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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, Cody Crabb interviews Jon Minerick, founder of the real estate platform Homecoin. Jon shares how his experience after leaving the Marine Corps led him to create a platform that helps property owners and real estate investors sell homes while reducing listing commission costs. The conversation explores how investors can increase profits when exiting deals, the differences between traditional real estate listings and flat-fee MLS services, and the growing role of software and AI in real estate transactions. Jon also explains how investors can maximize their margins by optimizing costs, pricing properties correctly, and using professional photography to attract buyers.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jon Minerick (00:00)
Well, I hate to talk my own shop, but I think flat fee listings are the only way to go. And as an investor, you have to look at all of your expenses and say, OK, where can I optimize everything? given a long enough time horizon, again, if you’re saving $10,000 or $15,000 a transaction, run that over 10 years. And that’s millions of dollars, right?Cody Crabb (01:54)
Hello and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. My name is Cody Crabb with Investor Fuel and I’m joined by Jon Minerick today. He’s got something a little different than we typically have on here. ⁓ He’s the founder of Homecoin, which is a platform that helps real estate investors sell properties but also save on listing commissions. So we’re gonna talk to him about kind of what investors can do to keep more profit when they exit a deal andor when they’re doing a flip or a build. ⁓ This is gonna be really interesting, because this is, like I said, it’s not our typical conversation. So Jon, thanks so much for joining us.
Jon Minerick (02:34)
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Cody. Great to be here.Cody Crabb (02:36)
Yeah, so what originally led you to ⁓ start Homecoin in the first place? What’s the problem that you saw and you’re like, I bet we could fix this.Jon Minerick (02:49)
Sure. So I had just gotten out of the Marine Corps and I was in Southern California. This is around 2007, 2008 timeframe. I’m sure many of your listeners recall ⁓ some of the things that were happening in real estate then. yeah, yeah. So it was an interesting time. And the idea came up that ⁓Cody Crabb (03:03)
Yeah, it comes up every once in a while on the podcast,Jon Minerick (03:14)
people should have another route in selling their property, you know, aside from using a full service commission agent, you know, paying five, 6%. Uh, or on the other hand, they also had the option to for sale by owner, which isn’t a very great option in my mind. So, you know, can we come up with a somewhere in between there that, that gave them a lot of the great tools without the cost.Cody Crabb (03:37)
And so, what did the launch actually look like? Did you kind of do some test marketing or some testing and kind of see who would be interested or did you just kind of full all in, let’s build it and see what happens?Jon Minerick (03:50)
Yeah, yeah, we just went for the gusto. And ⁓ right, yeah, because.Cody Crabb (03:53)
Awesome. If you have a big enough problem, that’s nota bad idea, a problem’s a problem, so I hear you there. ⁓ What did the very first version of the software look like? initially, where did it start and where is it from there to today?
Jon Minerick (04:11)
forOriginally, it was rough. I got to be honest with you, because I did all the original programming. And that’s actually what I did for the first 10 years of the platform is I was the primary software engineer. And so that was part of my journey of getting into this whole thing is that in 2007, 2008, I didn’t know anything about real estate or software. But I said to myself, there should be a great option here for people, investors, builders, et cetera, to sell their own home.
Cody Crabb (04:22)
⁓ okay.Jon Minerick (04:42)
and only have to pay a small fee to get on the MLS. And that’s what it really started with, was how do we get them on the MLS for a reasonable fee?Cody Crabb (04:50)
Yeah, okay, that’s interesting. So let’s talk about how this actually works, practically, for someone that’s wanting to go through this. ⁓ what exactly happened? So if an investor just finished a flip, they wanna sell it, how would they actually use your system?Jon Minerick (05:56)
Sure.So they just get on our website and they start filling out the MLS form for their local MLS. We’re a broker and active in 32 states. We’ll be active in all 50 states plus DC by the end of the year. But they basically just get on our website and add their property and they’ll see all the products we offer. The main one being the MLS listing. They click the MLS listing and fill in all the information. The questions we ask are direct from the MLS. And so they submit everything.
⁓ and they upload their photos, et cetera. ⁓ We get the order and we aim to have it active on the MLS within 24 hours. And from there it goes out to all the major real estate websites.
Cody Crabb (06:39)
So just to kind of contrast, like let’s say for people that are kind of new to this, listening to this, real estate investors, can you like give us the, like what’s the typical experience ⁓ instead, if that wasn’t what, if you weren’t using Homecoin and you had something like that happen, ⁓ that your exact same situation, you wanted to sell a flip, how would that look in a traditional sale?Jon Minerick (07:04)
⁓ So you, and just to be clear, I’ll stay upfront that we are, I am a broker in 36 states and we’re very pro real estate agent. I’m, I’m not. ⁓Cody Crabb (07:14)
Sure. And this is totally not for me saying like, yeah, real estate agents are evil.They send a lot of texts, I will say that. ⁓ mostly I just kind of want to contrast like what experience is different? Because I think there are some pretty good arguments for ⁓ when a real estate agent might actually be really helpful.
Jon Minerick (07:21)
Right.Sure, sure, absolutely. ⁓
So, you know, the typical.
But yeah, and I’ve done full service transactions before, course. And, you know, so you say, Hey, I want to sell my place in real estate. That’s great. Let’s set up an appointment to meet and you meet them. You say the following day, the agent might have the comps, you know, all pulled for you to show you like, this is what the list price I think looks like. might, ⁓ you know, and so they’re the, basically the, in a traditional model, the agent’s going to drive the entire process and you just kind of sit back and, know, be responsive to their questions. But that’s your, that’s your white glove concierge.
Cody Crabb (08:03)
Hmm.Jon Minerick (08:10)
person for the builder and investor community pretty much all the time. They have a better idea what the homes are worth, frankly, because they know the neighborhoods down to the house. They know exactly why they bought it, what they bought it for, what they put into it, how it needs to pencil out. ⁓This model is not for everybody, and we’re not trying to be everything to everybody. We’re addressing a particular group of people who they know what they need, and they know how to answer the questions. And so we’re basically taking all those really powerful tools that the agents have, the MLS access, the lock boxes, all the easy ways to get everything set up. have pro photographers, et cetera, and just make it easy for the investors and builders to order.
through our website, manage through our website, and we funnel everything to them.
Cody Crabb (09:03)
Yeah, see, think, like you said, I think that the difference here is like the people that you’re catering toward are like, they already know what they’re, like they don’t necessarily need as much attention and service as someone that’s getting into it for the very first time.Jon Minerick (09:18)
Right. And it’s funny because sometimes we get the full service agents that maybe give us a little kickback, you know, where they think that we’re their competition. And I always say to them, we are not your competition. You know, your competition is going to be the real estate agent sit in your office to the left and right of you. That’s they’re offering the same service, the white glove concierge service and whatever.Our competition is we have other flat fee competitors. know, for sale by owners, et cetera. Like that’s the market we play in. So the person who’s going with our product is a different person that’s going for their product. So it’s not one size fits all.
Cody Crabb (09:52)
Yeah.Yeah, see, and I think that’s a good point to make because I think a lot of people hear things like this and they’re like, this is just going to kill off the real estate agent. But like, I think you’re right. Like it’s, really is not aimed at the same person. A young family buying their first house is not going to go for this because it’s, they need more.
guidance and help. So yeah, I see exactly what you mean.
And so, okay, so just in general, outside of Homecoin in general, mean, I’m assuming that you’ve kind of amassed quite a bit of knowledge in this area just because how could you build this if you didn’t really? ⁓ But when investors are selling, ⁓ where do you see that in your experience? And again, this is specific to Homecoin, but
Where have you seen that people lose? Profit like where where does that tend to is it usually in that sale? Right there, or is it typically not?
Jon Minerick (11:26)
Yeah, so there’s three things that we tell all of our sellers you got to get right when you’re selling a property to make it work. ⁓ One, you got to get the price right. And that’s the most obvious one. If you’re overpriced, it’s just not going to sell, and it’s going to set a market. so get the price right. Number two, get professional photography. That’s an easy win. Studies have shown that’s going to make your money back. And number three, you got to work with the buyer’s agents. Don’t try and say that. And this was more of⁓ I feel like this was more of an issue when you had commissions still advertise on the MLS. They’re no longer advertising the MLS, but sellers are still paying them, of course. But you have to be willing to work with the buyer agents, because they have all the buyers. And so if you do those three things right, you work with the agents, get nice photos, price it fairly, it’s going to sell, and you’re going to do well.
Cody Crabb (12:21)
Yeah, think the photos in particular really catch my attention because it seems like such a small thing and people are like, I could save a few hundred bucks on photography. could just do this. I have an iPhone. Like it’s it might it’s kind of an easy I could see that being a slippery slope of like what are they going to do better than that than than I could do. But really, like it makes a huge difference. Like they will make your property look so much better than you will. ⁓ And it’s they just know what they’re doing. So.I’m all about like, let’s talk to, let’s go, let the experts do it. Cause I, we don’t know what we’re doing sometimes. That’s, that’s a good one. That’s a good little, that nugget right there is really good. ⁓ So, okay. What, why do you think that, ⁓ so you said that your product is not aimed at your typical, like, you know, family buyer, like the typical people that would go for a real estate agent. ⁓ Do you see most, do you see investors still kind of defaulting to that?
Jon Minerick (12:59)
Yeah.Cody Crabb (13:19)
because that’s what they know and that’s all they, or do you see that there’s kind of a shift into the, let’s do this in some kind of platform like yours.Jon Minerick (13:31)
I believe that there’s no future that I can envision where software does not become the primary way to sell a home. ⁓ And that’s not any shade at the traditional real estate industry. It’s just the efficiencies are so much better. Now with AI as well, you’re going to have, and this is going to take a little time, but you’re going to have an all-knowing real estate agent, ⁓ adjacent type.you know, entity that basically knows everything about everything. And it’s really hard to compete with that. It’s available 24 seven. ⁓ and so, ⁓ we’re still.
Cody Crabb (14:09)
doesn’t get annoyed when you ask lots of questions you ask seriously. Andeven just from a I’m embarrassed to ask questions kind of thing. They probably wouldn’t be mad at you, but it doesn’t sting quite as much to ask a dumb question to an AI, because it’s not going to judge you for that. yeah. So I know what you mean. It’s a different, that’s kind of where things are headed eventually, I think. But in the meantime, do you see more of a
Jon Minerick (14:23)
That’s right, yeah, that’s right.Cody Crabb (14:37)
like a general shift. Have you already seen the shift or is it like still happening to these platforms?Jon Minerick (14:43)
It’s still happening. We’ve been growing quite a bit, we’ve expanded. We’re the biggest flat fee MLS provider in the nation ⁓ by volume. ⁓ So from our perspective, yeah, it’s a growing ⁓ industry.You know, think sellers, investors, you know, they’re always going to need, on the one hand, you’re always going to need to sort of, if an agent’s bringing you deals, you’re always going go back to them because they’re sort of buttering your bread. Right. So that’s always going to be a thing. But for the ones that have, um, that are finding their own deals, they’re sourcing it from wholesalers or whatever. Um, you know, the, comes down to margin, like how much, you know, do you want to make at the end of the day? And, you know, where it’s a competitive world.
And if you’re able to squeeze an extra 10 or $15,000 out of each one of your flips, that really adds up over time. know, you do 10 a year, that’s an entire, you know, that’s a lot of money. Right.
Cody Crabb (16:27)
That’s a whole expert salary right there. Yeah, that’sgood point. Think about what you could do with just that, even if you just put it right back into the business. That’s lot of, that’s a big difference. ⁓ Okay, so ⁓ do you do real estate investing yourself? Have you gotten into it just out of curiosity?
Jon Minerick (16:48)
I do not, I leave that to the pros.Cody Crabb (16:51)
See that’s I findthat so interesting because I feel like every time I talk to someone who’s in anywhere near this like Financing or anywhere near this industry. They’re like, yeah, totally Is it something that you’ve like looked at or is it something like? Do feel yourself slowly getting kind of gravity pulled in or not? Not so much
Jon Minerick (17:11)
I feel the draw to it for sure because and maybe not as much on the residential side because there’s so many things that go into getting, you know, a home flip correct. ⁓ but more on the land side because land is such a, it’s one of those assets where it’s not high dollar value necessarily.And a lot of agents don’t even like to deal with it. so when you go to sell it, and I look at it as far as when people go to sell land, don’t really, solutions like ours are perfect for those because they’re like, well, I’m selling a $10,000 a lot. An agent is going to need to charge me $3,000 just to sell this thing, you know, which is like 30 % commission, right? But, but if you
Cody Crabb (17:40)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good point, yeah.
Jon Minerick (17:49)
Yeah, and so for the land sellers, it’s like a ⁓ hand and glove kind of fit. It’s perfect for them because it gives them the exposure that they never had. And so I say to myself, well, Jon, why don’t you just go out and buy land and list it yourself through your own platform? Because yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.Cody Crabb (18:05)
There you go, yeah, you know how to do it now. 10years building that will definitely, 10 plus years will definitely get you knowing how to do that. Yeah, okay, so there’s a couple more questions here. We’re kind of winding down, but just out of curiosity, I’m sure you’ve talked to a lot of people, investors and things, as you’re kind of building this out and seeing what features are needed and what people want and stuff.
What’s the biggest thing that you…
What’s the biggest deficiency you’ve seen when they come to you? They’re like, need something that, is it just about the speed? Is it just about the money? Are there other benefits that we’re not seeing right now? Or is it just like, won’t pay as much, it’s a quicker situation, you don’t have to deal with someone that knows less than you? Or is there something else too?
Jon Minerick (19:02)
Yeah, mean, the platform we have at homecoin.com does a lot of things. one of the things that will from a builder angle, I’ll speak to that because a lot of these builders, when you get a buyer that comes along, if you have a traditional agent sort of as a, that’s not part of your team, that’s just sort of, you you’re sort of representative in your home, new home sales. If a buyer comes along and maybe you don’t havethey’re not the right fit for the particular unit you have available, that buyer is going to work with that agent on a different sort of purchase. And so from our perspective, though, that buyer belongs. That should be the builder’s person. And a lot of these builders, especially when you get the smaller who are only doing a certain number of builds each year, they can say, hey, buyer, this isn’t the fit for you. But you know what? I can build you something else. ⁓ we can do a custom home, blah, blah. ⁓ So I think that that’s a really un-
some benefit of doing it this way is that when you get control of your own leads ⁓ you have the potential to monetize them and do commission free transactions you know later down the road. Our software it’s really focused on basically funneling all the leads to our
sellers directly. So when you see one of our listings on say realtor.com or Zillow or Redfin, most of the time it’s going to show our phone number, our software set up when you call that and you say, I want to see 123 Main Street. It’s going be like great. The seller’s name is Cody and we’re going to send you to them right now. And it’s like Cody’s phones ring rings. So it’s, it’s really slick. And we do all, you know, of course we record everything for all the emails that come in. And so you have a nice dashboard to like sort of control everything that’s coming in and have a record of
everything. So, and then we’re also continuing to iterate upon that where making it easier and easier for disclosures and later this year, we’re going to have really nice ability to handle your offers and make it easy for you to interact with the buyers directly.
Cody Crabb (21:07)
⁓ That’s awesome. So yeah, so it’s not even just the ability to be on the MLS and things. It sounds like it’s getting bigger, adding more things. ⁓ Anything on the horizon that you’re excited about, like adding to the platform or anything that you could share here?Jon Minerick (21:28)
So much, So working with, we have some new, well, we have an app coming out at end of next month, most likely, which is gonna make it easier than ever to submit your listings. We have some nice disclosure software making so you can do everything through our application where you fill out your required disclosures, which is gonna be really nice. And eventually, we’re also working on some AI-powered type. ⁓comparable sales data interaction. when you’re, when we send you free comps with all of your listings, so you can review them, but we want to be able to have an AI for you to talk to, to say, okay, like, I don’t agree with this and sort of to work with that software to help come up with a more accurate pricing. And so I think that that’s gonna be really useful for our sellers as well.
Cody Crabb (22:23)
Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ And just this inside look that you have, think you’re gonna start to, it seems like you’re gonna really ⁓ develop a lot of little things that are gonna be helpful for investors too. ⁓ Okay, so if someone wants to check out Homecoin, see if they’re available in, if you’re available in their state or will be, you said they will be shortly by the end of the year, hopefully. ⁓ So where can they go to check on that?Jon Minerick (22:50)
Yep. Go to homecoin.com and right on our homepage there, we have a service area map that you can see where we’re active in. You can plug in your zip code to see if we’re a member of your local MLS and it’ll show you all the services we offer. And again, it’s not just limited to MLS listings. It’s, know, the MLS lock boxes. So it makes it easy to work with the buyer agents, signage, photography. We have hourly real estate agent services available. So for, if you need, if you’re, if you’re saying to yourself like, Hey, this sounds great,but I would love to have like a fallback option just in case, you know, I run into some troubles. you know, we have you covered. So for most States, we do offer $149 an hour. got an agent available to you.
And we also have an option for a flat via close as well. basically the entire gamut of services that a traditional agent would offer, we offer those as well. We just take that bundle and we break it apart and we tell you, we ask you like, what would you like? And so, and then we give it some really nice software around that to make it easy to use.
Cody Crabb (23:51)
Gotcha, yeah, this is fantastic for investors that want to get into this. It’s definitely something to check out at least. ⁓ So thank you so much for telling us about it. ⁓ One last question. This is something I do on every episode. ⁓ Let’s just say you’re in front of an audience of real estate investors. You get to contribute to their success long term. What is the thing you could say?that would move the needle the most from your knowledge. Like what should they do or not do that will make the difference?
Jon Minerick (24:28)
Well, I hate to talk my own shop, but I think flat fee listings are the only way to go. And as an investor, you have to look at all of your expenses and say, OK, where can I optimize everything? given a long enough time horizon, again, if you’re saving $10,000 or $15,000 a transaction, run that over 10 years. And that’s millions of dollars, right?So I think that that is examining your cost centers, as every investor knows, and saying, OK, where can we get some wins here?
I think this is one of the easiest wins out there, because a lot of people aren’t even aware it exists.
Cody Crabb (24:59)
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to say no to doyou want to do the same exact thing with less work and get more money for it. It’s kind of hard to say no to that. I’m with you there. Thanks again once more for joining us today. ⁓ Jon, you’ve been really helpful. ⁓ And to all our listeners, thanks for joining us. If you haven’t subscribed to the podcast, please make sure you do so and we’ll catch you next time on Real Estate Pros. Bye.
