OP, in what area are you looking? Many desirable areas are selling without bidding wars/multiple offers. If you are in one of those areas, I think Redfin is fine. If you want something in N. Arlington, I would get a traditional agent.

Well, as an example, if you buy a million dollar house, you'll get about 13k back.

Most banks will allow you to apply this to your closing costs at settlement. Basically, it will cancel out a majority or your closing costs.

How much do they save?

Anonymous wrote:In a good neighborhood, seems like a lot of houses sell themselves. In those same neighborhoods, there are multiple offers on houses, you need to hear about houses before they actually come on the market, etc., so it seems like a regular agent who specializes in specific areas would be more helpful. Yes?

That has been our experience, but we were searching in one of the hottest zip codes in the area. It's hard to know these things, but our agent made it possible to win a significant bidding war. I believe that the fact that we used a well-known agent made our offer more attractive. But again, who knows? For normal transactions (without bidding wars) I think a Redfin agent would be more than adequate, and obviously saves you a lot of money.

Just used them. We had a terrific experience, super easy and got a great credit.

Friend had a great experience , the agent went to each house and did a you tube video .

No problems here with my Redfin agent. I recently bid on a house that I lost but my agent was very proactive and called the listing agent several times to see what kind of settlement period they were looking for.

I think there's some misconception on what "negotiating" really means in this context.

Is it better to use a Redfin seller's agent and then a traditional buyer's agent? In a good neighborhood, seems like a lot of houses sell themselves. In those same neighborhoods, there are multiple offers on houses, you need to hear about houses before they actually come on the market, etc., so it seems like a regular agent who specializes in specific areas would be more helpful. Yes?

We've had a great experience with our Redfin buyer's agent. We did lose out on one bid but we were asking for a pretty long settlement period; so, although the winning bid was less than ours, there was a benefit to picking it.

A week or so later, we did get a house. Also, our Redfin agent has been very helpful in getting the seller's agent and seller to finish up the work that they agreed to do as a result of the home inspection.

Redfin is really perceived to be downmarket. I'm sure like any agency, it has good people and bad -- the experience you have would be entirely individualistic.

That said, if you understand basic economics you can probably understand why Redfin agents probably can't be moved to provide the same level of service you'd get from traditional agents.

No, I'm not an agent.

The agent I used really looked down on them. I'm sure it's because she's protecting her territory, but I would be worried in a competitive market that your offer could find it's way to the bottom of the pile and get little attention if your realtor feels like mine did.

Anonymous wrote:It has been asked recently. Search the archives.

you're SO helpful. pretty much EVERY question on here has been asked before, so I guess we should all just "search the archives" before asking? ass...

No they are great and streamlined meaning they can draw up offers and clauses very quickly electronically.

It has been asked recently. Search the archives.

It hasn't been asked in a while. Any good or bad experiences with Redfin? I am thinking of using them as a buyer's agent.

I'm wondering if the Redfin agents in DC/NOVA/MD would do much negotiating on the buyer's behalf, or if they are just pushing the papers. In this area with crazy low inventory, and people bidding up homes with escalation clauses a lot over listing price, I bet the Redfin agent's job isn't too stressful.

But if Redfin is working based on volume of clients, does the service suffer greatly?