Q&A: Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman on competing with Zillow, and the potential of real estate tech

Redfin is more than two years into what was once an experiment, buying homes from people, sprucing them up and then selling them, and it has learned some lessons along the way.

“We felt more careful about it over the past two years than we do now, because at first we bought some homes that were total dogs,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said. “They sat on the market for a long time, and we had to take a loss. But eventually you figure out a formula where you know you’re going to be able to sell this house at a profit. And I think we were one step more cautious about scaling the business before we really knew what that formula was. But at this point we feel very confident that we can scale that more quickly.”