Why. Why. Why? 

Power. Control. Money. Is behind most of what we see.  

There is the home buyer and seller and then there is the investor or company trying to piggy-back into the Real Estate world to seize a share of a multi-trillion dollar industry. In America, anything goes as we do not know what the next success will be but we do know its out there.

Not every real estate brokerage will succeed Gary. I watched another very successful brokerage change their business model. They thought everyone would join across the state. It was just a flutter and then it petered out. It happens!

Well, no post about Homie can be complete without the greatest clown ever to live... Homie the Clown!

Many of these companies that think they'll swoop in and disrupt the industry don't realize that most people actually WANT and need a traditional agent to help them.

Where they probably went wrong is trying to be a one stop shop and getting into the lending and title insurance business.  Title insurance is a very expensive racket and not for the feint of heart.

Gary,

First of all, I hate the brand name.  And that alone would keep me the hell away from that company....LOL A

Homie don't ya know me?
You'd think that with all that overhead cut, they'd have made bank. 
Oops, tech is expensive. So is not knowing what you're doing.

Greed!

So, a real estate disrupter is experiencing disruption?

It was a bad idea in the first place. Why did they think they could 'absorb' the current market from others just haphazardly? They startup & all the people will flock to them like lemmings?

What an ego. 

People like to blame others for their failures.

Deseret News, Utah.

   It is obvious who the people are that backed this venture financially.  They have incredibly deep pockets.   $35 billion in declared assets, rumors from former insiders that they have an additional $100 billion elsewhere.        They will move on to something else.

It's foolish to think that our system of homebuyer or anything else is perfect.  If some company wants to try to improve it, I say, "go for it."  In fact, I would hope that they would improve it. 

If their attempt at improvement doesn't work, I'm not going to criticize them for trying.

You have to roll up your sleeves and do the work; there's no APP for that!

For some reason, people have a sense that the grass is greener elsewhere. The funny thing is...elsewhere people may think our grass is greener. People being people. BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!!

Seems like everybody in search of profits tries to develop a better mousetrap. Choose carefully. 

Lots of "fee" at closing companies in my market are struggling with the limited number of closings we're having per agent because lack of inventory.  I expect to see some agents getting out of the business soon.  We had SO many jump in in the past couple of years, but sellers are tending to list with experience.

It always seems like they will make a lot of money, but when it fails, they are surprised.

It is easy to spot the pioneers, they are usually face down in the dirt with arrows in their back.
Real estate is a deeply entrenched industry with EVERYONE believing themselves EXPERT. To bring about change much must be invested in education that will pique the insterest of those who understand something that has changed little in 70 years may be out of touch with reality.
What we do know is the union is so established it is impossible to jump onto the better idea. Without visionary agility, the real estate industry controlled by NAR could become relegated to corporate relocations while the rest of the industry has adapted.
Given a choice the public will compel change. Luckily, today the public has no choice.
 That will change. As the education regarding a truly transparent system becomes more appealing legacy enterprises will be disrupted. The operative word is TRANSPARENT.

These companies don't realize what goes in to a home purchase and sale. They're riding on the backs of Real Estate agents who did the hard work to create information that they're using. Then they want to take the service out of the industry that is built on service. They.just.don't.get.it!👏

It's always comes down to the Almighty Dollar