Redfin

Not a good experience for us !! the Redfin agents are not professional at all, they are more like staffs working for a company rather than agents to help, guide and walk the clients through home-​buying journey. The agent we worked with was not really acting in our favor and was more like an interface between us and the other party to transfer their responses to us and take our answers to them! We just wasted our time and missed so many opportunities on the homes we really liked.

I scheduled an appointment with Kristen Baily to look at a home in Purcellville, Va. I showed up at the time that Kristen and I agreed to see a property. Apparently Linda Cotton of Refin cancelled my appointment and Kristen NEVER notified me. I arrived at the property and no Redfin agent showed up. The agent listed online when I was looking online is who I was locked into who was Linda Cotton. I contacted Corporate office and I shared that no one notified me. I shared I was looking for a foreclosure or a good deal on a home and he said that Redfin isn’t that at all and they wouldn’t be a good fit for what I am looking for. He said he couldn’t help me. Based on our conversation they only do full price home sales and finding that good deal on a home isn’t what they specialize in. So this service isn’t for negotiating or finding a good deal. These are just people that show homes and do contacts only.
Update: After reconsidering a full price home found online I called to look at a full price home and I was declined services by Redfin based on «note» history even as I found a home that I was willing to pay full price. The area manager wouldn’t even let me get the words out to share that I would be willing to purchase full price as I really liked a home. Just confused if they are in the house selling business or not. In my opinion this isn’t a reliable service to use to purchase our next home.
**note to area manager– please stop calling my house. It’s getting very annoying.

To follow up on my review, we thankfully DID NOT use Redfin to list our home. We used Jay D’Allessandro from Debbie Dogrul’s team who helped connect us with a contractor to do some painting, fixing of a few things, and redo a bathroom before the house went on the market. Then, with lots of current and factual information about the real estate market in our area, Jay advised on what price he believed the market would actually bear, which was $ 25k over what Redfin would have listed it at. Due to Jay’s diligent work to promote our house, there was a bidding war and we ended up selling for $ 50k over Redfin’s list price. I am SO glad we used a local pro who had worked in the market over the course of time and could advise us with confidence and do more that just list it on the Internet.

Easy easy easy. I am selling and buying. And redfin is making my life easy. Kendell Walker is the best.
House sold in a day.

We used Refin for buying our home. Stevie Tibbs was our agent and he was just awesome! We have been looking for our forever home for over 2 years with Stevie. He has been patient all along the way and is always fast to respond to emails, calls, questions and recommendations! In fact we had to use a different agent (non Redfin) for selling our home and we quickly realized what a valuable resource Stevie is… he was always the first to respond if we sent both agents an email. He puts his clients first. He cares… he would always ask our kids how they are doing and ended every meeting with a «high-​five.»
Hopefully we won’t be back looking for a home any time soon, but I can assure you if we are or if we know anyone who is looking we will be HIGHLY RECOMMENDING STEVIE TIBBS and Redfin!

We loved our experience as buyers through Redfin. I think the only reason NOT to use Redfin is if you don’t want to pick the houses you tour yourself and would prefer to have a realtor select houses for you – however, with the search options that are available I can’t imagine anyone wanting to give over that control. We loved the no-​pressure approach, the fact that there was always someone available to tour with us, the fact that we got $$$ back (to the tune of four figures), and the fact that Redfin has more up-​to-​date listings than Zillow or Trulia. Our realtor was Michael Alderfer, and he was awesome – very responsive by phone or email, and has remained an amazing resource to us even after closing when we’ve had lingering questions.

I just sold my house with Redfin Redfin is good for people who are willing to do the legwork on their own. They market themselves as full service… they ARE in terms of doing everything that has to be done in order to sell your house. However, they aren’t going to do some of the things that the traditional brokers (who are very good) do, such as tell you who to hire to get your house ready to sell (someone they trust), get you discounts with said people, etc. I did all that legwork for myself. I also made calls to the title company when there were issues, rather than my agent taking care of it (those issues weren’t huge, and they would have been present regardless of broker given the situation). All in all, I would use them again because I value the $ 4400 I saved more than the extra work I had to do, and I also have friends and family who I could go to for advice throughout the process. If you aren’t as willing to work, and you don’t have knowledgeable people you trust to check with when making decisions (on sales price, negotiating, etc.), then I would probably go with a traditional broker.

This has to be the best business model in Real estate today. I used Redfin (Rob Wittman) to purchase my new home in Arlington, Va. Rob and the Redfin team made the usual home buying process much less stressful. I can’t thank Redfin enough for putting my family in to our dream home. I will never use anyone else but Redfin!
When can I buy the stock? :)

I actually saw one place with Patricia, but she was unresponsive and I was ready to walk away from Redfin. Patricia passed me off to Kathleen Cox, and I have nothing but great things to say about her and the Redfin team. Kathleen was super responsive by email. I actually didn’t meet her until my walk-​through, the day before I closed. Who cares. She knew how to put together a great offer. She had lots of prior experience before joining Redfin. I ended up using her reco for a lender, but not before doing lots of research on my own. I also used her inspector and title company recommendation, and I was happy with them.
Benefit to Redfin: it’s easy to schedule a tour with an associate agent, who is paid only to tour homes (he/​she doesn’t write offers) the day it comes on the market. That’s key for properties that come on Wednesday and don’t make it until Friday.
Side note: I was supposed to see homes with one guy originally, and hours before he still hadn’t scheduled the tours. Total slacker. I freaked, and Kathleen put me in contact with Jonathan Schuldt, the nicest guy ever. I met with him 2 or 3 more times to tour homes before I got a ratified contract.
Bonus: I got some $ back when I closed. It came out to 1% of the commission, I think.

We are currently house-​hunting with Redfin as our buying and selling agents. This will be our second home purchase (the first time we used another company and it was a mess)! I cannot say enough how pleased I am with the service I am receiving. NO PRESSURE, just calm, ready to help agents with a smile on their face! Buying a home is stressful and they really help lighten the load. The agent who takes us on tours brings an iPad to check listing details, a metal ball to see how level the floors are, and a flashlight for those dark attic or laundry room spaces! I would recommend them in a heartbeat (and actually already have).

In case you haven’t heard the pitch for Redfin yet from a buyer’s perspective, here goes:
1) Redfin works as a team, so you’ll almost always have someone who can show you a property on relatively short notice.
2) Redfin agents are salaried, so they aren’t into high pressure sales tactics. This is awesome, because it took me a long while (8 months) to figure out that I needed to adjust my expectations for price ranges and what I wanted. Also, agents get bonuses based on your customer satisfaction, which is a waaay better model than based solely on sales.
3) If you’re a data nerd like me, Redfin’s website seems much more accurate than Zillow or Trulia on what’s available. It’s also super user friendly, and you can really narrow down what you’re looking for by bedroom size, square footage ranges, price range, zip code and location price range, condo v house v multifamily, etc. This works best if you have a rough idea of what you’re looking for. Also, don’t forget to sign up for their alerts so when something fulfills your parameters you’ll get an email right away.
Initially, I got frustrated with the housing search because I would send my agent a Zillow listing for something that I liked that wasn’t showing up on the Redfin site and want to go tour it. Most of the time though, that’s because the property was already under contract and basically off the market unless the buyer/​seller screwed up somehow. Once I started using the Redfin site as my primary search for housing, my housing tours became much easier to schedule.
4) Redfin’s site also has a review section, so you can check out lenders (go local!), inspectors, and other folks you’ll need for the closing process.
5) Redfin has FREE homebuyer classes, complete with food and beverages. Take one of these.
6) You really need to make sure you click with your agent. My Redfin agent was awesome (see below for specifics), and talked me through some panicked moments during this stressful process.
I also say this after emailing a couple of local non-​Redfin agents based on friend recommendations. While these folks were nice, they weren’t quite as responsive and informative as I was hoping.
7) As mentioned by Joye P and other reviewers, you get half of the commission back, either as as a refund or as applied to closing costs. ‘Nuff said.
Here’s the review I left specifically for my agent on the Redfin site:
I highly recommend Mike Alderfer as a buyer’s agent. He and the Redfin team patiently led me through seven separate housing tours, through a countless number of properties. Also special thanks to Thomas and Adam for helping me get my feet wet in the housing search process.
Mike helped me adjust buying strategies to be more competitive in the fastest moving market in DC, and walked me through the process every step of the way. Although my initial offer wasn’t accepted, Mike helped me close on a house that was a better fit and I am ultimately a happy customer.
Searching for and closing on a house is challenging, and Mike made the process smooth and doable around my busy schedule. I cannot express how much he helped me get through the process, if only by being a calm voice of reason and making things easy to understand without the high pressure to buy.
Thanks Mike for being a friendly, informative, responsive agent. I definitely owe you a bag of pretzels.

I just closed on my new home 2 days ago. I cannot say enough good things about Redfin and my realtor, Kendell Walker. My wife and are were living in two different states. Lots of back and forths. Kendell was responsive, attentive, always accurate, and always helpful. She was a wealth of knowledge and assistance. Kendell and her team handled everything. All I had to do was show up. She constantly fought for my interests through dealing with rather difficult sellers.
I’ve never had a better customer service experience.

I’m writing this as a previous home owner. My old home was simply repainted and is pending contract missing all disclosures of the home’s previous water damage.
This new owner will be getting a home with nearly $ 50,000 worth of damage and they will not know till its too late.
Buyer beware! I wouldn’t work with a company that works with builders that simply coverup and sell.
*edit*
Just as an update — I ended up meeting the new homeowners after they bought the home, sadly my review above stands — they didn’t know what they were buying (it also looks like by the records Redfin acted as their own flippers 2 transactions to hide the foreclosure). The good part — I shared with them the trouble issues I had with the house, but just thought I’d share the confirmation from the new owners that there was never a disclosure of the water damage, impropere electrical grounding and other problems wiith the house. At least now they know.

I wholeheartedly recommend Redfin. It BOGGLES MY MIND how anyone would still use a traditional realtor if you’re in this company’s service area. Great results, huge discount, awesome people, superior service throughout.
Results speak for themselves: Redfin sold my house in Columbia, MD in 4 days with multiple offers and for over asking price. Then they helped me buy a house within a week for $ 30K under asking price. Between the selling discount and the purchase rebate, I saved over $ 11K in commissions. $ 11K! It still seems too good to be true even though I just experienced it.
To be honest, I initially chose them because of the discount and assumed that my experience would be no-​frills from a service standpoint. I found the opposite to be true. My listing agent, Nick Chaconas, was a consummate professional — Over a 2 month span from first meeting him to settlement, I never sent him an email that he didn’t reply to inside of a half hour. He makes you feel like you’re his only client. His experience and instincts were key in helping me through some of the tough decisions during the contracting process. He was truly outstanding.
Other extra-​mile touches: At no extra cost, Redfin sends out a professional photography crew to take photos of the house for the listing. The photos ridiculously high quality. They also reimburse you up to $ 250 worth of expenses you incur in making your house presentable for sale (carpet cleaning, power-​washing, whatever).
It just doesn’t make sense to use any other realtor when Redfin is so good at what it does. I could not be more pleased with my entire Redfin experience.

I used Tom Lewis. He was fantastic. My real estate transaction ended up being a little more complicated than anticipated, and Tom helped me throughout the ordeal. I ended up getting a great apartment at a great price … plus a rebate! :) Highly recommend.

I used Redfin as a first-​time home buyer, per the recommendation of a friend who had recently bought a home through them. As you probably know if you’re looking at buying a home through Redfin NoVA, buying a home in this area is not something to take lightly. I started by searching their website for houses with the set up I was looking for in terms of the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc., location, price, etc. When we found one we liked, we simply scheduled the tour online, and a Redfin agent met us there to show us the home — very low pressure, which I appreciated. We ended up finding a home we loved, and Rob Wittman, our agent, started working with us on making our offer as soon as we mentioned we were interested in doing so, and it was submitted shortly thereafter. It was accepted, and we went on to complete the deal. We now have a home, and are so grateful and appreciative of all Rob and Redfin’s help for making it possible.
Three quick reasons of why I will be using Redfin again:
1) The Staff: Our home was a very unique buying situation that went on for five months (at absolutely no fault of Rob and the RedFin team, who made this somewhat «challenging» situation low stress for us). Rob and the Redfin team were always quick to respond (at all hours of the day and through many methods (phone, email, text)) during that entire five month period. They answered all of our many questions and were very knowledgeable on everything from the deal to the inspection, and from bargaining to basic home repairs. Rob was very honest, transparent, and candid, something I truly appreciated, and we always felt as if he was looking out for our interests rather than pushing a deal through that would leave us less than 100% satisfied. In addition, Rob helped get us some credits at closing that we didn’t think were even possible. With all the time Rob put into helping us, I’m not sure how he worked with other clients, but from the other reviews on here he did, and he did it just as well — truly exceptional. I could go on and on about how fabulous Rob and the Redfin staff are (which is truly the number one thing that sets Redfin apart from the rest), but on to more of the benefits:
2) Wired-​In: Working 9 to 5 and commuting an hour on each end makes it difficult to find time to meet with a realtor in person. So being a product of the «wired-​in» generation, I prefer to do everything by computer — it saves me time. Redfin lets me do this. Over the course of the next decade, I’d imagine the company will grow substantially because of these capabilities. They have an online tracking system (Deal Room), which allows you to see what you need to do, your deadlines, what deadlines the realtor has completed, etc. In addition, most of my communications with Redfin were by email and cellphone. They aren’t just a 9 – 5 company and staff. They were flexible to meet their customer’s needs, which I feel many companies are failing to do these days.
3) Split Commission — Redfin gives a portion of their commission back to you. Not really why we went with them, but definitely an added bonus that should be mentioned.
I really cannot say enough great things about Rob and Redfin. I highly recommend them!

Fantastic business model. I’m a second time home buyer and LOVE the idea of getting a rebate back upon closing. Redfin agents share their commission with the buyer. They don’t pressure you to escalate your offer price. They use a team approach. Everyone I’ve worked with there has been professional, responsive, and plain nice. I highly recommend.

I used Redfin as a second time home buyer. Their model completely blows traditional real estate agents out of the water. Imagine this– a system where the agents get better pay if they provide you with better service, not if they have you purchase a more expensive home! That’s putting incentives in the correct place for the customer, and the results show. Oh yeah, they split their commission with you too.
If you want a real estate experience where your agent comes to your home, drives you around all Sunday looking at new places while sipping glasses of champagne, then this is not the place for you. However, if you’re looking to work with a company that provides you with fantastic research tools, cuts through all the b.s. and just focuses on doing what’s right for you then I think you’ve found your place.
We worked with Rob Wittman, who was fantastic throughout the entire process. He was always available via phone, text, or email and was extremely responsive. He knew what required my attention, what I cared about, and ensured I was taken care of.
Long story short– if you’re going to do any online research before you buy a home (and who isn’t) then you should work with Redfin. They give you the best tools, help you make a decision, and perform all of the same services that a traditional agent does but at half the price.

Wow, Rob Wittman is awesome. I only dealt with Redfin for about a half hour, and did not buy a home, but here’s what I have to say.
Apartment hunting (for rentals) in the area, I became discouraged and decided to contact a reputable realtor (I researched and contacted Rob) to see if buying a home was a feasible option in my unique circumstance. Within several minutes of sending Rob an online message, he called me and was totally honest and friendly advice.
In the end of things, Rob told me why, in my particular circumstances (short duration of stay in the area, type of employment I have, etc) I would be better off renting in the area than buying, even though Rob did not deal with rentals. He went as far as to give me information on how to avoid scams, offered to verify any realtor I may choose to use, gave me rental search tips, and explained my different options.
Honest, friendly advice. When it is time for me to purchase a home, I know who I am coming to.

As a first time homebuyer Redfin was amazing to work with. I had found a property in VA, and I was paired up with Rob Wittman. He and his team guided me through the whole process and made it as easy as can be. Rob was always available by phone or email, easy to talk to, candid and never pushy on making me close the deal. He helped me negotiate a price below list, and when things were uncovered during the home inspection he made sure to find out if I still wanted to move ahead rather then just being pushy. I am new to the whole home buying atmosphere so I had no idea how much it would cost to repair the issues that were found during home inspection. Rob could have tried to make a quick sale and told me, it wont cost much. But he estimated the costs to be over 15k and wrote up a non conventional contract to appease my concerns. The seller didn’t oblige but I was able to walk away from the problem house.
Anyone who needs to buy a house in VA Rob is your guy you, won’t be disappointed. And in general Redfin is a great company to work with if your a new homebuyer or a repeat buyer the Redfin rebate certainly helps as well. They let you apply the rebate to closing or they can cut you a check after closing. For me the rebate woudl have been over 7k had I pulled the trigger after the home inspection.