The real-estate brokerage giant Realogy has recently teamed up with Amazon, causing their stock to rise over 25% in Tuesday’s premarket. Realogy owns brands such as Century 21, Sotheby’s International Realty, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Corcoran, and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, making this a landmark deal for both Amazon and Realogy.
Essentially, Realogy and Amazon’s new program TurnKey will guide those looking to purchase a home through the Amazon portal and connect them to a Realogy Agent. If a homebuyer purchases a home through this program, he or she will earn up to $5,000 of free Amazon Home Services and products.
As Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider sums up the deal, “We’re the market leaders in this industry and we like that position, but you always have to be innovating to stay ahead, you’ve got to be willing to cannibalize yourself, you’ve got to do all the things that a big successful company needs to do to stay on the forefront.” He went on to say, “In a world that is awash with low quality lead generation out there, where you can get real estate leads from millions of online websites, giving an agent and franchisees high-quality leads from a source like Amazon and Realogy together is a real differentiator that’s going to be very powerful for the group.”
When a potential homebuyer goes to the TurnKey portal on Amazon, they will provide information regarding their ideal home, and are then matched with a Realogy agent. If the person closes on the home, they will access Amazon’s services and experts in their area. Some of these services include painting, house cleaning, furniture assembly, or even hanging a large TV. However, a homebuyer may also receive free Amazon smart technology, like Ring doorbells.
The overall goal of the project is to ensure people are completely comfortable with the moving process because buying a new home should be exciting, not ridiculously stressful. Pat Bigatel, the director of Amazon Home Services stated, “Customers can be overwhelmed when moving, and we’re excited to be working with Realogy to offer homebuyers a simplified way to settle into a new home.”
TurnKey will launch 15 major housing markets, in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
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