During the company’s Q1 2020 earnings call, Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider announced they would be canceling its TurnKey program, which launched in July of 2019 in partnership with Amazon.
“The value proposition of the TurnKey program—which we’ve piloted with Amazon in 15 cities…is all built around in-home services and in-home installation. And so we, together, kind of made the joint decision that we were going to suspend that because…home services that require people being in someone’s home just doesn’t work in a COVID-kind of social distancing world,” said Schneider on the earnings call. “So we really like the TurnKey pilot program, but we ran into this thing that really just cut the core proposition kind of off at the pass.”
“And we and Amazon had a decision point on the next phase of what we were going to do that was in April, and in a COVID world, bluntly, it didn’t make much sense to continue that pilot,” Schneider continued. “So, we’re going to keep being creative on lead-generation opportunities like AARP, et cetera, but you’re not going to hear that much from us about TurnKey.
Schneider also said that the pandemic “kind of eviscerated the value proposition that the thing was built on.”
The TurnKey program matched up potential homebuyers with a local Realogy agent using the Amazon portal. Agents were selected for their “exceptional customer service record and local market expertise.” Consumers that purchased a home with that agent would then receive up to $5,000 in Amazon Home Services gift card money and smart products, which would be delivered directly to their purchased property.
Depending on the property’s purchase price, the buyer would receive smart home products from Amazon’s collection—such as Echo Dot or Show, Ring Doorbells, Sonos Beam, Smart Things Hubs, Fire TV, and more—along with installation services at no additional cost.
Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s senior online editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com.
