Redfin: One more nail in the coffin of the wealthy Bay Area real estate agent

Redfin, the online real estate company that wants to let you buy a home and undercut real estate agent fees, has raised $8 million in venture capital — and, as mentioned before, is expanding to the San Francisco Bay Area.

There are a host of new Web-only real estate sites out there, but these guys are actually putting people on the ground, including four in the Bay Area (not many, but it is understandable for a young company, and especially since most of the activity will be happening online anyway).

Redfin is based in Seattle. John Cook, the leading blogger about venture capital stuff up there, has more details in this post.

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Investors include Madrona Venture Group, BEV Capital, The Hillman Co. and Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

We at the Mercury News wrote a piece a couple of weeks ago about the threat Redfin poses to traditional real estate agents, by helping you pocket two-thirds of the commission that normally goes to them.

We first mentioned Redfin a year ago, when they were early to combine satellite maps and MLS homes data.