Redfin Turns Conventional Wisdom on its Head

The PR machine that is Redfin is rolling again.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman appeared on the Today show this morning and he and co-host Meredith Viera proceeded to engage in a conversation jammed full of startling revelations the computer scientists /sleuths at Redfin have uncovered using “The Science of Real Estate”.

Brace yourself folks — this stuff is going to change the way real estate is done.

I’ll just highlight a few things that, according to Redfin, are “based on the best academic research” and will get your home sold faster and for more money.

Are you ready? Here you go …. don’t overprice your property. Be a motivated seller. Market your property online. Foreclosures impact pricing.

Wow! Un-freaking believable! How have we managed to survive this long without this contribution from academia?

You can get all the details and all seven super-saver steps here. Why you can even get a condensed version straight from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) here. And if you want a report with academic-like footnotes, charts and even an appendix, go here!

Better yet, read Greg’s take at Bloodhound.

In the segment on Today, you can hear all of the following pearls of wisdom, and more!

Viera: “The folks at one online brokerage say forget everything your real estate agent has told you” [Not denied in the least by Kelman, naturally.]

Viera: “It (the Redfin study) turns conventional wisdom on its head.” [Boy howdy! Repeat after me... motivated sellers of properly priced homes marketed online do better. It's mind-boggling.]

Viera: “Your company believes that buyers and sellers should be proactive and rely less on the real estate agent – that middle man.” [Not denied -- which is interesting given Kelman's company relies on listing agents to do their buyer agent's jobs. Cut out the "middle man" and Redfin would fall apart at the seams.]

Kelman: “We are computer scientists, we are not salespeople.” [no comment]

Kelman: “There are other places to promote your home outside of the MLS, and often your real estate agent isn’t going to do that.” [but what will your computer scientist do?]

You can’t make this stuff up folks. But you can watch it here.

In Redfin’s blog on this subject, Kelman says:

Consumers who have read early drafts of the report overwhelmingly found our recommendations useful and effective. The industry reaction will likely be different. Some will argue that the report substantiates already well-understood tactics, while others will take the exact opposite position, refuting our points one by one.

But the truth is that a discussion of how real estate brokerages can deliver better results, based on data rather than just opinion, is in everyone’s best interests.

I think it would be difficult to refute the stunningly obvious. I’ve got no problem with using empirical data to support already well-understood tactics. But proclaiming once again that you are the first to do something, or going on national television yet again and implying that real estate agents in general are buffoons is just getting tiresome.

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[tags]Redfin, the Science of Real Estate, it’s madness I tell you![/tags]

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