Buying A Home
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Redfin?
I've just recently heard about Redfin. What are the benefits of using Redfin? Does anyone have personal experience with them?
TY!
Laura
Re: Redfin?
We bought with them and had a good experience. I'm the type that likes to do her own searching and leg work. They didn't get in the way with my process or try to steer us towards their friends' listings. They came through for us with good contract negotiations (which was a priority for me) and kept the closing process moving smoothly.
I know that some would depend on the local agents where you are but in general I'd recommend them.
(For months I kept a spreadsheet of all properties in our target markets up to 50K above our target price so that I could watch trends and movement. Most agents around here would try to steer you to a specific town because different agents in an office were supposed to work with different towns. We were looking in about 10 towns at a variety of houses chosen for very specific but personal criteria. I found I often knew more about the houses market than the realtors I'd meet in the field. Paying an extra 10K for their expertise didn't appeal to me.)
um, neither does my non-redfin agent. in fact, she has found quite a few listings NOT yet on redfin, realtor.com, trulia, zillow or other houses before they hit the market or right as they fall out of escrow. she is very well-networked in our metro area and has great relationships w/many other realtors, so she can get the scoop on places for us. they are not her "friends" (sometimes they are) but rather colleagues. having a realtor who has these relationships is not a bad thing unless you're in a particularly unscrupulous market for some reason. i am someone who loves to do my own research and currently has the time to do so, but i've still gotten a ton of value from my agent's expertise and help in doing even more legwork and in-depth research that i don't have access to (direct access to listing agents).
totally. read their reviews. make sure there are a decent # of reviews for each agent before relying on them.
this is not true in all markets. my realtor knows loads more than me as she's been working in real estate in our greater metro area for over 10 years. she showed us houses in 4 or so cities to make sure we knew what we wanted despite us having 2 cities in mind. again, this totally depends on the quirks of your local market.
in short, just by being very well-networked in our greater metro area, our non-redfin agent has already earned her half of the commission that the redfin agents would be refunding you just in the legwork she has done for us.
read your area's redfin agent reviews. try to find others that have used redfin agents in your specific market to get feedback. redfin has its own messageboards, so that might be a place to look. meet with non-redfin agents just to see if you hit it off with one and to also get educated about your specific market.
I used them for viewing houses mostly. I didn't find them very helpful- more like warm bodies to meet at a site (they don't drive you around), and to show you properties.
For my actual purchase, I went through a few realtors and found one through word of mouth. I found that people like me (age, income, etc) seem to have good ideas about realtors versus me hoping for the best online (didn't turn out). A colleague offered up her realtor and he was a BLESSING! He was truly helpful- I couldn't have gone through the sale without him (it was a regular purchase- not short or foreclosure but it had a lot of issues).
I think while you're looking RedFin is fine, but if you're doing your first purchase and don't know much about the documents you're signing, go with a professional.
Life and Love at #16 | our married life blog
Redfin agents are all professionals with their licenses.
One other thing, in the Seattle metro area RedFin had 7 of the top 10 agents in the county (most closed). http://blog.redfin.com/seattle/2011/07/seven_redfin_agents_in_the_top_ten_in_king_county.html
This was our agent: http://www.redfin.com/real-estate-agents/febe-cude
As you can see, they have a lot of experience and publish reviews so you can make an educated decision.
We bought our house with Redfin in DC in 2008. I couldn't be happier with that decision and I would do it again if we were to decide to move.
Our agent was excellent, recommended a top notch inspector (that I have since referred the hell out of) and gave us spot on advice on negotiating with the sellers.
And $8000 check was pretty awesome.