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! read more

Beware. I was working with Katrina on buying a house. I love the website and the 1/2 comission. I did not mind sometimes quirky touring agents and I liked the fact that it was easy to book a tour. When it was time to make an offer that is when Redfin failed for me. Katrina was pushing me to sign contract with terms that were disadvantagous to me stating that they can be changed later. In fact everyone I spoke to in the bussiness stated that if I sign I will be at the mercy of the seller to change anything later. She admitted to me that she did not read the contract send to us by the bank and that she wanted me to sign. She blamed it on being very busy. I just did not feel like I could trust anyone from Redfin going forward. read more

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. read more

Redfin is not for everyone. Make sure to read the fine print. Depending on where you wish to buy, the agent gives you care/attention depending on the price of the house (it seems that those who purchased homes greater than $500,000 gave great reviews of Redfin and those who purchased/wished to purchase homes below $400,000 gave Redfin ratings of "3 stars or less"). Don't always expect a call back from an agent or expect to get a helpful agent. I put an offer on a house and without even contacting me, the agent closed my offer and shot me an e-mail basically saying my offer amount would not cover the required Redfin commission (the agent didn't even offer me help with filling out another offer). I e-mailed this agent and quoted in my e-mail that Redfin's site detailed that an agent would review my quote and I should receive a phone call the following day where the agent would discuss further the quote I had put in. I explained to the agent that it was not very clear how the commission was calculated and that I was expecting a phone call so I could discuss my quote further with an agent in person. I never received a return e-mail/phone call from this agent. read more

We had a very discouraging encounter with Kevin Riffle of Redfin. He called to schedule a showing of our home (which was on the market) between 5:15 and 5:30 on a Sunday evening. We put our dogs outside, had the house ready and waited...And waited... and Waited.... Much later, we found his number and called him. Turns out Kevin got to our door with his clients, saw the sign on the door asking real estate visitors not to let our cats out and because they have "severe cat allergies" they decided not to visit our home. Ok, but if Kevin couldn't take the time to give us a courtesy call, what kind of agent is he?!?!?! read more

Just closed a tough transaction with Rob Brandon with Redfin. He was fantastic to work with! Great attitude, persistent, knowledgeable, calm cool & collected... just what you need when doing a purchase for a new home. Thanks Rob! Hope to work with you again :-) read more

You know, I love the idea of Redfin. The concept is spectacular. And I really think this is the future of real estate, but Redfin has a waaaaaaays to go in terms of customer service. The agent I dealt with was so not on their game it wasn't even funny. i asked for info, didn't get it, was ill advised, couldn't get requested info which was as simple as, "hey, is my offer declined or are we waiting for a counter?".... I was left feeling extremely alone in the process. I didn't feel my agent made me a priority, which was awful. I found out more in 2 days surfing the net than my agent could, which again, very sad. If Redfin could get more agents who were well INFORMED, and made their clients fell they were a priority, I would simply ADORE this site. But from my last 6+ months there, it feels lackluster. It's great for searching the MLS, but when it comes to buying, unless you're ridiculously savvy on your own, you just might end up being led into the woods blindfolded. I hope this changes. read more

Katrina Jauregui was amazing to work with during the purchase of our new home. This was our first time using a Redfin agent and we were a little apprehensive at first. Like a lot of people, we have some friends in real estate and we could have easily gone through them but working through Redfin and, particularly Katrina, was a seamless process. We are so glad we went that route. Katrina was very helpful during the negotiation process and always had our best interest in mind. It never felt like she was pushing us in a certain direction just to get a deal done. During escrow, she was in constant communication with us, the seller's team, the lender, and the escrow company to make sure deadlines were met and that the process moved along. Thanks so much to Katrina for getting us into the home of our dreams!! read more

We found redfin when trying to do some home research before getting a realtor. We were worried about getting a realtor because we didn't want to be pressured into buying what was available on the market at that time. And in this market, there's not a whole lot on the market because no one is selling unless they have too. Out of all the real estate websites, redfin has the smoothest interface and the most features. First let me explain the redfin business model. After understanding it, the way things work makes a lot more sense. There are no commissions like a traditional realtor makes. The employees get a flat rate per transaction or are hourly (Read: no pressure). There are several types of jobs that I was exposed to. There are the back office people who confirm your offer, visits, and assign you a realtor, the licensed realtor who handles the communication with the seller's realtor, the processor who handles the paperwork and scheduling, and finally the people who show you the property. All of these people work as _your_ team, starting from the point you request to see a property...which is kind of cool. What I didn't realize until one of them told me, was that the majority of the employees work from home. This is a true post-.com era company that is net centric, low overhead and very web 2.0. Probably the most popular thing about redfin is that because of their low costs, they can give back a portion of their sales commission which gets paid by the seller of the home. We got 2/3 of the redfin commission which in our case was 2.5% of the sales price of the home. The sales commission varies by the listing agent and so the website quotes your rebate as 2/3 of 3% of the listing price of the home and so chances are it will be a bit lower. One of the catches when we were looking was that you could only see 2 homes for free. After that, you have to pay $250 per visit. This makes sense given that they have to pay their employees to come out and show you the house for 2 hours each time. But recently they changed their business model to allow for unlimited home visits. To make up for the potential for higher costs, they lowered their sales commission rebate to 1/2 instead of 2/3. One caveat is that redfin takes a minimum sales commission of $4000. So if you buy a $50K condo in compton between the train tracks and a halfway house, the commission is so low you'll be paying them. Finally, redfin doesn't do short sales. Most short sales take at least 3 months if not more and that means they're paying their staff for 90 days without income. A lot of times the banks will end up auctioning the house anyways. The easiest way for me to describe your experience is for me to describe mine. The slick interface on the website gives you access to _most_ of the MLS. A lot of realtors these days have MLS access on their websites now and there are a couple other web 2.0 online realty sites as well. The basic concept is all the same, these websites download the updates from the regional MLS's periodically and update their site to reflect it. I have a friend who has access to the actual southern california MLS and redfin was always 1 day behind that(which is not bad). I say you have access to most of the MLS data because each MLS restricts what can be publicly shown. The big one for me was the infamous short sale status. Also missing is the agent private comments. The first interaction after research is likely the viewing the home feature. Unlike researching, you must register (free) for this feature. Expect a call within a couple hours from a back office staffer in their main office in Seattle to call to confirm the house is not a short sale and to make sure you're not a 10 year old kid playing on dad's laptop. A couple hours after that, you get a call from a home "show-er" who lives in your area. These people's job are very simple, the meet you at the houses you want to see and open them up. Each home view session can last up to 2 hours and you can probably do 4-5 houses in that time. Nothing against the show-ers but these people don't care whether you like the house or not and they will be brutally honest (a feature!). After the home tour, there's so little pressure that you feel guilty. The reality is that the home show-er got paid to show it to you, you got a no-hassle home tour and redfin just made a good impression so that you come back for more. So when you find the right home, you start the offer wizard. It will warn you against putting in an offer more than 10% below asking. They also tell you that you will need to provide a pre-qualification/approval letter from a bank for an amount up to your purchase price. It's important to know that you're not really submitting an offer, just a draft which you talk about with a realtor. Oops, I'm at the 5000 character limit, message me if you want more info or just try it...it's free. read more

The good: we bought a home! Technology is excellent. Home tours are fantastic. The bad: you do so much work that it's like not even having a real estate agent to advocate for you. We could have kept the entire buyer's commission for ourselves--that's how much work it was. Overall, we had a mediocre experience with Redfin. Our field agent who toured homes with us was FANTASTIC. Our agent, less so. He was generally friendly and seemed to care for his clients, but we encountered several issues. First, he wasn't very responsive. Sometimes it would take days to get a response. This improved when we talked to him about it, but it certainly still paled in comparison with other Redfin staff. Second, our agent was somewhat out of touch with current market conditions. Coming from a very data-driven perspective, as allowed by Redfin's great website, our agent's suggestion to bid higher than listing price on each property seemed suspect (not one property historically in the area we searched went for higher than listing...). Talking with other Redfin agents confirmed that this was rather unrealistic for this economy. Third, our agent didn't take initiative in dealing with the other side. For example, we were told by a field agent to ask the sellers if there was a special assessment; I asked the agent if he could do so and he said that I could ask the sellers if I wanted, but didn't do so. I had to do it myself and discovered there was a substantial special assessment! After finding out about that, the agent did send a few emails to try to resolve it. But overall, there were times when I lost confidence in his advocacy. For example, the sellers were able to jerk us around with their timing by not trying to work cooperatively on anybody's schedule. Yet, our agent never gave them firm deadlines, even though we asked him to do so. He didn't assert our interests or even his own. In the end, we are happy that everything was shepherded through. To be fair, our agent did have the experience and patience to work through a deal that had difficult sellers. He was a nice guy. read more

We recently closed on a home (our first) purchased with the assistance of Redfin. The good - Redfin is exactly as advertised. Their website is the best real estate site we've found. Tours are easy to schedule. Redfin is very tech-savvy, we did the entire transaction over email and phone (except the closing). The check at the end - although I think we've spent it three times over buying new furniture. We used a lender recommended by Redfin - our loan closed early. (I wonder about the financial relationship between them though) Redfin provided many solid recommendations for other vendors (inspectors, handymen, etc.) The less-than-good - Some tour agents were better than others. Personal preference plays a role, to be sure. I think we viewed 30+ homes on Redfin tours and once we found an agent we liked, we requested them and were usually accommodated. The tour agents rarely knew anything about the homes, neighborhoods, etc. - but that's why you're able to get a check at the end. We felt a little on our own during the negotiation process. We would have preferred our lead agent to be more proactive in providing advice, options, etc. We scheduled tours that fell in different lead agents' territories (West LA, Long Beach, South Bay) - which became confusing for us and them. It would have been better if we had been able to work with one lead agent and one scheduler. Bottom line - We would use Redfin again and have recommended them to friends. Two caveats - If you have never purchased a home, or you are not familiar with the area you're moving to, then a traditional agent might be a better option. read more

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! read more

Initially, what attracted me to Redfin was the rebate. And, to some extent, I was willing to be inconvenienced in exchange for the rebate. We just closed escrow on our home purchase, and had a very positive experience with Redfin. Now, I view Redfin as a buyer's agent which provides both a good service and a large rebate. 1. Their site is very good. Today, there are a lot of good real estate sites, and Redfin is one of the best. 2. I worked closely with two people at Redfin, Todd Lethbridge and Joyti Goundar, and both are very knowledgeable, helpful and efficient. 3. I never felt pressured on any issue. Joyti explained options, pointed out important factors, and simply let us decide. 4. Overall, Redfin people seem to really concentrate on servicing the transaction, vs. most real estate agents seem to be acting as sales people. Nothing wrong with sales people, but the difference in orientation does make an impact on the experience. 5. And then, there is the rebate. I highly recommend, Redfin, Todd and Joyti. read more

Redfin is great. GREAT. When I first started into the first-time homebuyer thing, the idea of having a real estate agent kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, I didn't like how the commission incentive thing worked -- at 3% of the final price, your agent actually has incentive to get the selling price as HIGH as possible. And then there's the scheduling of homes to look at, feeling bad for rejecting your agent's recommendations, and on and on... Just as I was getting all frustrated, enter Redfin. [Cue the angels singing] You get to search for available houses online. On a great -- very web 2.0 -- website. You get to pick the houses you want to tour. Someone meets you to walk you through the houses. And then, once you find a house you like and you want to place an offer, you get to talk to an actual agent -- and not before then. Why's that so good? Because it means their agents spend their time doing what agents do best -- the inner workings of the real estate deal -- and not running around showing houses. That means that they do WAY more deals than the average agent and are subsequently very experienced and VERY good at what they do. That's good for you, the homebuyer. Oh, and because you are doing some of the initial legwork in looking for the houses you want to tour (which I'm glad I got to do anyway) they give you half of the agent's commission back. That was a fat check in my pocket after the deal closed. Nice. In my making-an-offer and buying-a-house saga there were so many places where it seemed like the deal was all going to fall apart (not uncommon in today's real estate market) -- and it was Katrina (my Redfin agent) who really helped to make this deal happen. She responded very quickly to phone calls and was so helpful with advice and information that I needed as a first-time homebuyer. She was also very friendly... by the end of it all I was kind of sad, I felt like I was losing a friend. If you are buying in the LA/OC area, I would highly recommend Katrina, and am very glad she was on our side! But to anyone, I can't speak highly enough of Redfin and their business model. They are turning traditional real estate on its head -- in the best way. read more

My house has been estimated by Redfin at a much lower price than what it is worth and should be. Today, I called Redfin's customer service and they told me there is a bug in the Redfin's software system that their Engineers have not been able to figure out, hence the calculations are off. This problem is causing my property to not show the correct estimates and it could very well repel a serious buyer who is surfing the web and comes across Redfin's website and my property features for example. I also sent an e-mail to Redfin customer service, however; I got an irrelevant answer. I even sent them comparable properties from the same area , with same square footage, same profile , however; their customer service does not get it. Refin should remove my address from their system. I am seriously looking into this issue since Redfin is downgrading the properties and I am sure there are many other property owners who have the same issues as mine read more

I honestly don't know why you'd use any other real estate broker besides Redfin! 1) Redfin Rebate - thousands of dollars back in your pocket for down payment, closing costs or, just in your pocket! Need I say more? 2) Best R.E. Website! Very well designed site with tons of useful information. 3) Best no pressure service (and no "salesperson sleeze" factor)! Not even low-pressure, I mean NO pressure!! AWESOME! We visited an open house in the neighborhood. The high pressure real estate agent who showed us the house of course tried to get us to commit to using him for the purchase. I won't mention the company because they're all the same. Let's just say he must have sold used cars before he started selling homes. Instead, I went to Redfin's website, filled out my information and we were off and running. Tamara M. was our agent and she negotiated a great deal for us! She was on the same page as us from the very beginning and we really felt like we had a strong advocate in our corner who knew her stuff! We not only had Tamara working for us, but a great team who supports her. Jennifer W., the coordinator who handled all the back and forth paperwork with the bank, escrow company and seller, really came through for us and was always on top of any issues that needed to be resolved. The field agent, Julie was always so pleasant and nice to see when we had to meet at the house for something. She was really excited for us. In fact, all three were so genuinely happy for us that we felt more like we were working with family. They gave us all the attention we needed whenever we needed it. The bottom line is, you've GOT to use Redfin! You'll save yourself a bunch of money and you'll be in qualified hands. Believe me, you won't secretly roll your eyes when you talk to Redfin people like you would with other sales agents. If you don't like a house, you just say so and they'll say, "Ok, let's find another one -- there are plenty out there." I really liked that part! They're not going to try to talk you into something you don't want just to make a sale. They don't have to rely on the commission from your sale to put food on the table. I know once you discover Redfin for yourself, you'll wonder why the other real estate companies are still in business! read more

We can enthusiastically endorse our entire Redfin experience, including the personal attention of our Realtor, Corina Galen. We had been looking with traditional realtors for nearly 2 years with poor results, and finally decided to go Redfin. What a relief to be able to check listings on our own, tour on our own schedule, and lose the pressure and hype of a buyer's realtor trying to get us to buy houses that don't work for us! We looked at many houses with Redfin and made offers on several--which was always easier with less drama than our previous realtor. We did have some concern about being shuttled from one Redfin person to another, but literally never encountered one bad apple. Redfin agents were uniformly smart, competent, experienced and personable. And NO pressure. Once we were making offers and working consistently with Corina, we really benefited from her experience and expertise. She is ON IT ! I don't think she ever took more than an hour to return a call or email, including 6:30 am or 11:00 at night. Our new home came with some complications that Corina guided us through skillfully and successfully. We would not hesitate to recommend her and Redfin. We will be even more delighted upon receipt of that rebate check--you can bet that no traditional realtor every offered to split their commission with us! read more

This was our first time buying a house, and I was a bit skeptical about using a real estate company that uses such a radical new paradigm. But I heard almost all positive things about the company, so I took the plunge. I had great experiences with everyone I worked with, from Todd who showed us the property to Joyti who helped us close the deal. I have no reservations about recommending Redfin. read more

Just bought a home thru Redfin (~300k). Most amazing process ever. I have been looking for a home on and off since 2007 and have had several brokers. I had developed a mindset that buyer's agents were not working for me -- they had their own agendas and would get frustrated with my concerns (especially if it involved offering a lower price)... Redfin agents were working for ME! They gave great, honest advice and it really felt like we were working together to make sure that I got the right home. I was surprised by some of the reviews... I was buying a cheap home, and before I settled in this one, Redfin was working me thru a short-sale that ultimately fell thru. During both processes, I found redfin agents to be AMAZINGLY responsive -- often answering emails/calls at weird hours and on their day's off; I started intentionally NOT asking questions on days I knew they were off because I was feeling guilty. I think the Redfin process is the future of buying homes. The UI for looking for properties is great. The pre-qualification process guarantees that Redfin agents have more time to work with serious buyers. The lack of commission means there isnt a conflict of interest in getting me into the right home. As a side note, I am a workaholic -- I really kinda appreciated that every offer/counter-offer/disclosure acceptance, etc. was done electronically from my desk; this really saved on time and effort. Also, it meant that if I just had a discussion with my agent at 10pm about changing an offer I could get the electronic version to my email, and sign it electronically from my smart phone... makes for some fast turnaround! read more

Jacob Bruce and his team did an absolutely extraordinary job in guiding us through the process of purchasing our first home. My husband and I had so many questions about the process, and we relied heavily on Jacob, Peter, and Heather, all of whom patiently steered us in the right direction. They all responded to our emails with lightning speed, and they were more than accommodating when we needed to move appointments around due to scheduling conflicts. I'm convinced it was this speediness that helped give us the edge over several other offers in our very competitive neighborhood. We also LOVED the Redfin experience. We purchased our home through Redfin at the same time some family members were purchasing their home through a traditional agency. Our experience was 10x faster, smoother, and easier than their's was, and we received the Redfin Refund at the end (which they did not). We readily recommend both Redfin and Jacob to everyone we possibly can. Take it from a couple of first-time home buyers who are THRILLED with their new home: Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 WITHOUT calling (emailing, actually!) Jacob and Redfin first. You will absolutely not regret it. read more

I remembered seeing Redfin on 60 minutes and decided to give them a try. The whole experience was great. They were very professional and always were available for questions. The money you save is great. It is totally not worth using a traditional realtor, when they are more expensive, and do not really do more work. I had expected that there would be a tad of a drop in service, but if anything, I felt Redfin provided better service as they responded to emails/calls right away. Joyti was great and truly helped us every step of the way. I have now been sold on Redfin after buying my first house with them. I would recommend them to anyone and I will be using them again when I have the opportunity. read more

Jacob Bruce and his Redfin team were awesome to work with. They handled everything without any drama and NO sales pressure. He did a great job negotiating the sales price and repairs. The field agents very prompt, friendly and patient. We had a bad experience with a major RE broker and are very happy with the Redfin experience. The rebate doesn't hurt either. read more

Redfin is great for independent people. It's not a budget realty company, it's an *efficient* realty company. It allows customers who prefer to do their own research to save money. The website is fantastic and the realtor we worked with was very competent, helpful, and available almost 24-7. She even called us from a doctor's waiting room during a time-sensitive part of the closing. Using Redfin, we completed the purchase of our first home after being on the market for 2.5 years. We decided to take the plunge last month after our landlord raised the rent by $1000/mo (not a typo). We made our first offer using a traditional agent, even though we had browsed the Redfin website extensively and were tempted by the refund. We thought the traditional agent would work more closely with us during the negotiation process and therefore get us a better price. We were dead wrong, and watched in dismay as he gave the seller's agent information about what our true maximum price was. It felt like he was on the seller's side, not ours. After that fiasco, we decided to give Redfin a try. Our Redfin agent worked just as closely with us during the negotiation process on our second offer, but negotiated on our side instead of the seller's. The deal went through! During closing, she was abundantly available and checked in with us periodically to make sure we were on track. We closed a week sooner than originally scheduled after as smooth a process as we could have hoped. The field agents were also great, full of information about historical renovation and native landscaping, giving advice about the extent of repairs needed on various homes. The two field agents we saw most often were happy to show us one property per showing or many. Our traditional agent, on the other hand, would drag us to see as many properties as he could during the time he had scheduled us, even if we knew we weren't interested in them. Redfin was great for us: we knew what we were looking for and preferred to check properties out on our own before scheduling a showing. And the refund comes at a great time--right after you've handed over years of savings. I would use Redfin again without hesitation. Go on--give them a try! read more

Keith was an absolute pleasure to work with and was with us every step of the way to make sure every last detail was covered. . . A true professional. We look forward to working with him again, and I highly recommend him to everyone I know that's in the market. read more

If you want to save 50% on the outrageous 3% chunk of your house sale or purchase check these guys out. They have a killer website for searching for your perfect home then they have field agents to meet you at whatever properties you are interested in. stephanie.walker@redfin.com was my agent, what a professional, made a very complicated buy and sell deal actually work when I had almost lost hope. Stephanie even got me the right lender to get the deal done when my previous lender really screwed things up and left me in the terrible position of having sold my home they had lied about my mortgage being funded which left me looking like I would be homeless in two weeks. Not so, the Redfin agent, Stephanie, put me in touch with a great San Diego company, San Diego Funding, and in particular kim.moffat1@gmail.com who in only two weeks totally got the whole deal back on track and fully funded the entire loan in only 2 weeks from the initial call. I will be moving into my new home tomorrow thanks in total to the expertise of these exceptional professionals. I saved $15k using Redfin on the sale and purchase, and the paperwork was pretty much all done on e-doc's. The transactions were both totally transparent, so I knew exactly what was going on and whowas getting/doing what. Completely different to previous dealing with the realty/lender people I had dealt with years ago. Great service, great value, great company from the experience I had. read more

I used Redfin in conjunction with my Realtor to find my current home, where I have been for almost two years now. I am really happy I utilized this tool and I still use Redfin all the time to check out properties and do some market research. I even have the app on my iPhone! I think Redfin is one of the best real estate tools out there and I recommend it to my friends all the time - Thanks Redfin! read more

This web site gives you the kind of information you need to make one of the most important decisions of your life, BUYING A HOME. You get access to almost the same information as the licensed brokers. The search filters are great. The brokers and agents are honest and nice. There integrity will keep you out of trouble. The rebate on the commission is great to! read more

We bought our first home with Keith Thomas back in 2014. Now this home in 2016 on W Stay Ct. is for my brother in law. We can always count on Keith. He is always there to help us out whenever we need him. He helped us with 2 homes for our family, now we are working on the 3rd home. Of course Keith will be the one helping us get the 3rd home. Thanks to Keith our family can always feel assure that we can always count on him for any problems or questions we may have. read more

It was an absolute pleasure working with Katrina and the Redfin team! We were both very pleased with the level of service throughout the transaction from the initial bid to closing of escrow. Although it was dreadfully painful to deal with some of the unforeseen issues that arose during the process (most of which were due to the FHA appraisal / loan), she maintained her professionalism and composure. She provided the appropriate level of guidance, direction, and oversight at the most critical stages, and most importantly she never threw in the towel when the outlook was grim (as there were several show-stoppers along the way)! Overall, we are completely satisfied with our agent and the "Redfin" approach to real estate. Although we were first time home buyers with minimal knowledge and no experience....we enjoyed performing research at our own pace, we didn't require constant hand holding, and we knew exactly what we were looking for, so the Redfin business model suited us very well. I consider myself "tech savvy", and I found Redfin's website to be an extremely powerful query engine that provides great tools and filters to narrow the search based on our specific criteria. Their site allows users to save searches, manage favorites, email updates on a daily basis, alert consumers of new homes on the market that match the criteria, and other features that are not offered by most other vendors. Those tools combined with granular details related the properties for sale (almost every detail from SoCal MLS) packaged in an easy to use, intuitive interface, proved to be a very innovative way to find a new home. Once the bidding process has been initiated, all of the required documents can be signed electronically (using DocuSign), which was very valuable with regards to time savings. It was also beneficial for document archival for our personal records, as all of the fully signed documents are can be downloaded in PDF format. I was absolutely intrigued by the details of process, and performed extensive research independently, which yielded positive results for us. All of the information I received from our agent was accurate and timely, which helped me feel more comfortable and confident. I was a bit reluctant when we started the process after reading reviews that claim Redfin is a "self-service shop", a statement which I later found to be grossly misstated. If you are new to the area or you are not comfortable surfing the web, I would not suggest Redfin. If you want to tell an agent your criteria, have them perform all the research, and hold your hand step-by-step, I would not suggest Redfin. However, if you know the area well and have a vision of what you want, I would highly suggest Redfin's services. Our biggest fear was not identifying a property of interest, but rather the required paperwork to negotiate the sale and acquire the property. Our agent walked us through the process at a high level, which was generally sufficient, but she would take the time to explain and answer questions when necessary from purchase contracts and counter offers to disclosures and extensions. One major downside (fairly subjective) was the fact that Redfin requires the consumer to visit the homes with one or more "tour agents", which are coordinated by "scheduling agents". You will not work with the "lead agent" until you are ready to bid. From my perspective, this comprise was well worth it because it would be very difficult for Redfin to contain costs and maintain profitability as the company scales. To further reduce expenses they also permit most of their employees to work from home, which I've done for the last four years and I've witnessed the costs savings for a small company first hand. All of these cost containment factors combined ultimately leads to a larger rebate check for the home buyer! The only other complaint that we had during the process was a perceived lack of responsiveness from our lead agent...from time to time. With that said, I've witnessed the "I am the most important customer syndrome" myself during the last ten years I've spent as a field sales rep, so I didn't take it personally. I also believe that the latency in communication was largely due to the fact that she was overworked and stretched thin, which I realize requires systematic prioritization. All in all, we've been very happy with our decision to work with Redfin and we would not be hesitant to recommend Redfin to family and friends with similar background. We were absolutely thrilled to receive the rebate from Redfin, which exponentially outweighed the perceived compromises when compared to a "full service real estate firm". We have no regrets after it was all said and done, and I'm certain that as time fades away the nasty details of the transaction from our memories, we'll only be left with a positive impression of our experience with Redfin. read more

My husband and I were in the market for a single family home for over a year in the North Tustin area (92705) only. We worked with an agent from Ziprealty and he was absolutely HORRIBLE! We than found another agent who we worked with for a couple of months and he was also HORRIBLE! We heard about Redfin from my husband's friend and thought we would give it a try. We already knew the area, what kind of home we wanted and our budget. We went over many tours with the RedFin agents and put in a couple of offers. We closed last week and are so happy, excited and grateful that we found this house and worked with great people in the process. Our Redfin Agent was Katrina and she is very attentive, provides great feedback and truly works for you. I recommend Redfin, especially if you already know what area you want to live in and what kind of home. We are getting a rebate from Redfin, which will go towards improvements on our new home. read more

REDFIN is the only way to buy a home! We bought our first home with Redfin and had a great experience. They were prompt, helpful, there was no pressure, and best of all we got 1/2 of the commission back! Awesome! If we buy another home.....We will use Redfin again! read more

Without a doubt one of the best new businesses out there. Redfin has the right idea, the right people and the right model to fix what remains one of the worst personal business transactions individuals will ever encounter. It is my sincere hope that Redfin puts the majority of traditional "agents" out of business for good. Just for starters, their home search platform is 21st century strong. You can easily set up searches in your target area(s) and store them off. Redfin sends you emails every day with any changes in your search areas. From there you can link right to the homes and essentially conduct most of the shopping from your PC. If Redfin agents have seen the homes, you will see their comments. To some extent this lessens the possibility of wild goose chases resulting from misleading photos, descriptions, etc. Realtor.com and a few others have similar platforms, but they do not have agent commentary and they lack interactivity with the process. Once you are out of the gates, Redfin makes the entire process simple with solutions that automate the constant faxing which takes place with traditional "agents." Using my most recent home purchase as an example, the ONLY documents we signed were the loan docs when escrow closed. You establish your signature and initials on their platform (DocuSign) and when they put new docs in your deal room you just read and click to sign. As cool as all of the automation is, the best part about Redfin is that they actually live up to the "agent" moniker. They truly represent you....and not in an inarticulate, uneducated fashion as is the case with many real estate agents...but in the way you'd want to be represented. Professionally and above board. They do this because Redfin doesn't just take anybody on as employees, and since they are not commission-driven they are motivated simply to make sure you have an experience you are happy with. Of course, Redfin also shares the commission with buyers (1.5%), so that is a tangible benefit. Our Redfin agent choreographed the entire transaction, and was always a step ahead of the document flow. Even the Redfin rebate......several days before escrow closed he locked up the amount and proactively went about the process of making sure it was ready for the close. We literally had no worries other than what was imposed on us by the "agent" on the other side of the deal. Before this I had four home purchase/sales in my lifetime. In EVERY case I walked away feeling like all of the "agents" involved were incompetent and added little value relative to what they took from the transaction. I also felt in many cases that "agents" had too many conflicts of interest and abilities to steer my transaction in a way that favored them moreso than me. In each case I walked away wishing I could have just represented myself. With Redfin, for the first time I am totally satisfied with my representation. Watch out for these guys....the company should do very well. read more

Redfin has shown us the future. Someday, all homes will be bought and sold this way. Originally I thought Redfin was just an excellent website for browsing through listings. When I actually bought a house I was surprised to learn that Redfin is like a machine cranking through the red tape of real estate while I kicked back and signed a bunch of forms. Special thanks to super agent Sara Masey who handled both our purchase and sale. read more

Keith was amazing! He made sure that I knew what was going on at all times, he is very professional and knowledgeable! I would and will recommend him and Redfin to everyone I know. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to helping me achieve my dreams of owning a home! read more

Keith is absolutely brilliant, professional and very thorough with his work. I will highly recommend Keith as their real estate agent for every home buyer read more

Michelle Fullbright is the best agent we have ever had. We are so grateful that Michelle is our agent in our buying process. Michelle and her team are always on top of everything. She responded to our questions and concerns quickly all the time. She made sure we don't need to worry about anything. Michelle made a lot of extra efforts to keep things going. Every time when something unexpected happened Michelle handled it very well. Michelle is knowledgable, professional, friendly and helpful all the time. She cares about us and represents our best interests. We would give her an extra star if there is one. read more

I would certainly recommend Keith highly. He listened attentively to my housing requirements and made notes on each property we visited, concerning likes and dislikes. He really knew what I was looking for in a home. Even before the property I bought came on the market Keith alerted me and we were visiting it the first day it was available. In this case there were 2 offers both full price, mine being one. Keith was excellent in drafting our offer and personalizing it. That and his persistence and dedication won the day and our offer was the one accepted. I am certain this would not have closed without Keith. He's the best. read more

We had a great experience with Redfin when we sold our home. Our agent, Min Seo was really super helpful and went above and beyond helping us with the entire process of getting the house ready, going through the offers, and getting the deal closed. Their pictures were amazing and they kept us updated all along the way. It's great that they offer full service, but charge alot less in commission. A great way to buy or sell a home. Give them a chance.. I know it worked out great for us. read more

This is no different than help-u-sell except these agents are even more busy. You get an "agent" who doesn't care because they are making so little money from the work. Think about it, 50% goes not to the agent, it goes to the office, then costs are paid for and then the agent gets a split. They have a ton of clients just like you that they have to deal with and you don't get 1st hand or even second hand service. It was a lousy experience and I'd much rather have a real agent working for me who also has some sort of self interest wrapped up in the success of my transaction. Real Estate socialism does not work. Do you like being the customer of a corporation or the DMV? Well, that is what you get at Redfin. What more can you expect? read more

OMG! This place just gets WORSE! Tonight I received a call from Mark Bennett at the Irvine, Ca office. He accused me of calling some of his employees and saying rude things to them. First of, calling me at home at my personal number is unacceptable and unprofessional. If you have a problem and think I am the cause write me a letter, jerk- that way you have proof you contacted me. And, as always, I am perfectly willing to let a person know if I am irritated with him or her-communicating is definitely NOT my problem. This company or at least this branch of it, lacks all professionalism. Just for recap: April insisted on a face to face meeting instead of an online one, wasting about an hour of my time. she didn't tell us upfront about Redfin's policy of not listing homes with unpermitted additions (and I doubt this is the case) until almost a week later. Thanks for wasting my time! Katrina says she guesses April didn't know because she has been in traditional real estate until several months ago I contacted two agents in San Diego about buying a house- neither one contacted me back about this request And now Mark contacts rudely and unprofessionally contacts me.He didn't tell me he was with Redfin, but I looked up his number on a legal database and he is. WTF! I guess they are all just ticked because I filed two different complaints with Redfin corporate- but I doubt I am the only unsatisfied customer. GAWD! You guys are STOOOPID! read more