Groupon for Real Estate or GroupCon? Choose MEGA-savings, not marginal coupons!
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 3:03PM 
Glad to see one of the most innovative thought leaders in e-commerce moving the "Groupon for Real Estate" conversation from industry insiders to the blogosphere, but note that Pat Kitano's blog post is real estate agent-centric and may assume traditional players, traditional commissions, etc.
Whether the industry likes it or not, millions of consumers may regard the current two-sided real estate commission and widespread practice of dual agency (and it's evil twin, designated agency) as "GroupCon." Need I add that blind bidding wars are regarded as group manipulation and in some opinions helped inflate the real estate bubble? No group savings there; in fact, more like group or should I say national recession courtesy, at least in part, of the real estate industry?
So, while I am interested in seeing what kind of group buying models emerge in real estate and have written about the subject myself, my consumer-centric perspective is as follows:
If tech-savvy, do-it-yourself homebuyers and sellers understand the magnitude of savings possible by working with real estate innovators who are using new technology and new business models to reduce transaction costs and bring systemic changes to the real estate industry, they'll understand that individual coupons are marginal, at best, compared to "systemic savings." How large are those mega-savings? Up to $30 billion dollars annually, according to an estimate by McKinsey & Company way back in 1999. Some companies, like The Real Estate Cafe, have been delivering a menu of savings opportunities without coupons for years. Sixteen to be exact (see timeline).
Homebuyers, if you were smart enough not to fall for the homebuyer tax credits the last two years, we'd love to work with you (and dare I say this, we'll offer you a "special incentive" to respond to this link?)
If you're a real estate portal or an entrepreneur calculating the ROI on a group buying model for real estate, we're open to collaborations. Contact us for an annotated copy of our critique of "Groupon for Real Estate."
Groupon in "We" companies, Bubble map, Commission Reform, Consumer protection, Coupons, DIY Homebuyers, Dual Agency Detective, Dump Dual Agency, Fee-for-service, Group buying, Homebuyer Clubs, RECALL: Real Estate Consumer Alliance, Savings & Rebates, Unbundling the Commission, commission rebate, reVRM
Reader Comments (7)
Bill, we're quite consistent in our thinking. We both understand that this missing piece to real estate services is the fees for service or a la carte consultative model that resides between the full blown 6% commission and the DIY FSBO alternatives. Groupon is simply an indication of a larger trend towards making services more affordable. I think of Groupon as just another advertising channel.
lots of people working on this and been thinking about changing the system and empowering the consumer for years. you're not the only one...
That is no doubt true, IdeaGuy. And as previous blog posts state explicitly, an "Army of Davids" will be needed to serve millions of tech-savvy homebuyers and sellers to deliver billions of dollars in savings annually, see:
http://bit.ly/ArmyOfDavids
Your thoughts are welcome here or on Quora about the best way to create a folksonomy or tagging system for the menu of savings fellow innovators are developing to empower and ENRICH consumers:
http://b.qr.ae/RESavingsTags
Do you have a favorite money-saving application you'd like to refer to other readers, or are you working on one yourself you'd like us to review / blog about?
Good post.
Isn't this a good indication of how real estate people are paying attention to the need of getting some savings on real estate purchases? The more heads working, the better for the benefit of the consumer.
More heads are better than one and with a lot of individuals working for the same goal, a lot of opportunities can be explored and used for the benefit of meeting great real estate goals. :-)
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