By The Tim on September 26th, 2009 at 6:02 PM · 37 Comments
Here’s a weekend data quickie for you. I just finished up a series of posts regarding price reductions on Redfin’s ten local blogs around the country, and I noticed something interesting in the data.
The data they sent me is pulled directly from their database, and so includes MLS, FSBO and REO listings. We calculated the total percent of all listings in each city/town and neighborhood that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.
In the table below I have simply posted the median price-reduced ratio for each market’s cities/towns and neighborhoods. (Click a column header to sort.)
| Metro Area |
Cities/Towns |
Neighborhoods |
| Boston |
47.1% |
48.6% |
| Chicago |
52.0% |
48.0% |
| Los Angeles |
31.1% |
36.9% |
| New York |
38.4% |
31.9% |
| Orange County |
36.1% |
37.0% |
| San Diego |
30.2% |
28.0% |
| San Francisco |
35.1% |
33.3% |
| Sacramento |
25.5% |
27.7% |
| Seattle |
52.1% |
47.7% |
| Washington, DC |
50.2% |
44.9% |
Note that Seattle cities/towns have the largest median price-reduced ratio among Redfin’s markets, and Seattle-area neighborhoods rank third, less than a full percentage point below the #1 slot.
Compared to Redfin’s California markets, Seattle sellers seem especially unrealistic. I just thought this data was an interesting look at the psychology of sellers here and around the country.
Categories: Statistics
Tags: list-price, price drops, Redfin, Statistics
By The Tim on September 8th, 2009 at 1:29 PM · 17 Comments
This is a guest post from Kevin Lisota of Findwell Real Estate. The Bay Area may still have more tech companies than Seattle, but we definitely seem to be leading the way in real estate tech, with four local companies now offering iPhone apps for real estate search. Unfortunately I don’t have an iPhone, so Kevin generously offered to write a comparison of the various iPhone apps available for Seattle real estate searchers.
Seattle has suddenly become a hotbed of real estate apps for the iPhone, now with four major competitors: Zillow, John L Scott, Coldwell Banker, and the newest entrant, Redfin. Since The Tim doesn’t have an iPhone, I offered to jump in and and provide a head-to-head SMACKDOWN between these four heavyweights of the Seattle real estate world. (Full Disclosure: I run findwell, a competitor to all of these companies and an advertiser on Seattle Bubble. We don’t have our own iPhone app at the moment, so I can be objective in this comparison.)
Click below to read the full SMACKDOWN.
[Read more →]
Categories: Features
Tags: Coldwell, Findwell, iPhone, JohnLScott, Redfin, Zillow
Congratulations to Redfin, who announced today that they are officially profitable: The Naked Truth is Out: Redfin is Profitable
Redfin was profitable last month, all while maintaining our 97% customer satisfaction. The business has been growing by leaps and bounds, in part because the real estate market has had a small rally this summer, but in part because we’ve started to figure out how to prosper in down markets too. What has made the difference for Redfin hasn’t been any one breakthrough that we could have pinned our hopes on, but a combination of small adjustments:
- Giving consumers a choice of agent, and unlimited home tours.
- Publishing agent reviews, which increased demand 36% in a single month.
- Simplifying the agent choices we offer consumers, which increased demand a further 16% in a single month.
- Generating referral revenues from customers in outlying areas that we can’t afford to serve ourselves.
- Figuring out Google optimization, which drove a 300% increase in traffic year over year, though that growth is now slowing.
It’s nice to wonder how much more profitable Redifn can be once the market really recovers. But since real estate is a seasonal business, we’ll have plenty more ups and downs in our fortunes along the way.
TechCrunch has an interesting take on the news: Redfin Turns Profitable, Real Estate Industry Shudders
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said his company just turned profitable. Since I was sitting next to him on the panel, I asked him off microphone what revenues were. He said the run rate is around $15 million. 2007 revenues were $5 million, 2006 revenues were $1 million.
That’s great news for everyone except the real estate industry. The Seattle-based startup represents buyers and sellers in home real estate transactions for far less than the entrenched industry rates that take 5%-6% of the sale price of a home and split it between buy and sell brokers.
…
Disruption is never fun for those being disrupted. The DOJ is hitting the real estate industry from one side, and Redfin is hitting them from the other. The result? A better deal for the rest of us.
Indeed. Which is why I would like to take a moment to congratulate Redfin for sticking it out in a tough time and turning out a great service in an industry that sorely needs some healthy competition.
Categories: News
Tags: discount brokers, good news everyone, real estate search, Redfin
Please vote in this poll using the sidebar.
How many properties are on your Redfin / Estately watch list?
- <10 (38%, 40 Votes)
- 10-25 (19%, 20 Votes)
- 26-50 (15%, 16 Votes)
- 51-100 (15%, 16 Votes)
- 101+ (13%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 105
This poll will be active and displayed on the sidebar through 05.16.2009.
Categories: Polls
Tags: Estately, Polls, real estate search, Redfin
By The Tim on November 28th, 2008 at 6:00 AM · 9 Comments
I’d like to draw your attention to a post I made earlier this week on the Redfin Sweet Digs blog: Where are buyers getting the biggest discounts?
The specific portion that I believe may be of interest to Seattle Bubble readers is the following chart, which is a scatterplot of Seattle-area zip codes, with the average list price of homes sold in each zip code in the last 3 months on the x-axis and the average percent discount from the final list price that they closed at on the y-axis.
I thought it was quite interesting to see a relatively strong correlation between the average price of a neighborhood and the percent below asking price that homes are closing at.
For anyone that is out there right now making offers (not that I think it’s a great time to buy yet), be aware that the more inexpensive the neighborhood, the less likely a seller is to accept an offer significantly below asking price.
If you’re interested you may download the full data summary here.
Categories: Statistics
Tags: below-list, discounts, NWMLS, Redfin
By The Tim on November 21st, 2008 at 10:02 AM · 21 Comments
Locally-based real estate search site Estately kicked their technology up another notch yesterday, with the addition of past home sales information to every listing, as well as the expansion into Chicago and Long Island, New York.
I’ve been consistently impressed with how much Estately founder Galen Ward has been able to do on a shoestring budget with a minimal staff. Especially with the new addition of past sales, Estately’s search technology has been keeping toe to toe with the larger, better-funded Redfin.
Since Redfin and Estately are (IMO) the top two real estate search websites in terms of technological feature sets, here’s a comparison chart of some of the features of each site, to visualize how they compare:
| |
Redfin |
Estately |
| Search by City, Neighborhood, Zip |
X |
X |
| Search raw land |
X |
|
| Keyword Search |
|
X |
| Aerial View, Street View |
X |
X |
| Bird’s Eye view |
X |
|
| Past Sales |
X |
X |
| Days on Market |
X |
X |
| Cumulative DOM |
X |
|
| Mapped Schools, Parks, Transit |
|
X |
| Similar Homes Nearby |
X |
X |
| Neighborhood Stats |
X |
X |
| Shareable Saved Properties List |
|
X |
| Share Notes on Properties |
|
X |
One of the coolest features offered by Estately is probably the shareable saved properties list. Just like Redfin, you can save a list of favorites. But unlike Refin, Estately allows you to share your favorites list with friends, or make the entire list public. For example, here’s mine.
Even more nifty is the ability to share your notes on listings with anyone on your Estately “friends list.” If anyone is interested in sharing notes and favorites with me and other Seattle Bubble readers, you can add Seattle Bubble as a friend here. Once we build up a few friends, you can click on “Other’s Properties” an “Other’s Notes” to see what everyone else is saving and sharing.
Categories: News
Tags: Estately, real estate search, Redfin
