REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Redfin CEO Says He's Being Picked On

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Daily Real Estate News | January 29, 2008 | Redfin CEO Says He's Being Picked On
Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, the online discount real estate sales firm, claims he and his company have been badly treated by traditional real estate practitioners.

He complains that Redfin's for-sale signs are often knocked down, stolen, or smashed. He also says that in Seattle a traditional practitioner posted Kelman's address online and subsequently a sign in Kelman’s yard was destroyed. In a national forest near Yosemite National Park someone pasted fake Redfin bumper stickers on signs, trees, and rocks to make the company look like a shameless promoter and defiler of the environment, Kelman says.

Since opening for business two years ago, Redfin has represented buyers in 1,300 transactions, totaling $600 million, refunding $10 million to those buyers. It has sold 300 houses for sellers it has represented and currently has about 100 listings.

Buyers represented by non-Redfin agents purchase most houses, although Kelman says that traditional practitioners often refuse to present offers coming from buyers represented by Redfin because it means they’ll be supporting a practice they don’t believe in.

"Every week we have a selling agent tell one of our clients that their offer will go nowhere," Kelman says.

Meanwhile, Redfin also has been facing accusations of its own. Northwest Multiple Listing Service fined Redfin $50,000 last year after Kelman's company posted unflattering remarks about homes for sale in Seattle. Redfin promptly removed the postings.

Although Kelman says he's confident the company can succeed, he questions whether he should have taken the job in the first place: "If I had known then what I know now about real estate, I'm not sure I would have gone through with it," he says.

Source: Forbes, Christopher Steiner (02/11/08)