DS News

70 the beta version of what will be its new online platform that will make the process of buying or selling real property online as simple as filling in the blanks. ink of it like paying your taxes through one of those intuitive programs that prompts you through the process. Except with buying or selling a house. And like those do-it-yourself tax programs, the Ten-X platform (fully released in March) puts the process in the consumer's hands, not just the hands of those who might already be familiar with bramble that is the real estate business. In January, Auction.com announced that it would rebrand itself as Ten-X, a name that carries a surprisingly broad set of meanings. e name, says Morse, is "a rallying cry" to an idea whose time has come at long last. It represents the idea of making real estate transactions ten times easier. It represents exponential growth, both in market reach and in the general public's ability to navigate the dark, confusing sea of homebuying and selling. And it represents what Morse calls the company's daily focus on "force multipliers." "We talk about force multipliers daily," Morse says. "e idea of, how do you punch above your weight class?" e new name, he says, taps into every connotation of things getting ten times better, faster, bigger, easier. Ten-X, of course makes the whole thing sound simple. at simple, catchy name. Morse says, is the survivor of an process that saw no fewer than 500 names pass his desk. And the very technology that will make the real estate- deal life of the average citizen exponentially easier is insanely complicated ‒‒ which is why it took until 2015 to really be able to release the power of transparency and easy navigation to the public. Another reason it's taken so long to get to the point where buying a home is point-and- shoot simple is because it actually takes a giant to make effective giant leaps sometimes. Ten-X's gear shift, says Morse, started in earnest about a year and a half ago, in part spurred by requests from consumers to make online real estate deals more user friendly. Morse says that the real estate end of online sales has been slower to develop than other forms of online commerce, in part, because consumers have adjusted to online commerce in stages over the years. ink back to a mere decade ago, how jittery most people got with the idea of entering credit card information online for books or a pair of shoes. Now you don't even think about it, but back then everyone did. As houses typically cost a few more bucks than a pair of pumps, people have, understandably, been slower to warm to the idea of putting tens of thousands of dollars on the line online. e size and reputation of Auction.com/ Ten-X, Morse says, is the edge that will make consumers more accepting of online real estate sales. "Something this big is not going to come from two kids in a garage in Palo Alto," he says. A platform that allows people to make what is typically the biggest purchase of their lives, from first sight to fine print, requires an established company with a solid reputation and the wherewithal to escort it through its rough early days when everyone must figure out the bugs. To be fair, however, the early days haven't been nearly as buggy as one might expect. Since the beta launch of the Ten-X platform last summer, the response from consumers who've used it has been positive, according to Rick Sharga, chief marketing officer at Ten-X. "Consumers are a little ahead of us," Sharga says. As it turns out, so far, a full 40 percent of the platform's users identify themselves as owner-occupants looking for a permanent home "Consumers are willing to take the next step," he says. "ese are serious buyers." In other words, consumers want the ability to do what Ten-X is offering and they're willing to put their faith in the company, in large measure due to its backing and reputation. Morse and Sharga haven't limited their "REAL ESTATE IS SUCH A HUMAN PROCESS. PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO WANT TO BE REASSURED BY SOMEONE WHO CAN SHOW THEM THE NEIGHBORHOODS, WHO KNOW THE SCHOOLS, ET CETERA. THE ROLE OF THE BROKER WILL JUST EVOLVE, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE." – TIM MORSE Continued on page 72

• Cover