Redfin, the real estate database and brokerage service, went public on Friday. Shares sell at $15, which values the 11-year-old company at $1.2 billion.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Redfin is using online tools and technology to establish itself in the real estate scene. The site allows users to search a map for homes on the market and gives an estimate of what every home is worth. It also offers 3-D tours of certain listings.
But unlike Zillow, which is not a brokerage, Redfin has its own agents. And the company even does that differently than most brokerages, employing them as salaried employees, rather than as independent contractors paid through sales commissions.
Redfin is in more than 80 markets, but the company share of existing home sales by dollar volume was only 0.58 percent in the first quarter.
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