While sites like Trulia, Zillow, and Roost have served the consumer by making MLS data available to you without having to go through a Realtor a new model is developing online. Sell your home, or find your new one, without a traditional Realtor.
Redfin, a Seattle-based company, has been using Realtors but they do it in avery different way than the traditional model. Here is a video with a little more about them.
There is another company in Boston called CondoDomain that is trying something different. They have a flat fee of $5000 that they receive for every sale and anything over that they refund back to the buyer, and I guess seller if they work that side of the deal. While I love the idea and think the business model is workable I worry about how it will fare during our current real estate downturn.
I’m a real estate agent and if I were like many agents I could see this as a challenge to my very survival but I don’t. On the one hand not everybody wants a hands off approach likes Redfin and CondoDomain offer and I can work with the buyers and sellers that want a more hands on approach. The other side of this is that I’m an entrepreneur and I’ve chosen to work with GenX and GenY clients in my business. If I see that my target market wants that type of service I will change my business model to serve my clients.
I think that the real estate business will change drastically in the next 5-10 years. I have no idea what it will look like but I am certain it will be much different than it is now. The Realtors who can adapt and change with it will survive, those that can’t will perish.
Great post. Agreed that you can survive by focusing on a niche that wants the hands on approach.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to these types of buyer's brokers, I run a renter's brokerage that offers a discounted fee, called myCityApartment.com.
As of right now we are only in Boston, and it's not billed as a "hands off approach" but more of a find it yourself online, and we'll do the rest.