Why Zillow’s CEO wants to be the OpenTable of real estate

Spencer Rascoff

On the surface, OpenTable may not seem to hold many similarities with Zillow. After all, one specializes in restaurants, and other in real estate. But Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff sees similarities between the two companies, telling Business Insider that those companies which simply provide leads to businesses are ripe for disintermediation. In Rascoff’s view, OpenTable has… Read More…

Comments of the week: Will this phone really take off?

boeingphone

The best comments, quotes, and random zingers we heard this week… “Do you have to turn off *this* phone during takeoff and landing?” –GeekWire reader Lawrence Lam commenting on news that aerospace giant Boeing plans to develop a new phone based on the Android operating system. “I hope the phone takes off. Pun intended.”–GeekWire reader… Read More…

Redfin’s Glenn Kelman on why it’s OK for startup CEOs to be a little bit crazy

Glenn Kelman

Are entrepreneurs better off being a little crazy — guided by their emotions? Or should they stick to good-old fashioned number-crunching, letting rationality rule the roost? That’s the topic that Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman raises today in a fascinating blog post titled “Never tell me the odds.” The entire post is worth reading for any… Read More…

Redfin on the radio: Online real estate firm experiments with ‘old media’

Photo via Jamiecat

Redfin has built its online real estate service over the years largely through word-of-mouth referrals and a very active public relations effort, one which landed CEO Glenn Kelman on “60 Minutes” a few years ago. But things are changing at the Seattle online real estate company, which earlier this month started testing what newly-appointed marketing… Read More…

Redfin and Zillow look to give home shoppers an early foot in the door with price alerts

redfin-update555

Sometimes in the real estate business, if you snooze, you lose. Through a new service launched today called Instant Updates, Redfin wants to make sure its customers don’t miss out on the best deals, acting with authority when prices drop on homes or new listings come on to the market. Instant Updates essentially is an email… Read More…

New iPad: First impressions, and 5 locally grown apps to try

iPad_HandHero_PRINTs

We’ve been spending some quality time with a new iPad here today at GeekWire, focusing on the new and updated apps for the tablet’s high-definition retina display. It’s impressive, particularly when it comes to viewing high-resolution photos, but we’re not convinced that the display alone is enough to recommend buying one of the new iPads vs…. Read More…

Redfin unveils Home Price Tool, an alternative to the Zestimate

redfin-screen-value1

Everyone wants to know what their home is worth, one of the reasons that Zillow’s Zestimate has helped establish the Seattle online real estate company as a go-to source for real estate information. Now, another Seattle online real estate company is jumping into the mix. Redfin today is rolling out a new service called Home… Read More…

Redfin rumbles in to Rocky’s hometown of Philadelphia

Can Philly reposition to become the champ of startups? Photo via Wikipedia

Redfin is expanding its real estate brokerage service into the Philadelphia area, marking the 19th major market for the Seattle company and the first new city in more than a year. Philadelphia is a big market for Redfin, but also a challenging one since the average home sells for just $182,000. That compares to San… Read More…

Here are 5 tech companies from Seattle that could take the IPO plunge in 2012

plunge1-bigstock_Man_And_Woman_Diving_319268

The world may be waiting on a Facebook IPO. And while there’s some chatter about whether the $5 billion public offering from the social networking giant will open the floodgates for tech offerings, The Wall Street Journal today notes that it might be a new breed that actually woos Wall Street: enterprise IT companies. That’s… Read More…

Networking is a good thing to do, but not good enough

networking-redfin

In a GeekWire guest post last week, Bob Crimmins said I was “flat wrong” when I advised a group of would-be entrepreneurs to focus on their product and their customers, not conferences, parties, lunches, coffees or other networking events. Bob offered a delightful guide on how to network but still I question whether networking is more… Read More…

Redfin hires former REI marketing vet Tom Vogl: A ‘piranha with a heart’

Tom Vogl

Redfin spent more than a year trying to find the right person to lead the company’s marketing department. And the Seattle online real estate company believes that it has finally found its match in Tom Vogl, a former senior vice president of marketing at outdoor retailer REI. Vogl spent six years at REI, overseeing a team… Read More…

Microsoft Windows as a ‘beautiful metaphor’ and other comments of the week

windows8

The best insights, observations, comments, tweets and random zingers we heard this week. “Windows really is a beautiful metaphor for computing and with the new logo we wanted to celebrate the idea of a window, in perspective.” –Microsoft’s Sam Moreau in a blog post describing the concepts behind the company’s new Windows logo. “Whenever you answer something,… Read More…

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman: Rebate cuts do not signal imminent IPO filing

Glenn Kelman (Randy Stewart photo)

Redfin announced a plan today to cut rebates to home buyers substantially, a move that made me wonder if the Seattle real estate company was looking to juice revenues in anticipation of a possible IPO filing. After all, Zillow’s stock performance in recent months has been nothing short of astounding, with a market value topping… Read More…

Here comes Redfin 3.0 … and more price increases

redfin-logo

Redfin today announced a “massive upgrade” of its real estate service, one which CEO Glenn Kelman notes in a blog post will ensure that customers will have a “one-on-one relationship” with an individual agent throughout the entire home buying process. As part of the changes, Redfin has added more than 50 new agents and reduced the… Read More…

Backlash continues against Zillow as real estate group cuts ties with Diverse Solutions

Zillow

Zillow is once again finding itself in the news after a Denver-based Multiple Listing Service notified members that they plan to pull the plug on a listing feed arrangement with Diverse Solutions. You may recall that Zillow gobbled up Diverse Solutions last year, paying $7.8 million for the Irvine, California-based real estate services company. But that’s… Read More…

Zillow discontinues listing feed: Redfin says it is not ‘crazy about the decision’

zillow

The shifting sands in the online real estate industry continue to morph. The latest development involves Zillow which recently notified Redfin and other real estate sites that it will no longer distribute for-sale-by-owner listings to their Web sites. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman explains in a blog post: Zillow primarily gets listings directly from individual brokers,… Read More…

Redfin exposes gritty underbelly of real estate with Twitter feed @REConfidential

redfin-logo

Who knew that being a real estate agent entailed so many odd encounters. But thanks to Redfin we are now getting a closer peek into this strange and — at least what appears to be — wild world. Earlier this week, the Seattle online real estate company unveiled a new Twitter feed @REConfidential. Like the… Read More…

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman: Why you should do a startup right now (and not one in a ‘stinky, little niche’)

kelmansmall

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman is known for his colorful, erudite and oftentimes controversial remarks when it comes to startups, business and entrepreneurship. And so it was with some anticipation that I attended Kelman’s talk Monday night at the Get a Real Job Fair in Seattle. Kelman joked that he had a really juicy keynote in store until… Read More…

Why it’s so gosh-darned hard to find tech talent: Thoughts from 8 startup veterans

Bassam Tabarra

You’ve heard the stories of the tight labor market, and read about some of the unusual gimmicks (and even cash bounties) companies have rolled out to attract top engineers and developers. Heck, it’s so tough to find good engineers these days that President Barack Obama even cited the labor crunch in science and technology during… Read More…

Redfin’s ‘hunky’ IT department exposed in charity calendar

menofit-calendar-Jan1s

This is pretty funny — and slightly disturbing. Redfin, the Seattle-based online real estate company, has produced a very tongue-in-cheek “Men of Redfin I.T. Calendar”, featuring its internal tech specialists in various costumes and, in one case, nothing but a New Year’s sash. It’s a charity calendar, and the company is offering it up to the… Read More…