I have about 250 real estate blogs in my feed reader. As such, I read a LOT of real estate blog posts. They range from pure brilliance to not-so-swift.
Today Carol Hian with Redfin in San Diego, posted what has to be the most asinine blog post I’ve ever read.
Carol starts off her diatribe with, “I am not a big fan of “competitor” bashing” and then proceeds to do nothing but that.
Her target is Kris Berg, an agent in San Diego. Kris wrote a post about Redfin’s shift to providing more buyer side service, and apparently Ms. Hian felt compelled to respond.
If you can call her post a response.
Calling Kris and her husband Steve “Barbie and Ken” sounds shockingly similar to something you might hear on a pre-school playground. Oh well, those of apparently limited intelligence are prone to such childish attacks.
What really strikes me as asinine is Carol Hian’s assault on the food drive that Kris and Steve headed up over the weekend (See “Time to Give Back” for details).
Hian writes nonsense like:
Anyone can organize a canned food drive, but without can openers, a cook top and plastic ware, what good does it do? Isn’t that pretty superficial?
Uhm, hello? How is collecting 3/4 of a ton (and counting) of food to be donated to a food bank “superficial”? What good does it do? Try asking the people that get food on their tables and can now feed their children what good it does.
Comparing a drive to replenish a food bank to a party Redfin throws for clients (and paid for no doubt by their venture capital investors) is just utterly ridiculous. And it is a slap in the face to not only the Berg’s but to every man, woman and child that donated food and worked on collections.
According to Hian’s bio, she once specialized in housing rehabilitation and affordable housing construction — noble causes indeed. She claims, “Her background in social housing gives her an eye for the human aspect of real estate and its effects on our society.”
You’d think that would make her a little more compassionate toward something like a food drive, and toward the people that organized one, donated to it, and gave their time to ensure its success.
Carol Hian, in my opinion you are a fool, a hypocrite, and a disgrace to the real estate profession.
UPDATE: Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin apologized sincerely for Ms. Hian’s post. Glenn may often be maligned in the real estate blog world, but he’s a stand up guy. Ms. Hian no longer writes for Redfin. Kudo’s to them for doing the right thing all around.












I'm Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... Welcome to The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, or "TPREG" as I fondly refer to it.
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