Shackprices Sheds the Shack
Shackprices, the Seattle based real estate search site, has relaunched itself under a new banner, now calling itself Estately (a much more dignified name, if you ask me). John Cook reports that the name change was prompted by a desire “to move away from the word ’shack’.”
The company, which is a licensed broker with the NWMLS, has been in business for just under a year and is led by Galen Ward, a blogger at Rain City Guide.
Shackprices had always had one of the more innovative map-based search tools (see ShackPrices Makes For Fast Home Searching) and Estately continues that tradition. It seems that the smaller brokers often are able to pioneer these kinds of technological advances. Blueroof.com and Movoto also come to mind.
Estately has no plans to get involved in the buying and selling of real estate (at least not yet) and is using its MLS affiliation to gain access to the IDX feeds to populate its listing database.
Launched in tandem with the rebranding, Estately has also launched an Agent Match function which hopes to pair real estate buyers with agents. A pay-for-leads based model is not surprising, though ambitious. HouseValues and HomeGain are already heavily committed in this space.
Estately promises to do it a little differently however. Agents are all prescreened by Estately and buyers can view ratings on every agent (see The Search for Perfect Agent). Buyers can identify their needs and agents can bid for their business (much like BuyerHunt). Ultimately, unlike HouseValues and HomeGain, the final decision remains with the buyer to choose the agent they want to work with. Estately gets paid a percentage of the commission for the referral.
It remains to be seen whether Estately can truly make a go with this model. Many companies have tried and failed before them. Barring that, its options are pursuing an advertising model or alternatively, it could license its technology to other brokers nationwide looking to give their web sites a facelift.
I suspect the later will ultimately be the best course for them, but in the interim, I’m rooting for them to pull it off.
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7 Comment(s)
1 Trackback(s)
- From Real Estate 2.0 | Nov 30, 1999
Agent Scoreboard | Jun 28, 2007 | Reply
Joel,
I take back all those nasty things I’ve said about you, you are spot on with this one.
I was reading about this “Agent Match” on John Cook’s blog and had the exact same reaction as you. This was Homegain’s model of about 9 years ago, if I’m not mistaken when they started they “pre-screened” agents too.
There are so many problems with charging for and actually collecting a percentage of the commission, they are too numberous to name.
I also seem to remember they need to carry broker licenses in the states where they receive referral commissions. I’m wondering if thats going to be a problem.
Joel Burslem | Jun 29, 2007 | Reply
@Agent Scoreboard – You’ve said nasty things about me? How dare you!
Henry Shao | Jun 29, 2007 | Reply
Any real estate agent can show houses and process paperwork. Movoto selects only the agents performing at the top 2-5% in their serviced areas. So our “pre-screened” agents are not just any agent who will sign up to the service.
Our proprietary software identifies professionals with the highest ratings for successful transactions in a given area. We then combine this data with personal interviews and reference checks to further identify only those agents with the highest scores for cliect satisfaction.
No other real estate internet companies “screens” out agents to our required level of competence……but then at a high level, all the companies sound the same.
Henry
Founder
http://www.movoto.com
Agent Scoreboard | Jun 30, 2007 | Reply
after beer 7 or 8… I say bad things about everyone…
Henry… “proprietary software” hmm sounds like “Avvo”, how can your software screen agents for quality? you should consider publishing “everything” your software does. Nothing is really “proprietary” anymore and the open model may give consumers a better idea of how your system give them the best…
Lisa Merritt | Jul 2, 2007 | Reply
Joel
Love to see the social networking response in spite of more technology! Knowing how most home searches these days originate in cyberspace, it still comes down to matchmaking (this post) and the face-to-face (nestoria/facebook post). Home is where the heart is afterall.
Lisa M.
http://www.lockboxdeals.com
Hawaii Life | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
We also pre-screen agents and match them with buyers here in Hawaii. Because many buyers are purchasing vacation homes in the islands, they need help finding a agent that specialized in their area of choice.
Though, I wouldn’t call this model successful so far, I think (along with advertising) it can work.
marc mcgee | Jul 9, 2007 | Reply
If you are interested in a more robust analysis and explanation of how a “Buyer Listing System” has been developed and is in the process of deployment, please see my activerain.com blogs. mjm