Whats the upside potential?
We believe that the next housing market recovery may cause a big change in the way real estate is bought and sold. Up to now, most real estate agents have resisted adapting to changes in information technology and rising home prices. Many continue to charge high prices and offer mediocre services. You may have noticed, for example, that photos for $8 trinkets on eBay are often better than those for $800,000 homes on Realtor.com. Over the past two years, a number of well-funded startups–like Redfin.com and BuySideRealty.com–have emerged. These companies are willing to offer services at much lower prices than traditional brokerages. When the housing market recovers, we believe these companies will spend lots of advertising dollars convincing sellers that real estate service providers should be doing more and charging less. TV programs like 60 Minutes and 20/20 have already done stories about the advantages of using discount brokerages. If this happens, there will be a terrific opportun
