There’s always something to howl about.

Unlike venture-capital vampire Redfin.com, Iggy’s House seeks suckers on Wall Street

John Cook’s Venture Blog:

Despite challenges in the national real estate market, Chicago discount real estate service Iggy’s House plans to try its luck with an initial public offering that could raise up to $15 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If successful, that would be just $3 million more than what Seattle-based Redfin, one of Iggy’s primary competitors, raised in its venture round in July.

In addition to traditional real estate firms such as Prudential Financial, RE/MAX and Realogy, Iggy’s House also faces direct competition from upstarts such as Redfin, ZipRealty and iNest. It also may face competition in the future from Zillow.com, HouseValues and others, according to the filing.

Iggy’s House, you’ll recall, is the ultimate discount lister.

How ultimate? All the way. Allowing for the buyer’s agent’s commission, Iggy will give you a limited service MLS listing for free. A sister company, BuySideRealty.com, will rebate 75% of the buyer’s agent’s commission when they (don’t actually) represent you as the buyer.

How can they do it? They’re lenders. Both real estate businesses exist to drive loss-leader business to their loan brokerage business. Pondering the spreads on the loans they underwrite will probably repay your effort.

And: Even though the company is appealing directly to share-holding suckers, rather than the venture capital suckers favored by parasite sites like Redfin.com, Iggy is so far living up to what you might anticipate for its financial performance: “Iggy’s House posted revenue of $425,000 and a net loss of $5.1 million last year.”

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