Redfin Company Stats: Revenue & Competitors (2022)

Redfin is a leading full-service real estate brokerage.

Founded in 2004 in Seattle, Washington, the company reaches 51 million monthly average users across its mobile apps and website, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.

Redfin became a publicly-traded company on July 28, 2017.

Redfin generated $1.92 billion in revenue in 2021, a 10x increase from the $187 million generated in 2015.

From users to revenue, here's a summary of what you'll find on this page:

• Key Redfin Statistics
• How Many People Visit Redfin?
• Redfin Revenue
• Redfin Operating Expenses
• Redfin Market Share
• Redfin Competitors
• How Many People Work at Redfin?

Key Redfin Statistics

• Redfin reaches 47.1 million consumers across its web properties and mobile apps.

• Redfin completed 76,680 transaction sides in 2021.
• Redfin generated $1.92 billion in revenue in 2021, but it is not currently profitable.
• After the cost of revenue and operating expenses, the company lost $110 million in 2021 due to elevated expenses from its acquisition of RentPath.
• Redfin grew revenue from $125 million in 2014 to $1.3 billion in 2021, an increase of 1538%.
• Redfin captured a 1.17% market share of U.S. real estate transactions in 2021, a 2.6x increase from 2015.
• In 2021 Redfin generated 47% of its revenue from real estate services helping buyers and sellers buy and sell homes. The gross profit margin of real estate services was 33.2%.
• 45.8% of Redfin’s revenue came from properties revenue (company-owned real estate), acquired through RedfinNow, an iBuyer program that gives instant cash offers to sellers looking to sell their homes quickly. The gross profit margin on properties revenue was 1.2%.
• Redfin gets 8.4 million monthly visitors to its website, making it the 4th most visited real estate website in the U.S.
• Redfin has 6,485 employees (2021).
• Mid-year update: On June 14, 2022, Redfin announced that is was letting go of 8 percent of its staff, approximately 500 people, both agents and support roles. This follows a 2 percent staff layoff in January of 2021.

How Many People Visit Redfin?

The amount of traffic Redfin gets to their mobile applications and website is an important leading indicator of business activity because this is how Redfin meets new customers. It’s important to note that the home buying process takes time and that not all traffic will convert to revenue-generating customers right away, if at all.

Redfin defines monthly average visitors as a combination of unique visitors to their websites and apps, including Redfin, RentPath, Bay Equity Home Loans, Walk Score, Redfin App, and RentPath app. Redfin's flagship website, redfin.com, is the 4th-most visited real estate website in the United States and reaches 8.4 million average visitors per month.

In 2021, Redfin received 47.1 million monthly active visitors, a 4.02x increase from 2015.

Here is a breakdown of Redfin's monthly visitor growth since 2015.

Year	Monthly Visitors (Web + App)
2015	11.70 million
2016	16.21 million
2017	22.62 million
2018	27.26 million
2019	33.47 million
2020	42.86 million
2021	47.11 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Revenue

Redfin generates revenue from three business segments: real estate services revenue (helping consumers buy and sell), properties revenue (selling company-owned properties), and “other" revenue (rentals, mortgages, and title services).

Redfin has grown revenue across all key categories. In 2017 when Redfin went public, it reported revenue of $370 million compared to $1.92 billion in 2021, a 5.14x increase over this four-year period.

Here is the brokerage's revenue growth by year.

Year	Total Revenue
2017	$370 million
2018	$487 million
2019	$778 million
2020	$886 million
2021	$1.92 billion

Source: Redfin

Redfin Real Estate Services Revenue

In just four years, from 2017 to 2021, the company’s real estate services revenue increased from $356 million to $903 million, a 154% increase.

Here is a table with the real estate services revenue figures:

Year	Real Estate Services
2017	$356 million
2018	$432 million
2019	$524 million
2020	$652 million
2021	$903 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Properties Revenue

Redfin’s sale of properties acquired through the RedfinNow program skyrocketed from $10 million in 2017 to $881 million in 2021. That’s in increase of 88x.

Here is the breakdown of the properties revenue numbers:

Year	Properties
2017	$10 million
2018	$45 million
2019	$256 million
2020	$210 million
2021	$881 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Other Revenue

The brokerage’s “other” revenue also got quite a boost over the same four-year period from $8 million to $139 million, an increase of 17x.

Here is a closer look at Redfin’s other revenue:

Year	Other
2017	$8 million
2018	$10 million
2019	$16 million
2020	$24 million
2021	$139 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Operating Expenses

Redfin's operating expenses increased from $128 million to $514 million from 2017 to 2021, a 3x increase.

Here's a comprehensive overview of the company's expenses from 2017.

Year	Total Expenses
2017	$128 million
2018	$163 million
2019	$223 million
2020	$231 million
2021	$514 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Technology & Development Expenses

Redfin’s technology and development expenses amounted to $156.72 million in 2021 or around 8.2% of their total revenue.

Redfin’s technology and development expenses increased by 85.9% from 2020 to 2021. Included in the increase was a $39 million acquisition of RentPath and increased personnel costs due to a rise in head count.

Here's a table of Redfin's technology and development expenses since 2017.

Year	Tech & Dev Expenses
2017	$43 million
2018	$54 million
2019	$70 million
2020	$84 million
2021	$157 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Marketing Expenses

Redfin’s marketing expenses amounted to $138.74 million in 2021, accounting for 27% percent of their total operating expenses.

Marketing expenses add up to 7.2% of Redfin’s total revenue.

The full-service brokerage increased its marketing expenses 2.53x between 2020 and 2021, which included costs associated with its RentPath acquisition and increased media costs as it expanded its advertising.

Here is a table showing Redfin's marketing expenses since 2017.

Year	Marketing Expenses
2017	$32 million
2018	$44 million
2019	$77 million
2020	$55 million
2021	$139 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin General & Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses make up the largest portion of Redfin’s operating expenses. At $218.31 million in 2021, G&A accounted for 42.5% of total operating expenses.

From 2020 to 2021, Redfin's G&A expenses increased by 137% as they saw a $71.5 million increase from their RentPath acquisition and increased personnel costs.

Year	G&A Expenses
2017	$53 million
2018	$66 million
2019	$77 million
2020	$92 million
2021	$218 million

Source: Redfin

Redfin Market Share

Redfin has steadily increased its market share of residential real estate transactions in the United States.

The company calculates market share by aggregating the value of home sales involving a Redfin lead agent or partner, then divides that value by two to account for both buy and sell sides. If Redfin represents both the buy and sell-side, they can count twice before dividing.

In 2021, Redfin closed 76,680 sides worth $53 billion.

Then, they divide the aggregated Redfin transaction value by the total aggregated sale price for all homes in the U.S. market.

Redfin captured 1.17% of the total real estate market transactions in 2021, a 75% increase from 2017.

Here is a table of Redfin's market share as a percentage of the U.S. market.

Year	US Market Share
2017	0.67%
2018	0.81%
2019	0.93%
2020	1.00%
2021	1.17%

Source: Redfin

Redfin Regional Market Share

Redfin’s top-10 regional markets for real estate services are the metropolitan areas of (alphabetically):

• Boston
• Chicago
• Denver (including Boulder and Colorado Springs)
• Los Angeles (including Santa Barbara)
• Maryland
• Northern Virginia
• Portland (including Bend)
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle

In 2021, 62% of Redfin’s revenue came from their top 10 markets. The company stated that they are trying to reduce its over-reliance on these markets and achieve wider distribution. In 2015, 76% of their revenue came from their top 10 markets. By 2021, Redfin decreased its revenue from these markets by 14%.

Here is a table of revenue from the top-10 Redfin markets as a percentage of real estate services revenue.

Year	Percentage From Top 10 Markets
2017	69%
2018	67%
2019	63%
2020	63%
2021	62%

Source: Redfin

Redfin Competitors

Redfin ranks as the 5th largest brokerage in the U.S. by sales volume in 2021.

And here's the data for top U.S. brokerage sales volume.

Brokerage	2021 Sales Volume
Compass	254 billion
Realogy (Anywhere)	244 billion
HomeServices of America	199 billion
eXp Realty	156 billion
Redfin	56 billion
Douglas Elliman	51 billion
Howard Hanna Real Estate	37 billion
Weichert Realtors	26 billion
HomeSmart	25 billion
AtWorld	26 billion

Source: RealEstateAlmanac

Redfin ranks as the 6th largest brokerage by the number of transaction sides.

Here's a closer look at the number of sides closed by the company's competitors.

Brokerage	2021 Transaction Sides
eXp Realty	444,367
HomeServices of America	388,098
Realogy Brokerage Group	371,135
Compass	225,272
Howard Hanna Real Estate	125,482
Redfin	76,680
Weichert Realtors	65,700
HomeSmart	56,600
United Real Estate	48,840
At World	43,538

Source: RealEstateAlmanac

How Many People Work at Redfin?

Redfin Employees

Redfin serves more than 100 markets across the U.S. & Canada and employs over 6,000 people. In 2021 they had 6,485 employees, a 54.96% increase over the previous year. Since 2017, Redfin’s workforce has grown by 1.68x.

Mid-2022 update: On June 14, 2022, Redfin let go of 8 percent of its staff, approximately 500 people, both agents and support roles. This follows a 2 percent staff layoff in January of 2021.

Here is a table showing how many people work for Redfin.

Year	Number of Redfin Employees
2017	2,422
2018	2,993
2017	3,377
2018	2,993
2019	3,377
2020	4,185
2021	6,485

Source: Macrotrends

Redfin Agents

Redfin works with two kinds of real estate agents.

Lead agents are full-time employees who earn W2 wages and benefits. The company calculates lead agent headcount by taking the number of lead agents at the end of each month and then averaging that number over the year. Although this number has gone up and down, Redfin has seen an increase from 1,023 to 1,451 lead agents, a 42% increase since 2017.

Partner agents are contractors at other brokerages who receive leads from the company and share in the proceeds of commissions earned (splits). Redfin develops thees relationships to fill high demand or overcome geographic limitations. The number of partner agents has also increased from 3,200 in 2017 to 10,700 in 2021, a 234% increase since 2017.

In the chart below, you can see that growth in the number of partner agents has outpaced the growth of lead agents.

Here is the headcount for lead agents since 2017.

Year	Avg. Number of Lead Agents
2017	1,023
2018	1,390
2019	503
2020	453
2021	1,451

And the headcount for partner agents since 2017.

Year	Number of Partner Agents
2017	3,200
2018	3,000
2019	3,600
2020	6,800
2021	10,700

Source: Redfin

Interesting fact: Redfin agents earned a median income of $112,200 in 2020, more than double the median of $49,700 for traditional agents.

Conclusion

That’s it for my 2022 roundup of Redfin.

The real estate brokerage is showing steady growth in revenue, properties, agents, and more, despite not having reached profitability.

Being the 4th most visited real estate website and 5th largest broker by sales volume in the U.S., there’s no doubt that Redfin is a major player when it comes to real estate.

Now I’m curious to see what you think:

Do you think Redfin will continue to grow revenues and capture more of the real estate market in the future? Do you think they can achieve profitability any time soon?

Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts below.