Money in the Middle EP 5: What If We Started the Real Estate Industry From Scratch Today?

Hi and welcome to this Rethink Open House series titled Money in the Middle. This is Episode 5 What If We Started the Real Estate Industry From Scratch Today?
I’ve got a question for you. If we were starting the real estate industry from scratch today, how would we build it? Think about everything we have now. The internet, professional photography, video, smartphones, online banking, electronic documents, and all the technology that makes it easier for people to communicate and do business. Would we really create the same real estate system we have today? Would we build the MLS all over again? I don’t think we would. In fact, I think we’d build something very different.
First, let’s understand why the MLS exists. The Multiple Listing Service goes back to the days when real estate brokers would get together and share information about the properties they had for sale. The idea was pretty simple. You help me sell my listings, and I’ll help you sell yours. That’s how the cooperative brokerage system developed. And at the time, it made sense. There wasn’t an internet where everybody could go online and see homes for sale.
But understand something. The MLS was developed by brokers, primarily for brokers to cooperate with one another. It wasn’t originally created as an open marketplace where any property owner could simply present a house to the public and choose whatever professional help they wanted. It was a broker-controlled system for sharing inventory and conducting business.
And look where we are today. The MLS has become the foundation for an enormous industry. Brokerages, listing portals, lead-generation businesses, referral companies, and all kinds of other businesses have grown around that inventory. And much of that system now exists to support businesses that make money from buying and selling houses, rather than simply making it easier for buyers and sellers to complete transactions.
So let’s start over. What would we actually need?
Well, first, we’d want one place where people could find houses for sale. That makes sense. If you’re looking for a house, you don’t want to search fifty different websites trying to figure out what’s available. You want a place where you can search properties, compare them, and find something that interests you.
But why should that marketplace require you to hire a real estate agent just to participate? What if you’re a homeowner and you’re perfectly capable of selling your own house? Maybe you’ve got a friend or neighbor who’s interested. Maybe you’re comfortable negotiating and just need somebody to handle the closing. Why shouldn’t you be able to market your property in that marketplace?
And maybe you want some professional help. Maybe you hire a photographer or videographer to create a beautiful presentation of your house. Maybe you want a real estate agent to help with pricing or negotiations. Or maybe you want full-service representation, where somebody handles practically everything for you. Why shouldn’t all those choices exist within the same marketplace?
That’s the kind of system I had in mind when I created Rethink Open House.
Now, imagine Rethink Open House had a million property listings. I’m not saying it does today. I’m asking you to imagine what that marketplace could look like. You’ve got homeowners selling properties themselves, media professionals helping owners present their houses, real estate agents representing their clients, and buyers searching all that inventory in one place.
And when a buyer finds a house they like, what happens? They can look at the photos, watch a real walkthrough video, learn about the property, and decide whether it’s something they want to see in person. That’s the First Showing Online. And when they’re interested, they can contact the participating property owner or real estate professional directly.
And it doesn’t stop with looking at houses. Suppose you’re a homeowner who’s thinking about selling. You might start by looking at properties in your neighborhood, comparing what’s for sale, looking at sold properties, and seeing how different homes are being presented. You might also want to learn more about the selling process before making any decisions.
So you go to Rethink Open House TV. You can watch educational videos about buying and selling real estate, the industry, and the choices available to you. In fact, you might be watching a series just like this one. You can learn about the process before you ever pick up the phone to call an agent.
And suppose you decide you want some professional assistance. Where do you go? Well, Rethink Open House has something called Find a Pro. You can search for seller agents, buyer agents, or media professionals. You can look for people in your area, explore the properties they’ve worked with, and visit their professional profiles.
And here’s what makes that interesting. You’re not just looking at a name and a telephone number. You can learn about the professional. You may be able to watch their personal introduction video, look at properties they’re currently representing, see homes they’ve sold, and review examples of their work. Some agents may even have videos discussing properties they’ve sold and the work they did for their clients.
Think about how much more you could learn about a real estate agent before deciding whether to hire that person. And when you find somebody you like, you can contact them directly. Rethink Open House isn’t collecting a referral fee for that introduction or taking a percentage of the agent’s commission. We provide an affordable way for professionals to present themselves and their work, and for consumers to find them.
So now you’ve got a marketplace where you can find houses, experience those properties online, learn about the real estate process, research professionals, and make your own decisions about who you want to work with. Doesn’t that sound like a more sensible starting point?
And think about what that means for real estate agents. Instead of depending on a system that can restrict their branding and put somebody else’s website between them and potential customers, they can have their professional identity connected directly to the properties they’re representing. Their introduction video, their profile, their contact information, and the properties they’ve sold can all help demonstrate what they do. Their listings can help build their own businesses, not just somebody else’s.
And what if you don’t want an agent? Maybe you hire a media professional to help you present your house on Rethink Open House. You share the listing with your friends, you put it on social media, and you get a call from somebody who wants to buy it. You agree on a price, arrange for the transaction to be handled properly, and sell your house. Why would you need the entire real estate machine for that?
Now, here’s where this gets really interesting. Why is the MLS so powerful today? Is it because there’s something magical about the MLS? No. It’s because it has the inventory. Agents keep putting properties into the system, and buyers go where the properties are. That’s what gives the MLS its power. And that’s what has helped the portals build enormous businesses around that inventory.
So what if tomorrow, property owners and real estate agents decided they weren’t going to put their new listings into the MLS anymore? What if they decided to put that inventory into a marketplace that gave them more control?
Think about what would happen to the companies depending on those listings. Where would the portals get their fresh inventory? What would attract buyers to their websites? And what happens to the advertising, lead-generation, and referral businesses if buyers start going somewhere else to find houses?
The MLS and the businesses that depend on its inventory would face an enormous problem. They’d have to reinvent themselves or risk going out of business. Because the inventory is what attracts buyers, and those buyers are what make so much of the business surrounding real estate possible.
And here’s the most important part. The MLS didn’t create those houses. Zillow didn’t create those houses. The brokerages didn’t create those houses. The property owners created the opportunity when they decided to sell. And the agents who earned those listings helped bring that inventory into the marketplace.
So why shouldn’t the owners and the professionals working for them have more control over where that inventory goes and how it’s presented?
That’s what I want people to imagine. An enormous real estate marketplace where the objective isn’t to control listings so everybody becomes dependent on the system. The objective is to help people sell and find houses. Where homeowners decide how much professional assistance they need, agents build their own brands, and buyers experience properties and communicate directly without unnecessary businesses getting in the way.
Rethink Open House is designed around that idea. And the more property owners, media professionals, and agents who participate, the more useful that marketplace becomes.
If we were starting the real estate industry from scratch today, I don’t believe we’d build the system we have now. We’d build a better place to sell and find houses. One place for the inventory, without creating another walled garden around it.
That’s what Rethink Open House is working to become.
More money in your pocket. Less people in your house.

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