Redfin’s CEO and Keller William’s former President battle over our new future and how we get there.
“Every buyer wants to get into a home fast, so we had to build a call center, assemble scheduling teams, and put our emphasis on speed and value. By putting the customer first, we are able to carve out a good customer experience,” says Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin.
“We go to our agents and ask them what do you need to move your business forward. We have to earn our value with our agents. They have to see value in staying with us. Unlike Redfin, we are more beholden to our agents. Our focus on artificial intelligence can’t just be about machine learning. It’s more important for us to focus on the data our agents can bring us from the field,” says Josh Team, former President of Keller Williams.
“I have less control over our agent’s than you think we do, Josh. One out of 10 agents who apply to be a Redfin agent, gets it. We do fire 5-10% every year. My #1 metric as a CEO is to be the best employer in real estate. It’s really just a group of highly paid volunteers who show up and decide if they want to be here,” says Kelman.
“We are not publicly traded, so we have full reign to decide how to invest in our future when it comes to retaining our agents. We have a lot of latitude and freedom to do what we need to do,” says Team.
“We are all paid by the sweat of an agent’s brow. You have to bust your ass for your agents. You have to realize you have your hand in your agent’s pocket when it comes to the amount of money you use to invest in technology. So, we have to make sure they really need and want this tech to build their business,” says Kelman.
