Reader AI said that “Eventually the big guys will own the entire process from beginning to end and the consumer will suffer, and pay more to do so”. Zillow is on the verge of owning the entire process, but they aren’t the only ones trying. Here’s another example:
In addition to resuming iBuying across 800 markets, Offerpad is now offering to list and sell homes for their customers.
According to Offerpad, “We aren’t a discount brokerage. Actually, we provide more services when listing than anyone else can. We’ll maximize home values in the end and get the home to sell for more so the customer can earn 3x, 4x, 5x, more than the difference of our commission fees and those of discount brokerages. Fees could be 5.5% – 6% depending on the market.”
Because the definition of real estate service has never been established, newcomers make any claim they want. They hope that in the end, the winner will be whoever advertises the most – truthful or not.
Compass is the last bastion of old-fashioned realtors. The company is hiring successful listing agents, and supporting them with additional tools in order to build market share that will survive the disrupter onslaught. We’ll see if it works, but it will probably include expanding into the mortgage/escrow/title business too, just to keep up.
The rest will claim to be top-notch professional realtors, but will consumers know the difference? Or care?
Consider the market share of a company that most closely “owns the entire process” in their own sphere: Amazon.
They own less than 50% of online shopping (which, if a real estate company could pull off 50%, would make them a trillion-dollar company – very unlikely that any company takes north of that figure in real estate I’d guess), and yet I don’t perceive that the consumer experience in online shopping has suffered. Quite the contrary, they’ve raised the bar on consumer expectations regarding speed of delivery and customer service.