Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today rolled out a 75-day trial of a new home-tours policy that allows visitors to its site to arrange four Redfin-hosted home tours without paying any money up-front or making any commitment to Redfin. The first two tours would be free, and the third and fourth tours would cost $250 at closing, with any subsequent tours costing $250 in advance. Redfin separately announced a new release of its website that offers a deeper real estate search experience, with more listing information and neighborhood market analysis features.

The tour program is part of a comprehensive home-buying program in which consumers can use Redfin's website to preview properties, schedule Redfin-hosted tours for properties they are interested in buying, then draft an offer online. A Redfin field agent hosts the tours, and a senior agent negotiates the offer and the contingencies, guiding the client through the entire closing process.

The new tours last two hours, and require the buyer to provide a mortgage pre-approval letter documenting her ability to buy the homes she is scheduled to visit. Redfin deducts the $250 charges for the third and fourth tours from the commission refund, which has averaged roughly $10,000 at closing. Customers who do not complete a purchase with Redfin do not pay for their third and fourth tours. Previously, Redfin only provided one free three-hour home tour, charging $250 in advance for each additional tour.

"Redfin exhaustively surveys every client who attempts to use our service, and the most common request has been more home tours," said Redfin Vice President of Real Estate Operations Scott Nagel. "We've also found that three hours was too long for most clients, so by offering shorter tours more frequently we hope to be able to fit our customers' needs better without notably increasing our costs. And we believe this will significantly broaden the appeal of our offering for buyers."

Redfin formulated the new policy after consulting with clients via its blog in November about what they were willing to pay and how long the tours should last. The trial period is scheduled to expire on April 15, 2008, by which time Redfin will have evaluated whether the program actually meets its clients' needs.

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.