Author: Bahn Lee
Reach me at bahn@redfin.com
Recent posts
May 30, 2008
At one of our monthly Sweet Digs calls a blogger from Boston suggested there be a way for the team to collaborate on posting ideas and share documents. Fair enough.
But then why is it that simple projects like this cause us to sweat a little? Maybe it’s the pioneering startup spirit in all of us that drives us to build everything from scratch. The first questions that ran through my mind were how much developer time would it take to build this page and how much would it cost. Then reality sets in: let’s find a turnkey solution but not one that fits a 1,000 person operation with prohibitive licensing fees. We didn’t need Lotus Notes.
This is what we were looking for in a wiki:
- Set up should be painless and quick
- Support for 25-50 users, and privacy
- Page editing that a grandma can figure out
The final requirement was crucial for us. We liked the WYSIWYG editor in Wetpaint’s wiki and had some prior experience using it to build an invite page for a press party last year. It was also heartening to know our ragtag band of neighborhood bloggers had joined a network that included groups dedicated to saving hedgehogs, memorializing LOLspeak and exploring the anatomy.
Our Sweet Digs wiki page contains a blog team directory, a schedule for conference calls and pages for downloading documents and sharing WordPress shortcuts among other features. The team is already putting it to use: one blogger shared a plugin that makes it easier to create an SEO-friendly blog title for the post URL, yet have an alternate and more interesting published title. It took less than a day’s work to set up and it was free. Much thanks to Seattle Sweet Digs blogger Katrina Munsell for her help in making it look sweet!
May 2, 2008
Our discussion board, creatively named Redfin Forums after an agonizingly long brainstorm session, was started to give home buyers a place to gripe about home prices, share who their ace termite inspectors are, and ask us how buying a home online works. So it surprised us when customers would use the Forums to gush about the Redfin agent they’ve worked with. A post today from Mitch, a custom home builder in Oakley, CA, made us blush… but not enough NOT to share it with you: 
I would just like everybody to know what a great job Susan Stalker of Redfin has done for me as my agent. I am a custom home builder and have been buying and selling homes for the last ten years and have had a number of agents at my side and none of them have tried and worked harder than Susan Stalker. If anyone out there is looking to buy or sell you would be smart to ask for Susan you will be happy you did. I am now on my second home with her and couldn’t be happier. Susan Stalker and Redfin are a friend and business partner for life. So to Susan Stalker and Redfin I would like to say thanks!
Mitch
Technology Builders
Mitch and his son are in the middle of building an empire of rental properties out in the East Bay. They’ve purchased two properties with us so far. Thanks for the kind words!
March 6, 2008
Last fall we opened our doors for a live real estate mashup dubbed The Red Carpet; a sort of customer meets agent and engineer free-for-all. And I was reminded again why we don’t need ice breakers or alcohol (we’ll still bring it anyway) at our events. Real estate is the ice breaker. It’s like talking about the town’s favorite ballclub except you don’t need to be a sports fan.
If you’ve ever wanted to interview one of our agents in person, or grill an engineer about why you can’t search by
$ per square feet, now’s your chance. The next Red Carpet happens Wednesday, March 12th in Seattle and you’re all invited, whether you’ve bought or sold with us or decided to kick the tires while the market cools off. True story: one of our guests at the last Red Carpet came looking for a job and now she works here.
Product man and Redbull-drinker, Matt Goyer, will be demo-ing all the cool new features on Redfin. Don’t worry about the oxymoronic blog heading. Coronas, Chipotle and Redfin… it will all make sense when you get here.
The Details
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 12th, from 6:00PM to 8:00PM.
Location: Dexter Horton Building at 710 2nd Ave, Suite 600 in Downtown Seattle (between Cherry and Columbia).
Parking: There are many garages nearby. Street parking is also available, free after 6PM.
This event happens to be at our Seattle office again but we plan on holding Red Carpet events soon in our other markets. If you’d like to sign up for a future event email our event coordinator: Chelsea at chelsea (dot) mitchell (at) redfin (dot) com.
RSVP for next week’s shindig on our invitation page: Click here!
January 23, 2008
There used to be a tagline on Technorati that went, “55 million blogs, some of them have to be good.” We were somewhat comforted by that statement as we began to expand Sweet Digs, our local real estate blog, from Seattle to the Bay Area to Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. In only a year and a half, Sweet Digs had produced over 4,500 posts covering the West Coast. Some of them had to be good – and they were (so our readers tell us). Now we’re bringing Sweet Digs clear across the country to see if some of that New England win streak rubs off on us.
So we’ve hired a motley crew of real estate addicts to start covering Boston and Washington, D.C. neighborhoods. They are IT professionals, college professors, and broadcast journalists who moonlight as Redfin bloggers so they can write about whether prices have gotten out of hand or not.
One blogger is certain that when it comes to neighborhoods, up-and-coming is preferable to old-money-stagnant. I mean, who would want to live next to John Kerry or Jack Welch?
Another blogger beckons, no, dares you to abandon D.C.’s city life for the suburbs of Maryland.
It’s a good start and we promise it will get better. Get Sweet Digs delivered to your inbox by subscribing to the newsletter. If you have any feedback for us or tips on properties that you’d like our bloggers to cover send a message to tips(at)redfin(dot)com. We can even promote your open house on our blog, whether you’re a Redfin customer or not.
June 29, 2007
Recent MBA grad, Mark Trang, spent weeks searching for a place in San Francisco to call home and found that the housing, like most things in the city, was terribly old or 21st century new. After an unsuccessful bid on an older property he decided to make an offer on one of the gleaming new condominiums in the SOMA district.
To his surprise, Redfin agent, Max Diez negotiated a winning deal that included two years of free HOA dues and walked away with a $12,660 Redfin commission refund. Not bad at all.
If you’re already researching using the Internet and attending open houses on your own time, why pay a traditional buying agent 2-3% when all you need is support during the actual transaction? Redfin delivered exactly the value I needed but at a cost that makes sense. My Redfin agent, Max Diez, and the rest of the Redfin team was very responsive and provided great insight during the offer and escrow process, particularly when it came to the local nuances of buying property in San Francisco. I am a big fan of the way Redfin is transforming the real estate industry and look forward to using them again when I buy and sell property!
-Mark Trang
The floor hasn’t completely fallen on San Francisco real estate but there are deals to be had if you’re looking to take advantage of a boom in new construction building and plenty of cautious buyers sitting on the sidelines. If you have a funny or insightful story for us about how you bought or sold a house, send it to bahn (at) redfin (dot) com; we’ll probably use it, and then we’ll send you a gift certificate for a dinner anywhere you like.
March 8, 2007
Marie, our Seattle Sweet Digs editor sent us a link to a wacky house in Madre de Deus (Mother of God), Brazil that we couldn’t help but share with you. The house is described in articles as 1 meter wide by 10 meters tall. That’s a little misleading because the building tapers in toward the front, creating a nice optical illusion. Any way you dice it, “open floor plan” is not what comes to mind.
The next plan for owner and designer, Helenita, is to build a 4th floor deck for barbecuing and (we think) practicing tightrope walking.
September 30, 2006
Breathe a sigh of relief, the first-ever Startupalooza career fair has come to a smashing conclusion (we hope it’s not the last). Led by our fearless recruiter, Aimee Cook, who ordered the entire Redfin workforce to dress in Socialist red, we came prepared to convert the legions of job-seekers to the sexy world of high-tech startups.
Of course the behind-the-scenes work at a startup is never that glamorous. Angela ripped me away from my computer 15 minutes till showtime saying that more signs needed to be hung in the lobby. I ran down with some open house sign and sold riders. The elevator doors opened to a mad house. Early guests waited patiently outside beyond the velvet ropes. And all I could think of was: how are 250 RSVPs, their friends, and last-minute-showups going to fit in our small lobby?
Somehow everyone fit. It was hot inside. Ryan Erickson and Cynthia Pang quickly became crowd favorites, manning the beer kegs. A guest named Carol, asked, “Is this what speed dating feels like?” Another blogger provides an extensive list of the who’s who in Seattle tech who came to see what all the commotion was about.
Bag, Borrow, or Steal had a nice A-board sign as part of their display but I had secretly hoped they would bring out a bunch of their fancy handbags and bling-bling jewelry for us to ogle over. A senior software engineer from Farecast gave me a fascinating 10-minute sermon on how tickets are sold in the airline industry. You don’t just code at a startup; you know the business in detail when you’re only working with a small platoon of diehards.
Glenn took a group outside to talk biz away from the heat and noise. Kelly Engel wouldn’t leave the registration table because, “it’s too much fun meeting all these people.” Bryan Selner and Matt Goyer pulled a product-management smackdown on interested parties. Andrew Donovan handled engineering questions with aplomb in his South African accent. Savan’s name and job title sprawled out over four nametags: Savan. Redfin. Design. Team.
Now we have a stack of business cards and resumes to go through. Interviews to follow. Thanks to everyone who attended.
June 9, 2006
Meet Tom Rabideau and Nicole Rendahl, the stars of this installment of Maniac Emptor (Emptor, a buyer and Maniac, a Maniac for Redfin). They’re both practicing attorneys. Tom moonlights as a commercial pilot when he’s not practicing law. Cool. Nicole is the bigger Redfin addict. Way cool.
Their winning offer resulted in a snazzy Belltown condo with sweeping views of Downtown and the Sound. As we walked around the track (1/8th of a mile) on the terrace level of their new home, they had this to say about our service:
1. Received sameday service after submitting their offer late Sunday afternoon, just as soon as they left the home showing.
2. Their offer was accepted by the seller for less than the asking price.
3. They were refunded approximately $8,000 from Redfin.
4. The service was exactly what they they were looking for.
Congratulations, Tom and Nicole!
April 28, 2006
Earlier this week the Seattle Times printed a blurb about Redfin (us) and Red Fin (the Asian fusion restaurant) pondering how we could combine our services. With that question in mind, a few folks on the Redfin support team visited the Red Fin restaurant and combined ourselves with their sushi.
Here’s a photo of us at Red Fin. The photo doesn’t capture the cool red decor of the place.
April 26, 2006
Redfin has become Seattle’s most-trafficked brokerage site through $100 a week in Google ads and word-of-mouth. We love it because it’s inexpensive and honest but every day we run into people who say Redfin? What’s that? We’re buying some ad space on Zillow and a few other sites, and now we’ve worked up a few ads.
Maybe you can tell we came up with the ads on our own. So we wondered if you could help us tune ‘em up? Leave a comment and tell us which one you like best.
But wait. Maybe you think you can come up with something totally different & awesome on your own? Then show us what you got! Post a short, punchy tag-line as a comment, and we’ll flow our fave into an ad that we put up here next week. Even better, you can also design your own & link it in. Winner gets $500 and a place in our Google-like hall of fame. We’ll even run the ad and tell you how it performed (include your e-mail when you comment so we can track down the winner).
Come on, it’s a $500 prize, what have you got to lose? GO CRAZY!
