How Can You Be A Discounter if There is No Standard Price?

A random follow-up thought to the 60 Minutes controversy: one thing we’ve always wondered about is how traditional real estate brokers can insist on calling Redfin a discounter while strenuously maintaining there is no standard commission? The six percent commission is supposedly an emotionally void concept, but anyone who offers to charge less is reviled like a deformed little frog. How can we (so eagerly) categorize any broker as a discounter if there is no standard price to discount from?

For all of brokerages’ blandishments for consumers to consider factors other than price, are we ourselves able to think about any of the ways a brokerage can be different (technology, customer satisfaction metrics, negotiating approach, agent compensation, satisfaction guarantees, business model) if it also happens to price its services differently? We hope so.

I know it’s just semantics, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately… and feeling a little bad about having posted so infrequently.

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