Redfin

We are currently in the process of selling our house with a professional agent, and entertain many buyers with agents weekly.
I enjoy Redfin for their online tools for searching homes
In dealing with a recent buyer with a serious offer, I felt their Redfin agent (or agents) were incapable of guiding their clients properly and dealing with their legit and unjustifiable requests, but instead pushed along, wasting our time and energy. The buyers were definitely in the drivers seat and agent was simply the puppet. Will be careful moving forward accepting offers from RedFin represented clients.

Redfin helped me sell my condo and buy a home. Kim O’Hare was a great seller agent and got my home looking the best it could. She brought in offers in the first week and they were right on target. Steve Polito was a great buyers agent coordinating our purchase of a new home. He was really knowledgeable and has a fantastic support staff to get the inspection and all necessary documents signed digitally to make moving in simple. This is the second time I have used Redfin and will continue to tell my friends and family about the top tier staff and the financial benefits as well.
With regards to the information on their website, they have the most updated info, better than Zillow better than Truila. Read the reviews carefully to be sure you are viewing realtor reviews or website reviews. Redfin realtors are the best!

Redfin is generally more current than Zillow however recently they started providing incorrect information as related to school ratings. I spoke with a Redfin rep that informed me Redfin recently changed third party providers and they are aware of the problem and should have if fixed by the end of year. In my opinion they should turn that feature off until it has been resolved.
I feel it is irresponsible to knowingly provide in accurate information.

Horrible agents! They never return phone calls and could care a less, since they are on a salary they just don’t care I had a Redfin agent who never returned my phone calls and didn’t tell me important things about the property I was buying, will never use them again.

I closed on a condo about 6 months ago and because this was my first purchase of a home, the whole process was new to me. I had lots of questions to ask. My agent from Sotheby’s was amazing and patient with me.
The seller of my place used a Redfin agent, Kameron Eliassian. He was very rude and not professional at all. He wrote an email saying, «I hope you will be happy with our counter offer of 10K more than what you offered.» Why would anyone be happy with that? I found his emails to be provoking a reaction rather than pleasing clients. I later investigated and found out that Redfin agents work off of salary and not commission which is why they don’t really care about customer satisfaction. There is really no motivation for them to go outside of their 9 – 5 day to answer questions or put the client’s needs first.

I am an agent and just did a deal with Rob Brandon. He was fantastic! Yes, I am a fellow agent writing a review for another agent. We had a couple reasonably sized challenges that truly were not related to the agents. He was very professional during the whole process and worked extremely hard to get a resolution. He was successful in getting those issues resolved. He really was the key factor in getting the home sold! Thank you Rob!

My husband and I had just recently been married November 2014 and, due to the apartment situation that we were in (e.g., horrible management, 20% monthly rent increases, horrid neighbors, terrible parking situation, etc.), we ended up deciding to seriously look at a new home by end of November. While we had originally looked at a few things on Trulia and Zillow, it was, personally, much easier for me to check via Redfin on potential new homes than any other website. Through Redfin, we found a condo in Stanton that we were interested in. I clicked a few buttons to schedule a tour, and was immediately called by one of the Redfin staff, who told me that my agent would be Andrew Pollaro.
THE AGENT:
My husband and I first met Andrew at the Stanton condo, and he was there for the majority of the tours I scheduled He is amazing. Very cordial, very professional, and intensely knowledgeable. While we may not have chosen the best areas, or we may not have chosen a very updated condo, he always said very positive things about a place. He was always very honest about things, but wouldn’t say anything bad or negative unless it could be a potential safety risk.
In the end, husband and I ended up being able to close escrow at a condo in Placentia. It is everything that we wanted in our home (for the moment, anyways). From when we first made an offer to when we closed escrow, Andrew made everything as stress-​free as you can possibly have for buying a new home. He was aware that we were first-​time homebuyers, and was always very patient and kind when we asked our questions (and, trust me, there were a LOT of questions). He was very flexible, and would email us information, as that was the best and easiest way to contact us. For things that were urgent, he would, of course, call. But he never ignored an email, a call, or a text, and was always very good in answering ALL questions we had, even when it was likely that he had to answer such questions before. He was great in keeping in contact with our lender and with the seller’s choice of an escrow company, and was constantly giving us updates everyday from the offer process to when we finally closed escrow. Keep in mind that this was the holiday season! He was emailing us on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. Now THAT is commitment.
While we did see other agents during the process of finding a new home, Andrew stood out as being well-​seasoned, confident and, overall, a very good person. We were proud to have him by our side, and have had no regrets going through Redfin to have a fairly pleasant experience of finding our new home.
THE WEBSITE:
As I’ve said before, the Redfin website is very easy to use. Plug in the area you want, the requirements you want (number of bathrooms/​bedrooms, min/​max of HOA, etc.), and search. And, if you choose to put in an offer, you can check out the Deal Room to see how the offer is progressing, as well as any paperwork or tasks that you need to do. Basically, for people who are a little OCD, it keeps you on track.
THE REFUND:
Who doesn’t like a refund? Redfin does not operate on commission and, instead, the agents get a salary so that they don’t have to pressure their clients into purchasing anything. And, if you like your agent a lot, you can write a review to help them get a bonus.
THE PROCESS:
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. It felt very easy and, for the most part, it was just waiting on things, such as the appraisal, inspections, and contingencies, to get processed or passed. My husband and I was able to put in an offer on December 23, got approved by December 26, and we had a 30-​day escrow that closed on time.
WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN?:
With Redfin, probably. If we could have Andrew as our agent, then it is a definite yes. :)

Great service. I’ve been impressed with the agents. they are incredibly helpful:)
Being able to utilize the efficiency and resources of Redfin, while working with agents who are not commission-​based, changes the entire experience.
Gone, should be the days of agents collecting massive commission and pushing sales; the same agents who advised people to purchase homes they could not afford several years ago.
Why would someone work with a pushy agent who’s incentive is to SELL when it comes to one of the biggest investments they will make? Redfin has a great model, not only for getting accurate unbiased information, but also with respect to individualized advice and help with customer decision-​making.
p. s. I’m not sure what the 2011 review was about. there is nothing ‘mediocre’ about this.

Recently experienced a Redfin agent while purchasing a home, the seller used an agent by the name of April Armendariz. Let me say that if I could give her no stars I would.
After the transaction was in process it was very difficult for my agent to get a hold of her often holding up paper work. At some points we caught her in what seemed to be lies. At the end of out transaction conveniently after she asked us to extend escrow for 2 weeks because her client didn’t have a place to live (um neither do we!?) to which we did not agree. Paper work was mishandled by the escrow company (that they chose) and we closed late and moved 1 week after the original close date. All in all she didn’t seem knowledgable, very unorganized, and unreachable even when we were trying to get our keys. By the end of the transaction her client (the seller) was no longer speaking to her because he was so fed up with her.
We called redfin and left a message for the manager that we were supposed to have the keys by 8am and it was now 5pm and got no return phone call. My wonderful agent drove to their offices and went to see her in person and got the answers we needed.
I would never recommend or use April or Redfin after the horrible experience we had!

One star because I think there are some good things about their model. The scheduling system works great, if you want to see properties that can be arranged within 24 hours.
Now for the bad part, the model DOES NOT work at all for people who are not familiar with the area they are buying in. Since you don’t work with one dedicated agent, they never get to learn what you are really looking for. They tell you see as many places as you want and eventually you would find something you love. That would have been great if I have infinite amount of time and energy to dedicate to this process but unfortunately, I do not and neither do most people with jobs and families. I was looking for someone to guide and help me understand what I could buy in my budget in certain areas (newport, Irvine etc) but there was absolutely no help and no support offered in that respect even after asking several times.
I personally would not recommend going through Redfin.

I’m writing to voice my support for Redfin.
First of all, their website is awesome for doing my own research, saving favorites, and booking tours. The usability and efficiency outclass other sites such as Zillow.
Redfin saves buyers money by returning a portion of their fee. That’s amazingly great and a real benefit.
The best thing however, are the agents that Redfin attracts. My agents, Jennifer and David Elia, are personable, knowledgeable and extremely professional. That can be said of many agents, but Jennifer & David take customer service to another level. I know this, having bought and sold houses through other agents. I highly recommend them, and their company Redfin. Their emphasis on customer service and responsiveness more than exceeded my expectations.

I LOVE Redfin. Here’s why:
–I am a control freak. Redfin’s business model allows me to be a huge player in the game. I choose the houses I want to see. I determine how much I want to offer (with help of the Redfin agent, who can offer advice on comps, etc.). I drive myself to view the houses I’m viewing.
–The agents are not commission based and don’t push a sale. Don’t like it? On to the next. The agents are customer service based, so they aim to please!
–Redfin offers free home buying classes and they even feed you dinner! The class was super informative and they even bring a preferred lender, who we ended up using and loving.
–Because you (as the buyer) end up doing some of the legwork, you get a commission refund! Heck yes! I love more money in my pocket as I’m throwing down my life savings to buy a house.
–Our agent, Maryam Amiri, was a DOLL to work with. She responded ridiculously quickly to my multitude of emails (daily) and is just the sweetest person you will ever meet! She also wrote an incredible offer for us to beat out our competition on the first house we ever put an offer on!
–Redfin’s website is pretty fantastic. You can search many different ways (by city, school zones, neighborhoods, etc.) and narrow them by price, bedrooms, bathrooms, all that jazz. You can see how much of a refund you’d receive on purchasing with Redfin. You can receive text or email alerts every time a new home is listed (this is KEY in this market where things are going so quickly).
–Docusign. Had never heard of it before, but SO glad Redfin uses it! You can electronically sign documents from anywhere. I wish everyone used it!
Honestly, we couldn’t have had a better experience with Redfin. We viewed about 5 homes (mostly open houses, without our agent!) and immediately put an offer on the one we loved. Within two days we were in escrow. Maryam was the BEST agent to work with and I highly recommend her (especially if you’re a first time buyer and have a zillion questions – she responds quickly!).

First time home buyer here, and I would do it all over again, if only for the sake of working again with Katrina Jauregui and her fantastic team!
A little background on us: Mid 30’s married couple with a 3 year old and 9 month old. First time home buyers. We had casually searched the market a little in 2009 solely using redfin’s website, but never toured any homes; we were just browsing back then. Fast forward to August 2011 when we really began searching in earnest as our apartment lease was ending on February 2012. Our first home tour was on September 8, 2011. Then, 62 (Sixty-​Two!) home tours later, on December 23, 2011 we got the keys to our dream home. For those that are wondering, the home we purchased was the 60^th home we toured out of the 62.
COMMUNICATION. It’s difficult to reach me on my mobile phone during the day because I’m always in meetings, so our communications naturally evolved toward email. And let me tell you, Katrina has got it covered … no email I sent went unanswered. If I sent an email at 7pm, I didn’t expect an answer until the next morning, but sometimes she answered within minutes! Emails I sent at 2am had replies waiting for me when I rolled out of bed in the morning. Also, the times I did call to speak with Katrina, she was almost always reachable. If she wasn’t, she always had a voicemail greeting to let people know that she was on a home tour and when she would be available.
TRUST. I’m writing this to YOU, perspective Redfin buyers: In case you didn’t know, unlike traditional agents, Katrina and her team doesn’t work off commission. We didn’t feel any sales pressure at all from Katrina or her team. Everyone we met was so friendly, so easy going and they were happy to tour homes with us, even with our sometimes-​fussy kids! Naturally, Katrina can’t tour every.single.home with every.single.customer, so for that, her team of field agents covered. We remember every field agent we toured with: Javier, Grace, Danielle, Kevin, Daniel. Also, Timbra, the team coordinator was awesome, too, as she kept us updated and on schedule with all our offer and closing paperwork.
KNOWLEDGE. Katrina was able to answer all questions we had and in ways that made sense to us, too. She pointed out potential problems on houses from stains on ceilings to any deferred maintenance items on the property. Then, when it came down to offering, she remembered all the terms and conditions we discussed, and made sure the seller held up their end of the deal. I felt like our family was her utmost priority.
BITTERSWEET. Do you remember the last day of your senior year in High School? It was a great feeling to be graduating, but it was also tinged with a bit of sadness because you were also parting with some people you’d grown close to. This is the same bittersweet feeling we had when closing on our home — we wouldn’t be seeing Katrina and her team again!
THANK YOU. To Katrina: Thank you. Thank you, a thousand times over. During our signing, I almost (almost!) started getting sentimental. The whole weight of finding our first home, plus how blessed and fortunate we were to have you and such a wonderful team working on our side was enough to make a man’s heart burst. Thank you for helping me find a house, no, scratch that, a HOME; OUR home, for me, my wife and my children.

I am not afraid of technology, reading all of the legal documents that it takes to buy a house, doing some of the work, and doing the research it takes to know when a home list price is too high.
To explain why I like RedFin, let me start from the beginning…
During the housing bubble starting in 2005, I had read a lot about market bubbles, historical bubbles, economics, etc… and I knew that we were in a bubble and it was going to burst so we stayed out of it and saved money instead. Yeeeeah, I said it… I was one of the FEW that accepted the data while everyone laughed at me. I’m not bitter. ;)
So what did I do for fun during the bubble? Go to all of the open houses so I could throw up a little in my mouth in disgust whenever I heard a National Association of Realtors (NAR) Agent say, «The next phase will be more expensive» and «they’re not making any more land» and «buy now or be priced out forever.» Just thinking about the NAR is making me nauseous. So for all of you that want to stick it to one of the players involved in making the housing bubble as bad as it was, and helping crash the economy… then help bring down the NAR and all their evil ways by using a service like RedFin. Every time I think about how much I hate the NAR and how much I love my house… I smile big.
As a first time buyer, let me just say… WOW. Contrary to the frothy housing bubble days when a loan was secured with nothing more than a weak pulse… these days the mortgage companies and the underwriters look under every boulder, rock and pebble of your financial life. It’s the probing of a lifetime, until you’re a man over 50.
I have three inches of documentation filed away for this home purchase to prove it. I was asked to provide every financial document I own… you have money somewhere, they want to see it. That was for the pre-​approval, then when we bid they wanted it again, then the day before close, again.
In fact, I was wisely advised to not even deposit loose change, or a rebate check from my credit card company… or anything into my checking account because it might spook my underwriter and I would have to provide all kinds of documents to support this «undocumented income.» Wow… a lot has changed from the bubble days, hasn’t it?
I guess when the banks are actually made responsible for the loans they give out, they suddenly have an interest to make sure you can pay it back… unlike our Fed Government created housing bubble.
I do have to give props to my mortgage lender… he was AWESOME. Knew his business, calmly talked me off a ledge once or twice, got me a GREAT rate, and made sure I was all «in-​order» for the underwriter review so no surprises would happen, and none did. Contact me if you want his info.
All that said, RedFin was exactly what I wanted. RedFin is the agent in the background, not constantly in-​contact or pushy, but always available when you need them.
All the documents (except for the notarized ones from escrow) were done using DocuSign, so I was able to sign off at work or home on the reams of documents that needed to be read, reviewed, understood and signed.
When I had a question and emailed RedFin, they responded quickly, and answered it. Setting up home tours was so easy, they were always on-​time, they never «pitched» the home but just provided access so you could walk around and get a feel on your own. All of the home information is on their website anyway.
They work as a team so there is someone who coordinates everything, someone in charge of your account and agents that show up to unlock the door. Also, there is always a way to email the boss of the person in charge of your account in case you have a problem with them.
I also like that all agents are rated and all ratings are posted.
Of course, splitting the buyer agent commission is a plus too. For my deal, I got a check for almost $ 10,000 (FYI — which you can’t use for the down payment, which has to be paid for with organic funds like savings and investments). But it can be used for the closing costs or you can request a check, and it’s tax free.
The downside of RedFin? Not many. I don’t think my agent agreed with my offers, maybe she thought they were too low but I was only offering what I felt the market price was at. As it turned out, the final agreed-​on price that got me the house was $ 134,000 below the seller’s list price and only $ 35,000 above my initial offer (which I knew was low, on purpose). And the appraiser came in within $ 10,000 of my final offer, so I must have had a decent idea of the market.
Outside of that minor thing (again, as long as you are willing to educate yourself on these things)…RedFin is awesome and I would definitely use them again.
Lastly, if you are assigned Danielle to open a door for you from the Irvine RedFin agency… request someone else. Wow, was she irritating. Ask for Jen instead, she was awesome.

Redfin Rocks! No more working with real estate agents motivated only by the amount of commission they will get if they sell you the most expensive home for the most expensive price, preferably one on which they are both the listing agent and the sellers agent so they can double dip commission. Redfin agents aren’t paid by commission. They are paid to provide you with service, so you are always their FIRST PRIORITY.
We just bought our first home with Redfin and our agent was so good we actually ended up closing EARLY. Debbie and her team walked us through all the steps and answered all our first-​time-​home-​buyer questions. Redfin’s website provides lots of tools to educate yourself on the market, financing and anything you’ll need to help YOURSELF buy your home. You can be confident that the home you choose will be the one that best fits your needs because there’s no one pushing you towards a home that’s not a good fit just because they want to close the deal. We supplemented home tours with Redfin with visiting open houses ourselves so that we got to see many different types of homes and could figure out what our personal priorities were in buying a home. We also got to explore different areas of LA and make sure we ended up exactly where we wanted to be.
Redfin also has an excellent iPhone ap to help you find open houses and listings while you are on the go. We would drive by a house with a for sale sign and wonder how much it was and how many bedrooms, sq ft, etc. With the iPhone Ap, we just pulled over and opened the Ap to show the closest home for sale and got all the information we wanted, including photos of the home and interior. This really cut down on seeing homes that were just too small or too expensive.
Of course Redfin is not for everyone. If you want an agent who will drive you around to houses that he or she chooses for you, that’s not what you’ll get with Redfin. But who knows better what’s right for you — you or an agent you just met? Also, Redfin only tours homes with you if you are a serious home buyer. You can’t be a lookie-​loo. You have to have a pre-​approval letter from an lender to book any home tours after the first one. But that’s no problem because Redfin can suggest a number of lenders that you can work with or choose your own if you like. We were prepared for everything the lender needed for preapproval so the whole process only took a day. No muss no fuss.
Redfin is also not a good place if you just looking to submit low-​ball offers or multiple offers on properties trying to speculate. You can only have one offer open at a time so if you put in an offer on a short sale you can’t put in other offers until that offer is closed or you withdraw it. Personally we found the short sales too fraught with sellers who didn’t really want to sell and just had their houses listed to forestall foreclosure, not really because they were interested in selling, that we avoided them. We found a seller who wanted to sell and was willing to work with us to make that happen, so it worked out for all of us.
The other GREAT THING about Redfin is that all the document signing is electronic. You don’t need to take a day off work and schedule appointments at the realtor’s office to submit your offer, sign off on contingencies, etc. It all comes to you by email. Our only hold up was the escrow agent, who was definitely old school and had a more paper-​based approach. I guess it will take a while for that part of real estate transactions to move into the 21^st century.
All in all, Redfin is an excellent option if you want to control your own home buying experience. If you know what you want and just need someone to guide you through it Redfin is an excellent choice. AND you get a rebate on a portion of the buyers agent commission, so you save on the price and get exactly what suits you in the end. I highly recommend Redfin!

Redfin rocks, as simple as can be when looking to buy a home. As a website it is intuitive, has ample information and the daily updates are great. As a service, it is fantastic, I used a Redfin agent, Deirdre Salamone, and the experience was everything I could ask for in a Realtor. Redfin checked in regularly to confirm I was receiving excellent service throughout.
Most important, the site is the most up-​to-​date of all the real estate sites on the web. Using the house I purchased as an example, I looked on line a few times searching by address and Redfin was the only one that had the right status, One actually still shows the original time it was on the market with no updates since! Redfin is the most up-​to-​date!
Buying a home, or just like looking around, Redfin is the service to use.

Redfin is horrible. They hire inexperienced realtors and try to sell you homes without doing a thorough research of the properties. Also, they do not really spend time with you and only give you the time of day if you are buying million dollar properties.
Additionally, they are shady and will block out all of the bad reviews on the redfin website. So, obviously only the good reviews come through and all the bad reviews (except for a couple) are deleted. One particular agent named Kameron Eliassian is the worst. He has the worst customer service skills and will not respond immediately to you. He does not know real estate procedures and will only help you if he thinks you are a quick buyer. Stay away from Redfin and particularly Kameron Eliassian!
You know the saying, «you get what you pay for.» Best to go with a full service broker and pay a little more for the expertise and customer service skills, which Kameron Eliassian obviously doesn’t have.

Redfin is a great idea — executed in a very mediocre way. Half ways to the finish line they drop the ball and get ‘complicated’ — meaning communication gets snail paced.
Real estate agents are like actors, everybody’s a real estate agent now and most of them are not that exciting, Redfin or not. But Redfin runs this centralized office where all the offers are prepared and that place seems to be badly organized and way too slow in communicating. No or late call backs, people are hard to reach, it’s constantly voice mail and so on: SLOW!
We were actively searching, willing to go with Redfin, but became so frustrated over time, we dropped out. We’ve sent numerous emails to Redfin explaining our somewhat unhappy situation but no-​one ever bothered to reply.
They made a great website and then dropped the ball. Or as another review said: Redfin is not for everyone ;-)

Dear Redfin,
I love you and I am severely addicted to researching properties on your website. I love the easy to read layout, the MLS-​generated data, and how simple it is to cancel out different property types I don’t want showing up in my searches.
You should make a tool kind of like Pandora or Slacker Radio, where you begin to take note of the homes we are marking as «Favorites,» and then suggesting like-​properties in like-​areas… tough, I know, because of actual property conditions… but maybe have an on/​off feature where users could turn it on, or even receive daily alerts?
Meh, you probably already offer this because you’re always one step ahead. 5-​stars unless your agent completely flakes on me. Other than that, I don’t think you can lose using your services, especially with the 1.5% commission kickback into my pockets… which I’ll go off to spend on good whiskey and a Pontiac Fiero converted into a Lamborghini Countach in Tijuana.

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 got 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.
Update: After reading other people’s reviews I have a couple more tips.
1.) You need to have your pre-​approval letter in hand to use this service. Due to the nature of their business model, they need to be sure you’re a qualified buyer and serious about buying. This is mildly annoying but helps you immensely if you get into a situation where there are multiple bids. You’re already qualified and that’s an advantage for you.
2.) Whenever possible you should see the property on your own. Look for open houses or call the listing agent but clearly identify that your agent is Redfin. I found my house by going to an open house and putting in an offer with Redfin immediately afterward. It was all done in plenty of time to get the property.