Online brokerage Redfin is trying out a new approach in buyer home tours, in part to mollify criticism from real estate agents unhappy about showing their own listings. (In the traditional real estate world, buyer’s agents typically show a house while seller’s agents list and market it.) Redfin will offer two free home-showing sessions to prospective buyers with a third and fourth tour costing $250 each at closing, according to a release from the Seattle company.

If buyers don’t buy, spokeswoman Cynthia Pang said they don’t end up paying for the tours.

The showings now last two hours, down from the previous three hours. Buyers must bring along a pre-approval letter from a lender demonstrating the ability to purchase.

“Redfin exhaustively surveys every client who attempts to use our service, and the most common request has been more home tours,” Scott Nagel, the company’s vice president of real estate operations, said in the release. “We've also found that three hours was too long for most clients, so by offering shorter tours more frequently we hope to be able to fit our customers' needs better without notably increasing our costs.”

The tour test is expected to run 75 days.