Flipping hard: Redfin's home-buying business is shutting down

11/10/22 7:00PM

Real-estate brokerage Redfin announced on Wednesday that they would be sunsetting their home-flipping business, RedfinNow, and joining the long list of companies with layoffs, cutting 13% of their workforce.

‍Flipping hard

‍If you binge-watched home-renovation TV shows during the pandemic, you might have been tempted to get into home-flipping. The idea, of course, is simple enough: buy, renovate and then sell — hopefully for more than you paid.

‍Redfin launched their home-flipping venture in 2017, buying and selling thousands of homes over the last few years, competing with the likes of Opendoor and Zillow. The model worked — to varying extents — thanks to rock-bottom interest rates and the hot US housing market. In fact, data from ATTOM shows that home flipping sales represented 9.6% of all home sales in the first quarter of this year.

But now, with mortgage rates hitting 7%, the market is starting to turn. An increasing number of home-sellers are dropping prices, leaving Redfin and others with considerable inventory on their books that they can’t shift, and that they’ve likely already spent thousands on fixing up.

Since their respective peaks in Feb '21, Opendoor shares are down 94%, Zillow's have shed 83% and Redfin stock is down 95%. Even with access to millions of data points on what makes houses valuable, home-flipping is really, really hard.

J. Edward Moreno11/4/25

Starbucks sells control of China business for $4 billion

Starbucks disclosed on Monday evening in a regulatory filing that it will sell control of its ailing China business to Boyu Capital for about $4 billion.

Under the agreement, Boyu will own a 60% stake in the China segment, which will become a joint venture between Boyu and Starbucks. The coffee chain will retain a 40% interest in the entity and will continue to own and license the brand and intellectual property.

Bloomberg reported earlier this year that the company was looking to sell its China segment. The American coffee giant has struggled to succeed in China, its second-largest market after the US.

Tom Jones

10/6/25

OPEC and others are boosting oil production as the race to catch up with the US goes on

This month’s 137,000-barrel-a-day boost is a little more modest than some expected.

Millie Giles

RED FLAG, GREEN FLAG

9/25/25

China, the world’s largest carbon polluter, has pledged to cut emissions for the first time

President Xi Jinping has announced that China is aiming to slash carbon emissions by up to 10% in the next decade.

solar power station on the rooftop of the factory

Claire Yubin Oh9/19/25

John Wayne Airport in Orange County tops the list of North America’s favorite airports

Despite a record year of passenger numbers, flight cancellations, and delays, a new survey has revealed that flyers have been increasingly satisfied about their experiences in North American airports.

According to this year’s North America Airport Satisfaction Study from data analysts at J.D. Power, overall passenger satisfaction scores were up 10 points (on a 1,000-point scale), largely from “improvements in food, beverage and retail and ease of travel through the airport.” The annual survey measures overall traveler satisfaction across the region’s airports in seven categories (in order of importance): ease of travel, level of trust, terminal facilities, airport staff, airport departure experience, food and retail, and airport arrival experience.

Here are the region’s favorites:

Millie Giles

DOT-COM BUBBLE

9/12/25

More than 40% of American adults now report being online “almost constantly”

While a new survey showed Japan has the greatest share of perpetually online people, there was a significant number reporting not using the internet at all.

Flipping hard: Redfin's home-buying business is shutting down

More World

Starbucks sells control of China business for $4 billion

John Wayne Airport in Orange County tops the list of North America’s favorite airports

Latest Stories