Dec. 30, 2007: So, left without a loan days before his scheduled move, Moore scrambled to find a new lender with help from his Redfin agent. In three days, [Justin] Moore was able to get a loan through Countrywide Financial and now is finally moving into the new home that at first, had seemed so easy to get.
Dec. 27, 2007: Redfin and "60 Minutes" of fame. The primetime appearance was a clear win for Redfin, which saw an increase in activity in the days following the show.
Dec. 23, 2007: [Redfin client Melissa] Fuehrer never met her [Redfin] agent and completed all the paperwork by e-mail and fax, which suited her fine. "I liked how I was able to do most of the interaction online versus having to take time off work to meet with a real estate agent," she said. Fuehrer said she also liked saving money on the sales commission, which she calculated to be a discount of $3,150.
A Day with Loren Ellingson of Redfin
Ellingson is a listing agent at Redfin, a two-year-old real estate tech startup in downtown Seattle. Sellers contact Redfin and confer with a listing coordinator who assigns an agent. A 10-person team handles Washington state listings.
A Day with Loren Ellingson Video
Dec. 21, 2007: Redfin has defied the traditional business model of charging sellers a 6% commission on a home price. Instead, Redfin charges sellers a flat fee of $3,000 for listing and marketing a home. For buyers, it collects the 3% commission from the seller's agent and refunds two-thirds of the money to the buyer.
Dec. 17, 2007: The company said the tips come from crunching numbers, including academic research and its own data, to help clients with questions they've had about selling strategy. Redfin also is working on a study about the impact of re-listing a home after its been abandoned by a buyer post-inspection.
Dec. 17, 2007: The company wanted to figure out what to do about a recent drop off in response to its listings. After analyzing 119,000 listings, they came up with a few conclusions — some of which won't likely surprise.
Dec. 15, 2007: But now Redfin, a Seattle-based online real-estate brokerage, has thrown some research at the issue. The result is seven recommendations its CEO, Glenn Kelman, says help make homes sell faster for more money.
Dec. 14, 2007: TODAY's Meredith Vieira talks to Glenn Kelman, president of Redfin, an online brokerage, about the science behind what makes a house sell, when to sell it, and what you can get for it.
Dec. 14, 2007: [Redfin] released some home-selling tips from what it's calling the Real Estate Scientist. These are research-driven facts about real estate transactions, and they include nuggets like debut on Friday.
Dec. 14, 2007: Redfin's computer scientists started dissecting past real estate sales, and on Friday the company released the first seven conclusions from an ongoing autopsy, which included a review of existing research and fresh number crunching.
Dec. 14, 2007: Redfin launched a forum site for consumers and agents to discuss the recommendations and underlying research, and to propose areas for future research. The company plans to release new findings periodically, according to the announcement.
Dec. 10, 2007: As it turns out, the true darlings are the privately held players in this niche -- companies like Zillow, Trulia, and Redfin. Redfin became the country's first online brokerage for residential real estate when it launched in Seattle a couple of years ago.
December 2007: Redfin lets buyers research neighborhoods, find houses for sale, and negotiate offers, all online.
Nov. 14, 2007: Guest post by Glenn Kelman: More companies than ever are being started by serial entrepreneurs. The second coming of the Internet bubble, Web 2.0, has in some ways been the love-child of Entrepreneur 2.0 — wealthy from his 1990's success, restless from his time off. Venture capitalists have lined up with funding.
Nov. 11, 2007: No doubt the housing market's troubled. But how to fix it? Forbes.com asked a range of housing experts to examine the largest lingering problems, the most misplaced assumptions and the best solutions. "Artificially stimulating demand," says Glenn Kelman, CEO and president of Redfin, a Seattle-based Internet brokerage, "is what got us into trouble in the first place."
Oct. 29, 2007: Redfin, the online residential real-estate brokerage, has significantly shifted the paradigm in the real-estate world by embracing the transparency of the Web 2.0 medium. The firm consistently solicits, displays and acts on its customers' feedback, fostering trust and brand engagement, and positioning itself as a truly interactive real-estate experience.
Oct. 15, 2007: Many people asked for a generic version of the financial model that Redfin used to project costs ... Glenn's point isn't to make a statement one way or the other about Redfin's business or to even give you a crystal ball for seeing whether you'll succeed ... We're posting this model because its basic structure might help other entrepreneurs who don't know where to start.
Oct. 15, 2007: Redfin and other online housing brokers able to charge a lower commission than a brick and mortar outfit stand to see geometric volume gains. A full 80% of people currently start a house hunt online, and the lure of a 50% to 66% reduction in commission is strong.
Oct. 15, 2007: Redfin and other online housing brokers able to charge a lower commission than a brick and mortar outfit stand to see geometric volume gains. A full 80% of people currently start a house hunt online, and the lure of a 50% to 66% reduction in commission is strong.
Oct. 4, 2007: Redfin can be the ultimate window-shopping tool for checking out properties in the areas where you want to live. With a terrific map mashup that uses Microsoft's Virtual Earth, easy-to-parse data fields, and nicely designed galleries, Redfin helps you get an overview of available houses and lets you drill down quickly to figure out whether that amazing condo next to a park is really big enough for your family.
Oct. 1, 2007: My buddy at Redfin , Glenn Kelman, decided he wanted to bare his financial soul so that other entrepreneurs could get greater insight into the witchcraft called financial modeling. In this two-part posting, he reveals his numbers and his lessons. They are eye-opening for most entrepreneurs.
Sep. 16, 2007: Redfin charges $4,000 to place listing on the MLS; seller must agree to offer a commission to the buyer's agent; provides signs, lockboxes; professional consultation over phone or online.
Sep. 7, 2007: Some who want to stay in the business are taking a second look at working for commissions. "People who used to turn up their nose at working for us are now drilling holes to get into the building," said Mr. Kelman of Redfin, which pays a salary and a bonus based on customer satisfaction.
Aug. 21, 2007: And the National Association of Realtors has been lobbying hard to block sites like Redfin, primarily because of the competition to traditional realtors and the threat to the cherished 6 percent.
Aug. 21, 2007: Tech entrepreneur Glenn Kelman's online real-estate brokerage, Redfin Corp., allows consumers to buy or sell homes online and takes a cut of each real-estate transaction it brokers. To Mr. Kelman, it's a sensible business model. But when he sought backing from venture capitalists this past spring, he found the process much tougher than he had expected.
August 2007: Prepare for the unexpected: Redfin.com took a hit this summer when it was forced to suspend its informative blogs on homes that were for sale. Called Sweet Digs, the blogs allowed reviewers to go to open houses and offer thier honest impressions of the homes. These opinions were very popular, but also elicited the ire of listing agents and the real estate establishment.
Aug. 2, 2007: Lennox Scott, Chairman & CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, and Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, expound on the top trends in real estate and technology at Inman Connect SF. Moderator Bradley Inman adds his perspective to the discourse as well.
Jul. 27, 2007: The principle behind Redfin is relatively simple: The company offers an information-rich Web site which provides MLS listings -- all mapped by neighborhood -- plus aggregated data on individual houses, including tax records, past sales history, days on market as well as online price estimator Zillow's "zestimate" -- an "objective" value of a home based on the previous sale price and the neighborhood's recent appreciation history.
July 2007: Selling or buying a home? Save serious money using this online real estate broker. There are trade-offs, but if you're willing to do some of the legwork, you can save $10,000 to $12,000 in lower commission fees.
Jul. 25, 2007: Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman discusses recent expansions into new markets and the new strategy for the company's Sweet Digs blogs with Inman TV's Joel Burslem.
Jun. 13, 2007: According to its own internal studies, Redfin said its buyers paid about 1 percent less than clients working through traditional real estate agents. On top of that, the company rebates two thirds of its commission back to buyers.
Jun. 8, 2007: Redfin's Web site provides detailed information about a property, including how long a house has been on the market, the last price at which the home sold, crime and school data, aerial images as well as the ability to arrange showings or make offers online. Redfin offers 100 percent refunds if consumers are unhappy with the transaction.
Jun. 8, 2007: Later this summer, Redfin, a successful Seattle online Realtor with 66 percent rebates, will be hanging out its shingle in Chicago.
May 29, 2007: My buddy, Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin, had a strong reaction to last week's post about PR by Marge Zable Fisher. So much so that he penned an alternate solution to the challenge of a good client-agency relationship: Don't hire an agency and do it yourself.
May 25, 2007: Redfin prepares for web traffic surge after being featured on the popular TV show [60 Minutes].
May 20, 2007: Redfin rebates to buyers two-thirds of the commission that it receives as a buyer's broker. So if a Redfin buyer's broker stands to get a 3 percent commission, 2 percent of the price will be rebated to the buyer and 1 percent will be retained by Redfin.
May 20, 2007: "I'd definitely recommend him [Redfin agent]," said Viesca, as he completed his morning walkthrough at Il Palio, a Carmel Mountain Ranch condo conversion project, and pocketed an $8,000 rebate. "I'd give him a '10.' It's a new way of doing things."
May 18, 2007: Seattle-based online discount brokerage company Redfin, under pressure from the multiple listing service, has pulled the plug on its Web logs offering reviews of properties for sale.
May 18, 2007: Redfin blog draws ire of listing firm. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has fined Redfin $50,000 and asked the company to stop publishing a popular blog in which the online real estate brokerage posted reviews of Seattle-area homes.
May 17, 2007: The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has fined Redfin $50,000 and asked the company to stop publishing a popular blog in which the online real estate brokerage posted reviews of Seattle-area homes.
May 15, 2007: A discount real-estate-brokerage firm based in Seattle, under pressure from rival brokers, has stopped posting Internet reviews of homes listed for sale.
May 14, 2007: ... for a handful of web-based real-estate start-ups, such as Redfin.com, a computer does understand the needs of a growing segment of dissatisfied buyers, at least when it comes to their desire not to cough up 6% in commission fees to real-estate agents.
May 13, 2007: Realtors' sacrosanct commission rates of 6 percent may be in danger due to emerging online competition from Internet real estate sellers and buyers. Lesley Stahl reports. video, full text
May 13, 2007: Realtors' sacrosanct commission rates of 6 percent may be in danger due to emerging online competition from Internet real estate sellers and buyers. Lesley Stahl reports.
May 13, 2007: They have an intriguing and aggressive business model, which is summed up by CEO Glenn Kelman's statement that "Real Estate is by far the most screwed up industry in America."
May 2007: "Redfin [is] an online brokerage creating a stir in the housing sector ... Redfin will handle the essentials of the offer and the close. Say you're buying a $1 million home. With these guys you get a cut of their broker's commission (in this case, $20,000)."
May 8, 2007: Redfin customers Debra and Nick Marassi talk to Evening Magazine reporter Saint Bryan about how they used their Redfin refund to remodel their new home.
Apr. 24, 2007: Real estate is developing a new life on the web. Seattle-based online brokerage Redfin is a pioneer and is making waves in the business. New England Business Day anchor RD Sahl talks with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.
April 2007: Customers loved [Redfin's blog]. More and more signed on to use Redfin, and by the beginning of this year, Kelman and his crew were closing several deals a day.
Mar. 18, 2007:
Mar. 18, 2007: "[Redfin's] Web site lists everything from the number of days a house has been on the market to historical sales data. The service is designed to appeal to Internet-savvy buyers who conduct home searches online, visit open houses on their own and don't need -- or necessarily want -- the help of a real estate agent until they're ready to make an offer."
Feb. 25, 2007: " ... the median price for L.A. - that adds up to $10,400 [from Redfin]."
Feb. 24, 2007: 'I'm used to doing all my own research already,' reasoned [Scott] Davis, a 38-year-old Microsoft marketing manager. 'If I'm going on holiday, I search the Internet for airfare, for the cheapest hotel rooms. So when searching for a house we were OK doing that, and Redfin made it easy.' Their Redfin agent helped them shave $12,000 off a Woodinville home's $440,000 asking price. The agent even negotiated the home's couch into the deal. The final flourish was receiving Redfin's $9,000 rebate.
Feb. 8, 2007: Eric Allsopp and Melissa Lehardy talk to San Diego KGTV's reporter Kyle Majors about how Redfin helped them purchase a home and get money back. "[Redfin] kind of gave us a little extra money to actually be able to get into the house ... If you're willing to do a little work you can save a lot of money."
Feb. 8, 2007: "Recent Chicago transplants Pieter and Beth van Es have recovered from their sticker shock and are ready to buy a house in Southern California. Now, the Irvine couple have a new incentive. When they buy their home through an online broker, they will get a nice chunk of their money back. The Van Eses are using Seattle-based Redfin, one of several new brokerage services that hope to revolutionize home buying by rebating part of their commissions back to buyers."
Jan. 21, 2007: Redfin "agents are now grabbing significantly more deals than conventional agents."
Real Estate Mapping Pioneer Expands, Adds Features
Jan. 13, 2007:
