This week, Jonathan, Keith and I talked with a long time friend, Brad Nix of Path and Post Real Estate, formerly of RETSO – y’all remember RETSO, right? and now Offer Barn, which is seeking to keep agents at the forefront of the iBuyer evolution, and how to solve the three things sellers are trying to solve – time, hassle, and price. I know we say this every time, but this was a fun conversation.
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Highlights of the Conversation
- What is OfferBarn?
- What friction is OfferBarn removing, and how have things changed for the consumers?
- How the agent can and should be filling the strategic advisor role.
- “Advice is the value”
- What’s the value of less friction?
- What happens if/when the market turns?
- Difference between value and price
- Price, speed/time, hassle
- Walking through the iBuyer process
- Agents’ roles with respect to iBuyers
- Craft beer and real estate
- Sweat the Details podcasts with Three Notch’d Brewery, and Starr Hill
- Craft brewing – an analog third place
- Real estate and placemaking
- RETSO
- The selfish, organic creation of RETSO, and the lasting relationships and community it generated
- Creating something that people will miss
We hope you’ll join us for the next episode of Sweat the Details.
View the full transcript below.
Transcript
Jim:
This is Jim Duncan with Nest Realty and Sweat the Details. This week, Jonathan, Keith, and I talked with a longtime friend, Brad Nix of Path & Post Real Estate formerly of RETSO, y’all remember RETSO, right? And now OfferBarn which is seeking to keep agents at the forefront of the iBuyer evolution and how to solve the three things sellers are trying to solve: Time, hassle and price. We hope you find this conversation as interesting as we did.
Jim:
We’re sitting here with Jonathan, Keith, and Brad Nix. Brad, thanks for calling and making time for us. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you’re doing right now.
Brad:
Yeah, thanks for having me guys. Well obviously I’m on her Path & Post Real Estate. We’re an independent team brokerage here in North Atlanta and I helped run and grow this company every day. I’ve got a couple of side hustles. One includes, my brother’s the CEO of a local craft brewery, so I’ve helped him start and grow that with some other guys, and recently there’s a tech start up in real estate space called OfferBarn. So I’m pretty busy. I’m also married with a kid, so I spend my days trying to balance all of that.
Jim:
Sounds like fun. So we met many years ago when you were doing the RETSO Conference, North of Atlanta, which it’s been a long time since those days. So tell me about OfferBarn. What is that?
Brad:
OfferBarn, really, it’s a platform for agents to kind of be the centerpiece of the instant offer movement that’s happening in the industry. We believe at OfferBarn that agents should be the center of this and they need a platform that generate these leads, provide the instant offer service itself and deliver analysis to the sellers. I don’t know if you guys are in an iBuyer market, but we are here in Atlanta, which feels like ground zero. I know it’s very prevalent out in Phoenix as well, but all the national players are here in Atlanta.
Brad:
So we felt it, for a while now, and we’ve developed a solution at Path & Post to kind of help manage this process for our sellers. So what is an insta offer? Should I take it? Should I not? Is one better than the other? Because there’s multiple companies that do it, and it’s confusing. So we just created OfferBarn to help solve that problem basically.
Keith:
Hey Brad, just wondering, I mean obviously this is still a pretty new service that we’re finding, and you’re absolutely right that this, in some of the larger markets, like Atlanta, it’s booming and it’s certainly becoming more prevalent, more buyers or more sellers rather looking to it. What are the idea of what, at least Rich Barton is saying about the iBuyer process, is that it’s going to lower the friction in the real estate transaction. What are you all seeing as the still remaining frictions that need to be removed? What are you all getting past? What’s that barrier that you think is needing to be removed?
Brad:
Yeah, I think first of all, we need to realize what’s changed now, for the consumer. As an industry it’s one thing to just react to other companies or react to tools and systems, but really what’s changed for the consumers, they no longer, in an iBuyer market let’s say, begin their initial thoughts about selling a home by asking the question, “What’s my home worth?” Historically that’s kind of been the starting point. Like, “What is the value or estimated price for my home today?” Well, when an instant buyer enters the market that home sellers question changes, from, “What’s my home worth?” To, “What can I get an offer for right now?” And the difference is home value is like an estimated sales price before, and today the offer not only sets a price floor, but it also solves for time and hassle should the seller want to skip, what in the industry would be known as in the traditional open market process.
Brad:
So this problem that sets up the situation for the seller to be confused on what the true cost of choosing one option over the other is. Should I list my home on the open market and get all of the available demand for it? Or should I settle for a limited few potential buyers? And how do I compare that in an apples to apples comparison? So that’s the problem that we’re setting out to solve as agents, and our view, obviously as an agent and team owner myself, is agents should be the centerpiece of this, and we should be able to go and collect all of these offers, compare them side by side, for our client and present it next to, “Well here’s what it would be if you went on the open market,” and be in a position to say seller, “What is best for your situation?”
Jim:
So, I mean in Charlottesville we don’t have the iBuyer, but we do have the iBuyer … is making inroads in some of our other markets. Charlotte’s big, Atlanta’s big, are you seeing more consumers are aware of the iBuyer process and they’re taking to it? Or is there a trepidation or are they excited? I mean, what is the buyer sort of the buyer response in these environments?
Brad:
Yeah, it’s kind of all over the map on those emotions that you listed out there. Many sellers are aware of it and they click that button so to speak. They visit iBuyers as step one before they even talk to an agent sometimes. So that happens. Where the agent is bypassed often. Other situations is, they talk to an agent, unaware of instant offers, an agent should introduce it’s like, “Well given your situation where time is super important and not optimizing value on this investment, maybe you should consider these instant offers?” So the agent’s introducing it at other times. Sometimes it’s even after … if the agents aren’t aware in the situation. So the seller is unaware and the agent is aware, the agent may list the home on the open market in a traditional sense. Then the seller becomes aware after they’re already listed because they saw an ad, a billboard, a social media ad or something, because these iBuyers come in aggressive and promote heavily.
Brad:
So they become aware after they’re on the market, like, “Wait, I didn’t know that was an option three weeks ago when I listen my home.” Then they go and click that button online to give me an offer. So now we’ve got Zillow or Opendoor offer, Offerpad sending an offer to a listed home that the seller initiated to an agent who was unaware. So it’s a real big confusion point for the industry. The agents need to ramp up their awareness as fast as possible, first of all. Otherwise they’re going to have this client like, “You went and got an offer without me even knowing it was possibility.” It’s bad service, first and foremost, and it’s confusing for all parties. So we need to help address that, raise the awareness, educate around that, and then give them some solutions to solve it.
Keith:
Yeah, I think there’s no question Brad, if buyers, or sellers rather, are going to be seeking out these iBuyer offers, you’re absolutely right, the conversation needs to start with the agent before it’s ever listed, and honestly it’s the same within the luxury market, if you’re going to be going towards an auction at some point in the future, that’s a conversation that needs to be had with the seller and the agent should be the consultant to all the solutions, not just your traditional listing.
Brad:
100% agree. If you don’t do that, I don’t think you’re giving good service. At least you’re not providing strategic advice. I think that’s the biggest shift that’s happening in our industry right now is, historically, especially on the seller side, these listing agents are often just project managers. It’s a big complex project to get a listing, get the disclosures, get the paperwork, the agreements, get the marketing plan, get it launched, manage the feedback, negotiate the contract, get it closed. It’s like project management basically, historically. Well, it’s got to rise above project management level to really a strategic advisor role because there are so many more options available today. In a world of options and complexity like advice is the value.
Keith:
Brad, have you guys come up with, I’ll call it like a truth in lending form, but something that does compare the offers that come in through the four national iBuyer offers? I mean is there a way to really match apples and apples?
Jim:
Let me, Hey Brad, let me interrupt real quick. When you, through your process, do you say go to Zillow or go to Opendoor, or do you just send them out say, “Hey, get all four or five, or 12, or whatever iBuyer offers,” and then you step in and help them and if so, how do you do that?
Brad:
I think the agent should do that work for them. So you know, if them as the seller, and the seller is in these markets where whether it’s three or 12 iBuyers that would make an offer before you list, the agent should go and try to get as many as possible and then put them into a tool. For lack of a better tool, use a spreadsheet and you just need to understand how to arrange your columns and rows and pick the right categories to get to this apples to apples. That’s basically what we’ve done with OfferBarn is just create that tool to put in a side beside analysis and say like, “These are all the terms,” and the real magic and all of this is, I don’t want to say it’s like a bait and switch on these iBuyer offers because they do offer market value or at least very close to market value.
Brad:
So the sellers are like, “Well, if my home’s worth 300,000 and they’re offering me 298, why wouldn’t I just take the 298 instead of lists with you at 300?” Well the problem is that’s not the apples to apples. So you need to be able to dig into, well what are the fees associated with that iBuyer offer. That instant offer doesn’t come without a fee. So those fees are sometimes, and let me say this, most of the time higher than a traditional commission percentage. So you’re like, “Well you’re actually paying more for the service to take that offer than you would if you listed it in the traditional sense.” So really what you need to look at is what does the seller net, not what is the top line offer.
Jim:
But how do you value the ease of the frictionless transaction? I mean, if you will. I mean, there’s a value to not showing your house and not putting the dog in daycare and not cleaning the sink every day-
Brad:
That’s why an agent needs to be in the middle of it, honestly, because the real honest answer is it depends. It depends on that individual sellers situation. It may be more difficult for a seller with young kids at home, not in school and a dog, and you know the inlaws live there versus just a couple and they both work. It just depends. So how you measure that, you need some real experienced advisor in that situation to say, well part of that equation is how many times are you going to have it shown? Well, you better know your market data. Like how many average showings does it take before you go into contract? If we’re in a market that’s undersupplied and we price it right, you may only have one day of shellings and multiple offers. Was that a big headache? Can you just go away one afternoon, I’ll have an open house, I’ll get you three offers next day? Like that’s not a big headache. It truly just depends on the market, the property, and the sellers situation.
Jonathan:
Hey Brad, as we’ve kind of fast forward in this market that we’re in right now, which still, in most price points, specifically the buy box that these iBuyers have, the market’s still pretty hot. If we fast forward to some in time, and if I knew in that time was I’d be a genius, but what happens when the market shifts and it slows down? What happens to the iBuyers at that point?
Brad:
I don’t think it hurts them that much. Honestly. I think the industry’s default reaction is like, “This fat is going to fade and it’s going to go away and they’re going to be irrelevant in a down market or whatever.” I don’t think so. They actually may become more valuable because you got to think about it from the consumer standpoint. The seller’s like, “Well now I’m going to be on the market 90 to 180 days or I’ll just cut, bait, and sell now.” So these instant offers, the time factor becomes even more valuable in the long days of market type situation.
Brad:
Obviously we haven’t gone through it and I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s got to be as drastic as people think. I think these iBuyer models, they changed the paradigm so much that is not about value and I’m expecting it to last, but what percentage of the market will it be? I’m not sure, is this the of fallback option for a lot of sellers? Maybe, but I don’t see it going away.
Keith:
Just to clarify, Brad, you said it’s not about value, and I think, what you mean is it’s not about the end price of the actual actual home sale. You don’t mean it’s not about the value of the service?
Brad:
Yes. Exactly. It’s not about the value of the asset. It’s what I should say, it’s not about the property value, it’s about the time and hassle factor. So yeah, we know in the industry like sellers are always trying to solve for three key factors when they’re listing, selling their home, they want price, they want speed time and they want less friction, less hassle. iBuyers solve two of those three instantly, the time and hassle factor is reduced drastically and they’re pretty good on price, so even if they are not good on price in a downmarket and they lower their offers, they still are solving for two of the three key factors, time and hassle.
Jonathan:
Without getting into specifics for these particular buyers, what is the process like after the fact, if I’m selling my house to a buyer and we’re under contract, what’s the process like right now is it really frictionless? Is it smooth?
Brad:
Yeah, that that is a misperception. It’s not frictionless. While it is may be less friction, it’s not much different once you go under contract with a consumer buyer on the open market, you’re still going to have an inspection. The difference is, in a traditional open market listing, you’re going to be able to negotiate through any inspection items that come up for that buyer. Whether you’re going to fix it, whether you’re going to concede on price, or they’re just going to deal with it. That’s usually like a second negotiation in the sales process for a seller.
Brad:
The iBuyers are coming in and still having those same inspections. However, they’re non negotiable. So in that $300,000 offer scenario, you go into contract with a national iBuyer, they’re going to come in and inspect your house, and then they’re going to say, look, “Based on the condition of this and the repairs needed, I need a concession for X amount of dollars,” and it’s not, “Well I, I’ll negotiate, I’ll do part of it now it’s like you take it or leave it.”
Keith:
So it’s more like working with the HUD asset manager on a foreclosure purchase?
Brad:
Exactly. They’re coming in and saying, “Based on this case scenario, I’m going to reduce that another 5,000 or I need a seller concession for 15 grand,” depending on the condition of the property.
Jim:
So you’re trading off the emotional, fraught, strife, second negotiation process that has likelihood of maybe getting through it when all parties agree versus coming in and just saying either take it or leave it?
Brad:
Yes. That is what happens.
Jim:
How many fall apart. I mean, and this is a question from ignorance because I don’t have first hand experience with it, but of every iBuyer that you see, how many fall apart at that inspection process?
Brad:
Yeah. So we’ve been involved in a lot of them and honestly, most of them stay together, they don’t fall apart, some do. It’s interesting, we should talk about like who gets the chance for the deal to fall apart, like who gets to decide. Oftentimes it’s the seller in control. So at any point in time that’s sellers going through this process, during inspection, prior to that inspection moment or assessment, whatever the iBuyer calls it, or afterwards, anytime prior to closing, that seller can decide, “You know what? I no longer want your instant offer. Take it back. I’m going to go on the market or I’m not going to sell it all.” So the seller is in a lot more control, I think, than people realize. You’re not trapped into this once you say, “Sure, let’s proceed.” You still have a way to back out as a seller.
Jim:
So I’m working my way through this. So you do not put your house on the market, you do the iBuyer thing, you get a contract and then could you put your house in the market to see if you could get better? Then if you get a contract, you could terminate that iBuyer?
Brad:
Now these iBuyers will have that protection clause. Like, “If you list on the open market, my offers no longer valid.” So that’s usually their like safeguard, “We’ll agree to these terms and we’ll come and move forward towards closing. But the moment you list it, this offers null and void.” So you can’t necessarily list it, but say at any point in time if you decide to list it, just let us know and you’re out of this contract. So it’s a pretty fair game in that situation, so both parties are protected.
Keith:
So when you say list, are you talking about a list on the MLS? Or what does list mean? Could that be a pocket listing?
Brad:
Correct. Yeah, it is list on the MLS. It is kind of how these iBuyers offers are written.
Jim:
So it could be [crosstalk 00:17:48].
Brad:
Yeah. Well and honestly like this iBuyer situation basically is a pocket listing. Like you’re going to shop a property to a limited pool of buyers, they just happen to be national brands people recognize.
Keith:
Right. But you’re saying that we can continue marketing it quietly as long as we don’t put it on the MLS, and find a better offer?
Brad:
As long as you don’t have a listing agreement signed, you can do whatever you want in that situation. But if the iBuyer realizes you had a listing agreement signed and typically you do, especially with the new NAR ruling, where, if you have listening agreement signed, it’s got to be in an MLS within the next days, that’s usually the trigger step.
Jim:
Right. Again, the three of us are sitting here trying to work our way through the different scenarios where the seller could benefit the most.
Jonathan:
So you’ve talked a little bit about it, but I’d love to hear, kind of as you fast forward five years, how do you see the role of a listing agent? And even a buyer’s agent in 2025?
Brad:
Yeah, I do think it’s a strategic advisor role. I do think you’re going to do more work as an agent upfront to, I don’t want to say earn the business, but to secure the business? You need to be able to develop a platform and a service that rises above anything that exists today in the industry. I think that’s going to be a dynamic shift to see who can do that, who can make that change because the consumer expectations changing with it. Basically, a lot of agents thinking, “Well why would a consumer do that?” Well, every day consumer chooses time and convenience over price. They do it on Amazon, they do it on Netflix, like they click that button every day and what’s going to stop them from doing it in the real estate industry? Nothing.
Brad:
Nothing’s going to stop them. So how does the industry adapt to that is we need to help them understand the difference between a Zillow offer, an Opendoor offer, an Offerpad offer, or even your own private investor, which is a unique thing that we’re realizing is, if you can generate these seller leads at an agent level in an instant offer market, what you’ve done is you said, “I found a seller who is interested in taking less net to solve for time and hassle.” Why wouldn’t any investor be interested in those opportunities? Why aren’t we leaving it just for these national brands to have those opportunities? Why not grow your own network of local investors, like, “Sure. I can get you an instant offer from guys in your local market who are just waiting for these opportunities.”i
Keith:
Brad, what’s the take on these iBuyers? What’s the take on the seller having an agent before engaging with the iBuyer? Do they frown upon it? Is this something they expect? Do they feel like it makes it easier or is it a nonissue? They just adjust their price.
Brad:
It depends, again, each of these national buyers manage it differently. We’ve seen some that really want to partner with the existing industry, and they even build in like a referral fee in their offers, so like, “Look, you don’t have to be involved agent, we’ll just send you a referral fee and we’ll handle it from here.” So really the agent just generates an opportunity, presents it into the platform, property condition form, whatever that hurdle is, and then they can step away and not actually represent the seller and just get a referral fee from these iBuyers.
Brad:
Other iBuyers take the other approach, it’s like, “We will not work with that seller unless you show me a listing agreement.” So when I say it depends, like it’s literally like the wild West right now, there is no set rules to this game. It is just up to the agent to get in front of it, understand it all, and be able to explain it and advise their seller.
Jonathan:
I’ve got one more question kind of on this topic and then I want to shift to a couple other topics. What would you tell an agent in a non iBuyer market? So like a mid to small town USA. What would you tell them?
Brad:
Become your own iBuyer or build a network of investors to help you offer this service to sellers because I’ve seen the interest, and there’s so much demand at the seller consumer level that if it’s not in that market, it’s an opportunity for it to be. Why wait on one of these national companies to come there when you can just do this? It is just defining a service, finding some capital to leverage, to help these people move on with their life, and save time and hassle. Why not do it yourself?
Jonathan:
Yeah, that’s great feedback. Good insight into that. Yeah, I mean the whole conversation is fascinating and like, like Jim said, we’ve paid attention to it closely in a handful of the markets where we operate, and definitely see it as a sustainable business model down the road and something that we need to integrate. I mean, every realtor needs to integrate, especially right now, from the baseline, the knowledge, into their business so they can become that advisor like you said. So I’ve got kind of …
Jim:
One last question and then we will shift. Brad. Do you see this evolution as leading to fewer agents in the country?
Brad:
I do, simply because change is hard, there’s a lot of education to ramp up that we just covered here in brief conversation. It takes a while to fully understand it. You’ve got to be willing to put in the work mentally. Then also it’s expensive to do. You’ve got to scale a system to actually … if you’re that agent in the middle and you got to go collect these offers that all of these different iBuyers websites or portals, like that’s time, and that time is money for you. Whether you’re doing it or you’re hiring an admin to do it, the scale is greater. So the hurdle of education and ramping up knowledge and the costs to operate in that market are both major factors that I think are going … Agents are going to opt out, it’s like, “No, that’s not for me.”
Keith:
Change is hard.
Jonathan:
Yeah, it is.
Brad:
Change is hard, yeah.
Jonathan:
So you’ve got your hands in several different businesses, and I’d love to ask you this question of you said your brother has, a craft brewery, and that’s an industry that we, here in Virginia, are very aware of because there’s a craft brewery boom in Virginia, and I think in a lot of places-
Jim:
Everywhere in America.
Jonathan:
Everywhere in America. So with your hands in real estate brokerage and your hands in the craft beer industry, talk to me about those two industries, real estate and in craft beer. What similarities are there?
Brad:
Yeah, people like, “How’d you get involved with a craft brewery?” I always explain my entry story is very simple. I like craft beer. I like starting and growing businesses, so I’ve just always been passionate about that. Back from my RETSO Conference days, I’ll just get energy from that, and I like my brother. So when my brother asked me to start a new craft brewery, I’m like, “Sure, let’s do this.” Like, “Here’s my money.” So that was a pretty easy entry for me. But what I’ve learned since then is one, real estate as a service industry and beer as a product industry. I love the differences in that. It’s forced me to realize growing and scaling a product oriented industry is completely different than the way I would have traditionally tried to grow a real estate business and a service model.
Brad:
But what I’ve learned is my side hustle influences my main thing a lot because there is so much process in place to scale a production side business where you’re just making beer sometimes the same beer over and over again. You’re building steps and processes and training, and people will have specific roles that do specific things, and then it moves to the next station and something else happens in a batch kind of process. I can tell you that as informed the way that I build my real estate model and team structure, so much that I can’t express the amount of value I’ve gotten from doing both.
Jim:
I’m going to email you a link to a podcast we did last year, late last year with a Three Notch Brewery, I think there might be some parallels there as well because it’s fascinating how craft breweries, brokerages like ours, almost have a similar vein of an inherent need and desire to be part of the community.
Brad:
Yeah, 100% agree, I think it’s just the society’s desire as a whole to live local. Farm to table food, or eat, drinks, shop, live play, work, everything’s hyperlocal, right? Beer scratches that itch in all ways. It creates third place, a physical brewery, for the community to gather. So it’s not home, it’s not work, it’s this third community where you can come together in an analog way, not in Facebook, not in this digital setting, but like really face to face and have conversations over a beer that are meaningful and move society and community forward. I love being a part of that. You’re right, real estate is that, it’s about placemaking, it’s about community building, and they do overlap nicely.
Jim:
So do you have taps of Reformation in Path & Post?
Brad:
No, we have a fridge full of cans though, and we have several events a year at one of the tasting rooms. So Reformation, actually Reformation just opened its third local tasting room. So we have the three local cities. So Path & Post has visited two of them and can’t wait to go visit the third one that just opened.
Keith:
You should have two handles, one for Path and one for Post in everyone one of your-
Brad:
Yeah, I like it. I’ll call my brother next.
Keith:
It could be a great duel, which is better, Path or Post?
Brad:
I love it.
Jonathan:
So let’s dive back into the past a little bit. So real quickly, and this may not be quick, but tell me about the impetus for starting RETSO, and have you had people continue to ask you is RETSO coming back? Because I knew that …
Keith:
I mean the three around this table would love to get back to Atlanta for it.
Jonathan:
Admittedly, you know this, right? There’s challenges with industry conferences and sometimes they’re either just too big or they’re too small. I think that you had found something that was the right size, and it brought great content in, and it brought great people. It was, I mean really formative for us as a brand, from networking to content, right? We met you and tons of other people that have helped to shape our business and it helped shape our agent’s business. So this is a long winded question, but I’d love to hear, once again, the impetus for starting it and is there a possibility that it comes back at some point in the future?
Brad:
Yeah, I get that. I get that every year, several times a year, “When are you going to do it again? We going to have a reunion?” Or whatever. I do get that and I appreciate that, and I want that, personally. I feel a need for it given all the things I’ve already talked about, I know I can’t do it physically right now. But yeah, maybe someday. I don’t want to say never, RETSO is done for now. Maybe not forever. But to answer your other question, how did it start? Very similarly. Like I felt the same way you described it. Like there are these big national conferences that are more corporate feeling, and then there’s these really Podunk local association type stuff, there was no sweet spot. I wanted it. I built RETSO for me in a selfish way, like I was an operator, independent, trying to grow, and I was like, “How do I connect to these people? Well why don’t we just invite them to Atlanta to talk?”
Brad:
It was really organic and reaching out and like, “Would you come to Atlanta if I set up a hotel on a date?” And they’re like, “Sure.” I loved that it was very organic, it was very honest, it wasn’t made for a business model. It was made to meet a need. I think from that, the relationships and the community, and through those conferences, like I still have relationships today that are super valuable. Whether it’s with you guys or like the Greer Allen’s in BoomTown or even Dotloop. Dotloop launched out of RETSO. Their initial public debut was at our conference, and they went on and got acquired by Zillow, I still love the Alison guys, I stay in contact with those guys and just tremendous stories that came out of those moments, whether it’s a vendor or a brokerage like you guys that are growing and innovating. I just loved the community that RETSO created and sure because of that I’d like to experience it again someday. I just don’t know when.
Jonathan:
Wow. That’s great. Kudos for getting that started and we understand the need to have it rest for a little while, but hopefully it wakes back up at some point.
Jim:
We’ll buy 20 tickets and bring a bunch of lead brokers when you’re ready to relaunch.
Brad:
Yeah, that sounds good man. We should talk about it. I love it.
Jim:
But Brad, I mean I think again, to hit the final point on RETSO, the fact that you built something, an experienced that was, and is memorable. It’s something that’s just phenomenal. So I mean, I think that it was just an incredible thing that you did, and I think everyone listening who experienced that is grateful for what you did. So a belated and repeated, thank you.
Jonathan:
Yeah, and I’ll chime in with one more thing, that’s one thing that we think about all the time as a brokerage, and you probably think this way too, is if Nest Realty went away, would people miss it? And that’s part of the thing that drives us, that we want to continue to innovate and get better and provide amazing service that this is not going to happen, but if Nest Realty goes away, people will be like, “Oh man, remember how amazing Nest Realty was?” I’ll piggyback off of Jim’s comment like you clearly built something that it went away and people, how many years ago was it? I mean stopped.
Jim:
You probably stopped seven or eight years ago?
Brad:
Yeah, yeah. It’s about seven years ago now. So seven years.
Jonathan:
Seven years, and people are still yearning for it. So anyways, I mean it’s a lesson for all of us in business, whether you’re a realtor, or whether you’re a brokerage. Or whether you’re a craft brewery, or whether you’re a conference, that you build a business with the thought that if you took it away, and you shut it down, or it went away that people would truly miss it, then you’ve got raving fans and you’ve got something that’s different. So anyways, last comment about that. So I’ve got one more question to wrap up. The name of this podcast is Sweat the Details and at Nest, there’s a lot of details that we sweat, and clearly there’s a lot of details that you’re sweating on multiple fronts, but when you wake up every day, what’s that one detail that you’re sweating on a regular basis?
Brad:
It’s usually process. If I’m going to sweat a detail, what can I do to move it? Is my process right? Does it need to change? What can I improve about it? I focus so much on the process. A lot of businesses, in any industry, they began with a product or they began with a person, they begin with something, and then later on, as it grows and succeeds, then they’re like, “Oh, I need a process around how I do this,” because you know the scale doesn’t work and it falls apart and gets wonky when you have more people or hires or whatever.
Brad:
I firmly believe that you can just start with the process first, and then layer on top of that. The success is built in, and you have a solid foundation to support that. So I constantly, where it’s like, “Is my process right? How can we improve our process?” In any industry, in any business that I’m working on. It’s like, “Is this the right process? What has changed today in a consumer mindset or an employee mindset or an independent contractor mindset that’s connected to these processes that our companies have delivered, and do they need to change? Do they need to improve?”
Jim:
That’s great. Yeah, I mean, I think that process, it matters from an efficiency standpoint and execution. I think that’s a wrap for me. Keith?
Keith:
You know, honestly Brad, I think my first introduction to you was at RETSO, with these guys, and they had known you before we got down there, and I was excited as soon as I met you. As soon as we saw what you’re doing down there and hearing now with OfferBarn, I’m amazed at what you’ve come up with over the years and look forward to continuing to watch this stuff grow. This is good stuff.
Brad:
Well, I appreciate it guys. I love hanging out with you guys, it’s such a joy to connect with people like you and you talk then like it gets real, you guys are doing great things, you’re moving the industry forward with this podcast and with Nest. I just appreciate your contributions to the community itself, so thanks for having me be a part of your show.
Jim:
Awesome.
Keith:
We’ll do it again.
Jonathan:
Thanks, Brad.
Jim:
Thanks Brad. Appreciate it.
Brad:
I look forward to it.
Jim:
Two things we’re asking for this time. We would love your feedback. If you are interested, please record a comment or response and email it to us at [email protected], [email protected], and your reviews. We would welcome your ratings and reviews wherever you listen to podcasts.
Jim:
Also, we are shaking up the scheduling a little bit. We’re going to keep our every other Tuesday release schedule for the interviews, but we’re going to ship the conversations with the three of us, Jonathan, Keith, and myself to the third Thursday of every month.