Movoto, the national home search platform name no one knows, took 3.5% of its beta market share in 2017. Though in existence since 2005, the Japanese giant Recruit Holdings acquired Movoto two years ago and spun it off as an independent company last year. Currently, Movoto holds the number one position in real estate postings.
Up until last year, Movoto operated as an advertising platform just like Zillow. Now, Movoto operates as a click-to-mortar brokerage.
Alex Tiev, the head broker for Movoto in Southern California, describes Movoto as “…what happens when Redfin and Keller Williams get married and have a baby.” Being one of Keller Williams’ first agents in Southern California in 2004,Tiev grew into becoming one of the “traditional” brokerage’s team leaders and operating principals.
Maximillian Dietz, Movoto’s vice president of real estate operations and its US managing broker, was Redfin’s first agent in San Francisco. He went on to expand that brand in San Francisco and San Diego. Movoto currently employs six other former Redfin agents.
Together, Tiev and Dietz are leading the Movoto charge as it blends its robust search platform with what they call “the best of both Redfin and Keller Williams models.” The brokerage offers competitive commission splits for agents’ self-generated leads as well as Movoto-generated leads. And Movoto gets a referral fee on the back end of a transaction when one of its referral agents closes a deal.
Launched in January 2017 in the test market of Fresno, CA, Movoto hired 22 of the areas best agents. Unlike Redfin which relies upon the strength of its platform to carry its agents, Movoto relies on the strength of its agents to carry its tech platform. One year later, in January 2018, Movoto’s Fresno office has grown to 40 agents and has closed 388 transactions with a total volume of +$91M.
With no name recognition whatsoever, Movoto has exceeded Zillow in organic home search for the Fresno market area and has captured 3.5% of its market share. Additionally, Movoto agents have increased their business earnings on average of 15-20%.
Movoto’s takeaway from its one year in Fresno is, “If you invest in community builders, people who care about their communities and neighborhoods, and combine this with Movoto’s lead generation engine, you will outpace Zillow while simultaneously gaining major market share from your For Sale signs in the ground.”
Already in Fresno, San Diego, San Jose, San Mateo and Las Vegas, Movoto already has +100M page views in just this one year. The company is looking to expand to more cities in California “very soon” and then to cities nation-wide “in the near future.”
With a dedication to “great, great customer experience” and to the entrepreneurial spirit in its agents, Tiev said, “Movoto gets it. Tech companies don’t understand entrepreneurship. They think it can be replaced by a salaried position, system or machine. Movoto combines the best of both worlds. We are the first tech company that supports agent entrepreneurship.”
