Redfin Launches Free Home Tours and Pre-Inspections

SEATTLE, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation ( http://www.redfin.com/ ) today launched "Red Carpet Services" to help make it easier and more affordable for online real estate shoppers to find and purchase a home. The first two services offer home-buyers free home tours and pre-inspections. Separately today, Redfin announced it has refunded $1 million in commissions to home-buyers.

  Red Carpet Services include:

  -- Free Home Tours:  The first home tour with a Redfin agent, up to three
     hours per household, is free. Future tours are $125 per home or $250
     for a three-hour tour. To schedule a free home tour, send an e-mail to
     tours@redfin.com or call 1-877-973-3346.
  -- Free Pre-Inspections: If the buyer conducts a pre-inspection before
     Redfin submits the offer to the listing agent, Redfin will reimburse
     the pre-inspection costs at closing. Pre-inspections show the seller
     and listing agent that an offer is serious and eliminates a possible
     contingency, making the offer more competitive.
  -- Redfin will announce more Red Carpet Services in the future.

"Redfin's free home tour program overcomes a common objection to buying a home online. Redfin customers now are able to view homes on their own schedule -- independent of an open house or listing agent appointment," said Rob McGarty, Redfin's director of real estate. "Blending free, in-person services with our online home buying service make it even easier and more efficient for Redfin customers to find and buy a home, while saving about $10,000 on average."

About Redfin

Redfin ( http://www.redfin.com/ ) is the real estate industry's first online brokerage. By combining maps, listings, tax records and analytics, Redfin has become Seattle's most popular brokerage site, and is now available in the San Francisco Bay Area. Customers who use Redfin.com to buy or sell properties earn a refund of most of the commission traditionally due their broker, and get full support in paperwork, negotiations and closing. To give the Redfin service a try, visit http://www.redfin.com/ , or keep track of our daring exploits via our blog, at http://blog.redfin.com/ .