Redfin Introduces Price Whisperer - a Service that Lets Homeowners Test a Price with Buyers Before Putting a Home on the Market

SEATTLE, Aug. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage (www.redfin.com), today launched Redfin Price Whisperer™, a service that gives potential home sellers feedback on a price from hundreds of buyers searching for similar homes in the same area. Buyers using Redfin get the advantage of seeing homes that fit their search criteria but are not yet on the market. Price Whisperer is available to homeowners beginning today in Boston, Chicago, the Los Angeles area, New York, Portland (OR), San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington D.C. Using Price Whisperer is free, and there is no obligation to sell the home or use a Redfin agent.

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"The most important decision when selling a home is what price to charge," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "The traditional process often amounts to a high-stakes guessing game with tens of thousands of dollars at stake for the owner. Price Whisperer was created to get Redfin customers top dollar with less risk, asking Redfin.com's audience of serious, active buyers the question that matters most: are you interested in touring a home at this price?"

To use Price Whisperer, the homeowner provides the desired price and the home's address. From there, a Redfin agent contacts the owner directly to get photos and finalize the price. Redfin then emails up to 250 active buyers asking whether they would pay that price; the exact address is not disclosed. Two days later, Redfin provides the seller a data-driven recommendation on the likelihood of selling at the test price, including a report with the number of buyers polled, and the percentage who said "yes" they would pay the test price, "no," or "maybe." Buyers are also asked if they want to tour the home.

"In our neighborhood, most of the homes sold in the past year were short sales, which made us think we needed to compete with those low prices," said LuAnne Woodbridge, a Redfin client in Dana Point, CA who was part of the early trials of the service. "We used Price Whisperer to test the price that reflected the true value of our home. The process was quick and easy, and we avoided the mistake of pricing our home too low."

If the homeowner decides to list the property in the MLS with a Redfin agent, the company immediately alerts the buyers who expressed interest in order to facilitate a sale. Importantly, Redfin recommends that homeowners list their property with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) before selling. Selling directly to a buyer without listing the home on the MLS is called a "pocket listing," and generally does not benefit the seller.

Millions of homeowners who were underwater on their mortgage even six months ago are now wondering whether they can, for the first time in five years, sell their home at a profit. With home prices increasing so fast -- more than 18 percent in the past six months -- comparable sales are quickly out of date.

"Everyone wants to get as high a price as possible for their home, without the risk of a price reduction," said Bridget Frey, vice president of engineering at Redfin. "Price Whisperer does what a traditional agent does--asks around about what the market will bear--just with much more precision and scale using technology."

If homeowners are unsure what price to test, they can use the Redfin Home Value Tool, which helps estimate value using up-to-the-minute data directly from the same sources used by real estate agents.

For more information, visit: http://redfin.com/price-whisperer

SOURCE Redfin