Redfin, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage (among other things) company is expected to soon take its place on the Nasdaq.  The company filed a long awaited initial public offering (IPO) last week with a debut expected late this month or in early August.  Redfin says it hopes to raise $100 million, a figure that Katie Roof, writing in TechCrunch, said was a placeholder, subject to change.

The company was founded in 2002 under the name Appliance Computing, changing its name four years later.  Since then has raised at least $167 million in venture capital.  It had been expected to file an IPO in 2014, but that was apparently sidelined after two former employees filed a lawsuit claiming the company was trying to wipe out their stock.  

Redfin, which bills itself as an on-line real estate brokerage, employs real estate agents in 84 markets throughout the county to work with both buyers and sellers.  It touts its use of technology in working with both, but particularly to assist sellers in setting a listing price and marketing the home. It charges sellers a commission of 1.5 percent of the sales price, compared to what it says is typically 5 to 6 percent. However, from its literature, it is unclear whether it shares this commission with the agent who procures a buyer.

The company also offers title and settlement services, and during the first quarter of 2017 it began originating and underwriting loans through Redfin Mortgage. That new endeavor was initiated with considerable fanfare, but another recent venture appeared to be first fully acknowledged in its IPO filing.  The new and wholly owned subsidiary, RDFN Ventures, operating as "Redfin Now" is designed essentially to flip houses.

In its prospectus, the company says "In the first quarter of 2017, we began testing an experimental new service called Redfin Now, where we buy homes directly from home sellers and resell them to homebuyers. Customers who sell through Redfin Now will typically get less money for their home than they would listing their home with a real estate agent, but get that money faster with less risk and fuss." The subsidiary is now operating in two markets and currently owns properties listed at $1.8 million.

Redfin is not yet profitable.  It had $267.2 million in revenue in 2016 and lost $78 million.  In 2015 those figures were $187.3 million and $132.5 million respectively. Losses in the first quarter of this year, perhaps not coincidentally the quarter when they launched both Redfin Now and Redfin Mortgage, rose to $52.8 million from $29.5 million in the first quarter of 2016. The company employs 2,193 people.

The venture capitalists who have backed Redfin to this point include Greylock (12.4 percent), Madrona Venture Group (11.4 percent), Draper Fisher Jurvetson (10.2 percent), Tiger Global (10.5 percent), Vulcan Capital (10 percent), and T. Rowe Price (7.1 percent).

Assuming a successful IPO, the company will appear on Nasdaq as "RDFN." Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. are underwriting the offering.