As of this month, Offerpad is providing home buying capital to Keller Williams in Phoenix and Dallas and is committing to expand that capital for Keller Offers iBuying in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Raleigh, San Antonio, Tampa and Tucson by the end of 2019.
Keller Williams agents are to act as listing agents for Offerpad homes in Phoenix and Dallas, as well as the additional 10 markets listed above, once those agents become Keller Offers Certified iBuyer agents. The agent stays with the seller through all facets of the selling process. For example, the KW Certified iBuyer agent requests an offer on the seller’s house from Offerpad. Within 24 hours of receiving that request from the KW agent, Offerpad sends its cash offer for the house back to that agent and that same KW agent representing the seller consults with the seller to determine the best option for the seller…either listing the house on the market or accepting the cash offer from Offerpad.
This Offerpad-Keller Williams partnership is quite similar to the partnership recently announced by Opendoor and Redfin. It also follows in the footsteps of Realogy and its partnership with Home Partners of America though for Keller Williams, the motivation to partner with Offerpad is to quickly scale its iBuying platform, according to Gayln Ziegler, Keller Williams director of Keller Offers.
Though Offerpad has worked with agents before, this partnership represents the first time Offerpad has had an exclusive relationship with one brokerage company for its agent pool. Simply put, this partnership represents a way for Offerpad to boost its standing in markets where its top iBuying competition includes Zillow Offers, Opendoor, Redfin and Knock.
Offerpad’s CEO, Brian Bair, told InmanNews just that. “Reaching new markets and customers is imperative for the future growth of our company…(this partnership) gives us a familiar, proven path to reach them, introducing our customer-focused selling solutions to entirely new audiences.”
Josh Team, president of Keller Williams, sees this partnership as a win-win for consumers. “Consumers no longer have to pick between all the options available to sell a home without having an advocate to advise them.”
And for that advocacy expertise, Keller Williams’ Ziegler said, “Agents will be paid on the front end and they’ll be paid on the back end because they’ll resell the property and their sign will also stay in the yard. They can work out any agreement they want with the seller because their relationship is with the seller…it’s not ours or anyone else’s (right) to dictate that agreement.
One note of caution to home sellers…they may be faced with having to pay their KW agent a commission plus the routine 7%-10% fee to Offerpad.
