{"id":6242,"date":"2008-12-24T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T20:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6242"},"modified":"2009-02-27T22:15:45","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T05:15:45","slug":"by-publishing-enough-of-the-right-information-mom-and-pop-teams-can-triumph-over-redfin-vows-realtybots-or-big-name-brokers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6242\/by-publishing-enough-of-the-right-information-mom-and-pop-teams-can-triumph-over-redfin-vows-realtybots-or-big-name-brokers\/","title":{"rendered":"By publishing enough of the right<\/em> information, Mom and Pop teams can triumph over Redfin, VOWs, Realty.bots or big-name brokers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’d like to introduce you to some really nice folks. Take a look:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The couple on the left are the Anybodys, Jeff and Janice. Jeff is a middle-manager for GE. Unless he owns a Pizza Hut. Unless he’s a Civil Engineer for the county health department. Janice is a schoolteacher — or a stay-at-home mom — or the assistant manager of the parts department at the Saturn dealership.<\/p>\n

On the right is their real estate agent — real live real estate agent Allie Howard.<\/p>\n

This is good real estate marketing, profoundly effective in all kinds of ways. Virtually anybody can see themselves as the Anybodys. They are exceptional examples of everything that is unexceptional in American middle-class life. And Allie is just geeky enough, just semi-hip enough, just po-mo enough and just down-to-business enough to connect with the Anybodys in the intense but decisively temporary marriage that is a home search.<\/p>\n

Everything in this photo is perfect. The clothing is casual but expensive — in just the right colors. That hand-written type face is an homage to the “Hello!” of the original Macintosh. Everything about this image is devised to make you feel comfortable about proceeding with a real estate transaction with Allie.<\/p>\n

So who is responsible for this inspired piece of marketing?<\/p>\n

Redfin.com<\/a>, that’s who.<\/p>\n

That’s right, the home of the geeks is working very hard to become the just-geeky-enough place for Janice — not Jeff — to shop for a home.<\/p>\n

Just two weeks ago, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman was wondering among the Bloodhounds if hi-tech companies like his would crush all the Mom and Pop brokerages<\/a>. But here we see that self-same Kelman working very hard to compete with Mom and Pop on their own turf.<\/p>\n

Let me make two interstitial points, if I might.<\/p>\n

First, do not underestimate Glenn Kelman. We’ve beat up on a lot of people in the last 30 months, but, as far as I can tell, Glenn Kelman is the only one among them who is actively trying to figure out what he’s getting wrong. That doesn’t mean we have been right, necessarily. But Kelman is going to keep testing and revising his Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’d like to introduce you to some really nice folks. Take a look: The couple on the left are the Anybodys, Jeff and Janice. Jeff is a middle-manager for GE. Unless he owns a Pizza Hut. Unless he’s a Civil Engineer for the county health department. Janice is a schoolteacher — or a stay-at-home mom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[4,6,5,27,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-marketing","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":13319,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13319\/giving-a-150-hitter-more-at-bats-only-leads-to-more-runners-left-on-base\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":0},"title":"Giving a .150 Hitter More At-Bats Only Leads To More Runners Left On Base","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"October 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The title is an analogy -- for the .150 hitter, substitute a real estate agent who couldn't sell a house for a nickel to a homeless person -- and for 'runners left on base' a sales board filled with prospects but no sales. Though unmentioned, it's the manager penciling the\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":1908,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1908\/voting-for-this-weeks-peoples-choice-award-is-open-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":1},"title":"Voting for this week’s People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Vote here. The short list just keeps getting longer. I'd apologize, but I'm cutting ruthlessly. We're just getting a lot of truly excellent entrants. Voting runs through to 12 Noon PDT\/MST Monday. I'll announce the winners of this week's awards soon thereafter. Here is this week's short list of nominees.Jim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1882,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1882\/the-traditional-real-estate-agent-like-classical-music-is-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":2},"title":"The Traditional Real Estate Agent, like Classical Music, is Dead","author":"Jeff Kempe","date":"September 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Would someone please tell Greg Swann, Russell Shaw, Kris Berg, Jeff Brown, et al?\u00a0 I\u2019d hate to see them suffer the same humiliation as\u00a0 Cecilia Bartoli, who apparently didn\u2019t get the word that Vivaldi\u2019s been pass\u00e9 for over two hundred years. \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/485\/repeat-after-me-mr-realtor-what-do-you-charge\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":3},"title":"Repeat after me: Mr. Realtor, what do you charge?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my real estate column from today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). Today should be a fun day. My editor told me that, in respose to last week's column, a Realtor called him, threatening to turn me in to the Arizona Department of Real Estate. I can't imagine what the\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":928,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/928\/the-carnival-of-real-estate-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":4},"title":"The Carnival of Real Estate . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"...is up at Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update. And the winner is... our own Kris Berg with The Plastic Pig (and How to Pick Your Agent). Kris also wins The Carnival of BloodhoundBlog, a testament to her excellence amidst the stiff competition around here. The Carnival of Real Estate Investing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1569,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1569\/the-imperative-of-divorced-commissions-part-1-fundamentals-of-narcissism\/","url_meta":{"origin":6242,"position":5},"title":"The Imperative of Divorced Commissions, Part 1: Fundamentals of Narcissism.","author":"Jeff Kempe","date":"June 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was running in a local park a few days ago. The road into the park is about a half mile long and barely wide enough for two cars to pass in opposite directions, thus there are \"NO PARKING AT ANY TIME\" signs on both sides the entire length. As\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\/6242","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=6242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7201,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions\/7201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}