Kellman isn't a computer scientist. He's the CEO an President of Redfin. You all remember Redfin don't you? Of 60 Minutes fame? You know, the brokerage that expects the listing agent to show the home to Redfin buyers.

Staggering revelations they've come up with.... price your home correctly. Put your home on the internet. Foreclosures can affect value.

What would we do without the scientists at Redfin to tell us all this?

In the Today Show segment, Kellman got several digs in on real estate agents (as is typical).

Gotta hand it to the guy though, he is a public relations / marketing master. Who else can land on the Today Show armed with such novel concepts and unique insight like this:

Motivated sellers are able to sell their property faster than typical sellers.

You can see all the Redfin "science of selling" here:

http://p1.rfimg.us/v4.3.6/images/4_0/text/pdf/Seven_Tactics_for_Selling_A_Home.pdf

Also, I should have said above that Kellman isn't a practicing computer scientist.  I think he does have a CS background.

Glorida, I don't think he'd have much luck around here.

around here it's more like

... Sure, price your home right, but that doesn't mean a thing

... our broker opens days (or caravans for some) are not a matter of choice. Every area (with only few exceptions) has a day in the week (and hours in many cases) when you can have a broker's open. If you do it on a different day or times, you can actually get fined, not to mention your open house signs will most likely end up picked up by the local law enforcement or village people and you can get once again fined and perhaps never see your signs again.

But this guy sure knows how to get his name and face out there.

[Jay beats me to the punch and sez: What would we do without the scientists at Redfin to tell us all this?]

Mmm hmm. It's truly a revelation.

He was introduced as the CEO of Redfin, and it popped up under his names a couple of times during the segment. But it wasn't overt advertising for Redfin.

The video is here if anyone is interested:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/#22255612

Other memorable quotes from the segement:

"The folks at one online brokerage say forget everything your real estate agent has told you."

"It (the Redfin study) turns conventional wisdom on its head."

"Your company believes that buyers and sellers should be proactive and rely less on the real estate agent - that middle man."

"We are computer scientists, we are not salespeople."

"There are other places to promote your home outside of the MLS, and often your real estate agent isn't going to do that."

Never ceases to amaze me how Kelman, who is RUNNING A BROKERAGE continues to spew stuff like this.  And of course the mainstream media eats it up.

And if you discount heavily you can lose enough money to attract investors, somehow. It's all too complicated for a non-scientist like me to understand.

Sheesh... scientist? Maybe... but not a rocket scientist. I find it interesting they call themselves "scientists", obviously to distance themselves from "traditional" Real Estate.

The information he gave was no different than any of you or I would give to our clients. They are a Brokerage selling Real Estate and "scientists" is their brand. There's no doubt Real Estate is changing. We've all changed and change is good for the consumer.

That was one of the best marking promotions on a major network I have seen in a long time!

I give him a 10 for his infomercial no matter what he said be it hogwash or just plain gibberish he got his few minutes of fame to promote his business !!

I wish I had a chance for an interview, I would huff and puff my business until I brought the house down.

Wolf Advertising

Redfin - schmedfin...

With this guy's ability to self promote = wouldn't you expect he would have some respectable market share?

Where is Brendan when you need a brilliant parody?  I loved what P2 put together after the 60 Minutes infomercial.

Bottom Line: If a real estate sale was a logical process then it might make sense to hire computer scientists... BUT THIS IS NOT A LOCICAL IF THEN LOOP.

Realtors are "SOCIAL ENGINARTICOUNSALADATORS" * and it takes all those skills plus logic, and more to sell a house!

* A word I coined - with a nod to those crazy city name cell phone ads...  "SOCIAL ENGINARTICOUNSALADATORS" = SOCIAL ENGINeers ARTIsts COUNSelors, SALespersons, ADvertising executives, and markeTORS : )

Wow and here I have been jacking up list prices, not putting them into the MLS, internet? what is that? isn't that what Al Gore said he invented? If I had only known how to be a great realtor along time ago I would still have my hair, and I could have all those wasted hours I have lost driving around people that I hijacked off the street back.

I am so grateful for this alarming report. I now can redirect my business for the future. Hey does anyone know how to get my Atari 64 to work in High Def? I tripped over the long cord connected to my Cable TV box am broke my leg. It could have been worse if I hadn't landed on my sons stretch armstong.

Todd Rivers - Broker/Owner

Florida Lighthouse Realty

Good morning Gloria :0

For one thing I do Not use Craig list and never will, because I did at one time and I can tell ya what a mistake nothing but a waste of time.. Craig list in my opinion is a joke, I am glad you got  good responses what I got well never mind...

My only web outside source is e  Bay and I can speak from experience I made some great money on there selling New properties e bay has proven to be worthwhile, over and over again.

Were can you spend $150 bucks and get $11,500 in return and that was just one sale! not to mention the exposure when you put your whole web site on there for the 30 days.

So Mr Kelman ! Do You E Bay?

VanceBay

Thanks for the link Jay.

I sold a home last year for $344,000 then the new owner sold it FSBO w/MLS 6 months later (listed it 2 weeks after closing) for $323,000. She saved the realtor fee too......BUT it cost her $21,000 to do so and she paid for the Buyer agency MLS fee and her own advertising.

Boy, what a deal.

Todd- I am so happy that this valuable report has been brought to your attention! LOL

I had very good results with craigslist.

Gloria here goes, meet my cousin !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcRyJCh6Y8Y

We come from a long line of robots ha ha

Warning, Warning, If you do not spend money on advertising !

Your first and final AD  will be a GOB AD...

I was just wondering where his stats came from, I didn't think that Redfin had enough clients to do a study.  Most scientists at least mention their resources.  To me it sounds like he used the "CS" research from REALTOR.org, shouldn't he have at least mentioned that?

Gloria - thanks for starting this wonderful thread but now I am confused.  It seems when you are making a point (like how great the interview was) and are 'corrected' you change your opinion quite fast.  Possibly your original post was sarcastic and I missed that??

I am glad we all have opinions but lets pick what side of the fence we are on before we commit k? Or is this like the internet buyer - no commitment?  I thought I would learn something on this one - other than even though Craiglist is MASSIVE apparently it sells zero homes and Al Gore is alot more tech savvy than I had realized(LOL!)..

So - which is it?

I had some guy call about one of my proeprties lsited on Craigslist, he asked to talk to craig <lol>.  That's the best one so far :)

No, he didn't buy it.  But we are looking for proeprties with him now.  Something I tihnk is great is kijiji.ca  I can post a property there and within a week, it's on the first page of Google.  Clients love it.  Searh "Bon Accord homes for sale" and you'll find one of my listings is ranked 8th on google.com not just google.ca.  That's sweet.

Gloria - kijiji.ca is a Canadian site, restricted (I believe) to Canadian items/listings for sale.

There is a .com version. I wrote more about it here:

http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/ebay-launches-kijiji-a-free-classified-site-another-craigslist/400

That would be a great syndication to add to point2.  It gets super results on the search engines, and you can do a link to your website or virtual tour as well.