[VIP] The Notorious Interview: Jack Ryan, REX

Thanksgiving is behind us, along with the annual frenzy of consumerism known as Black Friday… although in 2019, I think Cyber Monday (which is today) might be an even bigger frenzy of consumerism except for the long lines, frayed nerves, and the fighting over toys that happens IRL.

So first, I apologize for not posting this sooner, but I just couldn’t get to it. Then again, most of the content in real estate is evergreen, as things just do not change that fast. Until it does.

One of the people driving that change is Jack Ryan, Founder & CEO of REX. A former investment banker, he is bringing the techniques and technologies that were used to completely disrupt the trading of financial assets to physical assets, namely, the home. One of the smartest and sharpest men in the real estate industry, Jack made waves with his comments on a Brookings Institute panel on housing policy:

The company he founded, REX, is a tech-powered brokerage that is slaughtering many a sacred cow in residential real estate with no apologies. REX is not a participant in any MLS, for example.

If you have any interest in disruption in residential real estate, Jack Ryan is a name you need to know, and this conversation is one you need to listen to.

Conversation with Jack Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO of REX

[NOTE: Just realized after a reader notified me that we had a major recording malfunction and the audio cuts out at 32 minutes or so. I am so sorry about that. The beatings shall be administered to ensure this doesn’t happen again, but it might. I’ll have to see if Jack will do a second recording at some point. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.]

Bio of Jack Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO of REX

Jack Ryan co-founded REX in 2015 as a full-service residential broker that offers a more effective and less expensive way to buy and sell homes. Now operating in 23 cities in 17 states, REX is one of the very few disrupters in the residential real estate industry to raise more than $100 million in private equity to back its business.

REX harnesses new technology to take the stress and confusion out of buying and selling homes while lowering consumer cost through a transaction-total commission of 2% compared to the 6% charged by most traditional brokers. By employing data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, REX is able to price homes more accurately than traditional brokerages; then, target them to qualified buyers through Zillow, Google, Facebook, Trulia and more.

REX licensed agents are salaried and incentivized to focus their attention on the customer experience versus commission, In addition REX makes home buying and selling simpler by offering escrow, titling, mortgage and insurance, all in one place and at competitive rates.

Jack is a former partner at Goldman Sachs. After the firm went public, he went on to teach high school on the south side of Chicago. Jack then founded 22nd Century Media, a local newspaper chain, and has been a first-round investor in many successful companies, including K12.com. Jack graduated from Dartmouth and holds a JD/MBA from Harvard University.

About REX:

We Are Changing the Way People Buy and Sell Homes

Over the last 20 years, the Internet has changed the way we live, from booking travel to watching movies, and from paying taxes to banking. Online transactions are faster, cheaper to execute, more convenient and generally more secure. Residential real estate, by contrast, remains stuck in a high-cost business model that pre-dates the Internet and remains stubbornly resistant to change. Harnessed properly, technology can help a lot – already, nearly 90% of consumers looking for a home go to sites like Zillow or Google to find and eventually select the properties that best suit their needs.

We created REX in 2015 to bring residential real estate into line with today’s expectations by using AI and big data to push past the outmoded practices of traditional real estate brokers to provide a superior outcome for both buyers and sellers at one-third the cost. So how does REX do it? We use data modeling and machine learning to match sellers and buyers of homes as accurately and speedily as possible on Zillow, Google, Facebook and more. And by doing that, we can reduce costs for all involved – REX charges a fixed 2% covering both sides of the transaction instead of the 5-6% charged by traditional brokers.

Unlike traditional brokers, REX licensed agents are salaried and incentivized to satisfy customers rather than to just close transactions in pursuit of a fast commission. Our team partners with sellers and buyers from listing to close, and shares with them the information they need via an easy-to-use web dashboard. REX is uniquely designed to simplify all of the moving parts, helping consumers with escrow, titling, service connections, mortgage and insurance shopping and keeps securely in the hands of the buyers and sellers all of the data related to the home and legal and financial information related to the transactions.

REX now services homes across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania,Texas, Virginia and Washington DC. We continue to grow geographically, as well as with services offered. Stay tuned to see where REX is headed to next!

REX is bringing home transaction fees way down – enabling consumers to use that money as they see fit – and using technology to make the buying and selling of homes convenient and transparent instead of stressful and complex. To learn more about how REX sees the future of the US residential real estate market, please

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-rsh