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Japanese businessman Takeshi Sekiguchi, owner of the Shirokiya department store at Ala Moana Center and Shirokiya Residential Estates, is starting a second real estate venture which assists buyers with purchasing a home and refunds to those buyers the typical 3 percent commission paid to the buyer’s agent.
SRE Matrix Inc. will start offering its service Sunday. The "SRE" in the name stands for Smart Real Estate.
Sekiguchi, 75, said he has lined up $15 million in capital to start SRE Matrix and has employed more than 10 agents. Instead of the typical 3 percent commission, SRE agents will be paid a salary, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 a month, plus a bonus based on customer satisfaction, Sekiguchi said.
SRE will make its money through collaborations with mortgage companies, and other vendors, willing to pay for promoting their services to SRE homebuyers, Sekiguchi said. It will also advertise on its website and collect commissions for representing homesellers.
Sekiguchi said he sees SRE as a combination of Seattle-based Redfin — a real estate company that refunds buyers a portion of the agent’s commission and pays agents based on customer reviews — and Zillow, a real estate information company also based in Seattle, which makes money from advertising.
"Within the next few years, the real estate industry in the United States will be revolutionized," Sekiguchi said in a news release. "We want to facilitate this evolution for homebuyers, helping them save their hard-earned money. The size of the U.S. real estate market is $1.25 trillion, with brokerage commissions accounting for $60 billion, based on 2013 figures. This means that the aggregate buyer’s agent commissions amounted to $30 billion, with the other $30 billion representing the total seller’s agent commissions. Our mission is to develop a business environment that returns to the public $30 billion of those funds, specifically the buyer’s agent commissions."
Sekiguchi said the typical 6 percent commission paid by a homeseller — 3 percent to the seller’s agent and 3 percent to the buyer’s agent — is too much. Commissions in Europe are much lower, Sekiguchi said.
"In two years commissions will go from 6 percent to 3 percent," Sekiguchi said, adding that he welcomes the change.
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DENNIS ODA / 2005