The New York Times’s Catherine Rampell might have been one of the first to notice that Silicon Valley’s magic isn’t creating an enormous number of jobs. Today’s front-page article cites Redfin’s endless demand for the world’s best engineers, but mostly it focuses on unemployed folks in markets like Corvallis, Oregon, the home of the Beaver and,… Read More
In the story of the rapidly vanishing high-technology IPO, the Sarbanes-Oxley law bringing independence and accountability to financial disclosures has become the chief villain. Bill Gurley and Fred Wilson were some of the first, in the summer 2008, to complain of Sarbanes-Oxley. But their timing was poor: due to barely understood and hardly disclosed financial risks,… Read More
Is there anyone who really likes PowerPoint? I have often wondered if the brainwaves of an audience in PowerPoint’s grip take on a tragic pattern never seen before in the whole history of the miracle of human life. The only speeches I’ve ever been able to remember were the ones when someone set aside her… Read More
This Friday, at midnight, the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit will expire for anyone not in contract at that time. The definition of “in contract” is a mutually accepted offer, fully signed and initialed by both the buyer and the seller. Anything less than this will not qualify, nor will anything signed even one second… Read More
Here at Redfin, we’ve sometimes been skeptical of tax credits. But there’s no denying what happens when a Californian can qualify for an $8,000 federal tax-credit by getting under contract on a home by April 30, then qualify for another $10,000 California tax-credit by closing on that contract after May 1. Everybody tries to buy… Read More
What happened to the real estate market last month? Well, the Case-Shiller numbers for March will come out on May 26. And the National Association of Realtors will release data on last month’s home sales in a week or so. But we’re interested not just in what sold, but in what’s going to sell, based… Read More
“Life,” William James once said, “is in the transitions.” He wasn’t talking about weddings and graduations, but the lonely moments before, when a decision still hangs in the balance, and irrelevant details are so vivid that they’ll stick in your mind for years to come: the melted-plastic smell of a U-Haul cab; the iron sound… Read More
It takes a lot to freak out tattooed, motorcycle-riding — but sweet as apple pie — Redfin field agent Daren Carper. Most of the homes he visits are your typical freshly painted, ready-to-move in pads. But sometimes things get a little creepy. It’s sunset and Daren and his client are touring a 100-year-old mansion in… Read More