As a Houston Association of Realtors elected member of the Board of Directors, this is my third year attending the HAR.com Strategic Planning in Galveston, Texas. Every year HAR brings in great speakers to educate our board of directors on what is new to the real estate industry. Every year you can count on Zillow to be there. In addition to Zillow, this year we heard from Open Door, Redfin, Compass, and a few others. They always bring great speakers that discuss where are industry is heading.
Redfin has a unique model where they pay their Realtors salaries for working with consumers. Some agents like that model because they don’t have to be out trying to hustle up business like most Realtors do. Compass is focused on buying teams and really could care less about consumers and their real estate needs. This is interested, very much like the old RE/MAX model of renting offices to agents. Open Door hasn’t hit the Houston market in full speed, but I can tell you they are currently very limited on what homes they will purchase. Overall, the strategic planning helps our board of directors guide our association into the future. HAR.com has been the number one website in Houston for years for home buyers to search listings, and we hope it will stay that way for years to come.
