Keller Offers is making a pivot to target mid-tier markets that haven’t been served by some of the industry’s leading iBuyers like Zillow Offers, Opendoor and its own partner Offerpad. The first is Birmingham, Alabama, the company announced Thursday.
Gayln Ziegler | Photo credit: Zillow
“Our agents are excited and ready to meet the demands of consumers in Birmingham with our robust iBuyer offering,” Gayln Ziegler, director of operations at Keller Offers, said in a statement. “And this launch is the start of the next phase in our expansion. This partnership enables us to provide an iBuyer offering to more consumers, in more market sizes, while leveraging Keller Williams’ [number one] agent count footprint within the U.S.”
When Keller Williams announced the partnership with Offerpad, the company also announced that its 2019 focus would be the markets of Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Antonio, Tampa and Tucson. It’s live or coming soon in all of those markets.
Those are all markets that either already had an Offerpad presence, or has competition from one or more iBuyer rival.
The partnership between Keller Williams and Offerpad, announced in August, allows Keller Williams agents to act as listing agents for various Offerpad-owned homes while shifting financial obligations onto Offerpad’s shoulders for the homes Keller Offers buys in those markets, effectively handing the iBuyer access to KW’s army of 160,000 agents.
The launch of Birmingham, according to a Keller Williams spokesperson, is part of a pivot for the partners, to reach those consumers yet to benefit from an iBuyer platform.
“Having helped thousands of consumers across the country, we are confident that Birmingham real estate agents and residents will appreciate the convenience and choice that will soon be available for the first time in their area,” Cortney Read, director of communications and corporate development at Offerpad, said in a statement. “This is the first step in a larger 2020 plan to expand services to more real estate markets.”
The move comes at a time when both Opendoor and Zillow are targeting Los Angeles as their next frontier.
