More and more companies that use technology to quickly buy and sell homes — so-called iBuyers — are popping up everywhere.
Even some independent brokerages are getting in on the game. They’re using software and investor networks to deliver bids from cash buyers for homes. They might then present those offers alongside the option to list a home on the open market.
But it might be difficult for them to serve up offers that are competitive with those from Opendoor, Zillow Offers and other big iBuyers — unless the brokerages are getting their cash offers from those very companies.
Tru Realty is one brokerage with an iBuyer arm. The division now uses 12 callers to make 40,000 calls a week, Tru Realty CEO Sarah Kirsch Richardson said at Inman Connect Las Vegas.
Only a tiny proportion of those — 30 to 50 a month — turn into deals. In those cases, Tru Realty will either buy the homes itself or arrange for their sale to a buyer in Tru Realty’s investor network.
In Dallas, JP & Associates Realtors is another brokerage that’s concocted an iBuyer service. Through a partnership with Offerai, an offer-request platform that JP & Associates Realtors has invested in, the firm can seek out cash offers from a network of investors and other buyers, said the brokerage’s founder, JP Piccinini, during the Connect panel.
The program empowers the firm’s agents to offer the option to list on the open market or to sell to a cash buyer at a discount.
For more on the ins and outs of how these programs work for indies, read the live session article or watch the full video above.
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