From the main stage at Inman Connect San Diego on Thursday, Schneider envisioned an era in real estate where a smaller number of competitors deliver a higher level of value for homebuyers and homesellers.
Anywhere could soon be No. 1.
The nation’s No. 2 brokerage by both sales volume and transactions recently raised $500 million in additional cash that CEO Ryan Schneider said on Thursday could be used for acquisitions.
Schneider, in an interview by Inman founder Brad Inman on the main stage at Inman Connect San Diego on Thursday, envisioned an era in real estate where a smaller number of competitors deliver a higher level of value for homebuyers and homesellers.
“Consolidation is inevitable,” Schneider said. “There’s a pretty big range out there between the bids and the ask.”
“Big deals or little deals?” Inman asked.
“Both,” Schneider said.
“Berkshire?” Inman asked, apparently referring to rumors that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices was in talks to be acquired by Compass earlier this year.
“I really can’t comment on market rumors,” Schneider said. “But we have the capacity to do that, and I think that’s where the future is. Part of the reason we do that stuff is this is a scale business.”
“AI is another example of the benefits of scale,” he added. “Twenty companies trying to build a great product to help consumers and agents buy and sell their homes better is unlikely to work as well as a smaller number putting more resources into it. So we’re trying to lead the way to dedicate those resources.”
Ryan Schneider at Inman Connect San Diego. Image by AJ Canaria Creative Services
The leaders of Anywhere’s franchisees and brokerages have consistently skirted the controversy around the Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires that most real estate listings are entered into a multiple listing service within a business day.
The policy has remained a flashpoint for the industry for much of the past 18 months, though Anywhere leaders have largely steered clear from the controversy.
“I don’t worry about it at all,” Schneider said. “But we have a pretty strong view that people should have their listing seen by as many people as possible, and it’s customer first, not brokerage first.”
“We’ll do whatever is right for the customer,” Schneider said. “But this idea that everybody should do a private listing so brokerages can kind of double side transactions and keep things in house to make more money, that’s to the brokerage’s benefit. I don’t think that’s to the agent’s benefit.”
Not missing a chance to press Schneider on controversial topics, Inman asked Schneider about his views on Zillow, the nation’s largest real estate search portal.
“Zillow is our frenemy,” Schneider said. “There’s a lot of places where we have common ground, including on the private listings thing.”
“But I worry about Zillow over a five- to 10-year time period more than I worry about our brokerage competitors because of Zillow’s size and scale and their ability to make inroads.”
“It drives me insane how much money some of my agents and franchisees pay Zillow, who’s trying to eat our lunch,” he said. “But the solution to that is not to demonize Zillow or say anything bad about them. The solution is we’ve gotta deliver more value.”
Image by AJ Canaria Creative Services
Anywhere on AI
Inman gave a speech that largely focused on the coming power of artificial intelligence over the next few years immediately before the interview.
“My take is, you were wrong in your presentation. Totally wrong,” Schneider told Inman. “This is not a three-year journey. The stuff is here.”
Schneider said his focus was not on adding AI for the sake of adding AI. Instead, he said brokerages and franchisers should focus on providing meaningful value to agents and their clients.
“It’s not chatbots,” he said. “If I see another company do a press release about a chatbot that they’ve done with AI with some person’s name, I’m going to injure myself rolling my eyes.”
Schneider suggested that Anywhere has been focused on incorporating AI in ways that make agents more efficient and actually improves the buying and selling experience, providing “tangible benefits […] beyond using AI for search or whatever chatbot is there.”
Inman, who has been bullish on the power of AI for real estate, asked Schneider whether he considered himself a champion of the emerging technology.
“I’m a champion of practical progress,” Schneider said. “I’m not a champion of hot air.”
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