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Redfin is now offering scouting reports (“Complete performance metrics”) on 1 million real estate agents! This is causing quite a kerfuffle in the real estate world, but I have to say that I don’t mind my numbers being published by Redfin or anyone else.
That is, so long as they are accurate. If you click on my scouting report, it is missing over 90% of my data, and a curious regular guy who searches for me will not find a top-10 producer in Westchester, but rather two lonely transactions in Queens and Nassau county. They’ll also see a banner ad for two Redfin agents, with curiously higher sales figures right next to their names, and a statement on the bottom of the page that says the following:
So, a regular guy will conclude that my transactions for the MLS of Long Island (MLSLI) and my local Empire Access MLS (EAMLS, highlighted) are included, and that I have sold 2 houses in the last 12 months. That sure makes the Redfin agents in the banner ad look far better than I look.
NOW…IF that regular guy were to log in to Redfin (I am not sure how many people register and log in every time), he’d see another disclaimer saying the following:
This scouting report is missing some data.
IF you log in, you’ll see that. If you don’t, you’ll conclude from the first disclaimer that the statistics have my EAMLS sales. It does not.
So, I’ll publish my EAMLS data right here, with my sales and rental statistics for the last 12 months. Here it is:
That paints a different picture, doesn’t it? I think that’s more than two sales. My broker code is JPHILI. My agent ID is 15689. Even this data is not complete, as several of the transactions only credit me with 50% of the dollar volume because I co-listed or co-sold the property with one of my company’s agents. For example, on the last transaction, 28 Waterview Drive, the actual sale price was $741,000. EAMLS credits me with half the dollar volume because Leslie Miller was my co-listing agent. On 178 North Regent a few rows up, the sale was actually $375,000, and I co-sold the house with Stephanie Solano, also known as agent 26482.
This also does not include sales I made that were not on EAMLS that I sold in other MLS systems. If you were to account for the full dollar volume and deals outside the EAMLS, the dollar volume is probably closer to $15,000,000 and another half dozen transactions. I am no stranger to high dollar, 7 figure transactions, and I proudly broker rentals. I am all about putting a roof over your head regardless of your checking account balance. So are my 20+ agents.
On at least 4 transactions, I am both the listing and selling/renting agent, but in none of those deals was I a dual agent, as Redfin’s metrics would claim. This is important to clarify. Redfin doesn’t have access to my confidential files, and even though they say they can report deals where I was supposedly a dual agent, they can’t unless they saw my files and signed agency disclosures. They have not.
If Redfin wants to publish my data, I have no issue with that whatsoever. Like they like to say all the time, I am all for transparency. However, if they are going to publish the data, they ought to get it right, and it might even be wise to hold off on ill-advised tweets like CEO Glenn Kelman’s “Live by the sword, die by the sword” line from September 29 until they can publish credible data. That goes for dual agency as well. I have met Glenn and like him, but he’s wrong here.
So there you have it. Redfin says they have my data, but they don’t. But I’ll give it to you anyway, because I have nothing to hide, and I stand by my numbers.
