Redfin Expands to Bay Area
Per an article in the Seattle P-I, Redfin has obtained an additional $8 million in funding to expand into the Bay Area (San Francisco, San Jose and East Bay communities). Click here to read the full article.
Redfin is a discount broker engaged in listing and selling homes, currently limited to Seattle and the Eastside. On the listing side, there hasn’t been a lot of movement, mostly because they are utilizing the standard model. However, they will be introducing a flat-fee model which will presumably increase their listings.
On the selling side (representing buyers), they’re doing well. When I reviewed their sales several months ago and compared it to today, it’s picked up. Redfin rebates a large portion of their commission to the buyer. The catch is, the buyer needs to do all the preliminary work and view homes on their own. Redfin does not show buyers any properties. The Redfin buyer’s agent only steps in when the buyer is ready to submit an offer. Redfin admits this is a niche approach, and for experienced buyers, it might not be a bad way to go.
When Redfin launched it’s website back in 2004 it was really cool with it’s satellite imaging of available properties. Since then other companies have introduced similar technology. Locally, John L. Scott has incorporated Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology into it’s search engine giving buyers a “bird’s eye” view of the property from several directions.