why on earth use a realtor v. redfin?

[Anonymous]

The realtors I have spoken to or tried to work with make me do all the work (researching distances from metro, schools, etc.) and only put the zip codes into MLS and send me daily listings.

If I am going to do all the work (my budget is nowhere near big enough to catch anyone's attention I guess) why wouldn't I just use Redfin?

Am I missing something here?

[Anonymous]

No you aren't missing anything. They seem to think they add value during negotiations but I'm not quite so sure. Just use Redfin and spend more deliberation on the price, contingencies you want to offer/waive.

[Anonymous]

I used a traditional realtor when buying my first home but honestly I was the one who found the final two homes I wanted to out in offers on and the home fab to ended up buying. My realtor was great but if I were to buy again I wouldn't hesitate to go Redfin. My cousin used Redfin and was very pleased. We are both under $500k budgets fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Argh typos!

[Anonymous]

And the realtor we were working with has taken awhile to respond to requests and basically only seems to serve the purposes of adding the zip codes I tell her to add to the MLS daily updates.

Seems silly to deliberately make yourself a dinosaur.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the market you're in. Feeling like you OP we tried to buy with Redfin for about a year. Switched to a realtor, still no success; finally switched to *the* hot realtor in our neighborhood, had a house in 2 weeks. The realtor did nothing but provide relationships and that's the big thing Redfin lacks. (For now at least. I hope that the chokehold realtors have on the market will begin to subside as Redfin gets more popular. )

[Anonymous]

In most markets, Redfin will be perfectly fine. We bought (successfully) in a very hot neighborhood. Would not have been able to win without her expert advice.

[Anonymous]

We kept saying the same thing after we started using a realtor, but in the end, the house we bought was one that she sent us saying "this would be perfect for you".

[Anonymous]

We loved our realtor and don't know anyone who has gone the redfin route. The only place I hear about people using redfin is here, and I can't help but be skeptical.

[Anonymous]

We met with Redfin and a traditional agent when we sold/bought last year. Was not impressed with the Redfin pitch, and I think they emphasize the commission savings in lieu of maximizing your sale price.

The agent was able to recommend cheap, but effective changes we could make before going on the market, and then did a great job marketing our home. In the end, we sold at a significantly higher price than the Redfin agent suggested, and came out ahead even factoring in the higher commission.

I'm not a fan of real estate agents in general, but I do think an experienced agent does add value.

[Anonymous]

There is value in experience. Don't go for some agent who just does this part-time. Our agent was previously a CPA so he understood business and finance, and he had done a lot of transactions. His skills were extremely valuable when we were buying a short sale as that can get really complicated.

For finding properties, online sites can work fine -- no need for an agent for that.

[Anonymous]

In the same vein as all of the Ebola threads this RedFin vs. traditional agent argument has been done over and over ad nauseum on this board.

Jeff either needs to shut down the "Real Estate and Home Improvement" thread and re-name it the "RedFin" thread or stop this ridiculousness.

Too many conscientious FULL time agents give actual advice to people on this board only to get slammed by people wanting rebates or to people who think they know the business but do not.

I have never seen a comment on here from a RedFin agent, ever.

The traditional agent hater is just someone who hates agents for whatever reason, who is promoting an agency that has not, and will not make traction in neighborhoods where people are looking for and depend on white glove service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the same vein as all of the Ebola threads this RedFin vs. traditional agent argument has been done over and over ad nauseum on this board.

Jeff either needs to shut down the "Real Estate and Home Improvement" thread and re-name it the "RedFin" thread or stop this ridiculousness.

Too many conscientious FULL time agents give actual advice to people on this board only to get slammed by people wanting rebates or to people who think they know the business but do not.

I have never seen a comment on here from a RedFin agent, ever.

The traditional agent hater is just someone who hates agents for whatever reason, who is promoting an agency that has not, and will not make traction in neighborhoods where people are looking for and depend on white glove service.

Sorry agent, does your broker make you click on Redfin links to keep abreast of your competition? Tragic.

[Anonymous]

Redfin has the best site for checking listings. No other compares. If I were Redfin, I'd sell ads on the site to make money off all the browsers! JK. We used a realtor when we bought this summer. We ended being very disappointed and disgusted by her performance. She did not earn that money. And this was through a well-known, well regarded company and office. Don't know if that means we'd never go with a traditional realtor again, but it does break the spell about realtors giving you such great service that makes them worth the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Redfin has the best site for checking listings. No other compares. If I were Redfin, I'd sell ads on the site to make money off all the browsers! JK. We used a realtor when we bought this summer. We ended being very disappointed and disgusted by her performance. She did not earn that money. And this was through a well-known, well regarded company and office. Don't know if that means we'd never go with a traditional realtor again, but it does break the spell about realtors giving you such great service that makes them worth the money.

There are several houses on the market in my area athat do not appear on RedFin, so that site does not have everything. I was surprised that they were not on the site.