We’ve been at Compass for one year!
How’s it been, and where are we going?
I was the 160th agent hired in the region. Now there are 565 Compass agents in San Diego County!
In the beginning, we thought that Klinge-Realty-Powered-By-Compass had a nice ring to it, but it proved to be a mouthful, so we changed to the Klinge Realty Group for ease of use.
We’ve hired Brittnie Dixon to be our licensed assistant. She has been doing a wonderful job with marketing and special projects!
We’ve joined the company’s sponsorship of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which means you will see Donna and I in the race program this weekend.
We are also contemplating a move to the office at the La Costa Resort.
We have a new website being developed that should launch in the next few weeks. I was hoping to combine it with bubbleinfo.com but formatting them together is still being explored. There will be a blog!
Most of all, I’m glad Compass has a strategy to dominate the real estate universe. It’s not perfect, but at least we have a strategy! I’ll get into our Coming Soon program in more detail as time goes on, but consider how the entire industry has rushed to Coming Soons as a primary marketing device.
Want a sample of how the public perception has changed about selling homes?
A consumer (not an agent) said this month, “If you don’t sell your home off-market, and have to put it on the MLS, then people think something is wrong with it…..or the price.”
Did you get your anniversary present yet? (It may be a few more days in transit.).
Most of all, I’m glad Compass has a strategy to dominate the real estate universe. It’s not perfect, but at least we have a strategy!
Right up front. There is nothing wrong with wanting to dominate the real estate universe. Ultimately everyone benefits.
And; “It’s not perfect.” is the correct [sane] perspective. A plan but flexible is a necessity.
I have long advocated what we ossified techie types called “whiteboard” solutions but that opportunity window has closed. We seem to be entering a subsequent period where market prices are only available through non-market sources. I don’t have so much as an alternative.
Agree – I can only go with the flow – I just better pick the right flow!
Taking the high road and joining with the elite realtors of the region in providing the luxury full-service, full-commission service is what I choose.
But it’s not over. Here is today’s volley from the mega-teams:
Tim Heyl, the chief executive of Homeward as well as the leader of one of the top teams in the country, believes real estate brokerages should avoid “the messy middle.”
Redfin and Opendoor, which are both focused on putting the consumer at the center of the residential transaction, are at one end of the spectrum. They both run efficient business models with salaried employees.
“Redfin is this super-efficient, controlled business model and Compass is this super inefficient, uncontrolled business model that is looking to increase commissions,” said the Keller Williams team leader. “You want to beat Compass, or beat Redfin, but anything in between those two companies is the messy middle.”
“As companies, we fail if we’re in between those models,” Heyl added.
He made the remarks at a CEO Connect panel at Inman 2019 Connect, Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Heyl believes Redfin and Opendoor will resemble each other in the next five to 10 years.
As someone who currently runs two businesses now, with an agent team and a startup, he’s existed in that messy middle. One of the biggest mistakes he made was “building his business completely around the agent,” he said.
Companies that put the consumer at the center and fought against the traditional transaction are the ones that have gotten unlimited access to capital.
Sarah Kirsch Richardson, the CEO of Tru Realty, disagreed slightly on the differentiation between Compass and Opendoor, saying that she believes it’s SoftBank — the venture capital fund that’s heavily backed both companies — that’s trying to “control luxury from the top down.”
The discussion stemmed from a panel at the invite-only CEO Connect event at Inman Connect in Las Vegas. The panel, titled, “You and The Instant Offer Movement?” focused on how agents can benefit from the iBuyer craze.
Richardson built her company in 2010, she said, to exploit the cheap property values in the Phoenix area. Phoenix has become a sort-of ground zero for the iBuyer movement. Richardson has fully embraced the iBuyer, with a call center in Chandler, Arizona, making 20,000 calls a week. She’s also made a big push toward education for agents.
“For us, it’s educating our agents on what they have to say in a listing presentation because if they’re not having a conversation with their sellers about iBuyers, or about what we can provide as a service, they’re probably going to lose the business,” Richardson said.
Craig McClelland, the vice president and chief operating officer of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers in Atlanta, is also operating in a crowded iBuyer space. His brokerage has more than 2,400 agents competing with the likes of Opendoor, Offerpad, Zillow and Knock.
“We are inundated with every iBuyer, every new program, every idea someone comes up with comes to Atlanta,” McClelland said. “We have 2,400 agents, my job was to find a way to explain, tell the story, weaponize the agents to still do business.”
“We don’t see this as a threat,” McClelland added. “We see it as an opportunity. We’re helping you through that”
One of the ways that BHGRE Metro was able to do that was through a partnership with zavvie, a tech startup that white labels an iBuyer comparison tool.
“Instead of teaching 2,500 agents how to submit an offer through an iBuyer, what we did that actually changed the game for us, was we hired [zavvie],” McClelland said. “We have one form the agents fill out. When they hit submit, it goes to a team that aggregates all the offers from all the iBuyers and it sends them back to the agent.”
If (when) we get into the ibuyer vs traditional selling, the seller’s decision will come down to the realtor’s estimated sales price – and it will be inevitable that agents will highball the price to get the listing, just like they do now.
Another excerpt:
In prospecting phone calls, his team members will tell potential sellers that they can bring them a cash offer. This can help get a team member in the door, where they will present an offer from an iBuyer alongside what they say they can sell their home for on the open market. Patulski said most homeowners choose not to accept the iBuyer offer, opening the door for his team to list their home instead.
“May you live in interesting times” is both a blessing and a curse.