Redfin paid its real estate agents a salary and asked customers to review them, in an industry built on commissions. Its website showed listings with maps and data, and its own agents worked with people buying and selling for lower fees. Most brokerages treated software as an afterthought. When Redfin filed to go public in 2017, the housing market was strong. Redfin was one of the few online brokerages that had lasted.

From Map Site to Brokerage

David Eraker and Michael Dougherty started Redfin in Seattle in 2004 as a map-based home search site. Glenn Kelman joined as chief executive soon after and turned it into a full brokerage. He led the company for about two decades. The bet was that customers wanted honest data and lower costs, and that salaried, reviewed employees would serve them better than independent agents chasing commissions.

Rising Rates, Then Rocket

Redfin priced at $15 a share in July 2017 and rose on its first day. It later tried buying and reselling homes itself, then shut that business in 2022 as interest rates rose. The housing slowdown hit revenue and the stock. In 2025 Rocket Companies, the mortgage lender, bought Redfin in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.75 billion. The Redfin brand lives on under Rocket.

Cover: The Red Carp, Utagawa Toyokuni I. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a red carp (red fin).