Inman

Redfin partners with prefab homebuilder

Tech-powered real estate brokerage Redfin is partnering with factory-built homebuilder Blu Homes to offer services to clients who want to build their own home on undeveloped land.

Redfin.com features hundreds of listings for land in Northern California alone, and more than 100,000 land listings across the country, the brokerage said in announcing a collaboration with Blu Homes in the San Francisco Bay Area that it plans to expand nationwide in coming months.

Blu Homes describes itself as a "precision builder," offering seven architect-designed home plans that clients can personalize before the steel-framed homes are built in the company’s 250,000-square-foot factory in Vallejo, Calif. After the six- to eight-week manufacturing processes, homes are installed on site and completed in two to three weeks.

Blu Homes claims that its homes are more economical and healthier to live in, and that demand for them is growing exponentially. But 80 percent of prospective customers don’t have land to build on.

Having partnered with Redfin, Blu Homes will refer clients who want to build their own home but haven’t yet purchased land to the brokerage. Redfin agents will help them shop for land, with Blu Homes performing site assessments to ensure lots are buildable.