Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation (http://www.redfin.com) today launched "Red Carpet Services" to help make it easier and more affordable for online real estate shoppers to find and purchase a home. The first two services offer home buyers free home tours and pre-inspections. Separately today, Redfin announced it has refunded $1 million in commissions to home buyers.

Red Carpet Services include:

• Free Home Tours: The first home tour with a Redfin agent, up to three hours per household, is free. Future tours are $125 per home or $250 for a three-hour tour. To schedule a free home tour, call 1.877.973.3346.
• Free Pre-Inspections: If the buyer conducts a pre-inspection before Redfin submits the offer to the listing agent, Redfin will reimburse the pre-inspection costs at closing. Pre-inspections show the seller and listing agent that an offer is serious and eliminates a possible contingency, making the offer more competitive.
• Redfin will announce more Red Carpet Services in the future.

"Redfin's free home tour program overcomes a common objection to buying a home online. Redfin customers now are able to view homes on their own schedule - independent of an open house or listing agent appointment," said Rob McGarty, Redfin's director of real estate. "Blending free, in-person services with our online home buying service make it even easier and more efficient for Redfin customers to find and buy a home, while saving about $10,000 on average."

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.