In a move to boost revenue in a tough market, Seattle, Washington-based discount brokerage Redfin has expanded its luxury home sales product nationwide.
Confined to just 14 markets a month ago, Redfin Premier is now available everywhere Redfin has an agent — more than 100 markets across the U.S. — the company announced.
The luxury service is provided by Redfin Premier agents, who close nearly three times as many high-end deals as other Redfin agents, the company said.
These agents know how to price, prepare, and market luxury homes, and they provide a special service that includes professional video tours, high-resolution photography, drone and twilight views and detailed interactive 3D scans, it added.
Redfin Premier listings receive preferred placement on Redfin.com, the third-most visited residential site in the U.S., after Zillow and Realtor.com (per SimilarWeb). The company said its luxury listings get more than 600 million views per year. In addition to exposure on the company’s site, Redfin Premier publicises each listing locally and globally via luxury publications, social media, email campaigns and mailers.
The company charges Premier seller clients the same 1% commission as its regular customers. As with its normal service, this does not include the buyer-agent’s fee, which is typically between 2.5% and 3%.
In order to avail of this service, a client must meet a price threshold, which in most markets is $850,000 U.S. In the most expensive markets in the country, the minimum is higher; at $1.75 million, San Francisco has the highest threshold.
Redfin Premier launched in limited markets for sellers in 2020, and last month the company began offering the service to buyers.
The service’s nationwide rollout comes at a difficult time for real estate brokerages, with existing U.S. home sales plunging 36% year on year (y-o-y) to 3.6 million in January 2022.
In Q4 2022, Redfin posted a 25% y-o-y drop in revenue to $480 million. Gross profit slumped by 65% y-o-y to $37.4 million.