Redfin Lays Off Dozens of Workers as Housing Market Stalls

Redfin, after losing tens of millions of dollars last spring, is cutting more than 80 workers because of a slowing housing market.

The Seattle-based discount brokerage firm, an outlier for hiring agents as employees, has shed 82 people in a “targeted layoff” this week, the Seattle Times reported, citing a spokesperson.

The company laid off some workers this week, while others will stay on for several more weeks, Redfin spokeswoman Alina Ptaszynski told the newspaper in an email.

Redfin ended last year with roughly 4,700 employees, with the laid-off employees making up less than 2 percent of the company workforce.

The brokerage reported a net loss of nearly $28 million in the second quarter ending in June, a 2 percent increase from a year earlier.

The layoffs will mostly affect the firm’s Concierge service, which helps people prepare their homes for sale, along with support staff and sales managers, Redfin said. The job cuts were first reported by GeekWire.

Redfin plans to “decentralize” its Concierge service, according to the Times. Other cuts are part of a larger shift at the company.

Unlike most brokerages, Redfin has hired agents as employees rather than as independent contractors, paying them a base salary along with bonuses. But over the past year, the company launched and expanded Redfin Next, shifting pay entirely to commissions in some markets, including Seattle.

As Redfin hires more agents under that new model and the company’s “current agents become more entrepreneurial and self-sufficient, Redfin needs less support and managerial staff,” Ptaszynski told the Times.

Some laid-off staffers will be offered jobs as agents, the company said. Redfin employed about 1,800 agents nationwide last year.

— Dana Bartholomew