Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Redfin Buys Walk Score.

Looks like Kelman couldn’t let 2014 go by without doing some acquiring of his own.

Redfin Buys Walk Score

“The acquisition is Redfin’s first and the reason for it is simple: We want to give folks a complete portrait of what it would be like to live somewhere new, within the house and in the surrounding neighborhood.”

I’ve been a bug fan of Walk Score for a long time. It was one of the first APIs we integrated in to Cloud CMA. Over the years when giving demos I would ask the audience if they have heard about Walk Score, at first I would explain it. But now they have done such a great job or working with MLS that I usually just get a lot of heads nodding.

Huge congrats to Matt Lerner and the rest of the Walk Score team.

Redfin + Matterport = Awesome


Yes please, now.

TOTH: @drewmeyers

Redfin nails it with “Redfin Home Dashboard”

Redfin:

“At Redfin, our goal is to make the entire home-buying and selling process easier, from the day you start dreaming about owning the cute Craftsman on the corner, to the day you step inside your new home for the first time. We’ve transformed how you find homes for sale online, stay on top of new homes hitting the market, schedule home tours with agents, plan a weekend of open house visits, and take care of all the paperwork and tasks involved in the escrow process when you buy a home.”

OnMarket-dashboard

Coverage aside, one of the knocks I hear against Redfin is their conversion rate. People love the site. When I ask my industry friends which real estate portals they use personally Redfin is always at the top of their lists. But getting those site visitors to convert to using a Redfin agent has always been a challenge.

This new Home Dashboard is another attempt at improving that conversion, since it only available to clients who use Redfin agents. And I love it. The design is great plus it adds a nice cherry on top of a great value proposition for the Seller, check this out…

“The dashboard adds to the digital marketing program that Redfin provides for everyone who sells their home with us, including premium placement of their listing on Redfin.com (that doubles the amount of traffic the home receives from potential buyers), targeted emails and advertisements to homebuyers who are searching for homes in the area and free professional photography for listing photos. This additional exposure has been proven to sell homes faster, and for more money, according to a recent Redfin analysis. With the Redfin Home Dashboard, Redfin clients will be able to see the results of these activities in real time.”

Double the amount of traffic, free professional photos, 1.5% listing fee (not your typical 3%), and I can track all this in real-time. Imagine the television commercials these guys will put out once they go public.

Redfin is the dark horse and has the potential of being the true disruptor in this race.

Glenn Kelman’s post gives insight to latest financing round.

In my opinion Redfin is the only true disruptor in the industry.

Slideshow? This time, it was different: Redfin’s $50 million financing all about customer value

Glenn Kelman:

“But software entrepreneurs have mostly gone only halfway. We have sometimes been like the medieval monks who were once so committed to the celestial sphere that they had to confess to any acts of manual labor.

The result of this cloistering has been breathtaking virtual worlds. But from the perspective of a new generation of entrepreneurs who are using our software expertise to build, say, electric cars, these worlds can sometimes seem like a high school science fair project, with a limited impact on the real world. Just look at what is happening now that the people who make 1′s and 0′s are also trying their hand at physical goods and services:

-Uber is an iPhone app for ordering a ride, but it’s worth 100 times more than Taxi Magic because it has built its own transportation system.

Spot on.

New York Times interviews Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin

Be Yourself, Redfin’s Glenn Kelman Says, Even if You’re a Little Goofy

Short but good interview. Redfin is one of true disruptors in the industry. My favorite line from Glenn.

“If I haven’t found evidence that someone’s ever done anything hard in their lives, then I just don’t believe they’re suddenly going to be able to jump into a phone booth, come out wearing a cape and learn how to be tough on this job”

So true.

Sponsored By MLS Reset