{"id":4101,"date":"2008-08-26T07:53:23","date_gmt":"2008-08-26T14:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2008-08-26T07:53:23","modified_gmt":"2008-08-26T14:53:23","slug":"why-are-we-wasting-our-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4101\/why-are-we-wasting-our-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are We Wasting Our Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few days, Redfin got into it with a bunch of other real estate websites. What else is new?<\/p>\n<p>In an argument about who has the most homes for sale, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\/2008\/08\/22\/how-accurate-are-listings-on-real-estate-sites\/\">began on TechCrunch<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.redfin.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/techcrunch_asks_the_24000_question.html\">continued on Redfin&#8217;s blog<\/a>, one participant argued that what consumers really care about is advanced filtering options, not inventory.<\/p>\n<p>Which got us thinking. We spend a fair bit of time on advanced filtering options. And we&#8217;ve always thought we need to spend more: every week, we get requests for filters on parking, townhouses, waterfront location (Seattle), historic designation (DC), pool (LA).<\/p>\n<p>So Redfin&#8217;s Jim Lamb just analyzed 70,000 Redfin searches from Thursday, August 21 to find out which of Redfin.com&#8217;s search filters people really use. It&#8217;s an analysis we&#8217;ve done before, to figure out whether <a title=\"Redfin blog post on how to price a listing, how consumers filter on price\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.redfin.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/549999_is_a_better_price_for_your_home_than_550001_5_better.html\">a listing gets seen more if it&#8217;s priced to be included in web searches<\/a>, like at $449,500 rather than $450,100.<\/p>\n<p>What we learned last night was a little demoralizing. People filter on price, beds, baths, sometimes square feet, and new (or very old) listings, but not much else:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/redfinfilteringoptions.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4102\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/redfinfilteringoptions.jpg\" alt=\"Redfin\\'s Search Options\" width=\"447\" height=\"159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/redfinfilteringoptions.jpg 771w, https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/redfinfilteringoptions-300x107.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Price: Min 24.8%; Max 53.9%<\/li>\n<li>Beds: Min 32.8%<\/li>\n<li>Baths: Min 21.4%<\/li>\n<li>Square Feet: Min 15.1%; Max 2.4%<\/li>\n<li>Days on Redfin: 12.7% (this would include requests for new listings, listing on Redfin more than 45 days, or filters on on a specific number of days on Redfin; I suspect that almost all the volume comes from request for new listings)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On looking at this, Matt Goyer said, &#8220;Who doesn&#8217;t filter on square footage?&#8221; I could only sadly shake my head. Consumers completely skip the fancy stuff:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lot Size: Min 5.5%; Max 0.55%<\/li>\n<li> Year Built: Min 5.4%; Max 1.1%<\/li>\n<li>Has view: 1.1%<\/li>\n<li> New construction: 0.24%<\/li>\n<li> Fixer-uppers: 0.36%<\/li>\n<li> Open houses: 0.7%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So even as we argued that filtering options aren&#8217;t as important as inventory, we didn&#8217;t really believe it: our engineers have been hard at work on&#8230; you guessed it, more filtering options. Just now, it&#8217;s parking &amp; townhouse filters. (Every week, I get a crazy screed from a consumer about how much people hate townhouses&#8230; which I read&#8230; from my townhouse.)<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Are we wasting our time? Confusing our consumers? As it is, we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4101\/why-are-we-wasting-our-time\/#more-4101\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few days, Redfin got into it with a bunch of other real estate websites. What else is new? In an argument about who has the most homes for sale, which began on TechCrunch and continued on Redfin&#8217;s blog, one participant argued that what consumers really care about is advanced filtering options, not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"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":[6,9,5,27,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-photography","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-redfincom","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"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":4101,"position":0},"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&#8217;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 &quot;Flourishing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6885,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6885\/how-can-you-benefit-from-the-sexiest-search-site-in-the-real-estate-20-world-without-becoming-an-employee-redfincom-is-going-into-the-referrals-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":1},"title":"How can you benefit from the sexiest search site in the Real Estate 2.0 world without becoming an employee? Redfin.com is going into the referrals business","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I had this news last night, under embargo, but I was tied up with geek stuff. The Cliff's Notes: In areas where Redfin.com has MLS reach but does not have its own agents on the ground, starting today it will begin offering client referrals to agents it has screened and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1106,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1106\/the-numbers-are-clearly-bogus-mr-kelman-show-us-the-files\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":2},"title":"The numbers are clearly bogus, Mr. Kelman. Show us the files . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Kevin Boer thought he found an error in Redfin's accounting of its MLS results. What he found turned out to be trivial, which led to another round of war-hooping from the Redfin tribe. Meanwhile, our new contributor James Hsu has demonstrated that Redfin's horse runs behind the middle of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1994,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1994\/budgeting-redfin-making-the-numbers-work-in-a-corporate-brokerage\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":3},"title":"Budgeting Redfin: Making the numbers work in a corporate brokerage","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Peter Coy at BusinessWeek made a point of asking Redfin's Glenn Kelman a real estate question. Kelman's answer wasn't awful, but it wasn't great. (The negotiation advantage for unsold spec home occurs once a quarter, not just once a fiscal year.) But it was funny to me, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18099,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18099\/overnight-news-like-orren-boyle-in-atlas-shrugged-redfins-glenn-kelman-makes-rules-because-he-cant-make-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: Like Orren Boyle in Atlas Shrugged, Redfin\u2019s Glenn Kelman makes rules because he can\u2019t make\u00a0money.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Glenn Kelman the Orren Boyle of real estate? While Basecamp is graciously showing the world how to be based in business, Kelman is the social savior who has a solution for every problem except Redfin.com's currently-completely-useless marketing strategy. The flavor of the micro-second? Pocket listings. I don't like them,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Group Therapy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9161,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9161\/redfin-turns-a-profit\/","url_meta":{"origin":4101,"position":5},"title":"Redfin Turns a profit","author":"John Rowles","date":"July 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Mention \"Redfin\" to many real estate traditionalistas and among the \"Yeah, buts...\"\u00a0 the closer is usually, \"Yeah, but they aren't profitable.\" That is no longer the case. Congratulations, Glenn. As we ponder the future of this business,\u00a0 the impact that technology is having and will have, and why it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Real Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}