Rental Property Investor · Leominster, MA · Member since 2019 · 42 posts · 22 votes
Who has used a Redfin agent to buy property? What was your experience like? Would you use them again? Would you use them to sell too?
My wife and I are new investors and love the details in the Redfin listings for research purposes but jury is still out on using them as our agent. Seems like the salary pay structure for Redfin agents should help better align their interests with ours, but are they as good as traditional agents? Without commissions, pay upside is lower so do they have the same drive??
Can’t wait to hear others thoughts/experiences... thanks!
Real Estate Agent · Orange, CA · Member since 2018 · 2 posts · 0 votes
7y
@Nate Ginsberg
If you ever get a chance try to go to Open Houses and compare the differences from Redfin agents and regular brokerage agents. What I noticed is that they do have less drive and were not really motivated compared to traditional agents. For example I walk in to the Redfin agents open house and the agent just sits on the couch and simply says “let me know if you have any questions”, while other open houses agents were providing with specific details that people may not notice when touring the house on their own. Hope this helps.
My hunch is that Redfin is no different than any other brokerage around - they will have a very small group of fantastic agents and a much larger pool of mediocre ones.
One thing I've noticed in my market, though, is that the majority of the Redfin agents I see have all started with other brokerages and failed to generate enough business to support themselves ... Redfin pays them a salary and they're able to stay in the industry. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but it's been an obvious trend in my area. Which then poses the question as a buyer or seller, "is the rebate big enough for me to overlook the fact that I'm not working with the best?"
Keep in mind, you can continue to use the Redfin tools that you like while working with an agent from another brokerage :)
My suggestion is to ignore the name of the brokerage and judge the person based on their knowledge, experience and how well you connect with them.