Redfin Real Estate

Redfin's business model of showing homes to clients then offering rebates, creates a situation where any unqualified buyer can call to see a listing, then just not show up. As a listing agent, my clients have been burned MANY times by Redfin agents making appointments, then just not showing, or their "customers" not showing, because they have no relationship with them. They need to appreciate that with a listing that is occupied, the sellers often go through a lot of hassle to prep for an appointment then leave the property. This gives the entire industry a bad rep. more

Couldn't agree more with the earlier post of why REDFIN sucks. They have to offer discounts and incentives just to get business. They have a huge SEO machine to get rankings and search engine visibility, but the fact of the matter they have agents who simply cannot make it in real estate! Bad negotiating, most agents are rejects from other brokerages and could'nt make it on their own. more

My list. My agent had our names spelled incorrectly on the contract. Really! Clueless at best. An addendum to exclude certain people from the contract (friends, 2 on honeymoon, out of the country) who'd expressed interest in the home before the listing took weeks to create. In comparison, our realtor in another contract added this to the original listing agreement. How long does it take to write 1 sentences and names provided? We'd asked that certain plants from deceased family members be excluded from landscaping. While the agent could change something as important as correcting the spelling of our names she stated she could not add wording where there was a blank line for such - Exclusions. Again, 40+ years of buying and selling houses, this is the first real estate agent that has not been "able" to add an exclusion, cross something out, or make a change. Let alone, other agents have helped find what should be changed for the party they are representing and who is paying them. While the agent encouraged us not to be in the house during a showing, after less than 4 days on the market we'd already had something stolen from the home. Maybe hidden "game trail cameras" and webcams are the route to go with who they let into our home. Despite saying they are a full service broker they are not, no where near the service provided by others. Agent was happy the potential buyer came up $15k. Duh, really, what we're looking at and what really matters is the offer price, not how much they came up from an initial low ball. Asked for how many realtors came to the realtor open house. Asked again. 3 "that's pretty good". Right, were they Redfin agents? What firm? Don't want their names, just credible answers. Why does everything we request addendum for friends, exclusion of plants from deceased family member, number of agents coming to realtor open house, etc. take repeated requests and weeks? Simple, this Redfin agent does not care. more

Ok, so very long story short, my wife and I thought we found our dream home! Listed for $375,000 beautiful large yard, one story, 2,350 sqft, big master bath, etc. The home is in a rural area so I could commute to work but get away at the end of the day. After researching the pro's and con's of using Redfin, I decided to call up one of their agents, Sara, and explained that I had found a great home. She seemed very optimistic that things would go well so I gave her all my info and offer price and we submitted that day...and it got accepted! Sara had instructed me to put in an inspection contingency but what she didn't do....and I later found out she should have known, is include a septic contingency. A friends realtor later showed me the "Agent Version" of the listing which clearly identifies the home as being on septic. Sara did not pay attention to this and I did not make my inspector aware that the home is on septic. In fact, she wasn't even there for the inspection. It turns out the the tank and drainage area where in complete shambles. A week after moving in, we had to move out because the home and yard flooded with sewage. Our insurance is covering most of the damages and we are living with relatives. Total nightmare. Moral of the story is that the agent did not know or care about the property. She sat behind her desk and pushed papers. I feel now that if we had used a real broker, they would have paid more attention to our sale. Sara and her manager have never even apologized and don't even think they would claim responsibility! I saved like $2K but will have spent almost $30,000 before this is over. Horrible. more

Redfin's service stinks because their agents hate working there. Would you like working for a company that goes out of its way to find reasons not to pay you? I know agents who say if a survey of the service (ranked from 1-10) comes back less than an 8, they get $0. Can you imagine working a commission job for $0!? Sure they make a salary of $2500 per month but who cares? A traditional agent makes at least 50% of the 3% commission. On a 500k house, that's at least $7500. A redfin agent makes $700...only if the survey comes back 9 or 10. They work 70-80 hours per week, sometimes for what works out to be less than minimum wage. They have taken away vacation days earned without offering to pay, even after not allowing vacations for months at a time. The good agents are trying like hell to get out of Redfin leaving the new agent, happy just to have a job or completely unmotivated agents that realize they can't control the entire transaction from inspections to lenders etc. that might affect the survey...and thus make nothing for their efforts. Most companies realize that if their employees are unhappy,service will suffer. Redfin is obviously ok with this. They shine at providing you with the tools to find your house yourself. But they forget that an agent still has to walk you thru the process and contract. Their actions indicate they don't want good agents. I highly recommend you look elsewhere. There are other discount realtors out there, and traditional agents as well. The check Redfin writes you at the end of the transaction is not worth the pain of getting there. Find an agent happy with their job. That agent is not working at Redfin. more

Redfin are bunch of idiots… useless agents that do NO work for you, their forums riddled with idiots and biased, unfair moderators who think being attacked by other posters and trying to defend yourself is inappropriate, etc etc etc… Don’t waste your time using this crap service or website….go to a real agency and get a real agent…you get what you pay for…..using discount garbage to get a home is NOT a wise thing to do. more

If you think you are saving money with redfin, you are wrong. They are NOT a full service company. Sure they will give you back some of the commission on your purchase but some full service agents will do that for you anyway if you insist on it. JUST ASK! The other thing is these guys are basically office people. They fax over your offer and send you the response. They don't really negotiate on your behalf. You could potentially save WAY more money with an agent who is a professional negotiator. Easiest way to tell is to search for an agent that is CNE trained. That designation means the agent is a Certified Negotiations Expert. Only 1% of agent are CNE so they are hard to find but a CNE agent will save you way more with good negotiation than redfin will with their kickback, and if you find a full service CNE agent that will also give you a kickback then you get the best of both worlds. Don't settle for redfin! They are not all they are cracked out to be. more

I love Redfin's website and use it all the time. However their customer service sucks. I tried three times to arrange a home tour and they never called me back. If they are that busy, why can't they have the courtesy to at least tell you that they are too busy to help you. more