Holy Grail 05: The Carpenter’s Cup

On this episode Mike DelPrete chats with Luke Babich, CEO of Clever Real Estate, a referral platform that matches buyers and sellers with agents. Clever has grown profitably, partly by integrating brokerage, title, and mortgage — the Holy Grail is working. Luke’s diagnosis of real estate is simple: too many leads and too many agents. And because people only move once a decade, every customer is a new customer. His answer is what he calls the ABCs: Agent Behavior Change. In his view, almost all the enterprise value in real estate right now is built on it, from Compass to eXp to Zillow, and it comes down to getting thousands of agents to do boring things consistently (something Clever is good at). While everyone else is taking friction out, he’s adding it in on purpose, making it harder to become a lead.

His take on the Holy Grail itself surprised Mike. He has been asking whether consumers even want a one-stop shop, but Luke says that’s the wrong question. The integration isn’t for the consumer, it’s for the professional. We also cover cosmic miracle realtors, arming the rebel alliance, and why Luke still personally calls every customer who leaves a review of three stars or lower. His takeaway after listening to the series: the Holy Grail isn’t the shiny gold cup. It’s the carpenter’s cup, the least shiny object on the table.

Holy Grail 05: The Carpenter’s Cup