The Insider: Issue 044
This week, we’re thinking about the ways in which homes themselves are changing. And we’re grabbing some inspiration from within our real estate community. Enjoy!
Last Week This Week
- Digital-first title and closing company Spruce announced a new bulk solution aimed at institutional buyers. It features AI-driven underwriting and, of course, the savings one would expect when you’re buying hundreds or thousands of homes at a time. We’ve been introduced to a host of new companies like Spruce offering services to the booming SFR business. It will be interesting to see the degree to which the analytics, closing tech, etc. being developed for the big players filters down to the average buyer.
- Zavvie released a “Seller Preferences Report” that gives a good, quick overview of the Power Buyer/iBuyer landscape right now. Bottom line: People like these services, they are becoming cheaper, and they are becoming more widespread. Seems like we should all know this stuff inside and out at this point.
- Speaking of Power Buying: Who here thinks Zillow won’t get into this game? Not us. And if when it happens, what will it mean? Well, it’ll be a big step toward making this lending model the new norm (we also think this is going to happen) and will likely cause a new wave of industry angst as big broker mortgage profit centers will get increasingly short circuited.
Have You Heard About This?
The Big Disruption and Your Backyard
Given the state of home building and resale home prices, we’re seeing an explosion of innovation in the “tiny home” and ADU realm. (Check out Cover, Abodu, and PrefabADU, to name just a few.) In fact, we’re now kinda thinking the big disruption we’ve been talking about in real estate for decades may actually be right here in this trend. What we consider a “home” is what may change the most over the next decade, maybe even more so than the ways in which it’s bought and sold. Think about it.
What's Inside
Join Marc, Brian and Val in The Lounge this Friday, April 22nd at Noon Pacific / 3:00 Eastern for a wide open, off the record discussion and workshop on messaging and ad copy. Got a piece/ad you want worked on in real time? Bring it!
Inspiration Point
Culture Is In the Crevices
We often get into conversations with our broker clients about how to get more agents coming back into the office, how to build culture in a post-COVID-lockdown world, and how to recruit. We even work with some to build brand campaigns specifically designed to attract agents. We saw this Instagram reel from EXP agent and team lead Janie Coffey in Florida and it made us think: 1) This is a fantastic moment of buzz building, culture building and recruiting. 2) Why wouldn’t more brokers do this sort of thing?
We tend to think of recruiting and culture-building as big initiatives that merit flashy, polished brand videos. And yes, there is a place for those. But they can often leave out authentic glimpses into what people and office vibe are like — things many agents deem most important. How do you convey what your culture is like? A 20- or 100-word description can’t do the whole job. Grab a camera, a sunny disposition, and just talk. Give a little tour of your space. Give a little unscripted elevator pitch from your corner of the world. Have an agent do it.
Broker Website Inspo
Shoutout to Inside members, West + Main, on the launch of a beautiful broker website that embodies the spirit of a thoughtful, vibrant brand. The design-focused brokerage created the site in house. We love the simplicity of how they convey their culture here, how they cleverly and beautifully integrated search into their home page while still giving room to a punchy message, and overall how they showed restraint in not adding too much. Bravo.
Quote of the week
“Good things happen when you narrow your focus.”
— Al Ries
