Redfin is a failure, never got more than 3% of market even in Seattle

To thank past customers.

Well, this guy says agents will never become obsolete, so there, end of discussionā€¦:slight_smile:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/omribarzilay/2016/07/14/real-estate-agents-will-never-become-obsolete-says-compass-ceo-robert-reffkin/#2af096b927d3

Zillow was smartā€¦milk the agents, not the customers. ā€¦nobody more gullible than a sales person desperate for leadsā€¦Agents have to work harder than everā€¦ever growing lenght of contracts and disclosures add tons of added paperwork and liability ā€¦CAR contracts are online only, constantly being changed by their lawyersā€¦

Zillow ads work. That guy Patrick Lamā€™s name is almost the first to show up in ads whenever I go on Zillow. And just today I saw two houses listed by him closed escrow.

Itā€™s a money game. The more you make the more ads you can buy on Zillow, and then you will make more.

Lam ends up working a third of his time on overhead, probably. ā€¦if you like working yourself to death, it worksā€¦If realtors were smart they would figure out how to charge zillow for all the free info they give them

Thatā€™s the business agents choose to be in. Itā€™s better to work to death and make something, versus sitting at home and not making zilch. :slight_smile:

Zillow is very smart to focus on agents, and their Zestimate is an ingenious move. What does a home owner do first when sheā€™s considering selling? Check out how much the houseā€™s worth of course. People making fun of Zestimates miss the point badly. Itā€™s a marketing tool first and foremost. Of course itā€™s not accurate. It canā€™t be super accurate and doesnā€™t need to be.

Redfin on the other hand focus on the buyers. Thatā€™s a terrible mistake. And I still see Glenn go on Bloomberg and CNBC saying itā€™s all a bubble and sellers are getting greedy. Hello? Did you just call me Mr. Homeowner greedy and delusional? How dare you? No business for you!

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Zillow should buy Houzz aka the home renovation porn site. Engage the homeowners when they are not selling, and they will come to you first when they sell.

Coldwell Banker has 3000 offices and over 100k agents, Redfin has long way to go.

But those agents pay CB money, not the other way around.

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Here is something on Zillowā€¦

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2016/07/14/morgan-stanley-ups-zillow-target-on-real-estate-portal-growth/

Isnā€™t that how it always works with these types of ā€œdisruptingā€ entities?

Long before the tech boom, I was seeing the same thing in entrepreneurial endeavors. The founder/owners and a few early insiders made bank. But, the entity eventually failed and the rest of us as well as the later investors were left holding the bag.

Again, probably why I donā€™t do stocks muchā€¦ my long time belief that the lil guy never wins in the market. I will stick to the tried and true wealth maker for average joe chinese people - REAL ESTATE BABY!!!

Hmmm, I didnā€™t know that RE investing had an ethnicity to it. :wink:

No, of course it doesnā€™t :wink:, but I hold onto (and maybe wrongly even in the face of evidence if @Terri finds it to throw in my face) the theory that chinese people disproportionately more so invest in real estate as opposed to stocks/soy beans/beanie babies than what other ethnic groups perhaps do.

Chinese investors know the value is all about the landā€¦And, because in China only the government owns the land, therefore American and BA real estate has a special appealā€¦Land appreciates, structures depreciate

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Tell my wifeā€™s employer that. He has her entering all of his activity into Zillow. But, heā€™s too cheap to pay. He is using the free service, trying to get his name out there even more.

All those forms are meant to limit broker liability. They do nothing for the customers.

Realtors are so passe!

Robots shall rule the earth! :blush:

If this is the norm soon, open houses would no longer be fun and informative for me. I network with the RE agents there. I prefer to not do that with R2D2ā€¦