Would love to hear how those conversations go.

Hey Seth, just ran across this. How is it moving forward?

Agree it could be really cool tool within a brokerage, or even potentially between one client and their agent (would have to be tweaked from messaging perspective).

Getting enough liquidity of drivers in a given market to make this a really viable scenario will be tough. And enough demand to warrant drivers staying in “available” mode.

This is a marketplace with two sides to fill, & will require a lot more than fancy tech to be a viable scenario in the real world.

That said, the tech rocks (or seems to based on this video) 🙂

Thanks Sam, I appreciate the complement on the tech and the feedback!

I think it’s a good point that this is best served as a tool of a single brokerage. That’s been my idea vision for it too. That a single brokerage or local franchise would license it as a lead gen benefit for their agents, in order to more easily sell the brokerage listings.

But one thing to always keep in mind with new solutions like this is that it’s not here to completely change the way all real estate is sold. It’s just a tool in the quiver that you might only use every now and then.

But it’s a way to potentially monitize the inevitable, occasional times in an agent’s day where you’re in between showings or something specific that has to be done immediately. That’s how Uber drivers use it. They mostly do not use Uber full-time. They only use it periodically between existing clients.

And then finally, with all due respect, (I mean that) I think you might be looking at the agent respect issue in a glass is half empty kind of way. I personally have never equated having to wait for a service provider with increased respect. On the contrary, I’ve only been impressed with instant response times from my doctors, dentists, contractors, auto mechanics, vets, plumbers, etc. If they can shuffle things up to meet me immediately, I’m very very happy. And keep in mind, this would be your first time meeting this client so it’s a nice first impression and a great first step to earning them as a dedicated client!

hehe…always a good discussion with you

They would be great leads for someone new in the industry, who doesn’t have an existing sphere and book of business like you do. The people who would want these leads, are likely not reading this blog 🙂

“A qualified lead to me is someone who is qualified to purchase (either pre-qualified with a lender or paying cash) and who has a specific idea of the types of properties they are looking for.”

What if those triggers were solved on the backend of this app somehow, and you knew? What if it was more of a “schedule time” in the future scenario than a “real time” angle?

Hi Geordie,

There are a few intricacies of the app that I didn’t get to mention in the 2 min pitch, or to Drew that solve some of the concerns that you have with the concept.

And by the way, I appreciate the feedback.

In order for a user to be able to make a Curb Call to an agent, he must have gone through a short ID verification process and also have uploaded a prequal letter which the agents will be able to view.

Another thing to note is that in order to use Curb Call as an agent, you will only receive instant leads if you manually set yourself to “available”. The only time you would do that is if you actually had a hour or two available after a showing, before meeting another client, etc.

The concept here is to generate some business out of the downtime that naturally does exist for most practitioners at some point during some days. There are hundreds of thousands of buyers who are not bound to the agent that they are going to buy from within the next year.

Those people very well could just call the list agent from the sign. The chances of the list agent being available at that very moment to even answer the call (let alone schedule a showing right away?) not too good! This gives these buyers a way to get to an agent who does happen to be free asap.

If you are the kind of agent who already generates enough of his own leads through some other avenue, than another lead generator is not really what you need. But for other agents who are unhappy with the number of leads they currently have or wish to try attending to leads at a different stage of the sales cycle, Curb Call is worth a try, in my opinion.

Agent, I do appreciate the feedback! I hope these explanations clarify some of the foggier points.

The fact that there are, indeed, both idle agents with time to spare and buyers who want to go see a listing right now — means someone will figure out how to match those two parties in a more efficient way. Redfin stands a good chance at this oppty, because their model is more about the brokerage than the individual agent.

Thanks for the feedback, Mike.

It’s a good point that listings aren’t always “go and show” ready. It will be important to note that what the buyers are getting is a showing agent, on demand. Most buyers are aware that if a house is occupied, it will not be available for an immediate showing, but as a recent buyer myself, what I most wanted was to know that the ball is rolling and that I’ll be in there as soon as humanly possible.

The message that the buyer receives when they press the button to make a “curb call” and then an agent claims the lead, is that “_______ _______ from ________ Realty is investigating showing instructions for this listing. Your agent will call you momentarily.” If it’s a go and show, the showing happens immediately. If it’s in two hours, that’s what the agent tells the buyer.

Unless this is the first house this buyer has ever looked at (which will sometimes be the case – but probably not that often), they will understand that listings aren’t always go and show.

And finally, I mentioned this today in some other comments above, one more note is that agents who use Curb Call are not always going to be receiving leads. They only receive leads during times when they manually set their status to “Available”.

Your concerns and feedback are most certainly valid. No doubt about it but it’s important to keep this in prospective. Curb Call isn’t designed to be the new norm. It isn’t the only way real estate will be sold in the future. It’s a way to help get agents in front of a later stage lead (vs online questions from an idx or something like that). It’s a tool in the quiver. Not the whole quiver.