"We are the Apple of real estate." could someone explain what this even means?
Part of his pitch to agents was that they're very a very tech forward company, so "[the real estate agents] are working for a brand that doesn't feel like the Radio Shack of real estate, but feels like the Apple of real estate -- It's a good customer covenant, it's a great technology platform, and it's a great career."
The pull-quote in the headline was never actually said or implied. He didn't claim to be the Apple of real estate, just that his company is more tech forward and employee-focused than the alternatives who feel like the 'Radio Shack' of real estate.
It's interesting how just being tech-savvy, customer focused, and caring about product design are such rare attributes that they are labeled as unique to Silicon Valley and companies like Apple. It should be the primary objective for the majority of non-low budget consumer companies.
But we're still recovering from the legacy of a price obsessed corporate culture thats dominated since the 1980s run by accountants instead of engineers. So it's not surprising that making an app and applying software culture to any industry is seen as a revolutionary idea.
My guess is that most agents make more with Redfin than elsewhere. It always seems that there are a few superstar agents that make a good deal of money, and a lot of starry-eyed new recruits doing free work for the successful agents because they're hoping to get leads (that's usually how the veterans convince people to work for them for free).
Being a Redfin agent means that you lose the chance of making it big in exchange for actually getting paid for your work. If you're part of the majority of people who won't make it big, you're better off going with them.