{"id":1443,"date":"2007-05-17T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2007-05-17T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2007-05-18T23:40:46","modified_gmt":"2007-05-19T06:40:46","slug":"defending-redfin-sweet-digs-buried-by-inane-mls-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1443\/defending-redfin-sweet-digs-buried-by-inane-mls-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Redfin: Sweet Digs weblog buried by inane MLS rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t like Redfin.com<\/a>. Its “business” model consists of quietly diverting its agency responsibilities to listing agents while loudly rebating its largely unearned commissions to buyers<\/a>. My experience of the president of the company, Glenn Kelman, is that he is an oily liar who will say anything to draw the fawning attentions of a gullible mainstream media<\/a>. I don’t care about discount real estate brokerages in general — let the market sort them out — but Redfin’s modus vivendi<\/em> is to exploit defects in the real estate industry — that it cannot get along without<\/em> — while decrying those same defects in its tendentious and mendacious PR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However: I believe in liberty before everything. Although Redfin will never enter most real estate markets — this being forbidden by a cost-structure that loses money on even the priciest of homes<\/a> — it nevertheless has a valid complaint when it draws attention to anti-rebating and minimum-service real estate laws. The National Association of Realtors is an anti-capitalist cartel<\/a>, as are state and local Realtors’ associations and local MLS systems. They are liars just like Kelman, loudly proclaiming their protection of the consumer’s interests while quietly enacting every Rotarian Socialist scheme they can think up.<\/p>\n

Today John Cook’s Venture Blog reports that Redfin is being fined and forced to shut down one of its weblogs for violating one of those schemes:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Northwest Multiple Listing Service has fined Redfin $50,000 and asked them to stop publishing a popular blog in which contractors for the online real estate brokerage posted reviews of Seattle area homes. <\/p>\n

Redfin is appealing the fine, though it took steps this week to shut down the reviews on its “Sweet Digs” blog. With about 3,000 e-mail and online subscribers, the blog was written by 15 freelance reviewers who over the past five months posted reviews on about 1,000 homes in Seattle and San Francisco. The company says it plans to maintain the blog as a source of information on pricing trends and recently sold homes.<\/p>\n

Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman said he had no choice but to comply, noting that the NWMLS had threatened to Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t like Redfin.com. Its “business” model consists of quietly diverting its agency responsibilities to listing agents while loudly rebating its largely unearned commissions to buyers. My experience of the president of the company, Glenn Kelman, is that he is an oily liar who will say anything to draw the fawning attentions of a gullible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,6,5,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-enduring-interest","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-redfincom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1671,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1671\/redfin-cops-another-12-million-raising-investors-stake-in-the-discount-realtybot-to-40000-per-closed-transaction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":0},"title":"Redfin cops another $12 million, raising investors’ stake in the discount realty.bot to $40,000 per closed transaction","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The indefatigable John Cook:Redfin has raised an additional $12 million in venture funding, money that the Seattle discount real estate broker will use to enhance its Web site and expand into new markets. First up for Redfin are the Washington D.C and Baltimore areas, which are being unveiled today. Next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2553,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2553\/big-news-ignore-all-that-fine-print-tear-through-all-that-red-tape-redfincom-supports-safari-at-last\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":1},"title":"Big News: Ignore all that fine print, tear through all that red tape — Redfin.com supports Safari at last!","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, wait, that's not the big news from Redfin.com. In fact, I reported the really big news last night:Redfin will either make money or it won\u2019t, and, in the long run, if it endures into a long run, it will become more like traditional real estate even as traditional real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10658,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10658\/whos-afraid-of-redfincom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":2},"title":"Who’s Afraid of Redfin.com?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Bob Haywood, an Owasso, OK real estate agent makes a case for why you should be aware of Redfin.com.\u00a0 Bob articulates, from behind the cloaked wall on Active Rain, why Redfin.com is the REAL agent of change in the real estate industry.\u00a0 Read what Bob has to say: You should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2701,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2701\/redfincom-builds-new-listing-oversight-tools-for-sellers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":3},"title":"Redfin.com builds new listing oversight tools for sellers","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the news, snipped to the quick:Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today released Redfin Listing Metrics, a dashboard for Redfin's listing customers to analyze neighborhood inventory trends and recent sales, and to compare their listing's online traffic to that of other listings in the neighborhood.That sounds slick, doesn't it?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2832,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2832\/redfincom-beats-the-field-again-this-time-in-both-seattle-and-san-francisco-buyers-pay-less-and-reap-commission-rebates-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":4},"title":"Redfin.com beats the field again, this time in both Seattle and San Francisco: Buyers pay less and reap commission rebates, too","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Redfin.com has news this midnight, but it's the sort of thing I would normally ignore: It's basically the kind of rah-rah-for-us stuff I leave for the vendor cheerleaders and the mainstream media. But: I gave Redfin a lot of grief last year when they made a similar announcement, so today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1473,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1473\/could-anything-be-sleazier-than-redfin-ceo-glenn-kelman-how-about-the-tennessee-association-of-realtors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1443,"position":5},"title":"Could anything be sleazier than Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman? How about the Tennessee Association of Realtors?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tennessee State Legislature is trying to outlaw real estate commission rebates -- guess at whose behest? Little Pink Houses has the dirt. Jonathan Dalton has the dudgeon. Technorati Tags: disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, Redfin.com","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}