Yahoo Finance Would you buy a home on Amazon?
Amazon now has a finger in absolutely every pie, after the online retail giant’s latest announcement revealed it made moves into the property market.
How?
Amazon.com Inc collaborated with US real estate company Realogy to launch ‘TurnKey’, which helps customers reach real estate agents from Realogy’s brands, which include Century 21 and Sotheby’s International Realty.
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The platform is available in 15 US cities already, and for Realogy, the partnership is giving its brands a leg up in the residential real estate agency, Bloomberg reported.
What does TurnKey do?
Amazon’s TurnKey platform purports to match you with a “hand-selected, local real estate agent” who then helps you find and purchase your “dream home”.
When you’ve closed the deal, that’s when Amazon steps in with the ‘Amazon Move-In Benefit’.
“After closing, your Amazon team will take the lead, providing you with thousands back in Amazon Home Services and fully installed smart home products,” Amazon’s site says.
According to Bloomberg, you’ll get up to US$5,000 (AU$7,426) back in those products and services.
“The Amazon Move-In Benefit will enable home buyers to adapt the offering to their needs — from help assembling furniture to assisting with smart home device set-up to a deep clean and more,” Amazon’s director of home services, Pat Bigatel said.
Will it work?
Some say an e-commerce site might not be the first place people would turn to for such a huge purchase.
“People are not on Amazon looking for houses,” US-based real estate tech strategist, Mike DelPrete, said in an interview, as reported by Bloomberg.
“Imagine being in the bookstore and browsing around and having a real estate agent come up to you. It would be kind of distracting.”
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