In this episode, the first of 2021 and the first in quite some time, I speak to Sean Black, the Co-Founder & CEO of Knock.
I’ve been talking and writing about Knock and its unique take on iBuyer for years now. Now, Sean probably would dispute the label “iBuyer” but it’s because of the corruption of that term. To me, an iBuyer is a company solving for the fundamental problems with the transaction and provides speed, certainty, and convenience. Zillow and Opendoor use the market maker model, buying the house then reselling it; Knock pioneered the “bridge loan” model where they help the seller buy and move into the new home, then list and sell their (now-vacant) old home.
I’ve always thought it was a super clever approach, and other companies have followed suit. Flyhomes and EasyKnock come to mind as other bridge loan model iBuyers.
We catch up with Sean after he evolved his company from a brokerage offering iBuyer services into more of a platform for other brokers and agents to offer the service to their sellers. He discusses his company, the evolution into a platform, potential thoughts about going public, and the economy and industry as a whole and what he sees.
Enjoy!
Conversation with Sean Black, Knock
Bio of Sean Black:
As a Trulia founding team member, Sean led the teams and initiatives to transition $13B in offline real estate marketing to Trulia. Subsequently, Sean was Founder & CEO of Crunched, a sales analytics company acquired by ClearSlide.
-rsh
