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Get Off My Transaction! What Zillow’s Latest House-flipping Announcement Means for Brokers
By York Baur, CEO of MoxiWorks
Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) announced they’re expanding Zillow Instant Offers to compete directly with OpenDoor and other Instant Offers companies – and that for the first time, Zillow itself will be buying homes from consumers and reselling them.
So, what does this mean for brokers? Two ways to look at it:
- So much for “we sell ads, not houses” as Spencer Rascoff has repeated ad nauseum over the years. That’s right up there with “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Zillow of course has every right to direct their business as they choose, but this is proof that they couldn’t care less about their relationship with brokerages. Look at the revolving door nature of the staff working with brokers as further evidence (remember Chris Crocker and Nick Bailey as the most recent examples?).
- Wake up call. I attended the Swanepoel T3 Summit in Miami this week and the theme was resoundingly that if you don’t make change happen, then change happens to you. I’d rather be the one making it happen, and I think that the brokers that continue to thrive will be the ones that disrupt themselves, not wait around to get disrupted
The Power Stays with Spheres
After you’re done absorbing this news though, remember that you have one of the most valuable assets any business can possess: relationships. Those with your agents, and critically their relationships with the consumers in their spheres of influence – their “databases” as many call them. Those relationships are the most difficult things to come by, and while we are all trying to make a home sale transaction happen, we don’t operate a transactional business – we’re in the people, the relationship business.
Channeling Michael Scarafile from a panel session at T3: when you cut your finger, you go to the urgent care clinic and you don’t really care who the doctor is. But if you have a heart problem, you go see you trusted family doctor. Selling or buying a house isn’t buying the latest gadget off Amazon, it’s one of the most emotionally and financially important things that most consumers do.
Here’s the best part: each of your agents already know hundreds of people, and one out of ten will either buy or sell a home this year. For example, the 100,000+ agents on the Moxi Cloud have an average of 470 consumers in their spheres of influence. That means each have more than 40 that will transact this year, not including the impact of referrals. All they have to do is stay in touch with those people and serve as a trusted advisor, and none of the Zillow, Opendoor, Redfin, Purplebricks blah blah blah will matter, because your agents are the ones they’ll trust to guide them through their transaction.
Presence is powerful. Windermere, Long and Foster, and Howard Hanna (all of whom subscribe to the philosophy that agents’ spheres are the best source of business) collectively did more transactions last year than all the closings generated by leads from Zillow. Think about that. How did these A-list brokerages pull this off? Many reasons. But one key factor is that they have systems that allow their agents to organize, store, market to, and advise the consumers in their spheres of influence.
You can too. You can put up a mote around your relationships that will prove to be impenetrable by the disruptors. But you have to get on with it, because it’s too late to build a mote once the invaders are inside your castle. It starts with getting your brokerage, agent, and consumer data in one place. Pick an open platform, get the data in there, and choose from the many quality technology tools that provide sphere management and marketing automation. Then be relentless about getting your agents to use them and hone their ability to serve as a trusted advisor. Sound too simple? It isn’t. It works. We have the data from our 60 brokerage clients and 100,000+ agents to prove it.
Unlike the government, we’re Moxi, and we actually are here to help. Let us know if we can help you and your brokerage.
Put Money Back in Agent Pockets Without Affecting Your Bottom Line
By Maddie Jostol
We talk a lot about making your brokerage more profitable, but it would be silly if we didn’t touch on the role that agent finances make on a brokerages’ success. How? Let’s quickly break it down: you know you need to retain more agents, agents are always searching for higher commissions, and many agents often struggle to run their business efficiently. Yes, the more smoothly an agent operates their business, the more money they make, and the happier they’ll be, resulting in them wanting to stay at and promote your brokerage. Sound complicated? Don’t worry, it’s not.
Here’s the bottom line: offer resources and recommendations that will help your agents run their business more effectively and it will pay off. The beauty of this is that it often takes very little (if any) time or funding from your brokerage. This can come in many different forms, such as specialized training, sphere selling education, marketing tools and resources, or assistance with tax filing.
Take accounting, for example (an area that many real estate agents struggle with). Too often, we hear the stories of the shoebox full of receipts or unorganized spreadsheets tracking expenses. The truth is, these practices result in a huge loss when it comes time to file taxes. All of the potential tax deductions that could’ve saved some serious cash are, instead, a blow to the wallet.
For a real estate agent, this is a big deal. It’s vital that they have a profitable, sustainable business in order to stick with the brokerage they know and love. When we came across QuickBooks Self-Employed, we instantly knew it was the perfect solution to these pain points. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-use, reliable accounting solution built for independent contractors that saves agents time and money ($4,340/year on average, to be exact).
It made us wonder: why aren’t more brokerages recommending solutions like this to their agents? It costs the brokerage nothing to make these resources known, yet they often aren’t offering support outside of the standard.
Sure, educating your agents about tools like QuickBooks Self-Employed might not seem to benefit your business at the surface level, but remember that successful agents make successful brokerages. QuickBooks Self-Employed makes agents more efficient and helps them retain more of the money they make. Remember what we said about happy, money-making agents effecting your bottom line?
Provide your agents with what they need to be successful and you’ll find your brokerage more successful in turn.
Interested in learning more about QuickBooks Self-Employed? Agents can get QuickBooks Self-Employed for just $5/month. Take advantage of our exclusive discount here.
April Listings Bring May Closings: How to Get It Done
By Maddie Jostol
As the sun comes out, the listings ramp up. Things are about to get busy – are you ready? The housing market is hot, and it’s never been more important to ensure your business is competitive and streamlined.
“In winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move.” – Henry Rollins
Here are a handful of things you can do right now to ensure the leads you start seeing end in a closed deal and a happy client.
Be responsive
We know you already know this one, but it’s always an important reminder. Considering ~70% of homeowners work with the first real estate agent who contacts them, now is the time of year when you need to make sure you’re on it. Keep your eye on the ball and make sure your follow-ups are timely and thoughtful. We highly suggest you lean on technology to help you with this as the life of a realtor can feel like there are too many moving parts to keep track of.
Be personal
When things get busy, it can be tough to remember the little things. Those little things will make all the difference, though. Don’t forget to remember your handwritten ‘thank you’ notes, your personal follow-ups, and your house-versary gifts for last year’s clients.
Your CRM is a great place to include notes for client-specific information. Also, use your CRM to help manage your work for you. Following your tasks and workflow will keep you on track, even as things get hectic, and will ensure you don’t miss a beat.
Be proactive
When you talk to clients and prospects, they can tell that you’re ‘on it’ because you’re in tune with their lives and you’re fully present in the conversations, which makes all the difference. Imagine calling up an old client, but before you did, you checked your CRM. You had data available estimating that they had teenagers in the home and might be looking to downsize. That reminds you, “oh yeah, I remember, they did have two kids.” When you call them up, you’re able to ask how the kids are doing and casually ask the client to remind you of what grade they’re in, teeing you up to get more insights into any home selling or buying plans. Before you know it, you’re back in flow with important members of your sphere.
Get a system in place that does this research for you. Moxi Insights, a tool within our Moxi Marketing suite (provided by your brokerage!) auto-fills your Moxi Engage account with public records data for all of your contacts. That means instant, valuable insights on all your contacts at your fingertips.
Agents also use Moxi Marketing for Facebook advertising – both to promote themselves to generate leads and to promote listings once they win them. This is key for keeping your marketing efforts on track throughout the year.
We have an exciting season ahead, where you’ll be able to dive in and close the deals that will help you reach your goals. Deliver the highest quality experience throughout the year, even when things get busy by using the right tools and making sure everything is taken care of. Want more information on Moxi Marketing tools? Check them out here.
Introducing Knack, the newest gifting solution in the Moxi Cloud
Curate, customize, and delight your clients with the help of Knack.
And the Moxi Cloud just keeps growing. Now with gifting services from KNACKSHOPS.COM available! We’re stoked to announce Knack as a preferred brokerage solution, giving agents more ability to customize their client gifts.
One of the reasons the Moxi Cloud is growing at such a fast rate (40+ tools and services!) is because we encourage our brokerage clients to integrate the existing tools and services they already know and love. Part owner and client of MoxiWorks, Windermere Real Estate, is the brokerage that brought Knack to our attention, and we’re very thankful they did!
Knack is a modern gift-giving solution for agents who wants to give thoughtful gifts but can’t take time out of their already busy-as-can-be schedule to find them. Knack carefully curates artisan products that tell a story, then allows agents to combine items in a way that is meaningful to them. Gifts are hand-packed, and each gift includes a custom booklet that tells the story of each item in the gift, making the experience enjoyable and unique. Shoppers may choose from already made gift sets, customize those to their liking, or choose from over 1,000 products on the site to curate their own unique gift set.
“We’re excited to add Knack to the cloud. Giving gifts and in doing so, staying in touch with your sphere is crucial for agents. Knack is special in that it allows the agent to customize a gift set or build one from scratch, and have it delivered in beautiful packaging to their clients. We want brokerages and agents to have choice, and this helps to accomplish that,” said Kylah Searing, Director of Moxi Cloud Partnerships and Integrations at MoxiWorks. “It was great having the introduction to Knack come from Windermere. Since they already use and love this service, it made the decision to add them to the cloud an easy one.”
This integration to the Moxi Cloud includes SSO (single-sign-on), meaning agents have one less login to remember. The gifts are easily curated and if agents need help with inspiration, they can speak to an expert concierge.
We also love Knack for their giving back mentality. Knack partners with merchants who support a wide range of causes and donates a percentage of their sales to philanthropic causes as well. For instance, with Windermere, agents can give and give back: Knack donates five percent of each purchase made by a Windermere agent to the much-admired Windermere Foundation. Our Moxi Fund was actually born from the Windermere Foundation, so we love working with like-minded companies.
You can find more information on our new partnership in our press release here and have a look at the marvelous KNACKSHOPS.COM while you’re at it!
If your brokerage is interested in adding Knack as a brokerage solution, please contact your dedicated Account Manager and they’ll get the ball rolling.
Heat Up Your Listing Presentations with INRIX Drive Time
By Tiana Baur
I think we can all agree traffic is the absolute worst. Nothing puts us (or our clients) in a worse mood than leaving ourselves more than enough time to get somewhere, only to find out that we’re still walking through the door late. Which is why, when it comes to buying a home, the potential commute to work and back can make or break the transaction. That’s where INRIX Drive Time comes in.
It’s no secret that INRIX Drive Time wins business. It allows agents to be the trusted advisor they’re meant to be. Our products Moxi Present and Moxi Websites include the Drive Time feature so agents can give their clients and prospects the full picture of a potential home.
INRIX recently came out with their 2017 Traffic Scorecard, which “is the largest and most detailed study of congestion to date. It includes data on 1,360 cities in 38 countries covering more than 100,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) of road and focuses on congestion across all times of the day and week.” It also shows the top 10 most congested areas in the U.S., which Los Angeles still holds the top spot for, which cost LA drivers $2,828 in 2017. For our home town, Seattle, coming in at number nine, it cost our drivers $1,853.
Here’s some other fun facts from the 2017 Traffic Scorecard:
- Los Angeles commuters spent over 100 hours in traffic jams in 2017. Let that settle in a little bit.
- On average, Americans spent one hour a week stuck in traffic on their commutes in 2017. That may not seem like a lot but think about how that’s the average for ALL of America, not just the cities. Even then, one hour a week is 52 hours per year. Think about what else you could do with that time!
Here’s the thing. An agent not only has the duty to find their clients the perfect home, but they also have the duty to find them the perfect situation. It’s their purpose; what gets them out of bed every morning and what makes them so passionate about the work they do.
Of course, the perfect situation, includes the best commute possible (or at least one that doesn’t completely ruin their day to day life). This fantastic tool – with the most accurate traffic data – helps them do just that.
If you want to see INRIX Drive Time in action, we have it in our sample presentations on our website.
You can find out more about INRIX here.
4 Underrated Ways to Get More out of Your Marketing
By Maddie Jostol
The market is heating up, and agents are getting busier, which means you need to take the necessary actions to make sure your marketing efforts go as far as they possibly can. Sphere selling is the key to success in today’s market because it grows an agent’s business on repeat and referral business. Everyone is thirsty for leads and the competition is so hot that relying solely on purchased leads just doesn’t cut it. You see, it’s all about human connection. We always recommend you use technology to your advantage, so you can automate the busy work and open up more time to build real, human connections.
1. Showcase your personal brand
As far as we’re concerned, there is nothing wrong with showing your personality as long as things remain professional. In fact, it will work to your advantage and make your marketing efforts more effective. Your personal brand is how you present yourself to the world – this should include your unique personality, style, and values.
People want to work with people. The reason homeowners work with a real estate agent is to have someone to guide them through the stresses of the home selling or buying process. As you write content, create ads, and go about your typical marketing activities, don’t forget to make sure your personal brand is shining through.
2. Make it personal
When it comes to social media, don’t just actively post, but truly engage with your audience. Many of us focus so much on just posting regularly, that we forget that social media is a two-way street. Putting content out there is certainly important, but make that content go further by engaging with those who react to it.
When you respond to inquiries via social media, email, or other channels, respond with care. Even if the request doesn’t directly earn business, being nice and offering a quick, personal reply, uplifts your brand’s reputation.
3. Make it in-person
Don’t get us wrong, digital marketing has never been more important. However, there is still something particularly special about gathering people. Particularly if you work in a small community, try hosting an event (think: pancake breakfast or wine tasting). You can make it a community gathering or a charity benefit, but the idea is that you’re bringing people together. It’s the perfect opportunity for you to get back in touch with old prospects or clients and for you to showcase your commitment to the local community.
4. Keep in touch
The better your sphere knows you, the more effective your marketing efforts are going to be. Think about it this way: if you’ve had light, relative touchpoints with someone in your sphere over the past year, it creates familiarity, which means they’ll be much more responsive to your marketing efforts. It builds brand recognition and loyalty, meaning those people are much more likely to comment on your posts, forward your content, and share your information. This expands your sphere of influence, and in turn, means your marketing efforts get more bang for your buck.
Why MoxiWorks is growing FAST
By Ring Nishioka, VP of Operations at MoxiWorks
I joined MoxiWorks about 18 months ago and when I joined, the company had just under 50 employees and an office space of about 5000 square feet. The Little Engine that could has come a long way in the past 18 months. The doubling of our agent count has included 25 new employees and the doubling of our office space square footage.
As one of the HR folks in the company, it has been my responsibility to hire these last 25 employees along with our HR Specialist, Emily “HRSavage” Sherwood. We have hired 13 employees since the beginning of 2018 and we’re not looking to slow it down anytime soon.
MoxiWorks is based in Seattle, Washington and the market for technology talent is very similar to the real estate market – there are more buyers than there are sellers/inventory. All of the large tech companies have created more job openings than there are candidates. So recruiting quality candidates can be tough.
In the same way that the market has driven up the price of homes in Seattle, the market has driven the starting salaries for technologists through the roof. Graduates from good schools with computer science degrees and zero experience are making more than their parents. While that might sound absurd, it’s the truth. Supply and demand at its finest.
The multiple offices of Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and the numerous startups including Uber, Lyft, and CHEF, to name just a few of the more recognizable names, is putting a squeeze on the little engine MoxiWorks.
So, what is a non-Microsoft sized tech company to do when it needs to fill openings? Like most brokerages, we try to entice candidates by creating a cool place to work and creating a strong brand in the marketplace, but the best thing we have done to recruit new talent is the use of our employee referral program and the use of social media.
Like most companies, we offer a referral bounty for employee referrals. We pay this bounty on the first day of the new hires employment. We don’t ask the employee who made the referral to wait three months before we pay out because it was the hiring manager and the interview loop that made the hiring decision.
Our bounty is $1500.00, which is modest by Seattle standards. We don’t want Moxians to quit their day jobs because the bounty on a referral is too high. We want to say “thank you” with a token of appreciation. Why do we want referrals so badly? We want referrals because our employees feel this is a great place to work and want to share the experience. Make the referral $10-$20K (yes, it is a thing) and folks will throw random candidates against the wall in the hopes of getting lucky.
Our employees are MoxiWorks BEST source of referrals and leveraged with Social media, we can make a serious dent in the list of open positions. And the same could be said for new agent recruits. Moxi employees know what our culture is, they know what success looks like, and they know the hiring managers. As an HR guy, what I like the most about employee referrals is that new hires that are referred by a current employee have a friend, ally, mentor and big brother / sister to watch their back. We know this is typical for brand new agents just getting into the real estate world. We all need someone to show us the ropes. These employees put their reputations on the line and are motivated to make sure their referral is successful.
To give you some perspective, the last three months at MoxiWorks looked like this:
- Our Test Engineer referred TWO technologists.
- Our Marketing Automation Manager referred our VP of Marketing
- A new hire developer liked the interview process so much, he referred his developer friend BEFORE HIS FIRST DAY OF EMPLOYMENT.
- Our CEO referred our CFO
If we went through a hiring agency using outside recruiters, we would have spent close to $170,000.00 in agency fees. We also would NOT have had organic relationships with these new hires.
We create a job posting and then our Content Marketing Manager, Tiana Baur, creates links that the employees can post on their persona LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter feeds.
And just like that, we’re swimming in plenty of quality referrals from our employees we know and trust.
Yes, we are hiring, and currently looking for:
If you’re not currently a Moxian and want to refer a candidate that we hire, we would like to say “thank you” with a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue. Hit me up at Ring@moxiworks.com.
Knack Gifting Solution Plugs into the Moxi Cloud Open Platform
March 27, 2018 – Seattle, WA – MoxiWorks, the real estate industry’s first true open platform, has added a new gifting service to their existing options available in the Moxi Cloud. KNACKSHOPS.COM joins the other 40+ partners on the Moxi Cloud open platform as a preferred brokerage solution, giving agents more ability to customize their client gifts.
“We’re looking forward to working with MoxiWorks and helping agents with customized gifts. We’ve seen firsthand how valuable it is to be able to give your clients something meaningful at the conclusion of your working relationship–not only does it leave them with a positive impression of you and the experience you’ve shared, but it serves as an additional touchpoint for your brand,” says Knack CEO and founder Laura Jennings. “A thoughtful gift can go a long way toward celebrating a special occasion and encouraging clients to contact you next time they need your services.”
MoxiWorks often welcomes new best-in-class tools and services to the Moxi Cloud and encourages their brokerage clients to integrate their existing ones they already know and love. Part owner and client of MoxiWorks, Windermere Real Estate, is the brokerage that brought Knack to the attention of the growing open platform.
“We’re excited to add Knack to the cloud. Giving gifts and in doing so, staying in touch with your sphere is crucial for agents. Knack is special in that it allows the agent to customize a gift set or build one from scratch, and have it delivered in beautiful packaging to their clients. We want brokerages and agents to have choice, and this helps to accomplish that,” said Kylah Searing, Director of Moxi Cloud Partnerships and Integrations at MoxiWorks. “It was great having the introduction to Knack come from Windermere. Since they already use and love this service, it made the decision to add them to the cloud an easy one.”
The integration to the Moxi Cloud includes SSO (single-sign-on), meaning agents have one less login to remember. The gifts are easily curated and if agents need help with inspiration, they can speak to an expert concierge. These one-on-one consultations help agents create gifts that perfectly capture the relationships they share with their clients, and celebrate special occasions.
“KNACKSHOPS.COM offers elegant and modern gifting options for the agents who want a more customized gift option for their sphere. They’ve been great to work with and this partnership will allow us to provide our clients with another unique gift-giving solution,” said Mike McHenry, VP of Partnerships and Integrations.
The Seattle-based gifting company does more than just curate beautiful gifts; they’re passionate about giving back to the community as well. Knack partners with merchants who support a wide range of causes, and donates a percentage of their sales to philanthropic causes as well. This means for Windermere, agents can give, and give back: Knack donates five percent of each purchase made by a Windermere agent to the much-admired Windermere Foundation.
About MoxiWorks
MoxiWorks is a comprehensive open platform system for large residential real estate brokerages that serves over 100,000 agents and 50 brokerages nationwide. MoxiWorks make brokerages more profitable by enabling their agents to be more productive, earning the highest adoption rates in the industry. MoxiWorks’ integrated tools are centered on sphere methodology that drastically increases agents’ repeat and referral business by almost 40%, while lowering overall technology, training, and support costs for the brokerage. The open platform, known as the Moxi Cloud, has more than 40 tools and services in which brokerages can plug-and-play for their unique brokerage solution. More information at moxiworks.com
About KNACKSHOPS.COM
We Curate, You Customize, They’re Delighted.
Knack is a modern gift-giving solution for the discerning professional who wants to give thoughtful gifts but doesn’t always have time to seek out unique products themselves. Knack carefully curates artisan products that tell a story, then allows customers to combine items in a way that is meaningful to them. Gifts are hand-packed to guarantee an exceptional unboxing experience and each gift includes a custom booklet that tells the story of each item in the gift. Shoppers may choose from pre-created gift sets, customize those to their liking or choose from more than 1,000 products on the site to create their own signature gifts. More information at knackshops.com.
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For more information on this topic and other press inquiries, please contact Tiana Baur at tiana@moxiworks.com.
Knack Gifting Solution Plugs into the Moxi Cloud Open Platform
MoxiWorks hires industry veterans for tech startup
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE Real estate tech startup Moxiworks has swiftly become a full open platform in a short amount of time. As they continue to grow, the company has hired Marc Chouaniere as VP of Marketing and Jim Tarte as CFO.
