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Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

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Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#91

Post by harrumph »

mac01021 wrote: post #69
bdamm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think buyers could brave buying a home without a realtor. It's a little crazy but doable. Selling is another matter entirely. If you would like the peace of mind to know that your home is actually in your past once the money is in your bank account, use a broker. Having your past home haunt your future can be a miserable prospect.

Why can't my attorney provide me with that assurance while he's taking me through the closing process? What extra thing is the broker doing?

>What extra thing is the broker doing?

The broker is causing the closing to happen by finding and satisfying the buyer along with the buyer's many, many issues with most properties.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#92

Post by existencebox »

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…

Let me offer a different viewpoint.

Redfin absolutely serves a purpose, but in some markets, notably for my case very hot markets, it's a significant impediment. I really wanted redfin to work, shopping in seattle 2 years ago. I tried for almost a year, but they would consistently be not as contactable or prompt as we wanted, and gave us very erroneous advice when it came to crafting offers on some houses we wanted. As a result we lost out on houses when we could have been competitive.

Eventually we got a very solid realtor, who was aggressive in finding us houses that would slip through our normal searches (the house we ended up buying had been on the market for a long time at a higher price than they eventually relisted it for, in an area we had discounted.) When a bidding war started, he worked with us by being connected with the selling agent, gave us very accurate hints on how we'd need to push and what would work to our advantage, and landed both the deal and some back and forth that happened after.

Downside, this was after 2 years of searching and losing out on houses I frankly today still regret not getting. An hour+ commute sucks, and I attribute some of my early failures to not getting an experienced/knowledgeable/active realtor earlier.

YMMV but that's the caveat from my experience.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#93

Post by [deleted] »

mac01021 wrote: post #69
bdamm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think buyers could brave buying a home without a realtor. It's a little crazy but doable. Selling is another matter entirely. If you would like the peace of mind to know that your home is actually in your past once the money is in your bank account, use a broker. Having your past home haunt your future can be a miserable prospect.

Why can't my attorney provide me with that assurance while he's taking me through the closing process? What extra thing is the broker doing?

[deleted]

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#94

Post by ovulator »

rhodysurf wrote: post #7
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 used to think the same way, but then I bought my first house and my realtor was insanely helpful. The entire process is filled with random quagmires that I would have never known how to manage otherwise. Someone with more experience may be more able to go it alone obviously, but my realtor was invaluable.

As someone who bought my first house without a realtor involved at all. I don't know what value they could have added. Thanks to Zillow, Redfin and the like it was a piece of cake to locate a house. I found one that was for sale by owner that I liked, we negotiated on a price and came to an agreement. There was a lot of paperwork, but I'm literate and can read. Most of the complex stuff was with the loan and the title company, both of which were more than happy to walk me through the steps of each.

I really have no idea what tens of thousands of dollars extra would have bought me. I don't need someone to hold my hand and look at cars with me either.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#95

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#96

Post by aetherson »

existencebox wrote: post #92
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…

Let me offer a different viewpoint. Redfin absolutely serves a purpose, but in some markets, notably for my case very hot markets, it's a significant impediment. I really wanted redfin to work, shopping in seattle 2 years ago. I tried for almost a year, but they would consistently be not as contactable or prompt as we wanted, and gave us very erroneous advice when it came to crafting offers on some houses we wanted.…

I bought a house in SF three years ago through Redfin. The realtor that Redfin gave us was prompt, aggressive, and thorough in the bidding/closing process.

What he didn't do is drive us around to open houses or suggest places to us. Which we didn't want anyway.

I suspect that the individual realtor you get through Redfin has a big impact on your experience with the site. It sounds like you got a bad one and were unhappy. We got a good one and were happy.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#97

Post by gist »

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…

> where any buyer can view photos of a house for sale online real estate agents still expect to receive 6%

It's not the same as buying a car as you have to gain access to the property to look at it which involves another agent and much work even after an offer has been accepted or negotiated.

The only thing that is 'absurd' is that the commission generally stays the same whether the house is 1.5 million or 150,000. And as others have mentioned that is split between various parties that are needed to sell a house which is a big one time purchase that most people need help with.

The other important thing is this. Agents spend a great deal of time with buyers who don't end up buying anything from them. Driving them around, setting up appointments, dealing with the listing agent and so on. Unless they make a sale they are not paid. Most of the agents in this country are not selling million dollar real estate either. And in the end they aren't really earning that much money either in a typical market.

Just yesterday I requested information on a property from an agent on something that I honestly don't think I have a serious interest in buying. They took time on the phone and I could easily setup an appointment with them to view the property and waste more of their time. In the end unless I buy now or in the future or refer someone to them they will end up eating that time and getting nothing in terms of pay.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#98

Post by abawany »

opo wrote: post #62
ericb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a realtor, fyi, just a good real estate lawyer, which you generally need anyway when buying/selling a house. A lot of the apparent value of realtors disappears when you do the process yourself. source: have FSBO bought, and FSBO sold, and redfin bought, and worked for Coldwell Banker. Getting on the MLS is cheap/easy now with discount MLS listings--I wouldn't do fsbo without it, even though you usually…

>You don't need a realtor, fyi, just a good real estate lawyer, Lawyer prices will obviously be different in different parts of the country, (so maybe a lot cheaper where you are) but I knew someone who arranged a transaction without a realtor and paid a lawyer a lot more than $1,000 to put together all the necessary documents. One thousand seems like a good deal. >...which you generally need anyway when buying/selli…

In my case, there was always a lawyer involved in the contract with a fixed for dealing with documentation, as part of the closing costs. I never explicitly involved a lawyer but have always been intrigued by the idea of doing a FSBO deal with a lawyer generating all of the real estate contracts for a fixed fee.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#99

Post by rb808 »

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?

RE agents in most of the rest of the world charge 1-2%. 6% is insane, and the buyers agent I really dont think adds value.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#100

Post by blocacres »

bdamm wrote: post #23
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?

Having gone through four home-buying episodes, where my wife (an ex-realtor) spent massive amounts of time trolling Trulia, RedFin, calling police departments, gathering reports from the local City Hall, I can tell you there is still a service to be provided by agents. And anyone who has bought a house knows that the collection of contracts that represents "buying a house" is not a small collection, and errors can be…

I'm currently working on solving this problem, hoping to launch in the next year. The truth is the average real estate agent doesn't have a college degree and has been in the business for less than 3 years. And in a hot market, when houses sell in a week, the agent is worth even less. What marketing plan is going to sell a house in a week? None at market value.Furthermore, buyers are walking into transactions thinking they aren't paying for a realtor when they are paying for both sides in the price of the house.
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