Redfin Announces Layoffs In Latest SEC Filing

Citing a drop-off in user demand, Redfin has announced it is joining Compass and a host of other real estate companies in executing layoffs, effective today.

Per the company’s latest SEC filing, Redfin will layoff 8 percent of its workforce, or about 6 percent if you include the RentPath and Bay Equity. In a company blog post, CEO Glenn Kelman pointed to a drop in demand as the driver behind the decision.

“To all the departing people who put your faith in Redfin, I’m sorry we can’t keep our commitment to you,” Kelman wrote. “With May demand 17 percent below expectations, we don’t have enough work for our agents and support staff, and fewer sales leaves us with less money for headquarters projects.

“A layoff is always an awful shock, especially when I’ve said that we’d go through heck to avoid one, and that we raised hundreds of millions of dollars so we wouldn’t have to shed people after just a few months of uncertainty,” Kelman continued. “But mortgage rates increased faster than at any point in history. We could be facing years, not months, of fewer home sales, and Redfin still plans to thrive. If falling from $97 per share to $8 doesn’t put a company through heck, I don’t know what does.”

The company noted that laid-off team members will be offered 10 weeks of base salary, with an additional week of pay for every 12 months of service beyond one year, capped at 15 weeks of additional pay.