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Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

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Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#71

Post by jdross »

Danihan wrote: post #33
bkjelden wrote: post #12

I hope this company sees nothing but success. I bought my house through Redfin last year, and not only did I save ~$5k in commissions compared to a conventional realtor, I also felt the process was much smoother and more pleasant than other times I've interacted with a conventional realtor. It's simply absurd that in an era where any buyer can view photos of a house for sale online real estate agents still expect to…

Well, technically the brokers get most of that.

Many brokerages get nothing except a flat fee per transaction and a "desk fee".

Some take nothing at all if you're a top producer and refer your clients to their title and mortgage operations.

HomeSmart is the largest, I believe

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#72

Post by wavefunction »

ferentchak wrote: post #55
toomuchtodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my most recent homebuying experience, my realtor was able to point out several facts about the house based on the surrounding market that saved me about $40k. It also helps that I don't pay for the realtor on the buy side. What's your argument against a good realtor who saves you any amount when it's coming out of the seller's fee? Edit: By the time you've come to visit a home you're buying, the seller has already…

The money from the seller isn't free. For example there is a chance that I could get them to sell the house to me for less than what I am buying it for. If for example the seller met me half way on those fees that's a decent amount off of cash. When I was buying my home the loan person I worked with is family so she helped me more than my realtor. Looked into neighborhoods for me etc. It could be that they were looki…

Yes, your loan person was definitely going far beyond what service any normal customer would receive from their loan person.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#73

Post by cabinguy »

rgbrgb wrote: post #59
notadoc wrote: post #3

I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor and charge a reasonable flat fee ($1000?) to buy/sell a house and handle all the related details. Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays. Why does anyone need to pay a whopper commission to some middle-man?

With Open Listings we started flat fee on the buy side but had a couple problems. First, it was very hard to communicate the value prop to customers. We went to market with something like "we refund the buyer's commission minus our flat fee". This brought up all kinds of questions and often buyers thought we were more expensive than realtors. Saying that we're 50% the price of a traditional realtor ended up being a m…

"seen how little work agents do..."

This is going to sound condescending, but you honestly do not know much about the business you're in.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#74

Post by zjaffee »

notadoc wrote: post #3

I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor and charge a reasonable flat fee ($1000?) to buy/sell a house and handle all the related details. Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays. Why does anyone need to pay a whopper commission to some middle-man?

I can't really speak on the aspect of buying a home, but when we sold my grandmothers home having a solid real estate agent certainly was mutually beneficial. They knew what needed to be done in regards to quick fix repairs that were far cheaper than the value added to the home when sold, and in turn earned a higher commission fee for themselves.

I'm not sure how good redfin is to work with on the sell side of things, but I have a hard time imagining that a flat fee gets you the personal attention needed to be able to sell a home for 10% above what you were hoping to get.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#75

Post by city41 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
notadoc wrote: post #3

I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor and charge a reasonable flat fee ($1000?) to buy/sell a house and handle all the related details. Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays. Why does anyone need to pay a whopper commission to some middle-man?

"I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the need for a software engineer and charge a reasonable flat fee to bolt together some libraries and handle all the related details. Why do we even need software engineers at this point? Everyone can find the libraries and open source tools they need online nowadays. Why does anyone need to pay a whopper paycheck to some middle-man?" You're paying for someone's…

The developer's expertise is often not needed, such as Wix, Google Sheets/Excel, Wordpress, etc. Developers will be middlemen less and less as technology progresses, same as realtors.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#76

Post by opo »

wyc wrote: post #22

Here's a great piece by Ben Thompson discussing the economics and markets of such services: Both limit growth: regular agents with a stake in the current system steer home buyers away from Redfin properties, and hiring and training agents who aren’t interested in the upside from commission takes a lot of time and money. https://stratechery.com/2016/opendoor-a-startup-worth-emulat... Why the flat-fee brokerage Allre h…

>Here's a great piece by Ben Thompson discussing the economics and markets of such services:

Most of the article is about OpenDoor. I don't think that quote about Redfin describes the situation very well.

I don't think there is evidence that agents with buyers steer them away from Redfin and it wouldn't work very well since almost all buyers will go to a site with MLS listings and see what is on the market. Redfin takes a lowered commission on their business, they don't lower the commission to the buying agent.

In terms of hiring, they allow agents to get away from the continual cold calling/door knocking and self promotion they need to do to attract the next customer and they offer a stable salary and a support staff to take care of the mundane stuff like arranging inspections, etc. I don't think they have a problem getting job applicants. (Not associated with Redfin, but a happy customer.)

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#77

Post by biastoact »

I bought through Redfin five years ago.

Actually, we offered on two houses, backed out after poor inspections, and then purchased the third house in a competitive multi-bid environment all in a few months. With Redfin I never felt the kind of sales/relationship pressure to close a deal that I did when buying with traditional realtors. The only reason we didn't sell our Condo through Redfin is I wanted someone in the neighborhood who could help coordinate painting, staging, etc in the lead up to the listing.

All and all a great experience.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#79

Post by bduerst »

notadoc wrote: post #3

I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor and charge a reasonable flat fee ($1000?) to buy/sell a house and handle all the related details. Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays. Why does anyone need to pay a whopper commission to some middle-man?

Back in the early 2000's, there was a realtor group that advertised a $900 flat fee for selling homes. Not sure what happened to them though - could have been a dot com bust.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#80

Post by ryandrake »

dmreedy wrote: post #21
berberous wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's worth 3%? The issue with realtors is the exorbitant fees they still charge.

Have you ever worked with a realtor? The fee may seem exorbitant because you pay it in a lump sum. But if you were to try and calculate their hourly fee, you'll see even the mediocre ones who are only moderately attentive to their clients are often making only a few dollars an hour.

Exactly. I worked with a buyer's agent for 2+ years, and during that time saw over 100 houses and submitted about 30 written offers. None of the offers were accepted, so he made $0 from me. I felt kind of bad, but the money he makes from his successful transactions probably makes it worth it. Not my problem.

I don't know if they deserve a % of the purchase price, but they definitely ought to at least charge by the hour.

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