Redfin Launches Real Estate E-Commerce Service for the Washington, D.C. Area

    WASHINGTON, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Online real estate broker Redfin
 Corporation today launched its real estate e-commerce service for the
 Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas, adding more than 50,000 property
 listings to Redfin.com. The company also opened its first East Coast
 headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. Catherine Jardine, formerly of Long
 & Foster, was hired to lead local real estate operations.
     In conjunction with the launch, Redfin closed a $12 million series C
 financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Redfin will use the financing to
 continue its national expansion and enhance its website.
     Redfin's service now will be available in the District of Columbia;
 Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's counties in
 Maryland; and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Manassas, Prince William and
 Stafford counties as well as the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church in
 Virginia.
     For customers who can find a home to buy on their own, the premise of
 the Redfin service is to use technology to offer better service from offer
 to close than a traditional agent, and to refund most of the commission.
 District-area consumers now can buy or sell MLS-listed properties online,
 using the Web to gather basic information and then work with a local,
 experienced Redfin agent on pricing, negotiations and escrow.
     Buyers who work with Redfin get two-thirds of the commission refunded
 at closing; for a $500,000 house offering a typical three percent
 commission to the buyer's agent, the refund would be $10,000. For a $1
 million house, the refund would be $20,000. Redfin also offers each
 home-buyer a free afternoon of home tours, scheduled via its website.
     Sellers pay a flat fee of $3,000, saving $12,000 over a typical
 seller's agent commission of three percent on a $500,000 house. Unlike any
 other brokerage, Redfin pays its agents bonuses based on customer
 satisfaction, not commissions, and offers a
 100-percent-customer-satisfaction guarantee, refunding all commissions and
 fees if the customer is dissatisfied.
     "With the opening of the Washington, D.C. market, Redfin now reaches
 more than 8 million new consumers, many of them young, on-the-go
 professionals likely to embrace our online model," said Redfin CEO Glenn
 Kelman. "Howard and Montgomery Counties are two of the three most
 tech-savvy counties in the U.S., while Fairfax and Loudoun Counties are
 headquarters to two of the East Coast's largest technology companies, so we
 have reason to hope Redfin can thrive in the area."
     About Redfin
     Redfin (http://www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry's first
 online brokerage, currently available in the Washington, D.C. area,
 including Central Maryland and Northern Virginia, Greater Boston, the San
 Francisco Bay Area, Greater Seattle and Southern California, including Los
 Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Diego. By combining maps,
 listings, tax records and analytics, Redfin has become one of the most
 popular brokerage sites. Customers who use Redfin.com to buy or sell
 properties earn a refund of most of the commission traditionally due their
 broker, and get full support in paperwork, offer presentation, negotiations
 and closing. Redfin has one of the highest customer satisfaction rates in
 the industry, and is the only brokerage with a
 100-percent-customer-satisfaction guarantee. To give the Redfin service a
 try, visit http://www.redfin.com; to keep track of our daring exploits via
 our blog, go to blog.redfin.com.
 
 

SOURCE Redfin Corporation