

Redfin buys Walkscore - flippyhead
http://blog.walkscore.com/2014/10/look-back-look-ahead/#.VEf46IftIso

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birken
Great purchase. I've done a fair amount of looking at stuff on Redfin and then
typing the address into Walkscore for more info. Can't wait until it is
integrated.

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encoderer
Honestly, check out Trulia :)

Walkscore info is integrated, on top of trulia's significant investment in
great mapping, including the "search by commute time" feature that it mentions
Walkscore supports as well.

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ChuckMcM
Does anyone know if this goes away post acquisition? It seems Trulia and
Redfin do compete for the same customers.

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rubyn00bie
They shouldn't be competitors-- one is a "portal" and one is a "brokerage."
Much of the industry has regulations preventing brokerages from being portals,
and vice versa.

Redfin is actually competing with the brokers/agents who use Trulia and
Zillow.

It's an unfortunate issue of Redfin's that they're confusing the public by
presenting themselves as both (portal and brokerage). It's more so that
they're trying to compete, for some unknown reason, with Trulia and Zillow
(Zulia).

They definitely are just another brokerage, like Century 21 or Remax and
nothing more.

Note: I work for Househappy.org so I'm rather well versed on this issue in
particular.

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gatsby
But they are competitors. They're both competing for home buyers.

If a home buyer goes to Redfin and not Zillow, Zillow loses because they
monetize on their ability to sell leads to agents.

I don't know if I'd call the brokerage + portal thing unfortunate.
Zillow/Trulia only control one portion of the home buying process
(search/discovery), which isn't necessarily ideal. Most "normal" brokerages
have trouble sourcing leads because they have poor websites, so the only way
to get leads is with cold calling and networking. Doing a company where lots
of leads can be sourced and worked internally by agents that all have lots of
great tools and training at their disposal is a different concept, but it's
not unfortunate.

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rubyn00bie
But they aren't competing...

Zillow is an advertising company, selling ads to brokers-- as is Trulia.
Neither sells homes, they sell ad space and leads.

Redfin is a regional brokerage. It directly lists and sells houses using its
brokers.

I'm not saying that there isn't merit to the Redfin approach, I quite like it.

I just think for the public it's unfortunate as a lot of people assume when
they use Redfin its more of a portal than a brokerage. If they want to make
their purpose and intent more clear, I think that'd be great.

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gatsby
I hear you. My comment below: "Zillow/Trulia are media companies trying to
connect buyers with brokers who pay them money for advertising. Redfin is a
brokerage trying to connect buyers with their own brokers."

I agree that it would be nice if Redfin could be more open as a brokerage, but
it makes sense to obscure the "we're a brokerage!" message from consumers,
because most consumers hate brokers (other than their own broker - who is
great!).

So I agree that consumers mistakenly think of Redfin like another online
portal, but I don't think that the distinction one way or another matters that
much. Both Zillow and Redfin put consumers in touch with brokers.

(edit: not sure why you're being downvoted - it wasn't me. I'm enjoying our
conversation!)

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gohrt
> it would be nice if Redfin could be more open as a brokerage

[https://www.redfin.com/](https://www.redfin.com/) "WHY USE A REDFIN AGENT?"
"When your agent and your website work together you..." "We’re full-service,
local agents."

> Both Zillow and Redfin put consumers in touch with brokers. That's a weird
> way of looking at it.

Would you say that BestBuy is just like Google Shopping Search -- it puts you
in touch with electonics sellers. But BestBuy tries to connect you with its
own internal sellers?

Anyway, Zillow has no incentive to provide high quality data / shopping
experience -- they do better advertising busines when users get interested but
then confused and need an agent's help. Redfin uses the website to automate as
much of the agent's work as possible, freeing up the agents for the
necessarily high-touch work. The better Redfin's website is, the more profit
they make on a sale (lower cost to close a deal)

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gatsby
> [https://www.redfin.com/](https://www.redfin.com/) "WHY USE A REDFIN AGENT?"
> "When your agent and your website work together you..." "We’re full-service,
> local agents."

Yes, but Zillow and Trulia use the word "our agent" all over as well.

> Would you say that BestBuy is just like Google Shopping Search -- it puts
> you in touch with electonics sellers. But BestBuy tries to connect you with
> its own internal sellers?

Sure. You can buy a TV from bestbuy.com or amazon, or whatever comparison you
want to make and from GSS. Two ways to the same means.

> Anyway, Zillow has no incentive to provide high quality data / shopping
> experience

I don't completely disagree, but it's incorrect that they have NO incentive.
There are plenty of reasons to provide accurate data. There's a reason we
spent 10s of millions at Zillow each year trying to get better data. It
certainly matters.

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toomuchtodo
> There's a reason we spent 10s of millions at Zillow each year trying to get
> better data. It certainly matters.

If Zillow cared about getting quality data, they would've become/integrated a
brokerage, as its the only way to get the most up-to-date real estate data.
Redfin's data is much better because of this, and it shows.

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encoderer
Consolidation of online real estate continues.

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smhinsey
Hopefully this doesn't mean they won't be showing up in padmapper and other
apps like that. It's a pretty useful service while apartment hunting, although
it would be awesome if they could find a better data source than CitySearch.

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rgbrgb
That's almost certainly what this means. Proprietary datasets are VERY hot in
real estate right now because otherwise, everyone is working with the same
listings data.

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gohrt
Did you know that Redfin is a very popular website with real estate agents who
compete against Redfin agents for customers? And this violates the redfin.com
EULA (real estate data is for provided for prospective home buyers and
potential customers), but is not enforced at all?

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saosebastiao
Any word on the price paid?

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gatsby
No, and I doubt they'll release it. My guess from seeing lots and lots of
similar acquisitions in RE is $5-10m range, with a large stock component and
nice employee retention package (especially because this is Redfin's first
acq. and they'll likely file IPO in 2015).

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westward
Couldn't have happened to better people!

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flippyhead
Congrats guys!

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DaniFong
I proposed that Trulia integrate Walkscore almost 7 years ago. Feels good to
know someone did it, though I hope it stays open

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mmanfrin
Man, I need to get in to the real estate/rental site business. Every day
another acquisition.

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davepeck
It's easy. Just start your company in 2007, work yourself to the bone for over
half a decade while most of the industry ignores you, build an enduring
consumer brand against all odds and expectations, find an engine for profit,
get acquired!

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gatsby
Exactly. With a couple exceptions, these are all companies that have been
around for 5-15 years that fly under the radar. A few companies acquired in
the last couple years (for 7-10 figure amounts), and their founding dates:

Apartments.com (1992)

Marketleader (1999)

Trulia (2004) - not complete, but likely

Hotpads (2005)

Mortech (1987)

Postlets (2006)

StreetEasy (2005)

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jpeg_hero
Private paper burried under $100m of preference :(

