Redfin 60 Minutes YouTube Spoof “16 Minutes”

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The fellas from Point2 did a spoof on the 60 Minutes piece targeting real estate agent commissions and highlighting Redfin. The video, below, shows why real estate agents and their adjunct service industries are not in and should not be in comedy. Comedy is hard, spoofs are harder - its too easy to be not funny.

The most you can say about this piece is that it isn’t funny. It isn’t very earth shattering or insightful either. It rehashes the same arguments Realtors always bring up when bashing a discount brokerage. They talk about selling the house for a higher price, personalized service, faster sales transaction, yada, yada, yada. Don’t we know this already? Isn’t this tired material?

Since Point2’s market is real estate agents it is a savvy marketing move on their part. Too many real estate agents probably got a "good laugh" at the piece. To me anyone that thinks that skit is funny is just looking for others to reassure them that what they offer is superior to Redfin.

I think this is a dangerous and unnecessary position. The Redfin issue has been hashed over thoroughly by many people in the RE.net space. The bottom line is that there have always been discounters, just like Redfin. Redfin is just another player, and one doing things a bit differently than the rest of the market. I say good for them. They’ve been able to rattle a protected monopoly and gain attention in the process - for any marketing wonk those are two big feathers in the cap. It will remain to be seen if they can deliver in the long run as a viable business entity; during that time I recommend the rest of the industry stop poking fun and start getting better at what they do.

So to Brad Inman’s question I say "weak, unfunny, boring satire that may have won Point2 a few new clients by playing to the egos/insecurities of their agent-customers."