{"id":6071,"date":"2008-12-12T11:07:19","date_gmt":"2008-12-12T18:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6071"},"modified":"2008-12-13T13:59:26","modified_gmt":"2008-12-13T20:59:26","slug":"is-web-technology-squashing-the-little-guy-in-real-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6071\/is-web-technology-squashing-the-little-guy-in-real-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Web Technology Squashing the Little Guy in Real Estate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

About once a week, someone asks Redfin who built our real estate search site<\/a> (sometimes they don’t ask, they just take<\/a>). Since we built our site on our own, we can’t recommend a development partner, but we can offer advice to other brokers building MLS-powered sites.<\/p>\n

And our first suggestion would be to bring your wallet. If you include all the employee salaries, benefits, hardware, online services, data costs and hosting costs, Redfin will probably spend $4+ million on research and development in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"Is<\/a>

Is Technology Tilting the Playing Field Toward Large Brokers?<\/p><\/div>\n

That may sound like an imposing number but we have costs you can avoid. We spend at least $1 million on commerce tools for tracking offers and listings<\/a>, so we can give customers the same 24-hour web support you expect from a bank, limiting the administrative burdens on our agents. A traditional brokerage doesn’t have to invest in this area.<\/p>\n

We probably spend another $1 million making mistakes you could easily duck by following us at a safe distance of, say, six months. We try to avoid mistakes, but a mistake is often just a good decision outpaced by circumstances.<\/p>\n

For example, when we had no money<\/span><\/span> — scratch that, (thanks David Selinger) when no mapping technology existed that supported user-controlled panning and satellite imagery — it made sense to build our own map. Later, Virtual Earth was the best choice<\/a> because Google was slow to draw hundreds of property outlines on its map. Now the best choice for us is Google Maps<\/a> because we figured out how to outline all the properties at once<\/a>. We just switched to GMaps today, and now it’s on the front page of TechMeme.<\/p>\n

I think we’re the only folks in real estate who have used Virtual Earth, Google Maps and a proprietary map, so if you have questions on the relative merits of each service, please just drop us a line.<\/p>\n

That leaves the cost at around a few million dollars per year to build a real estate search site with national scale, which is still too expensive. While hardware costs decrease every year, Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About once a week, someone asks Redfin who built our real estate search site (sometimes they don’t ask, they just take). Since we built our site on our own, we can’t recommend a development partner, but we can offer advice to other brokers building MLS-powered sites. And our first suggestion would be to bring your […]<\/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":[4,5,27,25],"tags":[276],"class_list":{"0":"post-6071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-redfincom","9":"category-zillowcom","10":"tag-redfin","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19138,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/19138\/redfin-runs-out-of-other-brokers-agents-to-milk-resolves-to-milk-its-own-instead\/","url_meta":{"origin":6071,"position":0},"title":"Redfin runs out of other brokers’ agents to milk, resolves to milk its own, instead.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThere are two real estate brokerage business models: Selling houses or milking agents. Redfin yearns to discover that it can't do either.\u201d \u2013Greg\u00a0Swann I've spent much of this month documenting how ineptly Redfin.com lists homes for sale. It wasn't something I set out to do. I've been dour about them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-23-at-8.16.39-AM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"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":6071,"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":279,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/279\/work-the-numbers-redfincom-is-not-much-of-a-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":6071,"position":2},"title":"Work the numbers: Redfin.com is not much of a business . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"If the New York Times devotes 2700 words to a puff piece on Redfin.com, how many of those words would you expect represent the contrary point of view? If you said 1,350, to reflect the chimerical idea of balance, you haven't spent much time reading the New York Times. If\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":1422,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1422\/60-minutes-delivers-400-hits-in-sixty-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":6071,"position":3},"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":[]},{"id":2116,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2116\/dont-feel-badly-traditional-brokers-even-french-people-hate-stahl\/","url_meta":{"origin":6071,"position":4},"title":"Don’t feel badly, traditional brokers- even FRENCH people hate Stahl","author":"Lani Anglin","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you not up to speed, the 10 second version of why we\u00a0can't stand\u00a0Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes dates back a few months to a grossly slanted piece that amounted to Stahl's stacking the story to \"prove\" that traditional real estate brokerages are stupid swindlers even if they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10658,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10658\/whos-afraid-of-redfincom\/","url_meta":{"origin":6071,"position":5},"title":"Who’s Afraid of Redfin.com?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Bob Haywood, an Owasso, OK real estate agent makes a case for why you should be aware of Redfin.com.\u00a0 Bob articulates, from behind the cloaked wall on Active Rain, why Redfin.com is the REAL agent of change in the real estate industry.\u00a0 Read what Bob has to say: You should\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\/6071","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=6071"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6123,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions\/6123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}