After my palms stop sweating and my knees stopped shaking, I thought “Damn! That was tough. How tough did HE have it?” You brought a lot of value to a roomful of people who looked askance at you.

Harsh words Glenn; you know there were actually quite a few companies who are doing what you are (giving buyers a commission rebate) long before you did. Someone could accuse Redfin of being their knock-off.

While you have done a truly superb PR job for Redfin, and while Redfin certainly is at the leading edge with respect to the search and mapping technology you have developed, you have not invented the idea of flat rate or commission rebates.

My personal feeling is that an approach of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ would make more sense. Right now it’s ‘us’ customer centric “next gen” real estate firms against ‘them’, the established agent centric business models championed by the NAR.

Buyside and others are not a threat to Redfin by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe a better (and more visible approach) would be to create an alternative industry organization of customer centric real estate firms, and invite all of these ‘maybe future compeitor’ firms to join, to create an effective powerbase to support your ‘hand to hand combat’ as you enter new markets. Better to have Redfin be perceived as ‘the champion of a new era’ than an arrogant antagonist.

Just a thought, I certainly would be game.

Aside from that, enjoyed your presentation and debate at RE Connect, keep up the great work!

TH