I've been wondering about how real estate agents monetize their time spent at open for inspection events.
I've been wondering about how real estate agents monetize their time spent at open for inspection events. I think there's a market for an app that links customers with estate agents and lets them directly video conference with them. The agen then uses their mobile phone to show them around the place.
#idea-validation
real estate agents are incredibly fickle. I've done a good amount of sales into that vertical and i'd really, really recommend staying away. Few things you might want to know:
Opendoor/OfferPad are decimating the market right now. They're killing the 100-250k realtors market. They're buying 20-25% of the entire housing market in major cities (Charlotte, Raleigh in North Carolina for example). This hasn't really affected the average realtor yet. They just think it is slow right now but there are major structural changes going on.
Industry has a 50% wash out rate so right off the bat even if you land an account with a realtor they're only 50% likely to stay in it. So that really hurts your churn. You can solve this by going to the brokers in charge (the boss) and selling into an account like Mark Spain where he has 100 agents. But that is a slower process and requires a different type of skill.
Tech (like Opendoor/Offerpad + a million other small companies) are trying to make physical showings obsolete. I'd proceed cautiously building anything that sells into realtors + is in that physical showings space.
Too much turn over and too much money pushing it away. Plus the realtors don't make any money on that (and hate doing it). They want to be getting new clients and closing deals. Not in a home inspection for 2 hours with a client who hasn't even decided to buy yet.
Thanks for the great insight. Shows how little I know about how realtors work. My idea was to make something that the clients would pay for to view the property. Kinda like camhub but for real estate. It saves the client having to go to the property physically and the estate agent gets paid, say $5 a minute, for giving a guided tour with their mobile phone acting as a camera.
I'd be wary of that. Only because a house is the largest investment one (usually) makes in their life. Not sure I'd buy one without going in it. But it might work! Go talk to 500 people who are in the market to buy a house and validate
Investors and people with more money than time might be keen. It would save them having to hire a buying agent. That's just my thinking at the moment. It probably won't appeal to 1st time home owners, for the reason you mentioned. But I can see a use case for the well off.