2008 Press Coverage

Dec. 26, 2008: "If people can't find steady jobs, they won't buy houses," said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Seattle-based online brokerage Redfin.

Dec. 11, 2008: In the end, it was speed, speed, speed that convinced us to switch. In our worst case scenario of 500 pushpins on the map in IE6, GMaps is 385% faster," Redfin Chief Technology Officer Michael Young writes.

Nov. 30, 2008: Startups can be the most conservative organizations in the world. We spend so much energy nurturing our delicate egos against naysayers and self-doubt that we can hardly admit mistakes. This is especially true of first-time CEOs. Thousands of new web companies were born in the last few years, and many of us just got the job.

Nov. 22, 2008: Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, chief executive of the Seattle-based online brokerage firm Redfin, said he has seen a spike in requests from buyers looking for listings with rent-to-own arrangements. He said his agents are telling him that homeowners are also increasingly willing to consider such requests.

Nov. 10, 2008: "Price discovery is happening" in Los Angeles, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said.

Nov. 6, 2008: "We're swinging for the seats on market share," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, the Seattle online brokerage's chief executive. "We want to be a mass-market company."

November 6, 2008: "The larger story is how we've matured from a little geeky company to something consumers want," Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said. "Version 1 was for me and my Web friends. Version 2 is for my mom."

Oct. 2, 2008: "In the places hardest hit a year and a half ago, prices have come way down," says Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate broker Redfin Corporation. "In San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Sacramento, they have all acknowledged the reality of home prices."

Oct. 2, 2008: The Boston-area MLS has now removed that requirement, and Redfin's site is now open to all users, regardless of registration.

Sep. 29, 2008: Agents at Redfin have heard the same from prospective buyers, said Glenn Kelman, president and chief executive of the Seattle brokerage. "A lot of people (are) responding to lower prices but then at the eleventh hour getting extremely nervous," he said. "We're talking to people four, five times a day."

Sep. 28, 2008: "People get caught up in the numbers of it all, especially in shaky financial times, and they seem unable to make a decision," said Alex Coon, market manager for Redfin Corp. in Boston. "There are a lot more people suffering from analysis paralysis."

Sep. 23, 2008: Still, Kelman has had some deals die as a direct result of the events of last week. One of his firm's brokers, Febe Cude, said, "A couple of clients have expressed their reservations about continuing the process."

Sep. 17, 2008: Redfin is still seeing 50% growth this year. And helping someone buy a home is still cause for celebration. Renay San Miguel talks to Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman about how homebuyers can involve friends and family in ways they haven't before; and transaction coordinator Chelsea Mitchell about why she loves her job.

Sep. 14, 2008: The online real estate site, Redfin, reports that neighborhoods in Huntington Beach and Irvine are among those with the most price reductions, with cuts of 5% to 7% off their original list prices.

Sep. 9, 2008: And Alex Coon, market manager for Redfin Corp. in Boston, expected that even more prospective buyers will be unable to get loans as Freddie and Fannie further tighten lending regulations and shrink the number of loans they will cover. However, Coon said those with good credit and at least a 5 percent down payment should be able to get loans.

Aug. 28, 2008: A map-based search delineates the desired area -- whether a city, ZIP code or neighborhood. Users can look at the most expensive or least expensive in an area in a section of the website devoted to neighborhoods that also includes links to local blogs on housing and neighborhoods. Results can be easily downloaded as a spreadsheet to take when heading out to house hunt. Redfin also shows how many times a listing price has been changed and to what, in addition to how long the property has been on the market.

Aug. 23, 2008: "The Seattle real estate market hasn't escaped the impact of the downturn, but sellers can still find themselves in the midst of a buyer's frenzy if they have a desirable home, in a sought-after neighborhood, with an aggressive pricing strategy," says Redfin agent Brandon Smith.

Aug. 17, 2008: Online brokerage Redfin recently crunched sales data for three metropolitan areas for clues to which homes sell for a big discount and which don't. The results reflect common-sense views of the marketplace, but it's interesting to see them.

Aug. 16, 2008: "If you're at all analytical, you've got all the information right there at your fingertips," said Kelley, who, with his wife Susana, has put a bid on an Arlington home through Redfin. "You don't need anyone directing you to this place or that place or that place."

Aug. 13, 2008: Seattle brokerage Redfin has added new details on neighborhood inventory and pricing trends. In addition to the listing and price data, the neighborhood pages include demographics, schools, restaurants and grocery stores.

Aug. 11, 2008: The folks at Redfin have turned the art of home price bargaining into a science by identifying the kinds of properties that home sellers might be most willing to unload at a significant discount just to make the sale.

Aug. 10, 2008: Another way to lower commissions is to use an Internet-based brokerage, such as Redfin.com ... Since February, Redfin's services have included professional photography for all its listings. (That's a kindness for all of us who have to look at these pictures.)

Aug. 7, 2008: Online real estate broker Redfin is out with a study today that contains some interesting insights that can help home buyers looking to negotiate a lower asking price.

Aug. 7, 2008: The folks at online brokerage Redfin looked at more than 2,900 house sales in Los Angeles County from April through June, and identified traits of homes that sold for the largest discount from the final asking price.

Aug. 7, 2008: An analysis by national real-estate company Redfin, based in Seattle, has put some science behind that, revealing which houses get heavily discounted and which don't.

Aug. 1, 2008: Redfin crunched the numbers to figure out which sellers are more likely to negotiate. Here are Redfin's tips on how what to look for when searching for a housing bargain. Diane Sawyer gets the scoop from Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.

Jul. 21, 2008: And even then, some of the data usually remain hidden from public view. Online real estate start-ups such as Redfin.com offer discounted access to complete MLS listings.

Jul. 13, 2008: With the stress and anxiety behind them, [Redfin customer] Diana Needleman said the process worked out well in the end. "It's an amazing house," said Diana Needleman, who is now looking forward to redoing the large backyard. "We are very, very happy."

Jun. 29, 2008: The real estate brokerage that other brokerages love to hate quietly set up shop in Chicago. That would be Redfin, the maverick start-up that operates mostly online and refunds two-thirds of its portion of the commission to its clients. Chicago is its eighth market.

Jun. 26, 2008: With the addition of the 4 million properties in Chicago and expanded search areas in Washington, California, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and other areas, Redfin now will have a total of about 16 million properties on the site.

Jun. 26, 2008: Redfin Corp., a real estate company that offers deep discounts to real estate buyers in the form of rebates and flat-fee services for sellers, announced today that it has expanded brokerage services to the Chicago area and added property-search capabilities for about 100 counties.

Jun. 24, 2008: "It seems inevitable that more elements of the transaction will move online as younger, tech-savvy buyers enter the market," says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin. "I'm not guaranteeing that Redfin will succeed, but I do feel certain that a company like Redfin will succeed."

Jun. 22, 2008: In the market for buying or selling a home? A new change just altered the entire playing field. Fox News talks with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman about the new rules and Redfin.

Jun. 18, 2008: Linda Flynn is among a growing number of home buyers who swear by Redfin, an online start-up in Seattle that has rocked the real estate market ... Redfin's easy-to-use website provides consumers market data on home-sales histories, school districts and other information. Then Redfin brokers and agents take home buyers on house tours and negotiate and close deals.

Jun. 17, 2008: Redfin's basic advice is that homebuyers who are thinking of submitting a deeply-discounted offer need to spend a little less time thinking about the home, and a little more time thinking about the sellers and their situation.

Jun. 15, 2008: Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an Internet-based brokerage, cited a number of indicators that a listing advertised as a short sale will really make it to closing. You might be a wasting your time unless you see these signs.

Jun. 6, 2008: Redfin agent Allie Howard said people, unhindered by competition, are finding that shopping now has pluses. Howard says she hasn't made a full-price offer recently on behalf of any of the buyers she's represented. Howard says homebuilders are more willing to cut prices. Traditionally, builders throw in extras, such as upgraded carpeting or cabinets, rather than lower the asking price.

Jun. 4, 2008: Glenn Kelman, the CEO of online brokerage firm Redfin, passed along this helpful list of "tells" that may indicate a home seller is willing to cut the price on a property. Buyers should take notice and negotiate accordingly if they spot any of these.

May 28, 2008: Kelman of Seattle-based Redfin said his company "has been thirsty for MLS data for at least a decade" and had based its business model on a gamble that such a settlement was possible. With such an agreement in place, further investment in technology makes sense.

May 27, 2008: "Internet entrepreneurs have been thirsty for this MLS data for at least a decade," said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, another online realty firm. "For a long time, the conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley was that you didn't want to take data from the Realtors because they didn't want to share it with you."

May 27, 2008: "We are reasonably happy but not completely overjoyed," Glenn Kelman, chief executive officer of Redfin, a Seattle-based on-line brokerage, said in an interview ... the settlement will still allow realtors to bar some on-line comments and price comparisons from firms such as Seattle-based Zillow.Com and Cyberhomes.

May 27, 2008: The deal is especially important for disruptive online-only companies like Redfin, which rely on being able to access current home listings. Redfin aims to make the home-buying process more efficient, while saving consumers money in the process.

May 27, 2008: "We can compete as aggressively as we want without worrying that a broker will decide not to share his listings with us," said Redfin chief executive Glenn Kelman in an e-mail to the Mercury News Tuesday. "There has been a huge debate in online real estate about whether we could survive working as a broker within the MLS rules, and get access to all the listings for sale. That is now a settled issue."

May 27, 2008: The settlement is encouraging to online real estate firms such as Redfin, a Seattle-based start-up that CEO Glenn Kelman calls "the E-Trade of real estate brokers." Before the settlement, Kelman says he wasn't even sure that Redfin would continue to exist. Now, though, there's potential for growth for his firm and others, he predicts.

May 27, 2008: Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage based in Seattle that operates in 20 large metropolitan areas, said the settlement came as a relief for executives at the company, which bills itself as a lower-cost alternative to traditional real estate agents.

May 23, 2008: Redfin, the Seattle online real estate broker, has participated in the sale of three homes worth more than $2 million each in April, including one home that sold for $7 million.

May 12, 2008: That [MLS] change recently allowed Redfin to introduce a neighborhood map showing all the homes for sale, regardless of whether they were listed with an M.L.S. Redfin also now posts the number of days a home has been on the market, as well as its price history -- two bits of information previously held closely by agents and brokers in the M.L.S. system.

May 9, 2008:

May 8, 2008: Now Conrad, a C.P.A., checks online-discount brokerage Redfin every day for bargains.

May 1, 2008: Seattle-based real estate brokerage company Redfin has integrated foreclosure properties and for-sale-by-owner properties with its map-based search, and the company identifies the various property types with different icon colors and in detailed descriptions.

Apr. 30, 2008: It's good stuff -- it shows six bank-owned properties, and the information on each listing is pretty extensive, especially for a free, no-registration service ... Put me down as a satisfied user.

Apr. 30, 2008: Homes reclaimed by banks and for sale by owner now show up next to traditional listings on the Web site of Seattle brokerage Redfin. Redfin also plans to set up a flat-fee system so buyers can use the brokerage to buy foreclosure and for-sale-by-owner homes.

Apr. 24, 2008: This week, though, the Dudleys moved into a three-bedroom house in Anaheim that they recently bought for $390,000, down from the original listing price of $445,000 in November. Similar homes in the area were selling for as much as about $600,000 two years ago, says Erin Eckert, an agent for Redfin, an online real-estate brokerage that represented the Dudleys.

Apr. 23, 2008: Kelman, the Redfin.com chief, said that once the home is on the market, it is in the homeowners' best interests to keep the reason for the sale -- their divorce -- under wraps. Knowing that a seller is divorcing may lead some to make lower offers.

Apr. 21, 2008: The single-family homes selling most quickly in the Boston area share three characteristics, according to the fine folks at Redfin: They are 7 percent larger than other recently sold homes, they sit on lots that are 13 percent larger, and they are 78 percent more expensive.

Apr. 17, 2008: Redfin, an online real-estate brokerage based in Seattle, says it represented buyers on 65 short-sale offers in the first quarter but expects only two or three to result in a completed sale.

Apr. 13, 2008: Still, buyers tend to be enthusiastic about open houses, because they can check out a home on a whim, rather than having to schedule an appointment with a broker. They can also organize an afternoon of looking around staggered open house times. Alex Coon, Massachusetts market manager for online real estate broker Redfin Corp., likes that open houses are held within a generally agreed upon time.

Apr. 10, 2008: Redfin, a real estate brokerage company that offers deep rebates to buyers, is testing out a new service option in the Seattle area that allows buyers to participate in an unlimited amount of tours while reducing the company's rebate rate.

Apr. 2, 2008: Redfin brokerage CEO Glenn Kelman followed up on our recent chat with some more thoughts about what his shop sees in the O.C. market.

Apr. 1, 2008: Redfin, a contrarian real estate company with Boston offices, analyzed 2007 sales in King County, Washington (which you may know as "Seattle"). It found that homes listed for commissions below 3 percent sold at 99.9 percent of list price after 89 days on the market, while homes listed for commissions above 3 percent sold for 98.5 percent of list price after 129 days on the market.

Mar. 31, 2008: But a new study of 2007 home sales in King County, Wash. by online real estate brokerage Redfin says that sellers who paid exactly 3% to the buyer's agent sold their home faster than sellers who paid either more or less.

Mar. 28, 2008: Kelman says Redfin did hundreds of statistical studies on topics like which day you should list your house and how important it is to stage it. He says no matter how much information Redfin offers on a property, consumers always want more. Traffic on Redfin has doubled in the last year, even as sales have dropped in half.

Mar. 25, 2008: Statistics show that Redfin buyers negotiate a much lower price than their broker competitors.

Mar. 25, 2008: Redfin customers in Seattle and San Francisco paid less for their homes than those who purchased homes through other brokers in those regions, according to a report released today by the Seattle online real estate company.

Mar. 11, 2008:

Mar. 6, 2008: Houses there that sell within the first 30 days are fetching an average of 101 percent of their listing price even now, [Kevin] Broveliet [of Redfin] says.

Mar. 4, 2008: Redfin Listing Metrics allows the company's seller clients to view information about other for-sale properties in the area, to study graphs that feature daily and weekly price changes, and to view online traffic to the listing at the Redfin.com site as compared to the neighborhood average, as examples.

Mar. 4, 2008: Redfin's real estate search tools are world class and only keep getting better.

Mar. 4, 2008: Oh dear homesellers, stockpile the Xanex and shore up, for you're about to experience the most vicious of all obsessive-compulsive disorders. (Just trust us here, OK?) Earlier this morning, online real estate brokerage Redfin launched a listing stat tracker of sorts.

Mar. 4, 2008: Seattle real estate brokerage Redfin has announced a new feature that allows its sellers to analyze neighborhood inventory trends and recent sales, and compare their listing's online traffic to that of other listings in the neighborhood.

Mar. 2, 2008: He [Redfin client Deyano Manco] conducted nearly all of the transaction, from initial research to negotiation – online [with Redfin]. After finding the home online, he researched what the previous owners paid for it and conducted meticulous data analysis using elaborate spreadsheets. He further scoped out the property and neighborhood using satellite images from Google Earth and made his offer through Web brokerage Redfin.

Mar. 1, 2008: Redfin agents will be there to assist with negotiations and to close the sale for the seller. Buyers receive an incentive, too, sharing in the company's three-percent commission. For instance, on a half-million dollar home, Redfin puts $10,000 of the $15,000 it earns back into the buyers' pockets.

Feb. 16, 2008: Robert White said he took Redfin's pricing advice when he listed his two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse in Fairlington. "I was going to list it at $425,000, but by knocking it down to $424,500," the house ended up in a category that would seem more affordable to more people by falling into the lower Web listing range, the first-time seller said.

Feb. 6, 2008: Dave Malkoff reports. [House prices] are completely trackable through sites like Redfin.com who will tell you where a home was and where it is right now.

Feb. 5, 2008: Redfin says it enjoys a good working relationship with most traditional realtors in all seven cities where it operates, but some may be threatened by Redfin's business model ... both sides agree that there is plenty of room for Redfin in the real estate industry.

Feb. 2, 2008: Real estate seems ready for a more electronic marketplace where sellers and shoppers can research and deal from the comfort and privacy of their home office. Redfin from Seattle, is such a high-tech experiment, offering online home shopping in seven markets, including O.C.

Jan. 31, 2008: Online real estate broker Redfin Corp. is offering buyers more free home tours and more information about listings.

Jan. 31, 2008: Online brokerage Redfin is trying out a new approach in buyer home tours, in part to mollify criticism from real estate agents unhappy about showing their own listings.

Jan. 31, 2008: They've just launched a new version of the website that includes more frequent MLS updates and the ability to group home sales by neighborhood and download the data. They are also providing deeper data on homes currently on the market as well as historical sales.

Jan. 30, 2008: They've just launched a new version of the website that includes more frequent MLS updates and the ability to group home sales by neighborhood and download the data. They are also providing deeper data on homes currently on the market as well as historical sales.

Jan. 28, 2008: [Redfin's] analysts pored through sales data and found that, among other things, listings that make their debuts on Fridays draw 7.7 percent more visitors than those introduced on Thursdays. In addition, listings priced at $351,001 receive significantly less attention online than those listed at $350,000, because of how real estate search engines filter their results.

Jan. 25, 2008: We also heard this week about a new Boston real estate blog being launched by online real estate brokerage Redfin.com.

Jan. 24, 2008: Yet, "fair market value is still an option" for home sellers, [Redfin agent Dave] Billings says. "Just because a foreclosed property is down the street doesn't mean you have to take $15,000 less than your house is worth. But it does mean that any sort of shoot-the-moon option isn't available. It requires a laser focus on a true justifiable fair-market price for your home."

Jan. 23, 2008: The company hired nine writers to cover local real estate in the Boston and Washington, D.C., markets.

Jan. 7, 2008: Just over 1,000 people have purchased a home through Redfin, with an average refund of $10,106. Meanwhile, close to 300 people have sold homes through the service at a savings of about $3 million.

Jan. 3, 2008: In addition, selling a home online comes with the benefit of Web analytics. For example, Redfin notes that homes debuting on a Friday get 7.7% more viewers their first week than those homes that debut on a Thursday. Online services can also track which Web sites, like Craigslist.org, are diving web traffic to your listing.