I had a chance to talk to Mark Sennott, President of Home Gift, this week. Home Gift is an affinity marketer much like MBNA. MBNA started as a credit card marketing division of the old Maryland National Bank. Their model was to offer credit cards to alumni association members that were “branded” as the official card. MBNA then rebated a portion of their income to the alumni association. Joe College felt good about racking up the old debt because he was supporting State U.
It was a wildly successful idea. It was so successful that MBNA spun-off from Maryland National Bank in 1991 in a public offering.. They grew to a 12% market share of all credit card customers before being bought by Bank of America in 2005.
Enter Mark Sennott. His company offers a consumer access to a network of real estate agents and mortgage companies who are...
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Brian,
Thanks for the post. I had not taken the time to read up on Redfin. Thanks for a well written and concise overview. I review the concept more. After all we pay referral fees for business we otherwise would not have had.
Hey, who's that handsome guy up in the corner wearing the Sellsius shirt?
Home Gift sounds like another lead aggravator to me, adding zero to the transaction but skimming a nice referral fee right off the top. And for all of their supposed charitable intentions, it appears as if the consumers who participate don't have to donate a dime of their rebate to charity. Nor does it appear as if Home Gift donates any of their cut (which they conveniently don't advertise what their cut is) to charity. No thanks.