He really said it: When asked about the company's “Plan B” if mortgage rates don't fall, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman responded, “Plan B is to stay in the fox den and drink our own urine or our competitors' blood.”
This wasn't an informal, informal gathering. It was Redfin's second-quarter earnings conference call. It was the kind of call where executives usually stick to blandly upbeat platitudes. It was a call that was recorded on the investor relations website.
The real estate website's earnings were better than expected, but Wall Street analysts were focused on the broader housing market outlook. At one point, Kelman likened the current market to the “twilight zone,” declaring, “I don't remember (mortgage) rates ever falling this far, this fast, and the market has never been this sluggish. And we have to believe it's going to go up.”
To be clear, he hopes the market will improve, but he doesn't expect it to.
Following the aforementioned pledge to drink various fluids, Kelman added, “The last earnings call ended with me singing a line from the Who song Won't Get Fooled Again, where we said we weren't counting on low interest rates when everybody else thought they were going to go down. We're ready to take share when the market grows, and we're ready to take share when it doesn't grow, but we're not going to lose share.”
And finally, just before the call ended, Kelman expressed some regret over his choice of words: “We're going to drink piss before we drink blood. Actually, I wish I hadn't said that. I'm a lover, not a fighter.”
