I probably called two or three high end customers every weekend just to reassure them that the CEO of the company cares about the sale of their home that we know that we're not the longest standing luxury brand and that just means we have to try harder.

I'm Dejra Woolard and that's Glenn Kelman, the CEO of RedFim, a company that is at the forefront of real estate disruption.

May I have seen the company's ads on television or spotted its per-sale signs in your neighborhood? At least Glenn hopes you have.

In our interview we chatted about what it'll take to get more homes on the market, RedFim's new tests with agents and the success of some recent acquisitions.

I'm excited to talk to you because you have weathered so many tough times in the real estate market.

Exactly. We're in one now that is kind of interesting. What are some of the similarities and some of the differences from what you've seen before?

Well, I was the CEO of RedFim in 2008 when the Great Financial Crisis destroyed the global economy and the difference this time is that people are not selling homes short or not going through foreclosures and that may take longer as a result because there is such an inventory shortage in the US right now.

So many people are sitting on two and a half, three percent mortgages and they're not going to sell for a decade or more.

So home prices collapsed in 2008 but not this time. The only thing that is collapsed is sales volume, which of course is most important to RedFim or any other real estate broker.

I think the other change, of course, is that we are a public company. We're operating on a larger scale and so we're going through these wild ups and downs in public with everyone able to see all the transformation that we've gone through.

But long term, I just believe that this will leave us as a stronger company. We were growing too fast in 2021 and 2022 just trying to keep up with a pandemic crazed housing market.

And now I think we're in a better position to take share both online when we compete against realtor.com, homes.com, zelo.com.

And as a brokerage, when we compete against remax or Keller Williams or compass.

Yeah, it's definitely an interesting time what you mentioned with the inventory. I read a stat that said about 91% of the mortgages are under under 5%.

So people don't have that incentive to move. Like you said, it's probably not going to change anytime soon.

Is there anything that you think could could change that? Is there a chance that mortgage rates drop lower than we're forecasting and expecting?

Well, not in 2023. My expectation is that rates will stay above 7% for the balance of the year.

At some point in 2024, we can hope that the federal reserve will ease on interest rates and that mortgages will come down.

There are long term reasons that we may not see a 3% mortgage again, but just going down to five would make a huge difference for consumers.

One of the most striking aspects of the housing market this year is just how rate sensitive buyers have been.

When rates come down just a little bit, the buyers immediately come out of the woodwork and start looking at houses again.

And even going from 6.9% to 7.25, those buyers step back.

...