The Role of Real Estate Agents in an iBuyer, Bridge Buyer World

Last week, zavvie, the creators of the first marketplace for real estate agents to help homeowners see all their selling choices, announced securing a $1.75 million inside round.

In the VC world of funding, an inside round means all the funding came from the folks who already invested in zavvie. That includes NAR's Second Century Ventures, which selected zavvie as part of its Reach Class in 2019. It is an indication of a burgeoning confidence in the business model zavvie has created as well as its scalability.

zavvie strategically has carved out a way for agents to remain at the center of every real estate sales transaction. Brokerages using a zavvie-powered platform – one that is often white labeled to the brokerage's brand – can help homeowners sort through all of their choices. Most importantly, homeowners employ the guidance of a trusted professional: their real estate agent.

That means because of zavvie, an agent will earn their commission no matter what path a homeowner chooses when they decide to sell.

The value of a real estate agent as a trusted advisor has never been higher. For more than a decade, new real estate tech players have come onto the scene, predicting the internet would "disintermediate" agents. More recently, the term disintermediate has by replace by the word "disruption." But the predictions by many of these new real estate tech startups remain the same: that tech disruption will replace agents.

Apparently, all these firms forgot to ask consumers what they want. NAR has been tracking what consumers want over many years. Eighty-nine percent of sellers and 88% of buyers purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker—a share that has steadily increased from 69% in 2001.

The fact that more consumers want and are willing to pay for the help of a professional real estate agent should not be a surprise. A home sale remains the largest transaction most of us will ever make in our lifetime. Would you entrust a crucial surgery to an amateur?

Selling a home is actually more complicated with all the new selling choices. Homeowners want to see all their choice, they want to compare and someone with industry knowledge and skill to have their back.

Every selling option available today has its own unique pros and cons. Homeowners can take many different paths:

• They can decide to accept an all-cash instant offer from an iBuyer like Zillow or Open Door.
• They can choose to pursue the "buy before you sell" offering of a Bridge Buyer, swapping a home with a firm like Knock or Homeward.
• They can engage a Concierge service to fix up their home without any cash outlay as improvements are deducted from the sale proceeds.
• Or they can opt for the traditional Open Market listing of their home, which is the most popular choice, as it often results in the highest sales price and greatest net proceeds.

At one of the last in-person Inman Connects, one of the presenters on the last day of the conference showed venture capital was flowing away from companies that were positioned as real estate disruptors to firms, like zavvie, that are working with the industry and not against it.

Having worked with the folks at zavvie over the last few years, we have watched their transformation into what a brokerage needs today to take advantage of what iBuyers and Bridge Buyers are doing. Unlike others, zavvie doesn't see iBuyers and Bridge Buyers as the enemy – just the opposite.

These players are another partner in the process for agents and their clients when the solution fits. zavvie helps brokerages and their agents coop this business as they have deliberately placed themselves in the middle of this new marketplace.

Here's the news release with more details about zavvie and its business momentum.

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.