Amazon has been dipping its toe into a small real estate pond for a while now via selling manufactured housing and every smart home tech/tool/accessory/gadget imaginable so it’s no surprise really that Amazon is diving into real estate’s largest pool as a partner with real estate’s largest brokerage, Realogy.
TurnKey, a new platform now living on Amazon’s website, is designed to help prospective homebuyers throughout the entire home buying and moving-in process. A prospective homebuyer merely completes a brief questionnaire including the metro area where they’d like to buy on the TurnKey platform living on Amazon’s website. TurnKey immediately matches and connects that prospective homebuyer with a Realogy-affiliated agent based upon that “homebuyer’s profile.”
The benefits of TurnKey to the prospective homebuyer? No having to go from one website to the next looking for a competent, customer-centric, real estate agent with market specific expertise. No having to go from one website to the next looking for properties that may meet the needs, taste and budget of that prospective buyer. No having to scrounge around looking for someone to deep clean the house the buyer has just purchased. No having to scrounge around looking for furniture that “fits” in the house the buyer has just purchased. And no having to put together and connect the various smart home tech in the home the buyer has just purchased. In addition to the upfront TurnKey connection with a Realogy selected and trained agent, the prospective buyer gets back thousands of dollars (up to $5,000) in Amazon move-in benefits.
The benefits of TurnKey to Amazon? Realogy is paying Amazon for one of three products/services packages ($1,000. $3,000 or $5,000) depending upon the purchase price of the homebuyer’s new home to help that buyer move into that home as effortlessly and efficiently as possible. TurnKey also adds a potentially HUGE lead generation business to Amazon’s already huge playbook with Realogy as its exclusive partner.
The benefits of TurnKey to Realogy? The lead generation opportunities for the approximately 3,000 Realogy-affiliated agents (Century 21, Better Homes and Gardens, Coldwell Baker, Sotheby’s International, ERA Real Estate) are obvious with Amazon’s 2B customers/month. TurnKey acts as an incentive for agents to hit certain metrics so they will be selected and trained by Realogy to work with TurnKey prospects. TurnKey also adds to Realogy’s corporate referral arm, Cartus, and to Cartus principal brokers and agents because in this phase one of the TurnKey rollout into initially 15 markets, those brokers and agents will get those leads.
According to Eric Chesin, Realogy’s senior vice president and head of strategy, “When we designed TurnKey, we recognized that the ‘closing’ on a home is just the beginning of the home buying journey. We are proud to team up with Amazon to extend the value we bring to buying a home beyond the moment (the client) first unlocks (their) new front door.”
Some may ask, what about Zillow’s lead generation machine? Brad Inman of InmanNews said, “This (Realogy/Amazon partnership) is NOT a Zillow killer.” Besides, Zillow has its new business model of buying and selling houses.
Thanks to the Real Deal and InmanNews for data for this article.
