{"id":7922,"date":"2009-04-17T15:13:54","date_gmt":"2009-04-17T22:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=7922"},"modified":"2009-04-17T15:13:54","modified_gmt":"2009-04-17T22:13:54","slug":"personal-relationships-1-cold-technology-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7922\/personal-relationships-1-cold-technology-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Relationships 1, Cold Technology 0"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hate to admit it — I so often have to<\/a> — but Greg Swann was right. A few months ago,we got into a debate about whether venture-funded technology companies were squashing little brokers. I told Greg the little brokers had no brains — why aren’t they all trying to build a great search site? And Greg said we had no heart<\/a> — which comes in handy when you’re trying to connect with a client as a human being.<\/p>\n

Well last March we surveyed 1,058 people who were using our site about what they wanted in a real estate agent. Some of the answers were gratifying for us to see — transparency was tops on the list<\/a> — but one that stood out was the answer as to why people who had already chosen a traditional agent had decided against using Redfin: 47% cited a pre-existing personal relationship and 33% talked about “just clicking with someone.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Translation: Greg was right. It’s probably why our partner business — which allows people using our site in the Inland Empire or the California wine country to meet a partner agent right off the bat — converts better than our direct business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, with our own agents, Redfin will keep trying to strike a new balance. My movie script for Redfin’s place in real estate has always been “Revenge of the Nerds.” Greg’s has always been something written by Aeschylus. In fact, Redfin’s story is more like one of those crazy Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books written for 12 year-olds, which is only to say that we’re still finding out way.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s telling that our guide on this journey is a big pile of data. We didn’t believe Greg until we ran a survey with 1,000 data points soI guess that proves Greg’s point right there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate to admit it — I so often have to — but Greg Swann was right. A few months ago,we got into a debate about whether venture-funded technology companies were squashing little brokers. I told Greg the little brokers had no brains — why aren’t they all trying to build a great search site? […]<\/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":[5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","7":"category-redfincom","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17857,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17857\/overnight-news-without-in-person-real-estate-training-academies-who-will-milk-the-new-licensees\/","url_meta":{"origin":7922,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: Without in-person real estate training academies, who will milk the new\u00a0licensees?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a thought that occurred to me this morning: Who's going to milk the new licensees? Eighty-five percent of all new licensees in Arizona fail within the first two years: They fail to renew their licenses and drift back into the shadows. Cynical brokers opine that everyone has at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","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":1999,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1999\/ask-the-broker-how-can-the-seller-paying-the-buyers-brokers-commission-be-fair-to-the-seller\/","url_meta":{"origin":7922,"position":1},"title":"Ask the Broker: How can the seller paying the buyer’s broker’s commission be fair to the seller?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a truly fascinating question from an agent working in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. The idea of buyer brokerage is just being introduced there, and our interlocutor is understandably mystified:I am a bit confused, to say the very least. If I write up a listing contract with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13563,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13563\/attention-brad-inman-i-dont-want-your-dipshit-most-influential-citation-again-this-year-either-but-it-is-beyond-obvious-that-i-am-by-far-the-most-influential-voice-in-the-on-line-world-of-rea\/","url_meta":{"origin":7922,"position":2},"title":"Attention Brad Inman: I don’t want your dipshit “most influential” citation again this year, either, but it is beyond obvious that I am by far the most influential voice in the on-line world of real estate.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's start with some music, just to set the mood: So: If you run in the wrong circles, these are the kind of \"arguments\" you can expect to hear about me:Greg Swann is mean. Greg Swann is rude. Greg Swann is vulgar. Greg Swann is angry. Greg Swann is cynical.Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"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":7922,"position":3},"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":649,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/649\/dual-agency-smack-down-a-category-11-hurricane-of-arguments-against-disclosed-dual-agency\/","url_meta":{"origin":7922,"position":4},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: A category 11 hurricane of arguments against Disclosed Dual Agency . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to stir up a category 11 hurricane by basing my initial entry in the Dual Agency Smack-Down on our past posts on the subject. Cathleen and I have dealt with this topic at great length in the past, so it seems reasonable to reinforce our arguments by revisiting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dual Agency"","block_context":{"text":"Dual Agency","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dual-agency\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1453,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1453\/if-lenders-divorce-the-commissions-theyll-be-divorced\/","url_meta":{"origin":7922,"position":5},"title":"If lenders divorce the commissions, they’ll be divorced","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Duncan issues a battle cry for divorced commissions:As a profession, we need to rid ourselves of Cooperative Compensation and the practice of the listing broker paying the Buyer's Agent. Cooperation between Brokers need not go away. In fact, without cooperative compensation, the practice of real estate representation will be\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\/7922","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=7922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8051,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7922\/revisions\/8051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}