“60 Minutes” Effect? Overwhelmed Redfin Stops Accepting New Listings

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Redfin, the discount online real estate brokerage, announced tonight that it has stopped accepting new listings, saying it has been overwhelmed by an unexpected spike in listings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company was recently featured on the CBS news show ’60 Minutes.’

Redfin made the announcement on its corporate blog Friday in a post titled ‘A Crazy Decision’: ‘From June 16 to July 8, Redfin is not accepting new listing customers. You can submit listing information now if you’d like, but we will not contact you or list your property until July 9. If Redfin has already committed to listing your property, you can be sure that we will continue to meet your highest expectations.’

More: ‘But why are we turning away new business? In Southern California, new listing business increased by a factor of 10 in one month; in the Bay Area it tripled. Continuing to take new listings would strain our ability to offer customers great service. Since one of our core principles is putting customers before profits, we are focusing on the customers we already have.’

More: ‘We will continue to represent buyers because our buyers’ agents still have the capacity to serve an increasing number of new customers well. We will only resume listing properties when we can offer every new listing customer the same fanatical service that got us this far in the first place, which we expect will take us a few weeks.’

Redfin attributes the sudden surge in listings in part to the ’60 Minutes’ story.

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