With the market shifting toward a listing agent market because buyers, empowered and armed with information from the internet, feel that they can be self represented and deal directly with the listing agent and maybe save a few dollars on the transaction, won't Redfin's business model take another hit.

In my honest opinion, only the insane would buy property without representation.  I just can't imagine that happening in droves.

Doesn't that make you wonder why they won't go into an area with 48,000 agents? There no here (CT) either. Maybe their not in a lot of places?

$12,000,000 bucks !!! Jay !! Yikes...

Dan CT can not support this yet, they run into the bigger markets like Zip did, now Zip  is in MA and going strong.

FL,AZ and others if they get pass those, then onwards to Hartford Ct and Torrington, CT ha ha they will need more green by then.. I would think there is a change of program in Redfin also in the works.

It will be fun to follow this...

VanceMart

Obviously, somebody is betting they are going to be profitable. I think Vance is right, something must have changed over there.

Also, they can only operate in states where buyer rebates are legal.

Bee, there are only 9 states left, soon to be none..

Buzz Remele

Refin has a blog where they post a lot of things that are going on.  http://blog.redfin.com/

Then, I guess that's good news for me, Vance :)

I know they're moving into a new market "back east" because I have a relative who works for Redfin and my staffing mgr asked me for info about them.

Looks like they've moved into my market today.

Redfin locations

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/start

Charlie Tuna Realty

Looks like Chicago is next!

Hummm

Wow that some agent list only 13 ?

http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/agents?direct-section=buy

If I remember right we have a member that joined them...

L/A Exclusive was his tag line.

His photo is not there either, oh well.

Vance

hey Jay

Looks like he still with us,

http://www.laexclusiveproperty.com/

I wish he would share some Fin! news with us.

They've got one agent to service Northern Virginia. I tried to send her an email to welcome her, but got an NDR. I do like their map search.

Yep, I remember Tom's post ... it was interesting to read.

Chicago ... that worries me ... I respect any kind of business model ... but was hoping they would skip our market.

I here I thought I had exclusive rights to "dark side".  Maybe it's a different dark side...yeah, that must be it.

Michaela, the Redfin business model is based on doing nothing for the client and getting paid and then rebating a portion of the commission. You can likely perform a better service than that. As Jay said in his personal blog, one of the choices that real estate agents can make is change and adapt and kick some a**. Their agents work out of Starbucks. You'll be fine.

Howard, I'm not so much worried about them stealing business away from me but don't want to deal with them calling me to show my own listings. That's their job.

I can relate to working out of Starbucks ... I can think of only about 3 or 4 contracts in the last 5 years that I've written in the office ... everything else has been form McDonalds, Starbucks, Kinkos, the hood of my car, and couple nearby truckstops.

BUT I know what you meant when you said that they work out of Starbucks :-)

They don't work out of starbucks.  They work out of an office.  In seattle, they only have 2 listing agents and about 3-5 buyer agents.  Sellers have to go to Redfin office to pick up keyboxes.

Whenever you have buyers call you out of the blue to see a listing and you have R*dfin in your marketing area, carefully qualify them...A line I use that seems to work is:

Great, I'd love to show you that property.  If you like it and price is right you'll write it up with me, right?

If they hesitate at all, get to why the hesitation.  Redfin does not show properties...they encourage buyers to see them however they can.  I was in their Seattle office one day and heard one of their agents telling a buyer to go to open houses or call listing agent.

I didn't even realize that they did listings too. I thought it was only designed to do the buyer sides.

As long as I don't have to do their work, I'm fine. I've said it once before ... if I'm ever asked to show any of my listings myself without the buyer agent being there (no matter what company it will be), I'll ask for a showing fee to make my time worthwhile.

They would have to do a huge marketing campaign around here to get even noticed considering how big our market is.

As to offices, my understanding is that as of right now, they only have offices in Seattle and the Bay area. As to Starbucks, I enjoy working with clients there as well, however, our firm has two offices.

As to a showing fee, Redfin will show a buyer 3 or 4 properties in a half day tour and if a buyer wants to see more with one of their representatives, they are required to pay a showing fee so it wouldn't be out of the question to require one as well. Their business model, however, is designed to have the listing agent do as much work as possible for them and this is where the "rub" is for real estate agents in their marketplaces.

My broker model requires agents to home office.  That does cause a little of a problem for me.  It means that I either have to carry my lap top and a portable printer with me to every showing, hand write contracts or go home to print out and meet later if buyers want to make an offer.  So far, it's been ok, but I let it cause me a little stress.

Bee, that's what I've been doing ever since I started in RE ... I actually like it better that way.

I actually think it's best, Michaela.  That way you have time to prepare the contract correctly without someone hovering over you :)