Redfin

Redfin Corporation, based in Seattle, provides residential real estate brokerage and mortgage origination services. The company operates in more than 100 markets in the United States and Canada. The company has a 0.80% market share in the United States by number of units sold and has approximately 2,000 lead agents.

History
Redfin was founded in 2004 by David Eraker, Michael Dougherty, and David Selinger. Eraker had dropped out of medical school at the University of Washington for a career in software design and Dougherty received degrees in electrical engineering and international studies from Yale University. David Selinger, an alumnus of Stanford University who had previously led the research and development arm of Amazon's data mining and personalization team, joined Redfin as the third founder and CTO. Selinger helped build Redfin's mapping and real estate data analytics engine.

In January 2006, Redfin named Glenn Kelman as CEO. The company's website began to show available homes on an interactive map in 2007.

In 2012, Redfin began an automatic agent rating system. After it drew criticism for using inaccurate data, the system was discontinued.

In June 2017, the company began Redfin Now, a home flipping division.

On July 28, 2017, Redfin became a public company via an initial public offering, raising $138 million.

In June 2019, Redfin began allowing buyers to submit offers on homes listed by Redfin's selling agents without using a buyer's agent. A month later, the company partnered with Opendoor, whereby visitors to the Redfin website can request an offer to buy their houses from Opendoor.

In June 2022, the company announced layoffs of 8% of its staff.

In November 2022, the company announced additional layoffs of 862 people, or 13% of its staff, and the wind down of its Redfin Now home flipping unit.

Fines and litigation
In May 2007, Redfin was fined $50,000 by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, and was forced to shut down reviews of homes on the market on its website, prohibited under multiple listing service rules.

In November 2020, a class-action lawsuit by several fair housing organizations accused Redfin of violating the Fair Housing Act by offering fewer services to homebuyers and sellers in minority communities and not offering to sell lower-priced homes because of the lower profits on such sales. In 2022, the company paid $4 million to settle the lawsuit, changed its policies, and implemented a new internal monitoring system.

Awards
In July 2006, Inman News awarded Redfin the Innovator Award for the Most Innovative Business Model.

In May 2010, Redfin won the Seattle 2.0 award for "Best Startup".

In October 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.

In July 2013, Inman News awarded Redfin an award for "Most Innovative Brokerage or Franchise".

In June 2014, Seattle Business magazine recognized Redfin as the best company to work for in Seattle in the Large Companies category.

In December 2019, Redfin was named one of the top tech companies to work for in Seattle by Hired.com.