- 2 days ago
On this episode of RealTrending, Jason Aleem, Redfin’s chief of real estate services, pulls back the curtain on what life looks like at Redfin one year after the Rocket Mortgage acquisition.
At the center of the strategy is Redfin Early Access, a premarket and coming-soon listings program designed to unlock reluctant sellers and put more homes in front of motivated buyers. Backed by survey data — 76% of sellers say they’d be more likely to list with greater certainty and 83% want to test the market first — Aleem argues that giving sellers more optionality could drive 6% to 12% more inventory into a starved marketplace, all while keeping transparency front and center on Redfin.com.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Redfin Early Access gives buyers a view into premarket and coming-soon listings, aiming to unlock 6% to 12% more inventory.
Seller data shows high demand for optionality, with 76% wanting more certainty and 83% interested in a “coming soon” test-the-market strategy.
The Compass-Rocket-Redfin partnership is built around three pillars: mortgage, leads and inventory, with strong early traction in markets like Chicago.
Redfin’s Redfin Next model has shifted agents from pure salaries to W-2 plus bonus/commission, boosting retention, attraction and entrepreneurial drive.
AI-powered tools, including the Agent Virtual Assistant (AVA) and conversational search, are helping Redfin agents maintain industry-leading transaction volumes while delivering a more seamless, integrated experience across search, mortgage and homeownership.
At the center of the strategy is Redfin Early Access, a premarket and coming-soon listings program designed to unlock reluctant sellers and put more homes in front of motivated buyers. Backed by survey data — 76% of sellers say they’d be more likely to list with greater certainty and 83% want to test the market first — Aleem argues that giving sellers more optionality could drive 6% to 12% more inventory into a starved marketplace, all while keeping transparency front and center on Redfin.com.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Redfin Early Access gives buyers a view into premarket and coming-soon listings, aiming to unlock 6% to 12% more inventory.
Seller data shows high demand for optionality, with 76% wanting more certainty and 83% interested in a “coming soon” test-the-market strategy.
The Compass-Rocket-Redfin partnership is built around three pillars: mortgage, leads and inventory, with strong early traction in markets like Chicago.
Redfin’s Redfin Next model has shifted agents from pure salaries to W-2 plus bonus/commission, boosting retention, attraction and entrepreneurial drive.
AI-powered tools, including the Agent Virtual Assistant (AVA) and conversational search, are helping Redfin agents maintain industry-leading transaction volumes while delivering a more seamless, integrated experience across search, mortgage and homeownership.
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NewsTranscript
00:00You're wondering what's going on at Redfin post-rocket acquisition, all about their Compass collaboration.
00:07Well, I spoke with Jason Aleem.
00:10He is the chief of real estate services at Redfin.
00:13And he's been with Redfin for over 15 years and has seen how the company's progressed and to what is
00:19going on now.
00:20And he had some great insight into the kind of new trends in real estate with a homebuyer platform,
00:28which we're seeing some of that already happening with some of the recent acquisitions.
00:34So enjoy the podcast.
00:46Welcome to the Real Trending podcast.
00:49Oh, thanks, Tracy. So excited to be with you today. Looking forward to this conversation.
00:54Yeah, we're going to talk all things Redfin.
00:56And so we'll go ahead and get started.
00:59So, you know, Redfin has long argued for putting more inventory in front of consumers.
01:04And now you have early access, which brings pre-market and coming soon listings into the Redfin experience.
01:11So what problem are you trying to solve with this product?
01:16Yeah, great question, Tracy.
01:18Redfin early access is our new baby.
01:20We're really excited about it.
01:21But I would say that the way to list and sell homes is somewhat overly rigid and we wanted to
01:27create flexibility in that system.
01:29And a lot of the reason we wanted to do that is because we wanted to solve sellers' problems.
01:34And we also wanted to find a way to get more inventory on the market.
01:38And when you look at the survey results, it's pretty clear that sellers wanted this option.
01:4476% of sellers said that they would choose to list their home if they had more certainty and if
01:49they had the ability to know that they could live somewhere else.
01:53And part of that was because they needed to test the market.
01:56This next one is the one that was really eye-opening for me is that when we did the survey,
02:0183% of sellers said they wanted to test the coming soon approach.
02:05So when we started to look at the data and it started to become very clear that sellers wanted optionality,
02:11they wanted more of a spectrum instead of a binary approach of either I'm not selling or I'm selling, it
02:16was pretty clear that we needed to pursue that.
02:19And then after that, when you think about what's going on in the country in regards to the shortage of
02:23inventory, we wanted to find a way that we could drive more inventory.
02:26And our economic research shows that if more people have this as a common option, we think that we could
02:33drive somewhere between 6% and 12% more inventory.
02:36And that's a game changer.
02:37So when you look at all those things, it became pretty clear that we should roll out an option like
02:42this.
02:43And of course, if we do this well, it will also help to grow our business.
02:46It's a win-win situation for the consumer and also for us as a company, which is pretty exciting.
02:51Yeah, absolutely.
02:52And obviously, pre-marketing coming soon, it's been one of the most debated issues in real estate.
03:00How do you draw the line between giving sellers more option and then protecting a transparent, competitive marketplace?
03:08Yeah.
03:09So if you've followed us for a long time, for 20 years, I see you had a long or less
03:13year's career in following and reporting on real estate, you know what we're all about.
03:18And we're about putting the consumer first, and we still believe in that.
03:22And that is part of what we do with Redfin Early Access.
03:26Any buyer, any person that's just curious about the market can go on to redfin.com without a login and
03:34see this inventory.
03:36That is just still true.
03:37We're excited to be able to bring that inventory to people.
03:40We hope that it's going to increase the amount of inventory that folks are able to buy, and we think
03:45it's still transparent.
03:46So the reality is that I know people are concerned about this, but the reality is when people do get
03:52ready to buy in a serious way, a large percentage of people search on multiple platforms.
03:58That is part of the process.
04:00The more serious you get, the more you're going to go to our site, other sites, other apps, and make
04:06sure that you're seeing the inventory.
04:07And we think that with this option, we're going to increase the total amount of inventory, and that feels pretty
04:12transparent to me, especially when you think about all the other ways that people decide to list homes, whether it's
04:19for sale by owner, whether it's their own private networks in whatever city or market you might be in.
04:26This is a national site, one of the largest ever, that you'll be able to see inventory on, and that
04:32feels transparent to me.
04:34Great.
04:34And so you've partnered with Compass or collaborating with Compass.
04:39So how is that partnership performing so far, and what have you learned from consumer and agent behavior?
04:46Great question.
04:47Great question.
04:47So Compass has been a great partner.
04:49We wanted to set this thing up so that we'd be able to drive like a win-win-win situation.
04:55That's Compass, that's Rocket, that's Redfin.
04:57I'd even add another win, the consumer.
04:59And it's been really good.
05:01You know, Compass, this is a way for them to be even more transparent and have those early access listings
05:07available to more viewers and drive leaks to their agents as well.
05:11For Rocket, it's a way for Rocket to offer more opportunities for mortgages to more consumers through that Compass network
05:18as well.
05:19And then for Redfin, it's a way where we have this exclusive inventory, we're able to grow our traffic and
05:24be even more transparent about this kind of inventory.
05:27So that's been pretty exciting.
05:29If you kind of go and look at our partnership, there are three main buckets that you want to think
05:33through.
05:34You want to think through mortgage, you want to think through leads, and then you want to think through inventory.
05:38On the mortgage side, it's pretty exciting.
05:41You know, what we've learned is it's tried and true.
05:44We've done this at Redfin for almost a decade.
05:47It really comes down to matching.
05:49Can you get the lender, what a Rocket person would be called a banker, matched with an agent?
05:54Because at the end of the day, we're trying to take care of a consumer.
05:57And the best way to do that is have a real relationship.
06:00That's one of the top things we've learned, that you can roll out a great product, which we have in
06:04regards to some of the savings, Rocket preferred pricing.
06:07You can have all the widgets on the site, which we have all of those.
06:10But at the end of the day, it's going to come down to the relationship.
06:13And if that banker and that agent are on the same page and doing what it takes to take care
06:17of the consumer.
06:18If you go to that next bucket and you think about leads, leads is a whole different animal.
06:24When you think about leads and the way we've closed leads off of our website for 20 years, we know
06:30that machine backward and forward.
06:32And we spent time over this last six, seven months working with Compass to say, this is how you execute
06:37this and how you build this.
06:39And we've learned a ton together on that.
06:41And we're just making huge strides on that part.
06:44And then the inventory piece, that last kind of bucket that I mentioned, that's been pretty exciting.
06:49Agents have been excited about this and they've wanted to use Redfin Early Access.
06:53We're doing that across the country.
06:54We've had major success in places like Chicago.
06:57We've got more places where we're going to go invest a decent amount of time and dollars to make sure
07:02we promote this product.
07:03And it kind of goes back to your first question.
07:05It's democratizing this optionality for sellers.
07:08Sellers have been excited about it as well.
07:10So we're learning that the market wants these options.
07:13They like the partnership that we've got.
07:15And we're learning that there's a lot we have to do to grow together as you put two really big
07:19juggernauts, or I'd even say three, Rocket, Redfin, and Compass all together.
07:24Yeah.
07:25Well, I will tell you, Rocket is a master at marketing.
07:28My mortgage is with them.
07:29And I think weekly I get a home equity report saying, come on, you want a second.
07:35You know, so, so, yeah.
07:39And I, I wondered, like, what are some of the changes to the Red, are there any changes to the
07:46Redfin model?
07:47I know that, you know, they've always gone with salaried agents, but there were pockets that were exploring some different
07:53models.
07:54What's changed since the Rocket acquisition?
07:58And, you know, what stayed the same?
08:01Yeah.
08:01Well, first, we can't just skip over this, Tracy.
08:03Thank you for being a Rocket client.
08:05We appreciate your business.
08:07We got to hit on that.
08:09Redfin Next is what we changed, but we changed that before the Rocket partnership, actually.
08:14So you mentioned that Redfin agents have always been salaried agents.
08:18That's not true anymore.
08:19We've moved over to Redfin Next.
08:21We're going into year three of Redfin Next, where it's all bonus or what many people would call commission.
08:27Still W-2 employee, employed agents, but it's not, you know, your salaried approach.
08:33Which has been great.
08:34It's made agents far more entrepreneurial.
08:37When you think about the mix of business and the dependence on the site versus loyalty business, we've been able
08:42to retain some of our best agents because they get the best of both worlds.
08:46You know, being really entrepreneurial, but also having the support of Redfin and Rocket.
08:49And then we've also been able to attract some talent because now they also can get best of both worlds.
08:55So that's the first one on Redfin Next and just how agents are operating.
08:59When you move over to the Rocket side of the house and then post-acquisition with Rocket, you know, we
09:05were all kind of jury was out.
09:06Like we were trying to figure out how this is going to go.
09:08I was excited about it as we were working on the deal.
09:11I knew it would be a great fit, a lot because of the values, because of technology, technology approach, and
09:18then just the visions of what we wanted to get done together.
09:21But we needed to show that to our organizations.
09:24And people have been pleasantly surprised.
09:26I mean, one of the top things I think our agents have been excited about is the level of service
09:31from Rocket for clients.
09:34You know, there's all these myths that I think have been dispelled just to see, you know, another organization that's
09:39very like-minded in regards to putting the consumer first.
09:42And that's been gangbusters.
09:44And then the next piece is just operating on a much larger stage.
09:48When you have the backing of the number one mortgage company, you know, in the country, you're just operating at
09:53a whole new scale.
09:54The vision is much larger when you think about the expansion of being, you know, a site and a brokerage
10:00to being a home ownership platform and what that looks like for all of our team members beyond just agents.
10:06It's opened up the possibilities and the vision of, you know, how we're going to actually take care of consumers
10:12in the end from that first introduction to your story of staying engaged and thinking about what it means to
10:18be a homeowner.
10:19So folks have been really, really excited about it.
10:22I've been really, really pleased with it.
10:23And, you know, we're just getting started on what we're going to be able to do for consumers and how
10:27we're going to be able to build this business together.
10:30Yeah, absolutely.
10:31I think kind of that's what I'm seeing as the future is kind of the entire homebuyer journey.
10:37I know, you know, even with Fathom and Bed Bath & Beyond, they're working it a little bit differently, but
10:43similar on a different scale.
10:46So it is interesting how the industry is moving that way.
10:50And they've done it before.
10:52It's moved that way before, but in a different way.
10:56I think it's like a whole new world now in real estate.
11:00So it's interesting.
11:02I completely agree.
11:03I think the access to technology changes how companies work when they consolidate.
11:09I think the expectations from the consumer are different than they've ever been before.
11:14And then I think the economies of scale and what we can do from a savings perspective for consumers is
11:20different than it's ever been and not having to make a tradeoff in service.
11:24But you can get savings and still get amazing service by combining the products and being vertically integrated, which, you
11:32know, I'm pretty excited about.
11:34Yeah, so Rocket's kind of positioned the Redfin acquisition around creating a more connected homebuyer journey, like we talked.
11:41So what are the strategic shifts that you're seeing inside the company that changes the playbook for real estate and
11:50mortgage moving forward?
11:52Yeah, great question.
11:54So right out of the gate on day one, which I was excited about, you know, we announced the deal,
11:59but it wasn't closed yet.
12:01And the first thing we did is like, put the customer first.
12:05What can we do that on day one, there's something different?
12:09And we all hustled really hard on day one to make sure that Rocket preferred pricing we could launch.
12:16So Rocket preferred pricing, we launched that out of the gate where you bundle the products of if you're buying
12:21and financing with Rocket, there's very serious savings there.
12:26And we've expanded that to Rocket and Redfin super savings for people that are being serviced by Rocket and that
12:33have a home to sell, but also need to buy another home also.
12:36That's kind of like a super bundle that we've rolled out.
12:39So you're already seeing, you know, the power of that vertical integration and experience, which is pretty exciting.
12:46And then you see things on the site.
12:48If you look at the site, you're starting to see the Rocket mortgage offerings on redfin.com and not this
12:54weird, you know, intrusive kind of way, but in this natural way, that's just part of the flow of how
13:00somebody searches all the way to, you know, being able to complete your pre-approval on the site in our
13:06conversational search.
13:07When you're working with a chat bot, or if you want to kick off your pre-approved form, you can
13:11do that.
13:11So we're starting to integrate all these different things into the system.
13:15And then one of the things that doesn't necessarily happen on the site, but you're seeing the referrals back and
13:20forth.
13:20You're seeing the bankers at Rocket send referrals to Redfin agents and obviously Redfin agents send, you know, referrals to
13:27bankers.
13:28And that feels good because you've got these people matched up, really enjoying working with each other and taking care
13:33of people in a way that we never have.
13:35I mean, we did it some before, but when you have the resources that we have now, it's just a
13:40different level of service.
13:41We're seeing record-breaking attach rates just in this first year, which is pretty, pretty exciting, which we just celebrated
13:49one year on July 1st, which is pretty exciting.
13:52That's amazing.
13:53And so how does it, how do you make it feel like mortgages and an add-on, that it is
14:00just kind of part of that whole journey?
14:03You talked a little bit about it with the way it's integrated in the site, but how, you know, how
14:09are you speaking with consumers about it?
14:12How is it, how is it becoming just a natural flow?
14:15Yeah, great question.
14:17So part of that can be software, part of that can be the site, but the most important thing, I
14:22said this a little bit earlier, it is the matching of a Rocket loan officer with a Redfin agent.
14:28Where there's a real relationship, where those people actually know each other, they really like working with each other, and
14:34they have each other's back, and they're doing everything possible to take care of the client.
14:39That is the difference.
14:40It's old school blocking and tackling.
14:43I know it doesn't sound like the fanciest, you know, most sexy thing out there, but it really does come
14:49back to good old, amazing customer service and having a team that's truly committed to the customer.
14:55So I would say that's the first thing, and then I would see on the back end, we're building out
14:59the software, not just that you see on the site, but that you see in the back end so that
15:04we're able to share information and make sure that everybody's on the same page so that you don't have, you
15:10know, two people asking the customer the same question four times.
15:13It's like, no, we have that information, we know this is the problem we need to solve, we know this
15:17is the thing we need to celebrate, and having those people lockstep, that makes it feel seamless.
15:23And that's the kind of stuff that we're building right now.
15:25And then you infuse AI into that, it just kind of supercharges everything.
15:28Yeah, yeah, and I know Glenn Kelman has moved on to some other venues, I think he is going into
15:37different venture capital altogether, right?
15:40But the one thing I do feel like is he, when I have talked to him, it is very obviously
15:47where his heart is, is really giving consumers a fair deal, giving them what they, you know, what they want.
15:56Like he seemed to be really particular about the consumer experience, and how is that, how is his vision for
16:05Redfin flowed now through the new partnership with Rocket?
16:11Yeah, so I miss old Glenn, that's my guy.
16:15I actually happen to be visiting Seattle right now, so I'm sitting in my, I'm based out of Frisco, Texas,
16:20Dallas, Texas.
16:22I'm sitting in my office in Seattle, and next door, like literally on the other side of the wall is
16:26where Glenn sat.
16:27So blast from the past, that's my guy, we were just texting not too long ago.
16:33You know, we learned a ton from Glenn and the foundation that, you know, was built over 20 years.
16:38I've been here 15 of those, going on 16.
16:41So a lot of other people are long timers.
16:44So a lot of that thread of that goodness of putting the customer first isn't just something that's just kind
16:50of floating around.
16:51It's, it's carried on by real people that still have that belief.
16:55But the good thing, and, you know, people might question this, but part of choosing which organization to be acquired
17:04by was you have to choose a person that, or an organization.
17:08And I'd even say a person like Barun, that you know, from Christian, our CEO, that you know, is going
17:15to be aligned with what you built this thing for.
17:18And that's part of how we were able to come together with Rocket is a real belief that Rocket wanted
17:24to put the customer first and Rocket terms the client first.
17:28And when you think of some of the isms at Rocket, like, you know, every client, every time, when you
17:34think of some of just the things that, you know, you know, you know, helping everyone home, these kind of
17:42approaches, these are client-centric messages.
17:46And then there's all the infrastructure behind that.
17:49Like you don't just magically become the number one mortgage company in the country.
17:54You do that by putting the client first.
17:56So I think that a lot of the things that Glenn believed and a lot of us, you know, Redfin
18:01old-timers believe will actually be amplified.
18:05That's what I mean by the bigger stage, that we want a bigger stage to take some of the mission
18:11-driven things we wanted to do, some of the cultural things we wanted to do, and then pair it with
18:15a culture that matches, but then be able to impact even more people.
18:19And our agents have seen that and been excited that we didn't just turn into some new machine that doesn't
18:25care about people, you know, team members and clients alike, but that we're really, really focused on doing the right
18:31thing.
18:32And that's been really good.
18:33Yeah, absolutely.
18:35So obviously, Redfin, you know, he built a phenomenal platform, and it's always been a kind of a technology-first
18:42brokerage, but the industry is now flooded with AI tools.
18:47So what agent technology updates are actually changing productivity inside Redfin right now?
18:53And tell me a little bit about the impact that that's having.
18:57Yeah, great question.
18:58So, you know, AI could be a buzzword, or AI could be a real thing, and a lot of times
19:05it's both, let's be honest.
19:07But let's focus on the real thing.
19:10You know, obviously on the site, you can see some of the AI options with conversational search and some of
19:16the other tools that we have out there.
19:18But for agents, we focused on efficiency.
19:21We focused on figuring out how do you incorporate AI to make the agent's job easier, to be able to
19:27stay in front of the customer, you know, more consistently, to be able to solve those problems more effectively.
19:35And we've been serious about that.
19:38We have what we call agent tools, which is our backend proprietary system on how agents manage their business.
19:43And when you step back and you think about a Redfin agent is closing, you know, at the top of
19:49the industry, 22 to 23 deals a year on average, on average.
19:55So you've got some markets where that number is high single digits.
19:57You've got some markets where that number is 40 or 50.
20:01So you think about closing at that kind of volume versus our next competitor nationally being at single digits.
20:07You have to have tools to be able to do that effectively.
20:10And we've been able to incorporate AI into the workflow in a natural way where agents can just get a
20:17lot more done with less time and a little less effort so they can help more customers.
20:23We have what we call our virtual assistant, Ava, which we've been excited about.
20:28The agent virtual assistant, which is working really well, can help with doing things like prepping a response for a
20:37client, can do things like helping to create all kinds of queries where you don't have to have like a
20:42technological or analytical background on how do I want to scan the database for a certain type of client?
20:48How do I want to match the right home for a client that's got a unique, you know, search?
20:53AI is helping with that.
20:55How do I kind of augment this CMA to make sure I'm getting this person the right information?
21:01Agents are utilizing all of these tools and they're ranting and raving about it.
21:06It's been a game changer.
21:07So I'd like to think that AI within the Redfin system and Rocket Systems isn't just a buzzword.
21:14It's exciting.
21:15We all like talking about it, but it's real that we're actually solving customer and agent problems with AI and
21:23finding ways for people to be more productive.
21:26That's great.
21:27You know, so looking ahead, what does success look like for Redfin as part of Rocket?
21:33Is it like more listings, better conversions, stronger agent productivity, all of the above, a bigger buyer funnel?
21:39Tell me a little bit about what success looks like and what you're most looking forward to.
21:47Yeah, I like all of those things you said.
21:49We'll take all of that, please.
21:52No, so we're not just a brokerage or a site.
21:56You know, we were those things for a long time, brokerage site app, you know.
22:00But I would say that Redfin, as part of the larger ecosystem, will be a key part of being the
22:08home ownership platform.
22:10We kind of talked about that a little bit earlier, but this is the home ownership platform.
22:15And you could think about Redfin playing a couple of different roles in that.
22:19One of the first ones could be being the front door to Rocket.
22:24When you think about how many searches, how many journeys start online, you're going to start that on Redfin.
22:30Or you could flip all the way to the end and say people on our site claim their home so
22:36they keep up with the value of their home.
22:38They're going to be able to refi through the site.
22:41They're going to be able to keep up with the value.
22:44They're going to be able to say, I want these things changed as I am a homeowner on this platform.
22:49Or even just in the middle, the conversion layer, where you understand how a person is searching.
22:55You understand what they need.
22:56They're using conversational AI.
22:58So I would just say Redfin needs to continue to grow as a key part of that Rocket ecosystem.
23:05And part of what you'll see happen, which is going all the way back to the top of the conversation,
23:09is we want to continue to be the place that people search for some of this differentiated inventory as well.
23:17We'll continue to expand Redfin early access.
23:20We want to grow our overall traffic and we want to make sure that we give people a new space
23:25for that transparency you asked about,
23:27to have options as sellers, to test the market, to refine their strategy, make sure they have the right strategy
23:33so they can maximize their equity.
23:36Redfin is going to continue to do that.
23:38And so when you think about that, that means the site's going to grow.
23:43We're going to provide more options for agents.
23:45We're going to be this kind of playground area where everybody can engage the consumer, the agent, the banker, Rocket,
23:53all the other pieces of the Rocket ecosystem.
23:56And then ultimately, when you come back, you know, our agents are going to be supercharged by that as well.
24:02Where we'll be able to grow how we think about, you know, not even just Redfin agents,
24:06but Redfin agents, our Compass partner agents, our other partner agents we've always had using Redfin as the centerpiece of
24:13that experience.
24:15So I think the future is bright.
24:17It's a big stage we've jumped on, but we believe we've got the foundational elements to not just operate on
24:23a big stage,
24:24but make it an even bigger stage for everybody.
24:26Yeah.
24:28Well, great.
24:28Well, Jason, thanks so much for joining the Real Trending podcast.
24:32Exciting to have you on and hear about everything that's going on with Redfin and Rocket.
24:38Thanks, Tracy.
24:38It's been a blast.
24:39Looking forward to catching up.
24:41Sounds good.
24:42Thanks, Tracy.
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