Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today launched its real estate e-commerce service in Boston. Separately, Redfin also today launched a new version of its website with a new color scheme and logo, better performance and simpler navigation.

Redfin is the first major online real estate brokerage to open for business in Boston, with coverage across Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk counties, which includes Cambridge, Concord, Lowell, Newton, Marlborough and Stoughton. Boston is the first East Coast market Redfin has opened as part of a national expansion effort that began with its February launch in Southern California.

For customers who can find a home to buy on their own, the premise of the Redfin service is to use technology to offer better service from offer to close than a traditional agent, and to refund most of the commission. Boston-area consumers now can buy or sell MLS-listed properties online, using the Web to gather basic information and then work with a local, experienced Redfin agent on pricing, negotiations and escrow.

Massachusetts buyers who work with Redfin get two-thirds of the commission refunded at closing; for a $500,000 house offering a typical three percent commission to the buyer's agent, the refund would be $10,000. For a $1 million house, the refund would be $20,000. Redfin also offers each home-buyer a free afternoon of home tours, scheduled via its website.

Sellers pay a flat fee of $3,000, saving $12,000 over a typical seller's agent commission of three percent on a $500,000 house. Unlike any other brokerage, Redfin pays its agents bonuses based on customer satisfaction, not commissions, and offers a 100-percent-customer-satisfaction guarantee, refunding all commissions and fees if the customer is dissatisfied.

Redfin's Boston expansion increases the number of listings available on Redfin's site by more than 20,000.

"Boston is chock full of the kinds of consumers likely to use our service: under 45, highly educated, technology-savvy," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "The other reason we were eager to launch this market in the spring is that the lead engineer for our expansion is a die-hard Red Sox fan who becomes useless as the season heats up."

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.