Glenn Kelman, the longtime CEO of Redfin and one of the most recognizable leaders in the U.S. real estate industry, is stepping down.
Kelman’s departure comes six months after Redfin completed its $1.75 billion acquisition to Rocket Companies. His last day is Friday.
“Redfin just completed our first phase as a Rocket company, integration,” Kelman wrote in an email to employees that he also posted on LinkedIn. “We’ll start the second, much-longer phase at next week’s all-company meeting, which is much-greater scale. Approaching that, I had to decide whether to be at Rocket for years.”
Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna will run Redfin until the company finds a permanent new leader. Kelman will remain in an advisory role through April 1.
“Instead, I want to try finding another mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate,” Kelman wrote. “I’m grateful that Rocket has turned out to be such a good owner of Redfin, and that Varun has been such a kind leader.”
Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin in July brought together the nation’s largest mortgage lender with the tech-enabled Seattle-based real estate brokerage. The deal valued Redfin at more than double its market capitalization prior to the acquisition’s public announcement in March 2025.
In an email to staff, obtained by GeekWire, Krishna described Redfin as the “front door to Rocket.”
“We are betting big on Redfin’s future,” he wrote in the memo. “More investment in brand, hiring, traffic growth, and innovation. We will aggressively play to win, with the full strength of Rocket behind this team.”
Krishna added: “Redfin is on the precipice of one of the most exciting transformations in its history, and we’re leaning into it.”
Kelman joined Redfin in 2005, a year after it launched, and helped guide the company from a small Seattle startup into a nationally known real estate brokerage and technology platform. Redfin went public in 2017 in a deal that valued the company at $1.73 billion.
Known for his candid communication style, Kelman frequently spoke publicly about housing affordability, agent compensation, and the structural challenges facing the real estate market. In recent years, he oversaw workforce reductions and cost-cutting measures as higher interest rates slowed home sales and forced real estate tech companies to recalibrate growth expectations.
“Glenn pioneered home search as we know it today and transformed a visionary startup into the Redfin we know today,” Rocket said in a statement to GeekWire. “He built a company that saved thousands of homeowners money and made the American Dream more accessible. We wish Glenn well in his next chapter.”
In his note to employees — titled “Unemployed, In Greenland” — Kelman said he’ll look for a “mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate” for his next opportunity.
He described Redfin as “the only real estate company to take full responsibility for our customers, from click to keys.”
“For most of Redfin’s history, our website expansion was slowed by our brokerage, and our brokerage expansion was slowed by employing our agents,” he wrote. “But standing behind our service was always worthwhile. Now with portals, lenders and brokers racing to stitch together their services, our patient approach has turned out to be the best way to help people all the way home.”
Redfin grew revenue by 7% in 2024 to $1.04 billion, with a net loss of $164.8 million, up from $130 million in 2023. Its stock had fallen more than 30% in the month leading up to the acquisition announcement in March.
Detroit-based Rocket Companies went public in 2020. In addition to mortgage lending products, Rocket also sells personal loans and other fintech offerings. Last year Rocket acquired mortgage lender Mr. Cooper Group in a $9.4 billion stock deal.
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