Redfin Corp., a real estate company that offers deep discounts to real estate buyers in the form of rebates and flat-fee services for sellers, announced today that it has expanded brokerage services to the Chicago area and added property-search capabilities for about 100 counties.
The company also offers brokerage services in Boston; Los Angeles; Orange County, Calif.; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. The expansion of the company’s property-search tools adds county areas in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
Redfin now offers for-sale and past sales information for about 16 million homes, an increase of about 40 percent. Redfin.com site uses can view days on market, price changes, lot outlines and nearby similar for-sale properties, and information about past sales ranging from one week to 20 years ago.
A legislative bid earlier this year to impose a real estate rebate ban in Illinois — which would have interfered with Redfin’s planned expansion to Chicago — was killed.
Inman News reported that House Bill 4313, proposed by Illinois state Rep. Robert S. Molaro, D-Chicago, sought to amend state real estate law to state that "no licensee shall give or pay cash rebates, cash gifts or cash prizes to an unlicensed person who is a party to a contract to buy or sell real estate."
***
What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.
