . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Act I -- Why Realtors hate discount listings... People think ordinary on-the-ground Realtors hate discount listings because of the discount. That's may be true of many real estate brokers, but real-life Realtors have two much better reasons to hate discount listings. First, the Buyer's Agent will have to do all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2917,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2917\/redfincom-wakes-up-smells-coffee-staples-galoshes-to-forehead-now-redfin-buyers-will-be-able-to-see-homes-in-an-almost-normal-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":2},"title":"Redfin.com wakes up, smells coffee, staples galoshes to forehead: Now Redfin buyers will be able to see homes in an almost-normal way","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The uncontested brilliance of the free market is that it is self-correcting. People like me have been bitching all along that Redfin.com's approach to buyer representation was misguided if not outright evil. Conceding some huge chunk of the buyer's agent's commission to the buyer was certainly consumer-friendly, but pushing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/289\/detailing-the-mechanics-of-the-redfin-cost-shift\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":3},"title":"Detailing the mechanics of the Redfin cost shift . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking on the New York Times' fawning coverage of Redfin.com, Jim Kimmons at Transforming Real Estate details the details behind the cooperation\/compensation model of real estate brokerage:The contention that the listing agent should be pleased to show an \"eager buyer\" the home when they come with no agent is just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1894,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1894\/why-do-traditional-realtors-despise-discounters-like-redfincom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":4},"title":"Why do traditional Realtors despise discounters like Redfin.com?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me, guest-posting at Blown Mortgage while Morgan Brown is on vacation:So why is a limited-service listing unlikely to succeed? If you\u2019re in a high-demand market like Seattle, it just might. But in most of America, right now, a home must be marketed perfectly from the first day or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5446,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5446\/offering-more-service-to-buyers-for-a-bigger-slice-of-the-buyers-agents-commission-redfin-moves-closer-to-traditional-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1085,"position":5},"title":"Offering more service to buyers for a bigger slice of the buyer’s agent’s commission, Redfin moves closer to traditional real estate","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When I represent buyers, I see my biggest responsibility as taking the fear away. Yes, I need to find and show houses. Yes, I need to write contracts and supervise inspections. Yes, I need to husband everything through the lender and the title company. But the job of jobs is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}