Redfin

 

11

44

Melissa K.

Sunland, CA

11/18/2009

At last!  I bought my first home!  After a year of searching for the right place I finally found it and Redfin helped me the throughout the entire process!

Redfin is all about teamwork, this means from the start--you do your homework.  Realtors from Redfin are not a "full service" real estate agency but who cares?  You are going to live in the prospective home, you should do the homework (crime rates, proximity to rail road tracks, stuff you care about) anyhow.  Redfin real estate agent don't preview homes but in my opinion, who cares?  Even if you see a house that is a total piece of sh*t you either 1.) learn about some qualities that you don't want to see in a home or 2.) buy the fixer.  For a discount brokerage I think you get every pennies worth with Redfin.  They are fast, efficient and don't try to pressure you into buying a home that is outside your price range or style.

By the way, for a "discount brokerage" I got 6300 bucks towards my closing costs--which pretty much covered it.  

Yes, the communication is primarily by e-mail (except when making appointments with a scheduling agent) but it beats all the day time phone calls racking up on your bill.  

My Redfin agent was Joyti Goundar, she is a dream to work with.  The seller's agent that she had to deal with was a NIGHTMARE.  The seller's agent was dumb as rocks and a spaz.  If I was in Joyti's position I would have been sticking a pen in my eye but Joyti remained calm and patient.  Joyti is professional, competent, and prompt to respond to your questions.  Sara, her assistant with transactions, is just as great!  They work so well together!

The only downside is that I didn't get to meet Joyti but hopefully she'll make it to the house-warming party!  :)

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2

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kevin w.

Huntington Beach, CA

11/20/2008

We found redfin when trying to do some home research before getting a realtor.  We were worried about getting a realtor because we didn't want to be pressured into buying what was available on the market at that time.  And in this market, there's not a whole lot on the market because no one is selling unless they have too.  Out of all the real estate websites, redfin has the smoothest interface and the most features.  

First let me explain the redfin business model.  After understanding it, the way things work makes a lot more sense.  There are no commissions like a traditional realtor makes.  The employees get a flat rate per transaction or are hourly (Read: no pressure).  There are several types of jobs that I was exposed to.  There are the back office people who confirm your offer, visits, and assign you a realtor, the licensed realtor who handles the communication with the seller's realtor, the processor who handles the paperwork and scheduling, and finally the people who show you the property.  All of these people work as _your_ team, starting from the point you request to see a property...which is kind of cool.  What I didn't realize until one of them told me, was that the majority of the employees work from home.  This is a true http://post-.com era company that is net centric, low overhead and very web 2.0.  Probably the most popular thing about redfin is that because of their low costs, they can give back a portion of their sales commission which gets paid by the seller of the home.  We got 2/3 of the redfin commission which in our case was 2.5% of the sales price of the home.  The sales commission varies by the listing agent and so the website quotes your rebate as 2/3 of 3% of the listing price of the home and so chances are it will be a bit lower.   One of the catches when we were looking was that you could only see 2 homes for free.  After that, you have to pay $250 per visit.  This makes sense given that they have to pay their employees to come out and show you the house for 2 hours each time.  But recently they changed their business model to allow for unlimited home visits.  To make up for the potential for higher costs, they lowered their sales commission rebate to 1/2 instead of 2/3.  One caveat is that redfin takes a minimum sales commission of $4000.  So if you buy a $50K condo in compton between the train tracks and a halfway house, the commission is so low you'll be paying them.  Finally, redfin doesn't do short sales. Most short sales take at least 3 months if not more and that means they're paying their staff for 90 days without income.  A lot of times the banks will end up auctioning the house anyways.

The easiest way for me to describe your experience is for me to describe mine.  The slick interface on the website gives you access to _most_ of the MLS.  A lot of realtors these days have MLS access on their websites now and there are a couple other web 2.0 online realty sites as well.  The basic concept is all the same, these websites download the updates from the regional MLS's periodically and update their site to reflect it.  I have a friend who has access to the actual southern california MLS and redfin was always 1 day behind that(which is not bad).  I say you have access to most of the MLS data because each MLS restricts what can be publicly shown.  The big one for me was the infamous short sale status.  Also missing is the agent private comments.  

The first interaction after research is likely the viewing the home feature.  Unlike researching, you must register (free) for this feature.  Expect a call within a couple hours from a back office staffer in their main office in Seattle to call to confirm the house is not a short sale and to make sure you're not a 10 year old kid playing on dad's laptop.  A couple hours after that, you get a call from a home "show-er" who lives in your area.  These people's job are very simple, the meet you at the houses you want to see and open them up.  Each home view session can last up to 2 hours and you can probably do 4-5 houses in that time.  Nothing against the show-ers but these people don't care whether you like the house or not and they will be brutally honest (a feature!).  After the home tour, there's so little pressure that you feel guilty.  The reality is that the home show-er got paid to show it to you, you got a no-hassle home tour and redfin just made a good impression so that you come back for more.

So when you find the right home, you start the offer wizard.  It will warn you against putting in an offer more than 10% below asking.  They also tell you that you will need to provide a pre-qualification/approval letter from a bank for an amount up to your purchase price. It's important to know that you're not really submitting an offer, just a draft which you talk about with a realtor.  

Oops, I'm at the 5000 character limit, message me if you want more info or just try it...it's free.

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3

22

Mathew N.

Culver City, CA

12/3/2008

The old realtor model is outdated and Redfin is the future.  

With Redfin, you research your own properties online but once you find one a Redfin agent takes it from there.  I really don't feel like I lost anything by not using a traditional realtor and I appreciated that all of the Redfin staff are low-key and low-pressure.  I received about $10,000 back on my purchase.

While some may see it as a disadvantage to communicate with your realtor via e-mail, I found this to be a huge advantage because I would often receive a response to questions within minutes of sending an e-mail.  

Specifically I had a couple of bumps along the way that the agent helped me with.  Negotiations over repairs to the property almost derailed the whole transaction but my agent negotiated and go me what I wanted.  I had lots of trouble with my bank but Joyti helped me in making calls and being persistent in getting the problems taken care of.  

I must admit that I was reticent about the service in the beginning but I having completed my transaction I feel like I was in very good hands along the way.

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