Buyside expands, Redfin contracts

The same week Buyside Realty enters the real estate game in Washington State, offering to refund 75% of the commission to a buyer, Redfin announces they’re putting a temporary moratorium on accepting listings in some markets that it serves.

According to John Cooke in the Seattle PI’s Venture Blog, “Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman does not view BuySide as a significant threat even though it passes more money back to consumers.

“A long time ago we had to decide if we were going to match BuySide’s price and we decided not to. We decided to compete on quality of customer service, not on price,” said Kelman. He added that BuySide would be a “more fearsome prospect” if they had gained traction in the markets where the two companies compete.

Buyside Realty also operates a free service called Iggy’s House Realty that allows consumers to list their homes for free in multiple listings services and on Realtor.com. At this time, Fox said that 5,000 homes have been offered for sale through Iggy’s House.

So 66% refund, 75% refund, FREE listings…. Is there any ceiling or floor to the refunds or costs? Perhaps some brokerages will just start charging nothing and actually PAY sellers to list their house with them. Anything’s possible when you’re competing on price. If all you’re offering is low price, then the lowest price will win.

This post was found on 360Digest
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