One killer feature that Redfin opted not to launch (publicly) |
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One killer feature that Redfin opted not to launch (publicly)
Here's a good read from Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman this morning, focusing on what the Seattle-based online real estate company learned about the national housing market from a prototype feature that showed the track record of listing agents in markets where it operates. In short, he concludes, "it was very hard for any agent to sell a home" in 2009.
But from the perspective of technology and corporate policy, what interested us more than the market insights were the behind-the-scenes details of Redfin's deliberations over what to do with the feature. Here's how Kelman described it.
The original insight started with our San Francisco agents, who like to size up a seller’s agent before deciding how to represent a buyer in a negotiation, on the theory that negotiating strategy is often influenced as much by the listing agent’s state of mind as by her client’s. Some agents are chronic over-pricers, expecting to give part of that away at the negotiation table. Others stand firm. And still others just need to get a deal done.
One team at an internal Redfin "hackathon" wanted to roll out the information publicly for all Redfin users, Kelman explained.
"Then we dug into the rules that govern how we use listing data, and decided that using the broker’s database of listings to embarrass brokers publicly wasn’t a fair use of the data," Kelman wrote in the post. He added, "We’ll still build this into the tools our agents use, so we can help all of our customers know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. We’ll also share with everyone the listing stats for our own agents."
For anyone more interested in the broader real estate insights from the prototype Redfin feature, the Wall Street Journal's real estate blog focused on Redfin's findings in a post of its own this morning.
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