It came from Seattle
Amazon, Microsoft, and a number of other Internet powerhouses make Seattle their home. Might the next big thing in online homebuying emerge from the West Coast city, too? Already garnering praise from homebuyers in Washington State and California, Seattle-based Redfin is taking its successful business model national, with new offices opening soon in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
Redfin lets buyers do their own shopping with tools to help them research and find the home they'd like to buy, then offers the services of a real estate agent to assist in making a formal offer, negotiating the deal, lining up inspections and coordinating the closing. The company rewards Web-savvy buyers for their work with a rebate. By letting buyers find the property they want and letting agents handle the transaction details, Redfin hopes to bring changes to the real estate industry. The company is barely a year old, and already "[o]ur numbers have gone from zero percent market share to about 2 percent [in the Seattle area]," CEO Glenn Kelman told the Seattle Times. "That's insignificant, but time is on our side."
