Redfin announced on Tuesday that its iBuying arm, RedfinNow, has entered the Seattle and San Francisco metro housing markets. RedfinNow most recently launched in Sacramento in October.
“We’re all spending more time at home than ever before and many of us are dreaming of a home with a larger yard, a dedicated office, maybe even in a new city,” said Quinn Hawkins, head of RedfinNow. “Yet at the same time, the idea of selling your home before you’ve found a new place to move is daunting, especially if you’re moving out of town.”
To qualify for RedfinNow, homes in Seattle and San Francisco need to fit certain parameters and the iBuying service will expand to additional neighborhoods and property types over time, Redfin said.
In the Seattle area, RedfinNow is now available in parts of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, as well as neighborhoods in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Redmond and Everett. RedfinNow will make offers on single-family homes and townhomes built after 1930 that are worth up to $1.6 million.
In the Bay Area, RedfinNow is now available to homeowners in the East Bay and South San Jose areas. RedfinNow will make offers on single-family homes and townhomes built after 1930 that are worth up to $1.5 million.
How the mortgage industry is working together to make housing more affordable
The issue of housing affordability has no one solution, but with collaboration across the entire housing industry, together we can create more opportunity for more people to achieve sustainable, long-term homeownership.
Presented by: Fannie Mae
Seattle is currently a hot market – in October, there was less than a month’s worth of inventory and pending home sales outpaced supply. Meanwhile, San Francisco residents have been leaving the Golden State as more people who are working from home want more space in more affordable parts of the U.S.
Redfin said its real estate agents have helped clients in Seattle and the Bay Area buy and sell homes since 2006, with a listing fee as low as 1%. Since 2018, Redfin has also offered its Concierge listing service in both markets, for a listing fee as low as 2%.
“Every homeowner wants to know what they could get for their home from an instant sale and compare it to listing on the open market,” said Adam Wiener, Redfin’s chief growth officer. “Even for customers who start by requesting a cash offer, many end up selling their home with a real estate agent. We’re the only national brokerage working to offer home sellers a complete range of options to meet their needs.”
“With RedfinNow, our full-service real estate agents, and Redfin Concierge, we’ve been building a complete selling solution and are thrilled to be the first to offer it to customers in our own backyard,” Wiener said.