This week Kevintalks with Russell Smith, from Earnnest, to discuss what the future of real estate transactions might look like and how some home builders are already doing away with the archaic ways of checks and wire transfers. Also in this episode, Kevin, Andrew, and Bryce review the long list of excuses and objections that builders have given throughout the years as to why innovation is hard and they discuss why builders need to apply timelines to their processes.

Story Time (2:20)

• Bryce talks about her very recent home buying experience with a used home and how it compares (and fails to compare) against new homes.
• Andrew enhances his iOS14 blog with step-by-step instructions for homebuilders to follow along.
• Kevin talks about his recent social media post where he highlights the long list of objections he’s heard from home builders over the years about why they cant (aka won’t) innovate.

In the News (19:40)

• Zillow will now make cash offers for homes based on its ‘Zestimates’  (CNN.com)
  • Zillow’s ‘live offer’ Zestimate launches in 20 markets(inman.com)
• Zillow’s New Construction Consumer Housing Trends Report 2020 is here!  (Zillow.com)
• Zonda’s Ali Wolf’s Twitter Account(Twitter.com)
• 

360 Topic of the Week – Discussing the future of Real Estate Payments with Russell Smith (35:55): 

Russell Smith from Earnnest joins us to talk about his journey in real estate tech and how Earnnest aims to solve the problem of archaic wire transfers for home purchases. Earnnest is the largest digital earnest money service in the United States, allowing buyers to securely and electronically deposit funds directly to an escrow holder.

• Russell explains what Earnnest is and the problems they are trying to solve
• His journey in Real Estate Tech from Trulia, RealScout, & HouseCanary to General Manager of Earnnest
• How team members are utilizing Earnnest for their own home purchases
• How Earnnest aims to be utilized similar to Docusign is for home purchasing
• Earnnest isn’t aiming just to solve the “Buy Now” needs for homebuilders, it wants to take the pain points out of digital transactions
• How the process works and how it connects accounts and notifies all parties involved
• Integration options for home builders for their homebuyer portal
• How this could be not only a digital transaction tool, but also a customer service experience improvement tool
• A discussion about what it means to buy a house “sight unseen”

Question of the Week (1:08:50)

• As builders are thinking more about the need for early communication and expectation setting on issues like price increases, construction times, and waitlists, we’ve been observing how other industries are handling their own similar issues. Have you added any kind of transparency/expectation setting to your website recently? Do you have any examples from other industries we can add to our list? Submit your feedback here – we’d love to hear from you!

Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we’ll address them on the next episode.

More insights, discussions, and opportunities in the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.

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A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, and others from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best-practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We’re here to help you – not to sell you!