Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today launched a first-of-its-kind 100% satisfaction guarantee for real estate consumers. Separately, Redfin released survey data showing 97% customer satisfaction.

The 100% guarantee is for customers of Redfin Direct, an online home-buying program in which customers tour homes on their own and draft an offer online, with local Redfin agents handling offer advice, negotiations and closing.

As with a traditional brokerage, Redfin Direct customers can choose to work with another brokerage at any point during the home search; Redfin only earns a fee when a customer buys a home.

But unlike a traditional brokerage, Redfin also guarantees it services through closing. If a customer buys a home through Redfin but becomes unhappy during the closing process, Redfin completes the close but refunds its entire fee.

In a typical home purchase brokered by traditional agents, 3% of the home-price goes to pay the buyer's agent, and 3% goes to pay the seller's agent. With Redfin, the difference is that the buyer gets a refund of two thirds of the buyer's agent commission, usually 2% of the home price. But if the buyer is unhappy with the Redfin service, the buyer gets 100% of the buyer's agent commission.

"Traditionally, if a deal closes, an agent is paid regardless of whether the customer is happy with her real estate agent's service," said Redfin Director of Real Estate Operations Rob McGarty. "This motivates traditional agents to move on to the next deal as soon as a customer is under contract to buy a house."

"But a lot happens between agreeing to initial terms and actually getting into the house," McGarty continued. "At Redfin, we make sure you get great service all the way from offer to close, or we won't get paid."

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry's first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey as well as details on the agent's negotiating performance and deal history. Redfin's service is available in the metropolitan areas of Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York's Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and Sacramento. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.