Everdwell
Everdwell launched, and got featured on TechCrunch.
A few thoughts:
1. The problem isn’t that amazing tools don’t exist. The problem is most agents and brokers aren’t willing to spend what it costs for a great product. The high end of the San Francisco is not a good test case to see if this is a viable offering that can scale across the whole country.
2. The most amazing website on the planet, is completely useless if no one sees it. How is Everdwell going to help their clients with that? There is some value for technology products that require agents to market them on their own, but exponentially more value when products are proved to attract new clients.
3. Most agents are not listing agents. They are buyers agents. So the product is geared at a small percentage of the total agent population.
4. They should go after this opportunity instead, since…
Mullen admits that the problem the company is tackling is far from sexy
Mat Mullen
Posted at 10:34h, 21 AugustHi Drew –
We’re specifically focusing on the luxury market for a reason. Why? Because agents are willing and do spend time and money on marketing their listings. We don’t expect an agent selling a sub-$400,000 home to build a custom website or spend the time to take professional photographs of their listing.
In luxury markets like the Bay Area, LA, NYC, Miami and Chicago, the competition to win a listing is incredibly competitive. In order to differentiate themselves against the competition, agents need to show why they’re going to do a better job then their peers.
Do we expect a property listing website to sell a house? Nope. But we do know from feedback by the agents that are using Everdwell, that their clients are happy and impressed. What’s even better is that once an agent has created a few listing sites, they now have a modern looking portfolio that they can share with potential clients. Everdwell is not just aiming to be a property listing service, our goal is to build a product that makes it easier for agents to market themselves.
Here’s a preview of our website builder tool – http://bit.ly/1mqpOym
Drew Meyers
Posted at 10:36h, 21 Augusthow much of it can you completely automate for your clients? they will certainly pay more, if they have to do nothing manual to use it
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 15:26h, 21 AugustDrew, most successful agents using this will have an assistant who does this work for them.
I think it should be easy to use so the assistant can pick it up without much training, but I don’t think it has to be completely automatic.
I think no matter what the photos have to be uploaded because you probably don’t want to pull photos from the MLS as they are reduced in size and quality.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 15:23h, 21 AugustMat, I could not find an option to view some sample Websites created with your service. Could I see some real life samples to get a feel for how it looks. Thanks
I agree with what you are saying, there is no doubt this adds value to the agents services and helps to impress a potential seller.
By the way, we do take professional photos for all listings, regardless of the price. Perhaps we are the exception, but I find professional photos to be much better in all cases.
Mat Mullen
Posted at 16:21h, 21 AugustHere are a couple live examples –
http://65shelbylane.everdwell.com/
http://465diamondstreet.everdwell.com/
http://3300washingtonst.everdwell.com/
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 19:55h, 21 AugustThanks Mat
Drew Meyers
Posted at 15:52h, 22 Augustsites look good. just not sure what the differentiator is. i’ve seen other gorgeous single property sites before. it’s not that they don’t exist… they just aren’t cheap, and most won’t pay for them. i totally get they are a tool to show to sellers…just never seen any real data to convince me they actually help sell a home (largely because there is no real way to find single property sites)
Drew Meyers
Posted at 15:56h, 22 August“We’re specifically focusing on the luxury market for a reason. Why? Because agents are willing and do spend time and money on marketing their listings. ”
Yes..I get it. That’s where the money is. I just urge you to go after something audacious…is this challenge really worth spending 5 years on? if not, go do something else.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 15:17h, 21 AugustDrew, another helpful post, thanks. I am now marketing custom Websites to my sellers.