Latest / NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman / Showami Chief Revenue Officer Josh Kuchar on the Future of Showing Homes

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Showami Chief Revenue Officer Josh Kuchar on the Future of Showing Homes · NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman

0:00
The Uber of real estate. Now that's a phrase
0:03
you don't hear very often. I'm very excited to
0:05
have our guest today, Josh Kuchar. Join us. He
0:08
and his dad, a father and son duo out of Southwest
0:11
Florida, are taking PropTech by storm. You can't
0:15
miss this one, folks. This is really interesting.
0:17
They have over 200 ,000 users on their platform
0:21
right now. If you're interested in anything about
0:23
the Uber of real estate, this is the one for
0:25
you. Hey everyone, this episode is brought to
0:27
you by Lofty, the agentic AI operating system
0:30
for real estate. Lofty's AI doesn't wait to be
0:33
prompted. It works proactively on behalf of your
0:36
agents to uncover new listing opportunities,
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0:43
transactions. Lofty turns every agent into a
0:45
top producer. Visit lofty .com to see how Agentic
0:49
AI can put your business growth on autopilot.
0:53
Everybody in the business of home has a pitch.
0:56
Almost nobody gets asked a hard question. This
0:59
show fixes that. Welcome to Noise vs. Signal.
1:03
I'm your host, Inman CEO Tom Bohn. Each week
1:06
we sit down with the top producing agents, industry
1:08
CEOs, prop tech founders, and the people shaping
1:12
the future of the business of home. Then we break
1:15
down the week's biggest headlines and decide
1:18
what's noise and what's signal. Let's get into
1:21
it. This was one I was really looking forward
1:25
to, everyone. Today, I have Josh Kuchar with
1:28
Showami here with us. And he had me at a phrase,
1:31
which was Uber for real estate. And we're going
1:34
to talk about, you had me at Uber for real estate,
1:37
Josh. But before we get into that, you and I
1:39
are actually kind of neighbors. We live generally
1:41
in the same area. And before we start talking
1:44
about all the important things in real estate
1:46
and what you're doing, we have to talk about
1:47
this thing here that I'm only finding out about
1:50
called the fruit culture. Okay. And you probably
1:53
remember this because you and I went to a restaurant
1:56
or with your CEO, who's also your dad. And at
1:59
the end of this great meeting, we were talking,
2:01
he comes up and he hands me a bag of mangoes.
2:04
And I have to tell you, like, it was literally
2:07
the sixth or seventh time living here now that
2:11
someone has given me a bag of tropical fruit.
2:14
And I've since discovered it is absolutely a
2:18
real thing in Southwest Florida. Does he do that
2:21
all the time? Because I feel like I need to be
2:23
going around now with a handbag of papayas. So
2:26
he doesn't do it all the time. And honestly,
2:29
it's a big deal. Most people don't know, but
2:32
he's actually allergic. to the pollen that's
2:35
on those mangoes. So when he pulls them, he gets
2:38
a little bit of swelling, which happened in our
2:41
meeting. He had a little bit of swelling. So
2:43
it's actually just a labor of him just showing,
2:46
saying, hey, I really appreciate you and appreciate
2:49
your time. He actually sent it out to our team
2:51
and a few of his close friends. So it's just
2:54
bringing it together just kind of means a lot
2:57
that he can give away those mangoes because he
3:00
has a ton of them. I mean, it's really, you know,
3:03
it's really a fascinating thing because every
3:04
area has their own little kind of getch, right,
3:07
or something that's going on. And I was probably
3:09
here a year when all of a sudden I would just
3:11
start showing, especially when I came on with
3:14
Inman. Every luncheon or dinner meeting I have
3:17
now lately, I swear one out of two, I'm walking
3:20
away with a bag of tropical fruit. It's like
3:22
this is cool. It's a must. It's a must. Josh,
3:26
it's so cool to see you. Love your story. Love
3:29
everything about your company. Talk to me a little
3:31
bit about, because I think what's fascinating,
3:34
there's so many fascinating things about what
3:35
you're doing. The size of your company, the family
3:38
aspects, how you got to it. But walk me through
3:42
how you were a realtor, you were looking for
3:44
a solve, and that's kind of what puts you down
3:47
this path for Showami and how you got there.
3:50
Sure. So I think it's Matt's story. So Matt,
3:54
founded it. He was a very busy agent with three
3:58
kids trying to balance that work -life balance.
4:02
Went out skiing one day and he's up on the hill
4:05
in Colorado. And every single time that he's
4:09
on the ski lift, what's he doing? He's trying
4:11
to find somebody to cover a showing in downtown
4:13
Denver on a Friday night at 530. That is a feat
4:18
in itself. So he kind of got off the hill and
4:22
said, this has got to be an easier way. Now,
4:25
at the time, he was selling upwards of 50 homes
4:28
a year. So he was a very active agent, high transaction
4:32
volume. And so he just said, there's going to
4:35
have to be a solution to this. And just going
4:37
to somebody on my team is not going to be it.
4:39
So sure enough, that birthed Showami. And like,
4:44
did he just come home and say, Hey guys, I've
4:46
nailed it. This is what I'm going to create the
4:48
Uber of residential real estate. Or like, what
4:50
did he do? Right by the back of a napkin. So
4:54
he came over to, so yeah, actually he was on
4:56
the back of a napkin. He was grabbing a beer
4:59
with a friend of his after skiing and started
5:02
writing down the concepts. Then he comes to me
5:04
and says, okay, what's my first step? How do
5:08
I do this? Because I was in college at the time,
5:11
studying marketing and business, and I said,
5:14
well, your first thing is to run a survey. See
5:16
if there's a need for what you're building and
5:18
what your idea is, and let's move forward. That
5:21
survey proved absolutely true. 87 % of agents
5:26
at the time of the survey, this was 10 years
5:29
ago, said that they were already outsourcing
5:32
showings. And they were either outsourcing them
5:34
in their office. We're trying to do exactly what
5:36
he did, which is call people on the ski slopes.
5:39
Wow. And so, I mean, like, this is not a small
5:43
business, but it's run very leanly. I mean, you
5:47
have, what, 150 ,000 customers on this now? So
5:51
we have 220 ,000 agents on Showami today. Wow.
5:56
Wow. Yes. That is absolutely incredible. Yeah,
6:00
we're really proud of our growth over the last
6:03
few years. And so when you have that, you have
6:06
the coverage, you have the people requesting,
6:08
it's a major operation. Yeah. I mean, how do
6:12
you, so like, I love this whole aspect. Like,
6:14
you know, you're not large. What is like 15 staff,
6:18
12 staff, something like that? Not even. Not
6:21
even. Our full -time staff just hit seven. So
6:26
we have seven. We have an outsourced team of
6:30
Pakistan that helps with our phone lines. And
6:34
then we have an intern and - Wait, hold on, hold
6:37
on. Let's stop right there. So your outsourced
6:38
team is in Pakistan handling phone lines. That's
6:40
a new one. Tell me, how does that work? Yeah,
6:44
no, and they're absolutely incredible. So let's
6:48
say you were to call Showami today, our contact,
6:50
our support line, they are trained and know exactly
6:53
how to help you through any and all scenarios.
6:55
They have a whole Zendesk background where all
6:59
the tickets are created and they just walk everybody
7:02
through the system. What's really funny is when
7:05
we started, it was just Matt. So he didn't outsource
7:08
till year two. And so he's sitting there as a
7:11
full -time agent trying to sell 60 homes that
7:14
year. And he's sitting there answering support
7:17
calls. I remember... going back home and here,
7:21
there he is in the room and he's like answering
7:23
these calls while also trying to write up a contract
7:26
at the same time. He's like, this is really annoying.
7:29
There has to be a better way to get support for
7:31
not too expensive. That's incredible. So we're
7:35
going to drop, we'll drop some images and some
7:36
links in for everybody, but walk me through a
7:39
little bit how the process works. Like how do
7:41
you, how does a realtor connect? How do they
7:42
use it? What does that process look like? Yeah.
7:45
So you go on to showami .com or you download
7:49
our app and you'll go through a process of putting
7:51
in your license and information. So we do have
7:54
a national database of everybody's license and
7:57
it's constantly being updated. So we can check
7:59
and say, yes, you're our license. No, you're
8:01
not. Please, you know. provide proof if you do
8:04
have proof. Maybe like if it was within the last
8:07
two days you got licensed, we need to know. International
8:10
databases wouldn't have that just yet. Ping that
8:12
information. They go through and they set up
8:15
their account and tell us, hey, I want to be
8:18
a showing agent or I want to be somebody that
8:20
requests showings or I want to be both sides.
8:22
And from there, they go down the path of whichever
8:26
fits them best. They can either request or be
8:29
a showing agent just from there. So now you obviously,
8:34
this is all family owned, right? And you work
8:37
with your dad. So we keep saying Matt, but Matt
8:39
is also your dad. And I don't know if there's
8:42
a world where my son would ever come and work
8:44
with me. So I'm just going to, I'll put that
8:46
out there and he could address that in another
8:48
video. But what's that like? What's that dynamic
8:51
like on a day -to -day? Because you guys seem
8:53
like you get along very well, but is that hard?
8:57
So since inception, you know, I was part time
9:00
back then and then I am full time about four
9:03
or five years ago. He would tell me constantly,
9:06
I am not going to hire you. I do not want the
9:09
complications of working with my son to involve
9:12
the business. I don't want this. You're not going
9:15
to do this. And then I had this great job and
9:18
he said, well, now I'm going to give you an offer.
9:19
You can't refuse to join Showami. He's like, I
9:22
don't trust anybody else to take care of these
9:24
things and to grow it the way that you're going
9:25
to grow it. So and I'd proven myself year over
9:29
year doing a side work and helping him with various
9:31
projects throughout time. And as you kind of
9:35
clearly pointed out, I refer to him as Matt when
9:38
we talk about Showami. And then at the dinner
9:41
table, he's referred to as dad. And we did that
9:45
as. as that distinction that says this is a professional
9:49
way to operate. I'm never going to go in a meeting
9:51
with the rest of my team and say, well, dad says
9:54
this. Well, then that that misvalidates my actual
9:58
assumptions or my, you know, research onto a
10:02
topic, because then it's like, oh, he's playing
10:04
the dad card. So our whole team doesn't feel
10:07
like that. That's our relationship. We're very
10:10
good about butting heads just right where we
10:13
have it set this way. It's kind of funny. If
10:16
we do butt heads on a scenario, we say, okay,
10:19
let's come up with a test to see whose theory
10:22
is better. So we both agree on the test, whether
10:26
it's a survey to the agents, whether it's a team
10:28
survey or whatever for whatever project we're
10:31
looking at. And we said, this is going to settle
10:34
this argument. So if we're going to go down this
10:37
path, then let's let everybody else kind of decide
10:40
for us. So it never gets that emotional tie where
10:44
it's like, you know, oh, man, I feel sore that
10:48
my dad didn't go with my project. It never gets
10:51
to that point. There's always proof behind anything
10:54
that we do. That's incredible. I mean, that's
10:57
got to be one of the toughest parts. I mean,
10:59
now I know that there's been a ton of private
11:01
equity and others involved in you, and you guys
11:04
have bootstrapped this and grown it on your own.
11:06
How does it feel now that you're actually becoming
11:08
a kind of a really a national platform with a
11:12
lot of traction? You know, do you start to say,
11:14
Where do we go from here? What does that look
11:16
like? How do we take that next step? And, you
11:18
know, how does it leave Kuchar into kind of the
11:22
world of the big boys or the big lip girls on
11:26
the street? Oh, man, it's a blast. Right. So
11:30
we went national. I think we announced national
11:32
about four years ago that we actually had full
11:35
coverage in all 50 states. And when you start
11:39
playing in this new realm where you're. growing
11:42
to 200 ,000, you're almost bigger than the majority
11:45
of major brokerages in the United States. You
11:50
start going, okay, I need to look elsewhere.
11:53
And so we've been expanding it to various markets,
11:55
whether that is in the rental market. So now
11:59
there's a landlord platform and a property management
12:02
platform, whether that's... even going into Canada.
12:06
I've teased it before. We've been testing and
12:09
pushing. We actually, if you go on to Showami
12:11
, we're also getting pre -signups. So we're
12:15
really trying to get ourselves to go, this is
12:17
next. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because
12:21
you mentioned, you know, the big brokerages and
12:23
the big players and stuff like Zillow. But, you
12:26
know, most prop tech companies, which is where
12:29
you kind of sit directly in the middle of, They
12:32
burn cash chasing users. You guys have been lean
12:36
and presumably profitable, I think very profitable.
12:40
But how do you how do you balance that? I mean,
12:43
there's got to be that temptation because there's
12:45
the monsters out there like Zillow and everyone
12:48
else who could like, God, this this is really
12:50
becoming something big. You know, how do you
12:52
run out ahead of that and but not turn it to
12:55
where you're burning cash at a rate that's not
12:57
not feasible? Oh, my gosh. Great question, because
13:02
to to put it lightly, we were bootstrapped. And
13:07
so we had to be lean. And I think that that has
13:10
its advantages early on. And it is hard sometimes
13:14
to get out of our own heads and say, like, what
13:16
if we put ourselves in his shoes? I remember
13:19
there was a meeting between me, Alex, and Matt.
13:21
So I'll introduce Alex into the equation. Alex
13:24
is one of the other major shareholders of Showami.
13:27
He is our lead developer. And we sat down and
13:31
we pulled an exercise where we said, if we had
13:33
VC funding for $1 million, what would we do?
13:38
would it work? What would our ratios look like?
13:42
What would our growth look like? What could we
13:44
do with that kind of money? And immediately when
13:47
we all started pulling those numbers and saying
13:50
like, yeah, but if we were to spend $10 ,000
13:53
here, $10 ,000 here, let's say $100 ,000 a month
13:57
on ads, then do we expect that return? That would
14:02
mean that we would have to do oh my gosh, we
14:06
got 15 showings, 15 bucks a showing is on average
14:10
what Showami ends up making at the end of the
14:12
day. So you're looking at like, we would need
14:14
an average of 10 ,000 plus more showings to happen.
14:18
There's a market cap at some point and reaching
14:22
that 10 ,000 per month range when you're spending
14:26
like that, the economics didn't actually work
14:29
out. So we really pulled that and said, As a
14:32
team, we said, this isn't going to be effective.
14:34
It can't just be a feature. It has to be a platform.
14:37
Talk to me about that. So what have you added
14:40
in that ticket from just that this is a novel,
14:43
interesting idea, but ultimately has a ceiling
14:46
to it. And now we're trying to create more of
14:48
an overall platform that is really a tool for
14:51
brokerages across the North America now. Yes.
14:56
So going from feature to that is. diving into
15:00
the brokerage strategies and helping. And it
15:04
kind of was weird when I started on Showami and
15:07
I started working with a lot of brokerages, we
15:08
almost became consultants and started saying,
15:11
well, why are you expanding with 20 people in
15:15
that market when you could just do one, supply
15:17
them with additional help on your back office,
15:19
supply them with showing agents, open house agents
15:22
through us and start lean and growth models.
15:26
And what happened was that worked. It started
15:29
spurring that growth and others were seeing it.
15:32
Others would, I hate to say it, but the truth
15:35
is a lot of our growth came when one person would
15:38
leave one company and go to another. And then
15:40
they brought us with them. So when the strategy
15:44
started to form and we started being able to
15:47
say like, this is a strategy that actually works.
15:50
This is what we're bringing to bigger brokerages.
15:52
This is what, you know. The unknown growth that
15:56
happens for a brokerage in the back end just
15:58
because we exist, it starts to look at the numbers
16:02
and it just changes the game completely. Yeah.
16:06
I mean, so, you know, everyone, I call you Uber
16:09
for showings. And I think that's just a really
16:11
tantalizing line. And I absolutely love it. It
16:13
catches, you know. But Uber drivers don't carry
16:16
a fiduciary responsibility. You're showing agents,
16:19
you know, or standing in another agent's shoes
16:21
with someone else's client. Where does that fall
16:24
apart or where does that become difficult? Or
16:27
like if a realtor is out there, which they are
16:29
listening to this today, like where do they go?
16:32
Is that good or is that scary? By the definition.
16:37
So looking at how it's phrased. So in the way
16:42
that you've placed it, it's stepping into somebody
16:45
else's shoes. But in the Showami world, that's
16:48
not actually how we train or look at it. And
16:51
there's the way that we distinct that fiduciary
16:54
duty. So our showing agents do not give an opinion
16:57
of price, condition, or quality of the neighborhood
16:59
or home. It is truly a force that process. They're
17:03
there to open the door, walk through the property
17:06
to make sure there's nothing nefarious going
17:08
on. Then answer only public information that
17:12
is on the listing. So do not disclose anything
17:15
else. And then lock the door at the end. They
17:21
never really get involved in those decision making
17:24
processes that a agent that would be representing
17:28
them would actually have. And I think that's
17:31
the clear distinction. That's where Showmami
17:33
is that differentiator. That's where people get
17:35
a lot more comfortable with us when they know
17:38
that that's the process. Do you ever get any
17:41
feedback from any realtors that you're talking
17:44
to? Because they're very, very. passionate and
17:47
opinionated I'm finding, right? There's no lack
17:49
of opinions, as I found out on Facebook just
17:52
last week. But do you ever hear them say, well,
17:54
you know, you're commoditizing us. I mean, that's
17:56
what happened with Uber. It just becomes, you
17:58
know, faceless or, you know, any of that type
18:00
of feedback? That hasn't quite come up. The interesting
18:05
thing is that I wouldn't say that the showing
18:08
is necessarily always being commoditized. Interesting
18:12
enough, and maybe this is sort of the insights
18:15
that I can give people in the industry, is the
18:19
time to view the property is the actual commodity.
18:23
We have actually found, and this is through all
18:27
of our years of being here, contact forms being
18:30
filled out where the actual home buyer comes
18:35
on the platform and says, my agent isn't available.
18:38
I want to pay to see this home tomorrow. So it's
18:43
not necessarily that their agent isn't available
18:46
to show. It's time. The time to go see the property
18:50
is the commodity. That is the piece that is the
18:54
most important when it comes to show on me. So
18:58
like Uber's end game, as we know, was to basically
19:01
take the driver out completely. Now, they haven't
19:03
gotten there yet. I was in where the heck was
19:05
I was in Phoenix and they have the driverless
19:08
cars and Ubers, which was a. scary experience,
19:12
interesting experience, but I'm not sure. I did
19:14
it simply because I wanted to see what it was
19:16
like, right? It's something, right? I don't know
19:20
that I'm comfortable doing that all the time.
19:22
And then there's, you know, they had to pull
19:23
them off the market recently because of all these
19:25
glitches. But if Uber's, you know, direction
19:28
is to be completely driverless, you know, does
19:31
the showing agent, you know, eventually become...
19:34
just lockbox and verification function? And are
19:38
we removing the realtor from this entirely? Or
19:40
is there a fear of that? Or where does the end
19:42
game on that? I know that in the industry, there
19:46
is a fear of that, where now you've got a lot
19:49
of AI competitors coming in, where they're truly
19:52
just a faceless company. And you have also other
19:58
systems where people are just trying to sell
20:00
their home without showing completely, right?
20:02
We've seen this model come out. years and years
20:04
ago. Now, where we sit, we aren't fearful of
20:10
the self -showing, which a lot of people get
20:13
weirded out by. They're like, oh, Trelawney's
20:16
just going to get the self -showing route. We've
20:18
actually seen that in the rental industry, and
20:21
that's currently available in the rental industry,
20:22
and yet it's flopping. It's actually going the
20:27
opposite direction. It's creating a lot of legal
20:29
issues and discomfort. I cannot tell you how
20:34
uncomfortable, like as your great example of
20:37
taking the Uber ride goes where there's no driver.
20:40
I'm going to go view a house. I don't. Is there
20:43
cameras? What do I touch? What don't I touch?
20:47
If I say the wrong thing, am I going to be on
20:50
Facebook tomorrow? Simply because I don't like
20:54
how this curtain looked and I criticized it.
20:57
And now because it's a self -showing, they have
21:00
cameras and I'm allowed to display this in public
21:03
information. Is that going to be placed? Like
21:06
this level of discomfort is continually coming.
21:09
So as far as like our end game goes, it's definitely
21:13
not in that route. Our route. actually takes
21:16
us into more options of what else can we do,
21:21
not just agent -wise, but what else could we
21:24
offer that only people can go to? Do you think
21:28
part of your success is the fact that you, your
21:31
family came out of really being realtors? Like
21:33
you were boots on the ground. So do you think
21:35
you just have a better insight as a company overall
21:37
than simply prop tech companies who are coming
21:40
from Silicon Valley or elsewhere, you know, who
21:43
are approaching this type of thing? That absolutely
21:45
helps. I cannot tell you how much the insight
21:49
coming from a real estate background helps. And
21:52
our team members on our team, a lot of them also
21:54
either had family members that were in real estate
21:58
that they're really close to, mostly parents.
22:01
And it helps because they can bring in those
22:05
perspectives and hone in and say like, yeah,
22:08
there's a genuine fear of handing off my client
22:12
to go see a home with somebody else. Absolutely,
22:14
there's that fear. And we run into agents that
22:17
say, I don't even allow other team members to
22:20
show homes for me. I show every home myself.
22:23
And I was like, great. Good for you. I also am
22:27
curious, do you drive yourself to the airport
22:30
every single time that you have a flight? Yeah,
22:34
yeah, exactly. And the question then becomes
22:36
like, well, I started using Uber. You didn't
22:39
always do that. You used to call your friend
22:41
to take you or your spouse to take you. And usually
22:43
that's still your first line of defense. So it's
22:46
just it's a lot of the consumer behavior drives
22:49
the next evolution of what we do. So when you
22:53
think about your world, who's your client, the
22:55
consumer or the agent? Oh, wow. It's a great
23:01
question. At the end of the day, the consumer
23:05
actually is the client. the client that's going
23:08
to go see the home. They're the ones that are
23:11
either indirectly paying it because they're paying
23:14
the agent's commission or directly trying to
23:18
pay for it. And they're willing to pay the agent
23:20
to have somebody else show when they're unavailable.
23:23
So we're starting to see that that's the shift.
23:26
So our client really is the end consumer, the
23:28
person who says, I want to see the home when
23:31
I want to go see it. Josh, what kind of features
23:35
can we look for in the future coming from Showami?
23:39
Some of the features that we have in development,
23:43
a lot of them deal with or are actually pushing
23:46
more toward brokerage. So our brokerage features
23:49
are going to start expanding. Some of those we're...
23:53
Currently in operations and working on is a full
23:56
on messaging feature for out of office help.
23:59
So great example is somebody puts out a request.
24:03
They're going on a cruise over the weekend and
24:05
they just don't want to be checking for messages
24:07
on Showami. The other team members and their admins
24:11
can go in and help in the messaging center, help
24:14
take care of that for them. So that's one of
24:16
the features that's really big that's coming
24:18
where, again, it just allows you to just. relax
24:23
on vacation, which no agent actually does. I
24:27
grew up with that. I grew up with my dad. I remember
24:31
going to the lake house and sure enough, he's
24:34
outside on his phone pacing back and forth trying
24:36
to handle a client situation. I always tell,
24:40
and he knows this, we always joke that the reason
24:44
he likes fishing so much is because nobody can
24:46
reach him when he gets to a certain point out
24:47
on the water. I love that. Are you going through
24:51
any of the realtor associations as an add -on?
24:54
Are you going through any partners like that
24:55
or directly to some of the bigger groups? No,
25:00
we haven't. We looked at those routes. It didn't
25:05
necessarily fit for either company. So we said
25:09
that we're just going to be us. Now, are there
25:12
resellers of Showami out there? We have, it's
25:16
mostly in the property management world. We have
25:18
a couple of partners that own CRMs that it makes
25:23
more sense where they can actually build it into
25:25
the workflow. And that gives that sort of feel
25:28
that as a property manager, if your team's unavailable,
25:32
they can just auto push it off. I love that.
25:35
That's great. Where do you see Showami in the
25:38
next 24 months? Oh man, I hope in Canada. That's
25:44
my goal. The next 24 months, actually, I think,
25:47
you know, we've got everything in plan and in
25:50
motion to start making those moves. I think that's
25:53
a huge, huge hit for us that that's a big growth
25:56
plan is that we said, you know, we really want
26:00
to become international. We're starting to see
26:02
others attempt our model, even in small capacities
26:05
in international waters. And we said, we want
26:09
to get there first. We want to be the big boys.
26:11
We want to be the ones that can go out. into
26:14
other countries and say like even with a limited
26:16
product scope we can offer xyz in your your market
26:21
That's awesome. All right, Josh, this is the
26:23
fun part of all of our segments is one of the
26:26
things we like to talk about is signal or noise.
26:28
So I'm going to throw out a couple of topics
26:30
out there and you're going to tell me whether
26:32
or not they are in fact signal. They're envisioning
26:34
something in the future that is real, is happening,
26:37
or whether it's noise and something that's just
26:40
kind of background and everyone will get past
26:42
it. And we'll all talk about, hey, do you remember
26:44
those days when Zillow and Compass sued each
26:46
other every other week? Right. So here we're
26:48
going to go. Right. Signal or noise. The first
26:50
one. VR and Vision Pro tours replacing the in
26:54
-person showing. Signal or noise? Noise. Noise.
26:59
Why? All right. So it will only end up taking
27:04
about less than 1 % of the actual market will
27:08
buy from a Vision Pro. And honestly, having gone
27:13
through the most recent home purchase, I can.
27:16
attest to the fact that I needed an in -person
27:18
showing. They beautified the first showing. And
27:22
then on my second attempt, we found out that
27:24
the pool had flooded and that there was no drainage
27:27
put into our area. So by going simply in person
27:30
and not having relied on like a VR showing, I
27:33
would have never have seen or experienced that.
27:37
Excellent. All right. Zillow versus Compass.
27:39
I had to ask it. Signal or noise? I'm going with
27:43
noise on this one. Nice. All right. I agree with
27:46
you. I think it's noise too. How about private
27:48
listings in general? Is it in signal or noise?
27:51
Where's that headed? I think private listings,
27:54
I think it's still staying as a noise. I think
27:57
the way that it's being sort of promoted that
28:01
eventually it's just going to end up fading because
28:04
access to seeing homes is huge. The people want
28:09
to put their listings out there. There's always
28:12
been a market for people that want private. But
28:14
in general, I truly believe that majority will
28:17
always rule over the minority of votes when it
28:21
comes to this sort of mentality. All right. Signal
28:25
or noise, the solo agent going extinct and everyone
28:30
folding into teams. Interesting enough, I didn't
28:35
see that one happening. I thought it was actually
28:38
the reverse was going to start happening. So
28:40
I thought we were going to go from. teams to
28:44
more solos. And that was sort of what I was looking
28:49
at as far as some of the signals that I'm seeing
28:52
is the opposite direction where one agent can
28:56
start taking on more. You know, so I think that
28:59
ties into what I was going to tee up next, which
29:01
is the agent as a media brand signal or noise,
29:05
because I think that's actually becoming more
29:07
important than the brokerage. But I'm curious
29:08
to get your feedback on that. It's absolutely
29:13
true. Signal. I think more and more the agents
29:17
are truly becoming their own brand. And that
29:22
exposure, that constant reminder that you're
29:24
still in that market, that you're still doing
29:26
hard work, that you're still the person to go
29:28
to for answers, that's going to be top of mind.
29:32
Last thing I'm going to ask you, we're coming
29:34
up on the 30 minutes here, is everyone's going
29:36
to sit on the sidelines until rates drop significantly.
29:40
Signal or noise? Define significantly. I think
29:48
we need to get down below 6%. So call it five
29:53
and a half. I would say if that was to happen,
29:57
absolutely the market would just explode. Right.
30:01
But I truly believe, and I know this is really
30:04
interesting. I think we're about to go through
30:05
a two week to three week explosion coming up
30:08
right now. Talk to me. Why is that? Those closings
30:12
will happen in August. So we've just got everything
30:16
kind of settled with the Iran war. So now all
30:19
of this major amount of uncertainty that people
30:22
were having in the job market and in their retirement
30:27
money, right? So we've got investors that were
30:29
watching their stocks go up 5%, down 5%, up 5%,
30:33
you know, every single day, these huge shifts.
30:36
Now with stability comes the market again. Now
30:41
that they feel like their jobs are more secure,
30:43
they feel like, okay, things are calm again.
30:47
Now I can look at moving because I can tell you
30:51
from what I've been seeing in the market, especially,
30:54
you know, a lot of people that I've been talking
30:56
about applying for jobs is these companies would
30:59
post a job and then go silent, absolutely silent.
31:03
And I was hearing this over and over again. It
31:05
was really interesting. And the reason being
31:08
is that because they were so uncertain. Two days
31:10
later, we're back at war again, or the oil prices
31:14
spike, this and this. So not trying to dig into
31:18
politics, but it does influence the market. And
31:20
so I believe that now that we're seeing this
31:25
shift or really this sort of calmness, that's
31:29
going to bring buyers. And especially end of
31:32
year, sorry, end of summer, this is the time.
31:37
And traditionally, based on our data, these next
31:41
two weeks are typically the two weeks that we
31:43
see a large amount of showings happen in Showami,
31:46
which means within a month, they'll close. From
31:50
your lips to God's ears, Josh Kuchar with Showami,
31:53
the chief revenue officer. Thank you so much.
31:56
If you want to contact Josh, his company, we're
31:58
going to drop it here below. If nothing else,
32:01
you will get a bag of mangoes. Keep doing great
32:03
things, Josh. We appreciate you coming on today.
32:06
Tom I appreciate your time thank you so much
32:08
thank you thanks for listening to noise versus
32:12
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32:16
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32:18
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32:21
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32:24
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