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.
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