A New Way to Buy a Home
There’s a new player in the real estate game and they may pose a serious challenge to real estate agents and brokers across the country. The company called Redfin is offering a combination of MLS listing information (homes for sale) with historical sales data (homes already sold) into a single map. Sure, Trulia and Zillow do that as well, but where Redfin appears to differ is that if you find a home you may want to buy, Redfin will play the role of your buyer broker – backed by a call center with licensed real estate agents. Then, they say, they will reimburse you for 67% of the fee directly on closing.
The company is led by technology entrepreneurs from Plumtree Software and Applied Discovery, and backed by Madrona Venture Group, the original investor in Amazon.com. They offer local service in Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Boston with plans to expand nationwide over the next two years, moving next to Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
Can Redfin deliver and survive the hype it’s currently receiving? If you’ve used Redfin or have an opinion on this new services, let us know. We’d love to hear from you.