{"id":1820,"date":"2007-08-18T11:52:24","date_gmt":"2007-08-18T18:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2007-08-18T23:56:54","modified_gmt":"2007-08-19T06:56:54","slug":"redfin-lessons-in-how-not-to-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1820\/redfin-lessons-in-how-not-to-succeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Redfin: Lessons in How NOT to Succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

No apologies for the topic. As many problems as exist in the real estate industry — many more than the practiced elites would like to acknowledge, many fewer than the bubbleheads need to satisfy their tantrums — Redfin has made itself a prominent example of how not<\/em> to improve things.<\/p>\n

A few days ago in a comment section I wrote that Glenn Kelman’s a phony. It was the heat of the moment and I only wrote it because, well, he is<\/em> a phony. He has to be.<\/p>\n

On the one hand he has to corral capital and customers by feeding the realtor stereotype of the venal do-nothing narcissist, exemplified here<\/a> in the Sixty Minutes shtick. But on the other he desperately needs the cooperation of the very people he’s trashed if his model has any chance of succeeding, thus the apparent charm exuded at Inman Connect. He creates a crisis of disdain for the full service agent, sets himself up as the champion of the little guy to quell the crisis, then calls on the full service agents to help him do it. Quite a dance, that.<\/p>\n

But.<\/p>\n

I admit I haven’t spent a lot of time on the Redfin website. It’s not in my market, and I’ve read and seen enough to know it’s a model that’s not likely to succeed. I’ve left the particulars to others and the market to its natural flow.<\/p>\n

But I never thought the champion of the little guy would be dumb enough to try to con: the little guy. The following comes from a BHB reader, Leonard Wallace, who…I’ll let him tell it:<\/p>\n

I’m a broker in Maryland where Redfin arrived last month. I’ve read many of your [BHB] posts about Redfin, but I haven’t seen anyone comment on their blatantly false advertising. Here’s a screen shot of a listing in the Washington area:<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Leonard goes on to point out:<\/p>\n

Redfin’s minimum commission on any buyer transaction is $3000.<\/em> That never came out in the Sixty Minutes piece or anything else I’ve seen: note here<\/a>, the first page of the ‘how to buy’ section. That’s why, I suppose, a $500,000 selling price Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No apologies for the topic. As many problems as exist in the real estate industry — many more than the practiced elites would like to acknowledge, many fewer than the bubbleheads need to satisfy their tantrums — Redfin has made itself a prominent example of how not to improve things. A few days ago in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"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":[6,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-redfincom","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2549,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2549\/want-to-learn-how-to-sniff-out-bias-in-the-mainstream-media-follow-your-nose-all-the-way-to-yosemite\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":0},"title":"Want to learn how to sniff out bias in the mainstream media? Follow your nose — all the way to Yosemite","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"John Cook fingered this mash note to Redfin.com in Forbes Magazine. More of the same four-legs-good, two-legs-bad crap we expect from the mainstream media, but it's short enough that the bias is almost too obvious. Consider the attributions for quotes:\"says Kelman, 37\" \"Kelman says.\" \"one Redfin representative wrote recently\" \"read\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":11655,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11655\/adorn-that-russet-bloodhound-in-redfin-red-today-we-make-common-cause-against-stupidity-cupidity-stolidity-and-inertia-in-the-real-estate-industry-in-behalf-of-the-consumers-right-to-a-fully-info\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":1},"title":"Adorn that russet Bloodhound in Redfin red: Today we make common cause against stupidity, cupidity, stolidity and inertia in the real estate industry in behalf of the consumer’s right to a fully-informed, financially-sound and fun real estate experience.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Redfin.com is coming to Phoenix today -- 6 am PDT, to be precise. And they're coming as a VOW, which strikes me as being a potent marketing advantage, at least in the short run. And the news that might be most of interest here: BloodhoundRealty.com is coming along with them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":974,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/974\/redfin-and-the-antics-of-the-intx-crowd\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":2},"title":"Redfin and the antics of the INTx crowd . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"By my lights, one of the most interesting bits of news to come out of Inman Connect was Redfin's announcement that they plan to swim into Boston Harbor. Washington State has reasonably normal wild-West real estate laws, as does California. The natural leap, in terms of maintaining a decent level\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":1438,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1438\/not-to-be-missed-marlow-the-hammer-harris-on-the-redfin-hustle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":3},"title":"Not to be missed: Marlow (The Hammer) Harris on the Redfin hustle","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Eminently worth waiting for:I\u2019d love to be a fly on the wall at those meetings with the investors and venture capitalists. Pie charts, graphs, facts, figures. Lots of talk about disintermediation and volume of scale and that sort of thing. When Redfin fails, they won\u2019t blame themselves, the business model,\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":12308,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12308\/should-redfin-be-renamed-right-fin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":4},"title":"Should Redfin Be Renamed Right-Fin ?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"June 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A La Jolla real estate broker noticed an article on Gawker.com, about a listing Redfin published, offering a currently occupied home (that isn't for sale).\u00a0 From Coastal Real Estate Stars: A new listing appeared on Redfin this weekend\u2026.1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! Now, in fairness to the Redfin folks, garbage in= garbage\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":217,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/217\/i-think-this-my-be-the-more-interesting-redfin-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":1820,"position":5},"title":"I think this may be the more interesting RedFin news . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Founder David Eraker to Leave Redfin. It certainly couldn't be because he was acting too much like a hard-headed real estate broker... 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