RedFin for Buying a House

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We worked with one of the big real estate companies around here in Arlington and were able to negotiate 1% rebate of the purchase price at closing. All you have to do is tell them that you will go with one of the discount brokers who will rebate 1.5%. It's a market people and you will get better service from a full service broker on both ends, but it certainly isn't twice as good.

Having dealt with individuals represented by Redfin agents when selling a house I would never do it again if at all possible, i.e now when multiple offers are more common - completely tacky lowball offer (10% off) when the house had been on the market a week. No thank you

Were you buying a new place and selling your home at the same time? I guess what I'm asking is did they drop from 6% to 5% (you're both buying and selling w/them) or 3% to 2% (only buying)?

[Anonymous]

Pp, the issue was the lowball offer. Not the online realtor.

Yes, but a good realtor would have helped the buyers write a better offer. So those buyers were not served well by their online brokerage.

[Anonymous]

write a better offer!? you mean how all the lazy realtors ask you right away "what's your max?" riiight.

most people bring in RedFin after they know what they're going to bid on, often 24 hours notice.

DC area realtors should try to work in Canada or NYC- buyers run around with spreadsheets of comps, notes from speaking with neighbors, general contractors ready for a view, etc. Sadly, I haven't met many realtors around here that can deal with intelligent, value-driven buyers who have an investment mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote::shrug: we used Redfin in a competitive situation and we still got the house. We used Redfin since we knew our neighborhood and had been watching the market online for years. We loved working with Redfin.

So did we. The fear mongering comes from those 'full service' agents who want to save their commissions. How many of those agents did I meet in the past, that could not answer any detailed questions about a listing, gave bad advice, and sent automated listings with zero useful information that were not even close to the type of properties we wanted to see... Too many.

Yes, there are great full service agents out there that can do out of the ordinary transactions and deserve what they earn, but too many don't. So I'm sorry I won't fall for the line: "but most agents just don't like to play with the Redfin agents, beware!". It is such a sorry excuse for that supposed full service agent's inaptitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Pp, the issue was the lowball offer. Not the online realtor.

Yes, but a good realtor would have helped the buyers write a better offer. So those buyers were not served well by their online brokerage.

As if there are never lowball offers by regular agents? You know nothing about this situation - maybe the buyers loved the house and it was slightly over their max so the thought they'd give it a shot to see if the sellers wanted to offload it quickly. I don't get when people think offers are rude or "tacky" - its what the buyer would pay for your house. If you don't want to sell it for that, then negotiate or say no. Getting all huffy about it as if it's a personal affront is weird.

[Anonymous]

Lowball isnt tacky its smart business strategy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Pp, the issue was the lowball offer. Not the online realtor.

Yes, but a good realtor would have helped the buyers write a better offer. So those buyers were not served well by their online brokerage.

Well, you apparently dealth with them (as in didnt; dismiss the offer out of hand) - so why was it a bad move again? Because you didn't get your (likely inflated) asking price?

[Anonymous]

Lowball is 20% off asking price. 10% below list is not.

Most things around here sell for 5-10% below list price, especially in the over $1.0-1.7m property range.
So don't slam a couple who bids right away at the fair value. With an unrealistic attitude it will simply take you longer and longer to sell your property. I frankly feel bad for you, your realtor probably told you to "keep waiting", months later you probably sold to someone else for the same price, fair value.

[Anonymous]

Having just bought a house in MD at about the same price point, I would recommend NOT using a realtor on the buyside at all. Find a good real estate attorney that will do the only complicated part of the deal (the paperwork) and rebates you the fee and avoid all the noise a buyside agent generates.... Particularly if you're looking in the $1MM+ range which is much less competitive in today's market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great feedback. Thanks. Can you just negotiate to get commission back from a realtor? So if we see say less than five houses get half the commission as a rebate. An do a scale so that if we do end up taking up a ton o time they get full commission. I we do deal quickly they get less. Anyone tried this?

Yes--we did this. And it worked out GREAT. We worked with an agent from a 'known' company and all she had to do was get permission from the main broker.

You should know thatagents don' really like working with Redfin agemts. so if you are looking in a competitive market where there are multiple offers using a Redfin agent does hurt your chances of getting the house. And on the flip side, other agents might not want to show your house to their clients if they see its a redfin agent. however, in this day and age with most folks using redfin and frankly mls to find their houses, its not really up to the agent anyway as to which houses to show

but you should know that you can find agents who will negotiate their commisson with you (but you do have to give on some of the premium services--i.e. you may not get the glossy brochure or the open house every weekend type thign. but you will get standard service.

Question, since you're a realtor-why don't you like working with Redfin agents?

I'm totally not a realtor....I just bought and sold a house in a competitive market in this area... I don't think agents are that necessary in this day and age. But, I do think its important to go in eyes wide open that at some point, having the local agent willng to take the lower comission may be better than the Redfin agent with the lower commission who doesn't have the local network/connections. I have no skin in this game. Just presenting my own experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lowball is 20% off asking price. 10% below list is not.

Most things around here sell for 5-10% below list price, especially in the over $1.0-1.7m property range.
So don't slam a couple who bids right away at the fair value. With an unrealistic attitude it will simply take you longer and longer to sell your property. I frankly feel bad for you, your realtor probably told you to "keep waiting", months later you probably sold to someone else for the same price, fair value.

Competitive houses sell for list even above 1mm in this area. Only those lying around for a while (poorly priced or clunker) sell for 5-10% less. There is typically a good reason they are lying around for a while and there fore sell for 10% less..

[Anonymous]

Other agents may not like working with Redfin since they feel their old school business model is threatened. If everyone caves into the idea that old school agents can put down competition then that only hurts the consumer. That is the reason Redfin and other models even exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great feedback. Thanks. Can you just negotiate to get commission back from a realtor? So if we see say less than five houses get half the commission as a rebate. An do a scale so that if we do end up taking up a ton o time they get full commission. I we do deal quickly they get less. Anyone tried this?

Yes--we did this. And it worked out GREAT. We worked with an agent from a 'known' company and all she had to do was get permission from the main broker.

You should know thatagents don' really like working with Redfin agemts. so if you are looking in a competitive market where there are multiple offers using a Redfin agent does hurt your chances of getting the house. And on the flip side, other agents might not want to show your house to their clients if they see its a redfin agent. however, in this day and age with most folks using redfin and frankly mls to find their houses, its not really up to the agent anyway as to which houses to show

but you should know that you can find agents who will negotiate their commisson with you (but you do have to give on some of the premium services--i.e. you may not get the glossy brochure or the open house every weekend type thign. but you will get standard service.

Question, since you're a realtor-why don't you like working with Redfin agents?

[Anonymous]

RedFin stands for transparency, technology and alignment of interests. Full fee realtors in the US do not.

Frankly I hope RedFin does very well, goes public and I'll buy the stock.

6% all-in agent fees just do not work in flat markets and I'm surprised America put up with it for so long. Nowadays it's causing people not to list/sell their houses, not to move, and it's causing utter desperation and questionable behavior amongst full fee realtors and their lobby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was an article in the Economist magazine last week about why realtors don't like working with discount websites or buyers directly. It is all about protecting their inflated commissions. The big real estate companies and the state commissions collude to push out any buyers or sellers outside their system. In the US realtors get 6% commission, but the rest of the world is 2 or 3%- even London, Tokyo, etc. The online databases should help buyers and sellers connect without paying the middleman, but the middlemen are doing everything they can to make it as difficult as possible to avoid them.

Read this article too. Having worked internationally - it is so true.

[Anonymous]

From Australia ... Average 2-3% commissions ... And the market has been booming.
http://www.irec.com.au/index.php?c=4