from Hacker News

Redfin cuts 13% of staff, shuts down home-flipping business

by xfour on 11/9/22, 2:32 PM with 270 comments

  • by imnotreallynew on 11/9/22, 3:20 PM

    As a curiosity, how many people in this thread are home buyers that sat on the sidelines over the past year or two and are now waiting for prices to drop?

    I’m in that camp and I’m starting to suspect there are enough people in that camp that any noticeable drop in prices will be immediately met by strong demand, even at current rates.

  • by nayuki on 11/9/22, 4:53 PM

    Redfin cuts 13% of staff, Stripe cuts 14%, Meta cuts 13%. Is this proportion a coincidence?

    https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/03/stripe-cuts-14-of-its-work... , https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11...

  • by boringg on 11/9/22, 2:48 PM

    Glad to hear the corporate home flipping business is getting wrecked.

  • by AlbertCory on 11/9/22, 6:21 PM

    On timing the market: you cannot time the market. However, you can have a sense of what the historical rates for mortgages are and will probably return to.

    Back when they were at ridiculously low levels, I would tell people "Get a 15-year loan now! You'll be paying off principal as well as interest, real soon."

    They'd object, reasonably, "Oh, I can't afford those payments!" So now with higher rates, what will they pay for that 30-year?

    You can also object that nothing stops you from making extra principal payments, on top of your regular monthly payment. That's true. But will you?

    Is all that incorrect? You can do this analysis in Excel or Google Sheets.

  • by iknowSFR on 11/9/22, 3:07 PM

    This entire comment lacks evidence or data to support it but I used to work in SFR and still keep tabs with several companies on a personal basis.

    Redfin and Zillow are not the problems in the SFR industry. These are tech companies that were trying to capitalize on the PE flowing into SFR. Their lack of success is not an indicator for the industry as a whole.

    Make no mistake about it: SFR is alive and well and increased rates will not hurt them. Most have paused acquisitions but their cash flow is still fantastic. The outcomes over the next 24 months will play in their favor and those companies will grow as the economy pulls back.

  • by jedberg on 11/9/22, 5:42 PM

    The biggest shocker here, to me, is that they were still in the home-flipping business. I thought they got burned so bad they shut it down right away.

  • by xfour on 11/9/22, 2:34 PM

  • by rybosworld on 11/9/22, 3:58 PM

    Bringing housing into the world of speculative investments was and always will be a mistake.

  • by uoaei on 11/9/22, 4:14 PM

    Now is the perfect time to put effort into regulations on this, while corporations' economic incentive to fight such a move is weakened.

  • by yalogin on 11/9/22, 3:14 PM

    I had no idea Redfin had the home flipping unit too.

    The real estate prices and estimates clearly are on a downward trajectory. Previously redfin struggled to keep up with growing value in their estimates and so always came in lower to the asking price. Now they constantly come in higher.

  • by cpursley on 11/9/22, 5:15 PM

    I think most appraisers could have told them this was an untenable business model before they even started...

    This is what happens when you throw cheap money at smooth-talking tech-bros living in the coastal bubbles.

  • by andrew_ on 11/9/22, 2:57 PM

    Great news for home buyers and renters alike in major markets. Tampa was absolutely brutalized by these folks.

  • by maram on 11/9/22, 6:13 PM

    >>shuts down home-flipping businesses

    Did the story mention why?

  • by sergiotapia on 11/9/22, 2:54 PM

    Corpo home pillagers deserve everything bad they're getting. Young families need homes. I wish the government would step in and protect something so necessary for it's citizens.