I’d 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’t blame themselves, the business model, lack of planning, poor management skills or bad judgement. They will blame the NAR, the “real estate industrial complex”, and the “real estate monopoly”.
VC’s out there reading this, please, use your head. At this rate, you will never see a dime returned on your money. It will just go down the same hole where the other $8M already went, subsidizing the 150 or so buyers who got their 2% refund from Redfin. That was YOUR money!
Redfin believes real estate agents are overpaid. They want to reduce commissions. If they succeed, THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO REFUND. Their whole M.O., their raison d’etre, their entire business model disintegrates.
Priceless. Read the whole thing.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, Redfin.com, real estate, real estate marketing
Brian Brady says:
Marlow is correct. We’re noticing the same arrogance coming from “visionaries” in the sub-prime market who “ran out of time” to complete their mission.
Glenn should check out Bill Dallas; he’ll give him a page from the playbook for when Redfin is finished with this group of sugardaddies.
May 16, 2007 — 9:11 am
Kris Berg says:
I will comment to Marlow here, since her blog continues to think I am Spam.
Brilliant! I have been saying this from the beginning. They will either fail outright, or they will fail by having succeeded in killing the coop and the buyer’s right to distinct representation.
May 16, 2007 — 9:17 am
Jeff Brown says:
I realize I’m probably in a group of one here, but, in the end, who really cares?
It’s an emotional issue, which is why it has legs. But substance? Not hardly.
Greg, Kris, Marlow and the rest are of course, correct in their predictions of Redfin’s demise. However, in my opinion that’s like predicting somewhere in the country this coming Saturday, the local Boy Scout troop will host a pancake breakfast.
Greg’s been right from day one, as has Kris. For Heaven’s sake, Kris has personally sold more homes for 6% commission in San Diego the last 30 days than has Redfin’s entire San Diego operation in the last several months.
Yeah yeah, Kris, I know they only have one agent in San Diego. And you’re selling circles around him even though he’s giving away (or at least trying to) thousands in cash.
This is a non-issue – always has been.
May 16, 2007 — 10:19 am
Jim Gatos says:
http://gatosblog.com/?p=274
That’s about all I can say now.. LOL
May 16, 2007 — 10:23 am
Brian Brady says:
“I realize I’m probably in a group of one here, but, in the end, who really cares?”
I think you’ve got to draw the line someplace, Jeff.
It’s one thing for a shoddy cabinetmaker to advertise on cost (and inevitably fail). It’s another for said cabinetmaker to spread rumor, conjecture, and innuenedo suggesting that the REASON he’s failing is because the big furniture makers are blocking him access to materials.
The former is a value proposition; the latter is misrepresentation.
May 16, 2007 — 10:34 am
Jim Gatos says:
Brian, I have to say, that is one of the SMARTEST comments I’ve read yet!
That’s exactly what yicks me off. (Yick is a new word I joined “coined”…LOL) Redfin is going to fall flat on their faces and they are going to blame us, the NAR, and whoever else they can and say we all “conspired”..
Truth of the matter is, a REALLY GREAT and REVOLUTIONARY Concept DOES succeed… I can’t see a liar and misrepresentor as a an “innovator”.. Sorry..At least, not here…
May 16, 2007 — 11:35 am
Jim Gatos says:
I just found out more stuff that REALLY “Yicks” me off Big Time!
On the Redfin site, they list a guy, http://redfin.com/stingray/do/about_agents Alex Coon, from Boston, as having sold over 50 homes.. I checked in MLSPIN (and I know how to use it) and all I see is 12 closed sales since 2003, and 11 expired or canceleds, (my stats are better, much better).. and he worked for another company, and now he is on his own…
Good for him, but I can’t imagine MLSPIN didn’t record 38 missing closed sales! I can imagine a couple, but 38!
If I’m right, than shame on Redfin and everyone involved in this blatant lying! I made a screenshot of the site (just in case it gets “corrected…” LOL…
May 16, 2007 — 12:19 pm
ardell dellaloggia says:
Jim,
Are those listings, both listings sold and buyer agent sales?
May 16, 2007 — 2:11 pm
Jim Gatos says:
Everything… I tell you, everything… That’s the shocking part..
I ran it through MLS twice.. I will run it again…
May 16, 2007 — 5:25 pm
Jim Gatos says:
Since 2003, according to MLSPIN, Mr.Coon has had 12 Sales, ALL on the buying end. NOT as a listing agent. Hey, this is MLSPIN, (http://www.mlspin.com)… So, this guy is not a listing agent. Hey, I would not be one too if I wanted to work with Redfin LOL….
May 16, 2007 — 10:46 pm
Marlow Harris says:
I think many of their claims of transaction numbers and the success of their agents are inflated. I met a sweet Redfin gal at one of my open houses, fresh and cute as a button. She was bright and personable, but inexperienced. She told me she’d just gotten her license a few months ago and never actually “closed” any sales, just showed people homes. That seems to go against their claim that all of their agents have had at least 20 sales. I expect if questioned about that they’d say she wasn’t really an agent. Maybe they’d call her a “guide” or a “showing agent” or something like that. Nevertheless, she was a licensed agent and their website implies that all of their agents are required to have at least a minimum amount of experience and expertise when, clearly, they do not.
May 16, 2007 — 11:33 pm
Jim Gatos says:
A “Sweet” lie may be sweet, but it’s also a lie..
That’s so “Yicky…”
May 17, 2007 — 4:48 am
Brian Brady says:
Redfin’s supervising broker in California:
http://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp?License_id=01521930
owns a company dba Global Equity Solutions:
http://www2.dre.ca.gov/publicasp/pplinfo.asp?License_id=01367406
and features his expertise on MySpace:
http://myspace.com/thegene81
Not that it should concern anyone selling a $2.3 million home in Marin County. Realtors are overpaid clerks.
May 17, 2007 — 1:58 pm