Amy Koh talks with Robert Refkin and Thad Wong about portals, brokers, and consumer real estate.
In the latest episode of Corr Values, we spoke with Robert Refkin, Chairman and CEO of Compass International Holdings, and Thad Wong, Co-CEO of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, to discuss how leading portals are using listing data to drive buyer leads and control seller marketing strategies, and what that means for agents and their customers.
What really struck me about our talk was not the headline-grabbing news, but some of the behind-the-scenes issues that agents and brokers should pay more attention to.
4 takeaways from Thad Wong and Robert Refkin
Here are four takeaways from our conversation:
1. Sellers have the right to control their data
At the heart of this is who controls listing data and distribution. Is it the home seller who owns the data and the underlying assets and their agent who has the relationship to secure the property and pay the marketing costs, or is it a third-party platform that has no direct role in the transaction?
Agents have become the cheapest content creators in the world. They invest time and money to generate data, which is then fed to platforms like Zillow to generate revenue from. Without agent-generated data in the form of listings, Zillow wouldn’t exist.
2. Transparency works both ways.
Everyone agrees that consumers deserve transparency. If Zillow’s position is truly rooted in transparency, then both should be held to the same standards.
However, a recent Wharton School study found that consumers are almost universally confused when they click the “Contact Agent” button on Zillow.com, with 99.7 percent of prospective homebuyers believing they are contacting the listing agent and not the agent they are paying for the lead.
This misdirection is so fundamental to Zillow’s business that, as Thad points out, “Zillow won’t let me pay to list my agent’s name, face, and our brokerage business.” [our] I am listing it. ”
3. Seller is important
Half of the market is made up of home sellers. The agents who represent them have a fiduciary duty to help them achieve the best possible outcome for their objectives. This is one reason why MLS-owned private listing networks, such as MRED’s Private Listing Network (PLN), are such effective sales tools.
In Chicagoland, PLN allows sellers to test pricing, increase demand, and increase urgency around listings, while creating exposure to agents and their clients, resulting in statistically higher sales prices.
On the other hand, if an agent is required to sell properties on a platform that may undermine the buyer’s perception of value, how does that serve the seller and our fiduciary responsibility to them?
4. Wake up call
What happens if a for-profit portal replaces the MLS? To illustrate where that path leads, consider New York’s StreetEasy portal. The portal started charging rental property agents $1 a day after Zillow acquired the business in 2013. The following year, the price rose to $2, then $3.
Currently, Zillow charges $7 per day for its standard package to list an apartment on StreetEasy.
The lesson is simple. When we lose control of our data, we ultimately lose control of the economy surrounding it.
The house belongs to the seller. The decisions about when, where and how to sell the property should also belong to them.
The search for a home belongs to the buyer. They need transparency, accurate information, and confidence that the person they are contacting is who they think they are.
The relationship with the client belongs to the agent. It is built on expertise, trust, investment and fiduciary responsibility. If we get this wrong, we risk handing control over to groups whose interests are not aligned with these principles.
Once that control is lost, it is very difficult to regain it. That’s why this conversation is so important.
Corr Values is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
