The new realities of real estate: Redfin CEO on tech, climate, housing, and the era of 'a thousand HQs'

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman joins us on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the latest twists in the housing market; delays in returning to the office; the role of climate in real estate; how technology is changing homebuying; and the impact of remote work and migration on Seattle and other big U.S. cities.

In some ways, "it's our employees who are deciding where Redfin's headquarters are going to be," Kelman says. "We now have 1,000 headquarters. There are people who have moved all over the country."

In literal terms, Kelman explains, he's committed to keeping Redfin's headquarters in Seattle. But he says the migration of employees creates a new dynamic for city officials seeking to work with business leaders to address economic inequality.

We talked after the tech-oriented real estate brokerage released its second-quarter earnings report this week. Redfin's revenue jumped 121% to $471 million, and its net loss widened to $27.9 million from $6.6 million a year earlier. Kelman also addressed the dynamics prompting Redfin to focus on growth over profits.

Earlier in the week, Redfin announced a new feature for home listings: a numerical rating that gives a climate score to a given house or property, analyzing the risk of heat, fire, drought, and storms over a 30-year period by county, city, neighborhood and zip code. Redfin is partnering with ClimateCheck on the feature.

On the COVID front, Redfin had planned a broad reopening of its headquarters and field offices for Sept. 6, but told employees this week that the milestone would be pushed back indefinitely for now, promising to give them at least 30 days notice of the new date. Those working in the office must be vaccinated, and the company is asking those who haven’t been fully vaccinated to work from home.

Microsoft said the full reopening of its U.S. workplaces will happen no earlier than Oct. 4. Amazon went even further, delaying its return to January 2022.

Podcast edited and produced by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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