May 5, 2008
While in general we believe that more information is better, we recently learned how the information on our website can be used for indecorous purposes. The winner of DC Metrocentric’s most recent PriceChecker competition used Redfin to look up the price of a DC condo, rather than make a guess. DC Metrocentric is a blog about housing and development in and around Washington, DC. We’re fans of their PriceChecker series in which they profile a property and ask readers to guess the price. After a few days, they reveal the listing price and a winner based on the closest guess. The property profiles are great, especially if the property has an animal skin rug.
The winner of the latest PriceChecker found the list price on Redfin. In the comments, Roy, the winner, admits he used Redfin to get the price. Fransie wants Roy’s “PriceChecker Crown revoked.” Clearly the commenters are having fun with this. While we’re glad that Roy uses Redfin and was able to find the property, we hope this doesn’t lead to the downfall of the PriceChecker series. What do you think? Cheating or smart research?
Photo credit: laffy4k on Flickr.
April 28, 2008
Most of us spend our lives trying to forget the world we had imagined for ourselves as children. But occasionally a single act is so transcendently shameless that it makes us feel happy and human again. For example: an indignant would-be competitor in Arizona just asked an online real estate forum for help getting his money back on an effort to clone Redfin.
My name is Ron Park and I have been working with a service provider, TechnoUSA, from Houston/India to create my real estate mash-up site. My project on getacoder.com was for a Redfin.com clone, in all functionalities and appearance. They were supposed to finish the site by January 25th, 2008 but yesterday, 4/24/08, I told them I’m through with them. The site is nowhere near being a Redfin clone, and they’ve just been problematic from the start. I have given this company a total of $10,500; and the amount of money I can possibly retrieve back with these credit card disputes is $8,500… the agreement was for a Redfin clone. [the emphasis is ours]
It is one thing to copy another site, another to copy it letter for letter, yet another to publicize matter-of-factly your efforts to clone it, and still yet another to feel wronged for what you have done.
To process Mr. Park’s refund, the credit card company is asking for “a letter from another reputable merchant or service provider supporting your claim.” So far, no one has come forward. In fact, we were gratified to see other folks leap to our defense. One respondent said you could never build Redfin.com for $10,000; the true cost is apparently closer to $40,000 (which is what one of our engineers costs over three months).
The clone site copies Redfin right down to the Sweet Digs link in the footer and the message we display while fetching listings. Reviewing the site, it’s hard not to wonder if the developers had ever heard of “search and replace”: many Tareu.com pages still encourage visitors to work with Redfin. But it was the one original element that turned out to be our favorite touch: “Copyright 2008 TAREU.COM.”
What’s amazing is that these guys aren’t even the first Redfin clones. That honor belongs to Allcheckdeals, an online brokerage in India run by naukri.com. Allcheckdeals copied Redfin right down to our graphics, albeit with a Groucho-Marx style disguise:
Here, courtesy of Sellsius blog, are the graphics Redfin was running at the time:
Many thanks to Morgan Carey, CEO of Real Estate Webmasters, for bringing this to our attention. Mr. Park participated in the Real Estate Webmasters’ forums but is not a Real Estate Webmasters customer.
December 23, 2007
The credit meltdown took a strange turn when Sallie Mae lost $3 billion in market value after an apparently ad hoc Wednesday conference call between CEO Alfred Lord — who had already begun selling his own stock — and analysts. The New York Times described it as perhaps the worst performance since Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling called a financial analyst an anus for having the temerity to ask for a balance sheet.
Among Mr. Lord’s choice responses, as selected by the New York Times:
- Responding to his first question, on how Sallie Mae would restore its credit rating: “You’re talking to the wrong guy… I don’t know that answer.”
- On announcing a shareholder meeting next month: “I would suggest maybe you get there early because I can assure you, you will be going through a metal detector.”
The best exchange that the Times did not have space to cover was a question from Bill Cavalier of Société Genéralé, who had to explain to the CEO how banks sell Sallie Mae’s loans, and why financial analysts would want to know if there’s a market for selling those loans.
Cavalier: …you’ve got to give us some guidance, you’ve got to give us some numbers. I don’t even see a margin number here for the stuff that you’ve done. Can you give us some handle on what your stock is worth?
Lord: You should give Steve [McGarry, Managing Director Sallie Mae Investor Relations] a call.
Cavalier: But you’re the CEO. You’re the guy who just took over the company.
Lord: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I’m the CEO. You should give Steve a call. Next question.
The call ended with the operator asking if there were more questions, followed by Lord saying, “How good is this? Steve, let’s go. There’s no — no questions.” Then came the expletive.
Thanks to a Friend of Redfin for sending us the New York Times article, and to all our friends who have supported us in 2007. Happy holidays!
Bonus link: Redfin co-leads a USA Today story about real estate and the Internet.
