The Last Stand of the 6-Percenters?

Update: with the benefit of a few hours sleep and a morning latte, I realize that the passage below looks a little harsh, personally, on Glenn. I want to caution in advance that I don't at all mean to imply an insult to Glenn. I used the quote from Gitomer a bit ham-handedly as a emphasis on the marketing message, not as a personal attack.

The New York Times jumped on the real-estate-commissions bandwagon on Sunday with this piece that makes Glenn Kelman at

But the real story, unfortunately missed, is one the Robbie powers into at Rain City this week. There is massive, still untapped, opportunity for technology to change the real estate game. For new agents and firms to emerge as next generation winners. So many problems to be solved. Price is only one, not-so-interesting axis. The real story is in the consumer experience, and how technology innovations vastly improve it. The ever eloquent Marlow points out in Robbie's comments "...real estate sales is still a cult
of personality. It’s still about who you know..." The agent's personality is the foundation of the consumer experience. Technology is the extender of the cult.

To Glenn I say, "Good for you. Nice press. I'm sure your site got a huge bump in traffic this week. But you blew it." Why isn't the headline "People Love Buying Homes with Redfin"? and where are the quotes that tell us "people are so happy working with us that the discount is just gravy." The fact is that Redfin has really compelling tools for real estate buyers. But no where in the article does it mention what a great site it is. Just Glenn vs. the REALTORS. ugh. That's a death spiral, my friend, and you don't have to be in it.

Sales guru Jeffery Gitomer puts it this way, "if you have to compete on price, You Suck!"

We all invoke financial services as the analog for real estate. What isn't commonly noted is that as technology swept through the financial services biz, two things happened: prices went down (e-trade et al) and prices went up (hedge funds). Why did prices go up? The same reason they always do. When you provide more value to a customer, you can (and should) charge more. I for one am looking for the real estate agents/brokers/sites that blow away their clients so completely with service, that they're happy to pay more than 6%. Those are the innovators to watch.

Full article analysis, with usual aplomb, by Greg at Bloodhound Blog:here and here and particularly here.