Thanks, when I heard the numbers I was confused. I was not aware of any such figures either. I wasn’t going to bother putting them together but I’m glad I saw them.

By the way it was great seeing you at Connect!

Glenn, you did a great job on in the Duet in question. Congrats.

My issue with you is your term that you have “represented” a client. This week I showed one of your buyers a house. An earlier offer they made through your company fell apart when they asked for a furnace to be replaced. It seemed to me that a work order from an inspection could have been negotiated, especially with a rebate on the table.

What I believe is that your business model is based on getting paid money for sitting in an office, where a traditional agent goes out in the field to show property and engages the community. It appears to be a paper service set up to generate a Listing or Purchase and Sales Agreement. Is that kind of what it’s like, or am I wrong?

For the period ending June 30, 2007, in those 10 cities our sellers closed 188 sales compared to Redfin’s 99 (90% higher than Redfin). For the same period for all areas served by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service for all property types, our sellers closed 544 sales compared to Redfin’s 149 (265% higher than Redfin).

Based on the press we get compared to other online brokerages, I think I need to fire myself as Communications Director!

Ken Whitney
General Manager
MLS4owners.com

Thanks for your input.

It’s apples and oranges. You may have responded for that day or week or even month, but such a short period of time may be statistically insignificant in the long run. My chart, attached to the post, compares two years of Redfin’s market share in 10 Puget Sound cities from July 1, 2005 to Jun 30, 2006 and from Jul 1, 2006 to Jun 30, 2007, for sold units of single family homes and condos. J.L. Scott data was for the year 2006. I have not pulled data about their performance so far this year.

And, yes, I know the Vulcan/John L. Scott partnership is old news, but I thought it interesting as it gave some perspective to your pairing with Lennox.

You are a formidable debate partner, my friend. I enjoyed your presentations at Inman!

As you know from a previous exchange, Vulcan decided to use John L. Scott to list its properties prior to our even offering a listing service; as we also discussed, Redfin probably doesn’t make sense for Vulcan, as we are not set up to market entire developments, and I’m sure Paul Allen doesn’t want to host his own open houses anyway. Redfin is a consumer service, not a corporate service.

Ciao!