{"id":1251,"date":"2007-04-02T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2007-07-16T21:00:51","modified_gmt":"2007-07-17T04:00:51","slug":"redfincoms-real-estate-consumers-bill-of-rights-a-wolf-in-sheepskin-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1251\/redfincoms-real-estate-consumers-bill-of-rights-a-wolf-in-sheepskin-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Redfin.com’s Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights: A wolf in sheepskin clothing . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a hardliner on the subject of reform in the real estate industry. Over the last nine months, I have written at great length about, among other things, the skill-set required to survive in the future of full-service real estate<\/a>, empowering buyers<\/a>, dual agency<\/a>, how the NAR makes war on the free enterprise system<\/a>, divorcing the buyer’s agent’s compensation from the listing agent’s fee<\/a>, rebuilding the MLS without the co-brokerage fee<\/a>, eliminating the IRS safe-harbor for real estate brokers to induce them to take responsibility for managing head-count<\/a>, and getting rid of real estate licensing laws — or at least the broker’s level of licensing — to promote better competition among agents and better due diligence among consumers in hiring<\/i> agents<\/a>. There’s all that, plus much, much more.<\/p>\n

Why am I going through my bona fides<\/i> as a reformer? Because I am about to denounce a failed, flawed, fractured, false reform that is to be proposed today by Redfin.com. At first blush, this “Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights” sounds like a good thing — and it easily could have been<\/i> a good thing. Instead, it uses a treacly moral suasion and calls for new legislation to ram the corrupt Redfin style of doing business down everyone’s throats.<\/p>\n

Start at the beginning. Yesterday, Kris Berg, Ardell DellaLoggia, Kevin Boer and I had this email from Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman:<\/p>\n

Hope you’re having a good weekend. We wanted to let you know, under embargo until tomorrow at 9 a.m. (or whenever Inman goes live with the news), that we’re launching a program on Monday called the consumer bill of rights.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t argue the issue of commission rates; we don’t consider it our business what others charge. It mostly focuses on simple reforms that would ensure that consumers get complete and open access to information about properties and the process of buying or selling properties.<\/p>\n

The reason we’re asking you guys about it is that we want other brokers to support these rights. This is something constructive and positive, not antagonizing and negative — which itself is a result of coaching you’ve given us.
\n Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a hardliner on the subject of reform in the real estate industry. Over the last nine months, I have written at great length about, among other things, the skill-set required to survive in the future of full-service real estate, empowering buyers, dual agency, how the NAR makes war on the free enterprise system, […]<\/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":[4,7,6,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-enduring-interest","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":144,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/144\/the-buyer-can-and-should-negotiate-the-buyers-agents-compensation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":0},"title":"The buyer can — and should — negotiate the buyer’s agent’s compensation . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"My phone hasn't rung yet, but my ears are already burning. My column in today's Arizona Republic: Buyer should negotiate compensation for agent. (A more-permanent link.) This is Ardell's turf, of course, although my take on The Big Picture is somewhat different. In any case, I expect to have my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2208,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2208\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-undermining-the-arguments-in-support-of-the-status-quo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":1},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Undermining the arguments in support of the status quo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part V: Why arguments for the current method of compensating real estate agents and against divorcing the real estate commissions must fail As I write this, the National Association of Realtors is preparing for its annual convention, to be held this year in America's playground, Las Vegas, Nevada. This year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1195,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1195\/how-are-you-gonna-bind-em-down-to-a-listing-contract-when-iggys-doing-your-deal-for-free\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":2},"title":"How are you gonna bind ’em down to a listing contract when Iggy’s doing your deal for free?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Should we say goodbye to the half-assed listing? Mike Price:Today Buyside has announced an ABA, (affiliated business arrangement) whereby any homeowner can list a home in the MLS free of charge. It's called IggysHouse.Com. Interesting branding, I couldn't find anything on their site that explained the moniker. Could be they\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":2181,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2181\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-will-the-negotiating-their-buyers-agents-compensation-make-buyers-more-practical\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":3},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Will the necessity of negotiating their buyer’s agent’s compensation make buyers more practical?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part II: How buyers can finally take a seat at the grown-up's table When a potential home-seller calls me to set up a listing appointment, very often the first question I will hear is, \"How much do you charge?\" A motivated seller is done with the house, and now all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":550,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/550\/smashing-the-idols-understanding-market-value-in-full-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":4},"title":"Smashing the idols: Understanding market value in full context . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Nominate me Ikonoklastes, for I am come to raze this temple of half-baked ideas. I want to come back to the MLS later in the week, and I have a deep need to expose the motivations of brokers, as these are distinguished from the motivations of lesser licensees. But for\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":1422,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1422\/60-minutes-delivers-400-hits-in-sixty-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1251,"position":5},"title":"60 Minutes’ Redfin.com story delivers 400 hits in 60 minutes flat . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Who says the old media is dead? In the hour just ended, Redfin.com's Real Estate Consumer's Bill of Rights: A wolf in sheepskin clothing had over 400 hits from organic search. Just think what might happen if the NAR made reasoned arguments instead of trying to club reality into shape\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","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=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}