Final Offer’s Tim Quirk on giving homebuyers more certainty

HousingWire

On today’s sponsored episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with Tim Quirk, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Final Offer, to talk about providing more certainty to homebuyers.   Related to this episode:   ⁠Final Offer looks to the future by providing options for consumers | HousingWire⁠  https://www.housingwire.com/articles/final-offer-looks-to-the-future-by-providing-options-for-consumers/  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate stories. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Transcript

00:00welcome everyone i'm so excited to do this special podcast with tim quirk is the co-founder and chief

00:13strategy officer at final offer we're doing this from the final offer podcast studio it's this cool

00:20place that we set up at the gathering we are here with 900 of our favorite people and in colorado

00:28springs at the broadmoor amazing we just kicked it off and i'm really excited tim welcome back to the

00:32podcast yeah no thank you sarah happy to be here and incredible what 12 months does when we were

00:37sitting here you know 12 months ago in terms of what we're talking about to to what's going on now

00:42absolutely so let's let's give a little recap okay so so 12 months ago we were you know there was a

00:46whole different conversation going on and yet it kind of came down to the same thing which is like

00:51how do you serve the consumer so let's talk about what's changed from your perspective in real estate

00:57in the last 12 months yeah i mean when we were sitting here 12 months ago everyone was talking

01:01about how are they going to respond to the lawsuits and and implement change and and how are we going

01:06to train all the agents and you know what do they do from systems and technology and just like the

01:11overall process right to you fast forward four months from then and all of a sudden you know private

01:17listings and and withholding listings on the public market all started to become into the discussion and

01:22how do you market that and it's a black and white discussion um and then all of a sudden you know

01:27we were just talking about you start to take a look at some of the acquisitions that are happening

01:32and the consolidation happening in the industry when it comes to uh real estate mortgage coming

01:36together right and i think when you look at all of it it all boils down to still trying to meet the

01:41consumer where where they're at and what they're looking for which really is uh just a a great

01:47streamlined experience with real-time information that they can trust throughout the process i think

01:52that's a great distillation because um we have seen i mean there are other reasons for that

01:56consolidation right but we saw rocket acquiring redfin and then mr cooper of lower and mavoto i mean

02:03there's a lot happening but at the at the bottom of it is like how did how is it in this new

02:10technology area era what do consumers want and what they still want is a lot of guidance they want

02:16transparency um they want to know what what they can expect and especially on the price which is

02:21where final offer comes in yeah yeah so i mean we're seeing i think there's just an acceleration of

02:27what the consumer is looking for and you know with our business where we meet the the consumer is you

02:32know we've all been we've been about bringing technology to the real estate community real estate agents

02:39and brokerages being able to give consumers what they're looking for which is more information in the

02:44the heart of the transaction when they want to make an offer are there multiple offers are we

02:49negotiating it's a challenge most consumers don't know what to do and frankly most agents don't have

02:55the information that they need to guide them so we hear a lot from the consumer base saying you know i

03:01don't want to cross my fingers and go to sleep hoping that i'm going to be able to buy this home and from

03:06the seller's perspective you know them not knowing is there a real strategy in place for me to get what i'm

03:12looking for and not always is it about price it's about price and terms and timing and what they're

03:17looking to do and i think the the rhetoric in the industry about the black and white of you know you

03:22look at everything going on with the off market or pre-market however you want to describe it you

03:27know we see just from personal experiences with final offer you have family members others that just

03:34know what we do and they're in the process of selling their home right now and you've got someone that

03:40might have moved across the country asking their agent can you just share my listing can you share

03:45my property with whoever possible because if we just get this we're fine we just want to be done

03:49interesting and even the agent sometimes like well we really don't want to do it that way and it's well

03:54why that's what the consumer actually wants and they're not about getting the top price they're just

03:59getting this is what we need right now and it'll allow us to have comfort and reduce our anxiety so we

04:05can just move on with our life right and i think that's what it really boils down to is give the

04:10consumer a strategy so they can move on with their life and get what they're looking for so you know

04:14for people who don't know what final offer does i think one of the first questions people might have

04:19or assumptions is like oh it's like an auction so maybe tell us how final offer is different than an

04:24auction yeah you know and it and two years ago we came to the gathering and you know we were able to

04:31we were on stage and i asked the audience you know who's been through the process of selling

04:35their home and obviously everyone raises their hands and i'm like how many of you feel like you

04:39left money on the table and all of a sudden a big store popped up right and just to ask that basic

04:44question and it's the same on the buy side you make an offer and you're told that another offer is there

04:48and well is there really for someone that might buy three or four properties in their life they

04:54don't necessarily believe it even if they're being told by someone that they trust they still don't know

04:59is there really something there or am i bidding against myself right and so what we did with final

05:03offer is we built an offer in negotiation platform that allows everyone in the transaction both the

05:09agents and the consumers to have more insight and information about what's happening in real time so

05:16we we allow for full transparency of what's happening or lesser it's a dial that folks the listing

05:23agent and seller can dial up or down depending on what information they want to disclose to the public

05:28about their property how many offers they have but in all situations everyone that's following the

05:34property gets a real-time alert we change the open house experience you walk into an open house

05:39and they put the information on the television and you can see what the seller wants and you can scan

05:43a qr code and you get text messages when activity happens including when offers happen right so that just

05:49changes how everyone thinks about how they're going about the transaction and it that that level of

05:55transparency at the very lowest is just hey an offer came in or so you know as as the buyer for instance

06:03like someone else there is another offer that's right and you don't have to disclose the price of

06:08the terms of that offer people can trust that the process is there that we know that there's a real

06:13offer from a financially qualified buyer that's working with an agent right that's pretty profound it

06:17doesn't exist today and so for agents that use final offer as they get more and more offers in

06:24they've said we're not even disclosing what they are but they just by virtue of having them is

06:28creating more more opportunity for everyone that's interested and we could go after case study after

06:34case study of the thousands that have been sold through this platform the agents say we've got

06:38more people to come to the table because they could trust the process well you're a neutral third party

06:43this is this is not you know you're like even if you really like your agent you're like you know

06:46is the other agent lying to them like how do we actually know right right and we've done a study

06:51and you know we continue to do this study where we pull agents and ask them do you trust other

06:56agents or in a transaction right and uh 91 say no and it's not uh it's not pointing the finger it's

07:03just it's the process it's not the agents it's the way that the process is run you know sarah and i

07:09were talking earlier and um when you look at pricing strategy you east coast primarily prices property

07:16at or even slightly above where they think the property is going to sell and yet you can go to the west

07:20coast and go to oakland and a 900 000 single family home will go on the market and buyers are

07:25exhausted when it goes to one six to one eight they just have a different way of going about it right

07:31and we're in toronto right and so in toronto we've seen even the condo market has been very stale there

07:37yet if you get the price point down to something that's a value you can ultimately take a property

07:43that has been on the market for quite some time and get multiple offers on it all of a sudden because you

07:48just were able to indicate that this is the most value in the entire building and people are

07:52attracted to that so it's about how you use this and how you strategize with it and the agents that

07:56are using this are growing their business in a great way because it's giving them that opportunity

08:00to disclose that information so tell us a little bit about the dial and like at the very bottom it's

08:05like hey these are we have offers and this is how many offers what what's sort of on the other end of

08:10that dial like tell me what that process yeah and so let me actually go a step back right so we so what

08:16final offer does is we consume all of the listings from the mls's and the markets that we're in

08:20and then our platform is sold to brokerages so brokerages pay for final offer for their agents

08:26to be able to use and within that they are also able to share any of their pre-market listings across

08:32the brokerage themselves so when you look at the different strategies the different brokerages have

08:36around pre-marketing today you know i think we all know how that goes but when an offer comes in and

08:42sometimes an offer comes in before it hits the mls no one knows and so the seller might take it and

08:48that's where there's risk whereas with final offer what agents are doing is they might get an offer

08:54when they pre-marketed it because the seller wasn't ready to get their house in show ready fashion

09:00they're able to disclose that to everyone within the brokerage it creates more urgency we have agents

09:06that actually bring the property onto the market with a list price that's actually of an offer they're

09:11already have in hand that they're going to accept and they're able to disclose that to everyone

09:16so the transparency with a dial allows agents to say we're either going to just disclose if offers

09:22have come in a secondary dial to go to the seller like if i came to you and said sarah is there if i

09:28give you a blank check today would you walk out of your house what would you write down right and i'm

09:33not trying to buy the listing from you that's a you smiled yeah this is a dream this is something that

09:38like wow okay i could sell my house for that we have a place that we can do that and it's called

09:42the final offer button it's your make me move opportunity right and so it's a price instead

09:48of terms that the seller will actually sign a contract up front saying that the first person

09:51that's financially qualified that gives me this offer i'll take it it's an amazing buying opportunity

09:56it's amazing opportunity for the homeowner so that's the secondary dial third imagine you got two

10:02offers on a property no one knows what they are like publicly right listing agent goes seller says what

10:07would you like to do you either take one we can negotiate with one but we can negotiate with one

10:11and we know that there's another one that's interested why don't we see say look we'll take

10:16your offer tomorrow at five o'clock but you're going to give us the permission to disclose your offer

10:21to not just the buyer that's on the table but everyone but if you came to a higher price or maybe it's

10:27a different set of terms we'll let you have that offer accepted immediately and we're only giving you

10:34that option it's giving fair negotiation in that situation and a lot of times the buyers will

10:39either pay them the additional money or agree to those terms and just have their offer accepted

10:45in other cases buyers will have their offer disclosed to the public and others have the opportunity

10:54you know as someone who bought a house recently and bought a car recently and all that transparency and

10:59like certainty in the process is just such a better way to operate right because then you know like if

11:06you set that price you're like i know i'm not i'm not selling unless i get this or um as the buyer you're

11:12like i know that i got a good deal for me like i know what was on the table and i know what i did and

11:17i feel really good about it right and so we've seen two instant two two really important things that

11:21have come out of this from a process perspective the first is if the offer goes live for a period of time

11:27that both parties agree and that goes live we have seen that in cases where maybe there's five or six

11:33offers it was recently one in southern connecticut where six offers had come in wow okay and the

11:40listing agent went back to all of the other agents they went back to one and said we'll do this we call

11:45it the a b option we'll give you option a we'll take your offer tomorrow at such and such time if no one

11:50else comes in with something better or you can come up and you can take it right now and what happened

11:56was was the buyer ultimately decided we'll take option a you can disclose it to the public they

12:01were at the top of what they could afford and the seller wasn't willing to just take that so they

12:06did two more buyers that weren't initially in that pool of six came to the table with better offers

12:13and so what did that do for everyone involved number one those buyers had an opportunity the listing agent

12:19had no idea that they existed two we asked the agent well what would how would you have negotiated

12:25this without the final offer platform like we would have gone back back with best and final to the top

12:30two well ultimately it was the second buyer that had a lower offer initially that paid 30 higher for

12:36that property than what it was listed yet they felt great about it because they had the option to do it

12:41and everyone had a fair chance and none of the buyers were blaming their agents that they didn't get it

12:47because they just didn't have an opportunity they all had the opportunity that's so interesting so

12:52you know um in some markets like you mentioned connecticut we know that there are some northeast

12:57markets that are very competitive where there are multiple offers you know what do you say about

13:01markets where people are like well i may not need that because i mean we're just trying to get one

13:04offer yeah and there's a lot of places that are like that right now it's shifted very quickly

13:09and at the end of the day it comes down to price so when you can get a price point that's attractive

13:15then you'll get interest and so what happens a lot of times is if you have properties that have been

13:19on the market for 60 days 90 days everyone thinks that property should sell in the first weekend just

13:24with what's happened over the last few years it doesn't that's that's not the norm um you know they

13:29they uh they have the opportunity to be able to get to price point to attract attention and then

13:35ultimately get more people back into the process so if they only got one offer the listing agent's been

13:42able to prove that they did everything possible to show that they got out to absolutely everyone

13:46everyone had a fair opportunity to come to the table with an offer and the seller feels good about

13:49it and we've actually asked sellers they're like you know if you hadn't done it that way

13:52we would have always questioned whether we left money on the table so it's incredible

13:56so you just built a customer for life based off of the process that you ran right and then on

14:01the flip side of that in other cases sometimes you do attract multiples even when the property

14:06been on the market for six months agents know this all the time they've had this dog of a

14:09property that's been on the market forever they do price drop price drop price drop and then one day

14:14for whatever reason they get two offers no one believes it now you can prove it right so this is

14:21uh it's a magical way to be able to do that and um you know the the other piece of this is that

14:27with final offer we have that secondary option for the seller to say here's the price and terms i'll

14:33actually take it's not a list price list price is an advertisement this is a concrete option that the

14:38seller is giving to the market that allows them to be able to give that to the buyers that certainty

14:43we found that just an easy strategy that a lot of agents have done if a home's on the market let's

14:48say it's a million dollar homes on the market for six months they drop the price to 900 000 but they

14:53keep the price the list price but they keep another secondary option the final offer at that million

15:00right so it gives the seller still hope that they might be able to get that we've seen case after

15:05case where buyers have actually come and made the final offer after it had been on the market for

15:09months because of the certainty of it and they didn't want to signal to the market that there

15:13was an offering hand so they'd actually rather just pay the extra to know that it was theirs even

15:18though it had been on the market for that period of time they had the option to do it well and when

15:22you know that is the final offer then you have the opportunity to go is that worth it to me

15:26as opposed like i'm going to get into this and not know and at what point am i going to be feel not

15:31like it's a good thing and i don't you know but now it's like you have time to to look at that and

15:36go is that what i want to pay that's right and if it is great we're all aligned that's right so are

15:42there certain kinds of um houses or buyers or areas of the country or like who fits the best in final

15:50offer where do you see yeah so we get this question all the time like oh i've got the perfect listing

15:55for final offer or i don't think this listing is going to work for final offer and while what we've

16:00proven is that it doesn't matter what type of market what type of property it's all about price

16:07and how you communicate is really what it comes down to however we were curious so we took a

16:12third party and had them analyze all of the the sales that have been through our platform over

16:17there our first two years and the one thing that they found was that for properties that were average

16:22or above average price in the market that were prime ready to sell their top of the line finishes

16:29not modern but modernish in terms of like what people were looking for

16:33it crushes using this process from a sale to list price perspective just because if you think about

16:40it kind of makes sense if you're creating something that there's desire and people want and then you're

16:43creating a process that allows their that person to get that but then they can see what someone else

16:49has seen right again not an auction but what it's doing is just disclosing if they want to show that

16:54they can but it's not just about that we've had people walk into an open house and this is where

16:58the agent comes in is really important is that they've gone to the seller and said you want to

17:02give everyone from the moment we list this that secondary final offer button option to just buy your

17:07house and some sellers are like yeah we'd love to and sometimes buyers just pay the premium because they

17:13want it right and this isn't just in hot markets this is in slow markets we've seen it in every type of market

17:19and what we were learning is that the consumer wants to buy so even though we provide an offer

17:24in negotiation platform consumers want to buy what they want they don't want to negotiate this

17:29gives them a chance if they have that option to not negotiate listen i i mean it sounds amazing i i

17:34i'm not a person who loves to negotiate i'm not that person so i'm like and i and i think that um

17:39you know buyers especially maybe we're just like they've been through the ringer over the last couple

17:44of years i can totally imagine and and sellers too in in some markets so it's it goes both ways

17:50one of the things that really struck me when we first started talking to you because at the time

17:54and even now you have a lot of um companies who start something and they're sort of trying to

17:57disrupt the agent right it's like let's just get around the agent we can just do we can just do this

18:02and from the beginning you're like the agent is key to this whole process and you were not trying to

18:07get rid of the agent at all that's right yeah so what's really important about this is so number one

18:12one of my co-founders has been in residential real estate for over 25 years right the others of us come from

18:16a technology world um the agent is at the heart of this this is the biggest life point decision

18:22i think what what we found is that a lot of agents in the market i don't actually think understand what

18:27their true value is which is being there to provide real-time information about the market

18:32about the property but also being there to assure them that this is a good decision for their

18:37situation right and that i think gets undersold quite often where that most people just need a

18:43little nudge it's not about pressuring someone to do that that's not what i'm saying but sometimes

18:46they just need that extra confidence and guidance from a true expert in the industry to just say yeah

18:51you're making the right decision for where you are like that's really important so the agent's always

18:55been in the heart of this there's no for sale by owner on final offer like this is an agent thing we

18:59actually got investment from second century ventures which is the venture arm of national association of

19:04realtors purposefully because we want to prove that this is for the industry um and we're all about

19:09the industry and so you know the other piece of this is as if i think we're talking about this

19:15earlier too if you come to finaloffer.com on our website you'd never know what i'm about to talk

19:19about which is we serve brokerages and agents and by virtue of that the consumer right what we offer

19:27and the consolidation where we're talking about the beginning of the different service offerings that

19:30are happening in the industry when it comes to what an agent provides mortgage title and others

19:36brokers is that the profitability for brokerages is really coming from ancillary services these days

19:41yep right and it's a hot topic here um it's been a hot topic for our clients and when you look at

19:48our platform and what are we doing throughout now but also into the future it's how do you bring those

19:54other service offerings into it at the heart of the transaction at the moment that the consumer and

19:59the agent are going to make these decisions and so if brokerages are able to disclose and have options

20:05there for the mortgage company and the title company and insurance company whatever else is

20:10there it gives them an opportunity to be able to get in front of the consumer at that moment

20:15and we're seeing in certain cases like settlement and title as an example we've seen brokerages embed

20:20their title companies into final offer so that as buyer agents are making offers they can put whatever

20:26title company they so choose but it just says hey here's a preferred title company of the listing agent and

20:31they can just click it and it's driven attachment rates right now um and they're all disclosing

20:36everything and it's all it's all the way that it should be you know from from how you market those

20:40services but that's bringing this into the transaction and giving people options so that

20:45they can say this is the best for me in this situation that's great and it gives brokerages in

20:49the real estate community as well as the other the service offerings around it the ability to get to

20:53the consumer at that time that's that's really incredible because first of all as a consumer it's

20:58nice for me to know like who am i going to be working who who's the preferred people all the

21:02way through right i'd love to know that before i get to down to whatever stage but also what a great

21:07way to integrate something that you know i mean like you said that's not the main point of final

21:12offer but yet you're able to incorporate that yeah and that's it but it's all about the agents at the

21:16heart of that because that and that's the other piece of the value of an agent is that if you move to

21:22a new area you don't know the service providers in the space you're gonna i'd say sarah if you were my agent

21:28i need a painter a plumber right i need a house cleaner i need a landscaper what are the best

21:34restaurants to go to i don't know anything you're able to rattle that off for me and i trust who you're

21:38giving me right that's the value right and we know that a lot of folks are after how does the agent

21:46maintain that relationship over time throughout the entire person's life so that they can be that

21:52type of consultant i do think the industry will go that way there's a lot of different technology

21:56companies that are trying it they there's brokerages that are trying it it's a hard thing to solve but

22:01ultimately the agent's going to be in people's lives i think more and more as time goes on because

22:05that's the they're going to use technology to streamline and provide real information

22:09while they're still having the human aspect of helping those people with what they need at that

22:13moment in their life i feel like you just brought it full circle from where we started which was

22:18like there a lot of things have changed but some things have stayed the same the whole

22:22time and final offer which was uh maybe born in the midst of a uh a run-up where you were having

22:29multiple offers on on most properties it's still like an incredible value now even though we're in

22:33a different market yeah no 100 and it's funny when we launched final offer so we test marketed this in

22:37boston three years ago wow and we had one month before the market tanked right so we had to learn very

22:43quickly how can we help agents move property when there isn't as much interest in them anymore as interest

22:49rates are rising and people can't afford them anymore um so yeah i mean we've come a long way

22:54in the two years since we were on stage um you know we're in 16 states now three provinces in canada

22:59we're marching across the industry or marching across the country um we've got some great partnerships

23:04with some you know willie pence sotheby's out of southern connecticut a number of the top franchises

23:09in the keller williams family um and just a lot of the great people in the industry are coming on to

23:14this because they see this is not the future it's really of today in terms of how consumers want

23:20choices and how they want information and how they want their agent to guide them through the process so

23:25that's what we're trying to partner with the industry however we can to be able to provide

23:29this type of experience for everyone when they're buying and selling a house well and if you can provide

23:33that value in this market uh some of the hardest times you know as far as like volume and just there's

23:39just a lot of challenges i think that that says a lot for you guys and and what the future holds yeah

23:44and i think what you guys are doing this conference couldn't be at a more opportune time

23:49as the merging of the different service offerings is starting to come to play uh it's just a fantastic

23:55place to be able to meet with the leaders in the industry and really understand some of the trends

23:58that are coming so um if you're not if you weren't at housing wire at the gathering this year i would

24:03definitely recommend coming next year because this is always a great great time i love that thanks for

24:07saying that uh tim it does to what you said is we're trying to do the full picture and just like you it's

24:13like i feel like that's more important now than it's ever been um in this market so thank you so

24:18much for sitting down i know we're gonna do this again so we'll we'll see even the evolution of the

24:22next time but thanks for doing this today yeah 100 thanks for having us

24:25thanks for having us

24:34you

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