redfin.com Shuts Down Sweet Digs Blogs

Last week redfin.com shut down its Sweet Digs blogs in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and Orange County. These local blogs were a long running experiment in social media for the online brokerage website.

On the Orange County version of the blog, the company announced that rather than vanish altogether, the blogs will undergo changes that include focusing the format “on proprietary, leading-edge indicators of what is happening to home prices”.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman wrote:

“We had initially tried to provide a personal review of individual homes for sale in the area, but as a broker and an MLS member, we were not in an ideal position to be objective about other brokers’ properties. Since Sweet Digs was so local, it was also hard to keep pace with Redfin’s growth across the U.S.”

It’s not the only controversy that has plagued this foray into the blogosphere.

In June 2007, the redfin.com Seattle real estate blog was shut down after agents complained to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service that the home reviews were hurting sales. It returned in a modified state, but will be modified once again with new blogs starting this week.

redfin.com say the new format will largely focus on what they do best: “hard data, delivered in a freakishly compelling way”.

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