Redfin Commits to Long-Term Expansion of Redfin Now, Buying Homes Directly from Owners

Redfin Now™ Launches Third Market, Orange County, California, Allowing Sellers to Get an Offer for Their Home in 48 Hours and Cash in as Soon as Seven Days

Long-time Redfin Executives Quinn Hawkins and Jason Aleem Will Lead the Business

SEATTLE, Aug. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN), the next-generation, technology-powered real estate brokerage, is deepening its investment in Redfin Now, the service whereby Redfin buys homes directly, letting sellers move on with cash in-pocket. Redfin structured Redfin Now as an experiment, beginning in the Inland Empire region of Southern California in January 2017, and then expanding to San Diego in June 2017. With the expansion to Orange County, Redfin is committing to the Redfin Now service and expects to offer it to consumers on an ongoing basis.

Redfin Now adds a home-selling choice to the company’s established brokerage service, which charges most customers a 1% listing fee for a full-service listing product. With Redfin Now, homeowners can get an offer within 48 hours of a Redfin Now buyer visiting the home, and receive their cash in as few as seven days of accepting the offer. Redfin Now then prepares the home for market and Redfin lists it online, with the goal of selling it at a profit.

"After more than a decade of selling homes through a combination of local service and technology, Redfin has become one of the best in the business at getting a high home price for a low fee," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "Most institutional buyers don’t have the online audience we do, and pure websites don’t have as much operational expertise. All of this should let us give homeowners more money, and buy and sell more homes. As more and more homeowners look to choose between an immediate sale and a brokered sale, offering both choices ourselves is how we can be the first company homeowners call when considering a move.”

Redfin Now had outstanding growth in the second quarter of 2018, with purchases increasing from $6 million in the first quarter to $17 million in the second quarter, and sales increasing from $3 million to $9 million. All 17 of the Redfin Now purchases in the first quarter are now sold, and every Redfin Now home has sold for a higher price than the company paid for it.

Quinn Hawkins, who led the Redfin Now experiment from day one, is continuing as the head of Redfin Now. Jason Aleem will run real estate operations for Redfin Now and report to Hawkins. Aleem is an eight-year veteran of Redfin, initially running Redfin in Dallas and eventually across all of Texas, Colorado and New Mexico.

“Redfin Now is ready for action as a long-term business, having one of Redfin’s most successful field leaders, Jason Aleem, overseeing real estate operations,” said Quinn Hawkins, head of Redfin Now. “We are eager to build on our strong second-quarter growth and introduce the service to even more home sellers in the months to come.”

Redfin aims to offer the best value to sellers for both Redfin Now and Redfin brokerage sales, and is well positioned to buy and sell homes more efficiently than other companies offering similar services. Software engineers will build technology to support the renovation, promotion and sale of Redfin Now homes. Redfin Now is slated to launch in two additional markets by the end of the year, and a few more in 2019.

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the next-generation real estate brokerage, combining its own full-service agents with modern technology to redefine real estate in the consumer's favor. Founded by software engineers, Redfin has the country's #1 brokerage website and offers a host of online tools to consumers, including the Redfin Estimate, the automated home-value estimate with the industry's lowest published error rate for listed homes. Homebuyers and sellers enjoy a full-service, technology-powered experience from Redfin real estate agents, while saving thousands in commissions. Redfin serves more than 80 major metro areas across the U.S. The company has closed more than $60 billion in home sales.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, subscribe here. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

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