Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Redfin, CEO Glenn Kelman schools us all

glenn-kelman-redfin-ceo-cropped-3The Austin Board of REALTORS recently hosted a panel talking about “Topics & Technologies Affecting Brokerages”, the panel (moderated by Tracy Weir) included Cary Sylvester, VP of Industry Development Keller Williams, Russ Cafano, President and General Counsel, eXp Realty Jonathan Boatwright, CTO and Co-Owner, Realty Austin and Glenn Kelman, CEO, Redfin. You can find the video on their site.

The video has some great quotes, at one point Russ Cofano states

“The Broker Public Portal is dead on arrival”

and on Upstream…

“For a certain amount of brokers will be great, but for a significant amount of local brokers there is a big disconnect in to many ways as to the why

Ya think?

But the real star is Glenn Kelman. I just love Glenn, he has a Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, sort of plain speak that really just makes you stop and listen. There are soooo many of these type of moments in this video. One section I really love is right around 46:42. One of his main message points is telling brokers to put their listings on a website…

“..the dirty secret, and it really has worked for us. If you put listings on a website, and you get people to link to you as the listing agent, you will get traffic. That doesn’t cost much money”

You have to watch the whole video to get his context but what he is saying (my take anyway) is that attribution matters.

Also regarding mobile (native vs. web)

“most of our resources on mobile are going to mobile web and not the apps, the apps were much more important 3 years ago. Google has kind of beat Apple. And Google much prefers mobile web over applications, it likes stuff in html that it can index in a search engine. It is punitive toward applications, it wants a good mobile website experience.”

Mind freaking blown.

And here’s what Glenn says about how MLS providers can help.

“If I were a broker I would just try to get my listings on a website and then I would make sure to get credit for the listings from the portals, from the brokers, from Redfin, from everyone. I think that is the simplest thing you can do, I think its the simplest thing the MLSs can do to give agents a better deal, is to make sure you always get credit for your listings in the modern digital way.

Here’s another quote from Glenn:

“There is no new client that is worth more than a past client”

What I also love about Glenn is his willingness to share what has worked for Redfin (and what has not). He knows that that ideas are only part of the equation, execution is what matters. He also does a great job of guiding the whole conversation when he thinks the questions being asked are not really that relevant.

Must see TV.

FYI (They have some audio problems cutting out at around 55:30 and coming back at 58:07)

  1. Thanks for posting this Greg. I agree Glenn has a way about him and your description of a combination of Walt Whitman and Mark Twain is spot on.

  2. Thanks for watching the entire video and sharing it on your platform. It was a true effort to get this type of panel to Austin and it was well received by those that attended. Looking forward to putting together some more broker forums for next year. Are you down for a possible trip to Austin?

  3. Great Recap, I really like Glenn, he is all about execution. . One of main goals for My Florida Regional new public Web site was mobile Web and attribution designed by August Partners and TLCengine.

    Tim Dain -> CMLS , another panel like this?

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