Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about REDFIN!
Redfin soars 45% after IPO; CEO calls it ‘Amazon of real estate’ – TechCrunch: It was a great day for Redfin, the Seattle-based real estate site that finally went public after 13 years as a startup. After pricing higher than expected at $15 per share and raising $138 million, the stock soared 45 percent before closing the day $21.72. This gives Redfin a market cap of $1.73 bi…
Redfin fined $50,000, shuts down home reviews: The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has fined Redfin $50,000 and asked the company to stop publishing a popular blog in which the online real estate brokerage posted reviews of Seattle-area homes. The blog, which has about 3,000 e-mail and online subscribers, was written by 15 freelance writers who, over the past five months, posted reviews on about 1,000 homes in Seattle and San Francisco. The disciplinary action comes to light just a few days after Redfin was prominently featured on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” in which Kelman declared that real estate is the “most screwed-up industry in America.” Redfin is attempting to transform the traditional real estate model by offering detailed property information online, along with refunding two-thirds of its commission to home buyers. Jeff Coop, legal affairs manager at the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, said that it received at least nine complaints from real estate broker members who believed that Redfin’s blog violated rule 190. Coop said it is important that listing agents maintain control over how a property is marketed, noting that there have been instances of brokers placing inaccurate information about homes on sites such as Craigslist.
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: redfin is a real estate brokerage. the company went public in Aug. 2017. Glenn Kelman is the CEO . sellers pay a small fee, either 1 or 1.5% to list their home . customers who buy with Redfin are only charged 1% to list their home (typically 3%) buyers who purchase with redfin also get a portion of the brokerages commission back . Unlike the other major real estate redfin began offering online, map-based real estate search when David Eraker and his partner struck upon the idea of displaying homes for sale on an online map . this was before the introduction of Google Maps or Microsoft’ redfin raised $8 million in Series B funding from Vulcan, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen . in 2006, CNN reported that Redfin had received threats from competitors seeking to “break their kneecaps Redfin stopped publishing Sweet Digs in 2008 . in 2008, redfin won the Seattle 2.0 award for “Best Startup” the firm has participated in several subsequent funding rounds . it raised $50 million in a mezzanine round led by T. Rowe Price and Tiger Global . the firm went public on July 28, 2017. The IPO raised $138 redfin’s stock closed at $21.72 on the first day of trading, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.73 billion . in 2019, Redfin partnered with opendoor, an online real estate company referral fees lead to an inefficiency known as “reverse competition” some real estate agents advocate that referral fee brokers make consumers a commodity . on may 13 of the same year, the companies announced that the partnership would end.
