Redfin Attacks SoCal’s INTx’ers

February 8, 2007

While Glenn Kelman was co-hosting an event in San Francisco with Socketsite, his compadres were putting the finishing touches on a Southern California launch, which, per the embargoed-until-7am-press-release, “increases the number of properties for sale on its site by more than 340 percent.”

Greg Swann has previously pointed out that Redfin’s target markets are high-priced INTx-heavy metro areas — translated, for those of us not familiar with Myers-Briggs personality profiles, as high-priced markets with lots of geeky, web-savvy, technical, analytically-minded people. Why high-priced? Because when you take home only 1% of the purchase price as your commission, you have to sell expensive homes to make it worth your while. Why geeky, web-savvy, and so forth? Because grandpa and grandma, or even mom and dad, definitely ain’t gonna be buying real estate online.

Does SoCal meet those requirements? Let’s see what Neighboroo has to say about housing prices…

Redfin's Expansion

High-priced? Absolutely! Redfin’s Seattle home (1) is but a pin-prick of expensive (red) real estate in a sea of otherwise affordable green. The company’s second market, the Bay Area (2), is a reliable splash of red, as is target (3), southern California.

Alas, Neighborhoo doesn’t yet have a Myers-Briggs mashup available, so we’ll have to do with a rough approximation by looking for, say, well-educated Gen-X and Gen-Y’ers — a certain percentage of which are bound to be INTx’ers.

Seattle’s population is solidly Gen-X… (dark green)… and Gen-Y (again, dark green)…

Seattle's GenX populationSeattle's GenY population

…and college-educated:

Seattle's College Education Level

The Bay Area’s demographics look quite similar:

A heavy sprinking of Gen-X and Gen-Y’ers…

Bay Area Gen-XBay Area Gen-Y

…and all apparently reasonably well schooled:

Bay Area College Education

The greater southern California area looks very similar:

Plenty of Gen-X and Gen-Y’ers:

SoCal Gen-XSoCal GenY

and a generally well-educated populace, though not as reliably dark green as Seattle and the Bay Area:

SoCal College Education

Perhaps the good people from Neighboroo could help us figure out Redfin’s next markets? They’ve publicly talked about Boston, New York, and Chicago, but what about other areas? Austin? Probably not — prices aren’t high enough.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Glenn Kelman, Neighboroo, Real estate, Redfin 

Comments

6 Responses to “Redfin Attacks SoCal’s INTx’ers”

  1. Travis: Neighboroo on February 8th, 2007 9:58 am

    We could help Redfin, but we may have to charge them…

    Excellent use of Neighboroo. That’s what we want people to use our stuff for. Dig. Research. Find locations. Our next batch of features will make it even easier.

  2. Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » Redfin grows by 340% on February 8th, 2007 9:59 am

    [...] 3 Oceans, Redfin Attacks SoCal’s INTx’ers [...]

  3. Marlow Harris on February 8th, 2007 11:50 pm

    The real estate market here is still just too difficult to maneuver for most people, even the geekiest. This expansion is a numbers game for them. They’ve had a couple of hundred sales in Seattle, so if they get a couple of hundred in LA, a couple hundred in SF, they’ll probably survive, at least for awhile.

  4. Glenn Kelman and Russell Shaw: Flip Sides of the Same Coin? (AKA The Genius and the Tension in Redfin’s Business Model) | 3 Oceans -- The San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Blog on February 18th, 2007 9:01 pm

    [...] Here’s one thing they have in common: they both aim to move a lot (and I mean a lot!) of real estate. Russell and his team currently sell about 400 homes per year but they’re aiming for 2000. The number of transactions Redfin has had is not public, but however many it is, they certainly also have ambitious expansion plans, including a future foray into Chicago, Boston, and D.C. [...]

  5. The Lessons Of Redfin, Part II: Targeting A Demographic Niche | 3 Oceans Real Estate, A Boutique Real Estate Brokerage Serving the San Francisco Bay Area on July 15th, 2008 6:35 pm

    [...] the stroke of genius on Redfin’s part:  one of their core target demographics — Gen  X and Y geeks living in high-priced markets — tend to not take our assertions as fact until they see the underlying data-driven [...]

  6. Glenn Kelman and Russell Shaw: Flip Sides of the Same Coin? (AKA The Genius and the Tension in Redfin’s Business Model) : Domus Test Test Test on July 19th, 2008 9:23 am

    [...] of transactions Redfin has had is not public, but however many it is, they certainly also have ambitious expansion plans, including a future foray into Chicago, Boston, and [...]

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