{"id":618,"date":"2008-11-06T10:19:01","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T18:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redfindevelop.wpengine.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/our_shot_at_the_mass_market.html"},"modified":"2020-10-05T13:12:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:12:44","slug":"our_shot_at_the_mass_market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/our_shot_at_the_mass_market\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Shot at the Mass Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Redfin started life as a cult for what my mom still likes to call “your little web friends.” But our goal has always been to become a religion, appealing to grandmas and truck-drivers and everyone in between too.<\/p>\n

Unlimited Tours, Agent Choice<\/h2>\n

To hit the mass market, we’re upgrading today our home-buying service<\/a> to offer free unlimited tours, and a choice of real estate agent<\/a>, and support from that agent all along the way. We’re changing our home-selling service<\/a> to offer in-home consultation, open houses, a big marketing blitz and tours for any interested buyers.<\/p>\n

\"Real<\/p>\n

50% Commission Refund<\/h2>\n

And we’re raising prices. Tours are now free — we used to charge $250 per tour —\u00a0 but we’re changing the commission refund for buyers from 66% to 50% (existing customers relax, you pay the old price).\u00a0 The average refund should drop from $10,000+ to nearly $8,000. If people use Redfin to sell one house and buy another, the total savings will still in most cases be about $20,000.<\/p>\n

These are big changes, which we first tested in April<\/a>, researched in June<\/a>, and discussed as recently as September<\/a>.\u00a0 You can get all the details from our press release<\/a>, or check out the new search features<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having made these changes, we can’t imagine why anyone would choose a traditional agent over Redfin. We now offer just about every personal service offered by a traditional agent with the possible exception that we won\u2019t preview homes on our own.<\/p>\n

More Personal Service, More Online Service<\/h2>\n

But our goal still isn’t to be just like a traditional agent. It’s to be much better. We’re offering more personal service, but we’re also offering more online service too. The whole website changed to let you evaluate an agent, choose an agent<\/a>, request home tours<\/a>, ask questions. Hopefully this combines the personal & the online into one seamless offering.<\/p>\n

Still Different from Other Brokerages, at a Molecular Level<\/h2>\n

And hopefully, this means we can change the game not just for a handful of digerati, but for everybody. Because more than ever that’s what we are here to do, to give consumers the information and tools to be a partner in the process, not a sales target.<\/p>\n

This change makes us more like a traditional broker in a good way — we’re narrowing a competitive gap — but it doesn’t mean we’re becoming like everybody else. The difference between Redfin and traditional brokers is obvious and simple and huge and it has nothing to do with offering more tours:<\/p>\n