My immediate mental reaction to the news was the recollection of a conference presentation a few years ago where multiple representatives of Zillow stood on stage and emphatically declared that Zillow is “only a media company” which sought to use the site to gather consumer views, and then monetize those views into a product to sell to the real estate industry. At the time, they were very clear that Zillow did not possess even the remotest interest in ever becoming a brokerage. Umph. Undoubtedly owing to a huge differential in IQ (he is a LOT smarter than me), my close friend Rob Hahn pushed out his thoughts last night in an articulate and well thought out post on his blog Notorious R.O.B., which he has made public. It is an excellent read that makes some brilliant points. As we say in Tennessee, that really “got me to pondering.” Within hours the industry media touted such headlines as From Portal to Brokerage: Zillow Takes Massive Next Step Into All-in-One Real Estate Services along with an explanation that beginning in January, in the Atlanta, Tucson, and Phoenix markets, Zillow will now have licensed employees selling the properties they buy via their iBuyer program, Zillow Homes. Meaning, Zillow will now be a real estate brokerage in those three markets – with many more being sure to follow. In case you missed it, you may view the announcement video they released to the industry here.īy noon yesterday, at least 25 people had asked me for my thoughts on the subject. That included multiple contacts from the Zillow execs themselves. Those calls started right at 8:00 am. The emails and questions continued overnight, and so far, I have given either benign answers or no answer at all. If experience has taught me anything, it is the importance of taking a minute to structure my thoughts. Yesterday began with a message from one of my associates asking if I had “heard the news?” Of course, by 6:30 I was already well engrossed in the happenings of the world, so my response was “which news?” Zillow has become a full-blown real estate brokerage. We are on our way to being one of the LARGEST Real Estate Brokers in Middle Tennessee.-Phillip Cantrell, CEO, Benchmark Realty LLC What was started as a very small group of people with a first year gross sales of 34 million dollars has grown to hundreds of agents across Middle Tennessee and OVER a half a BILLION dollars in gross sales. As a matter of fact, they voted Benchmark Realty as one of the Best Places to work in Nashville.
We have smart, service oriented agents who enjoy going to work every day. We have a thorough screening process where only the Best of the Best Real Estate agents are invited to join the Benchmark team. As a matter of fact, we average 10-12 new agents EVERY MONTH. Benchmark has grown from a handful of agents in the beginning to over three hundred and fifty agents in multiple locations throughout Middle Tennessee. For a small monthly or annual fee, agents would receive tremendous broker support, personal freedom to structure their deals, state of the art technology including a paperless office that operates in the cloud, and a broker that operates morally, ethically and legally. They developed a revolutionary new business model with 100% agent compensation as the foundation. In order to thrive in this new economy, the traditional broker/agent compensation model just wasn’t going to cut it. They spent months researching real estate brokerage models across the country and came to an obvious conclusion. What others may have seen as a good time to “jump ship” Phillip and Amanda saw as a wide world of opportunity.
The real estate market had tanked and many agents were abandoning real estate in search of more stable incomes.
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