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Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

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Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#161

Post by existencebox »

balls187 wrote: post #155
existencebox wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak of hot markets in America, which are VERY different than many others, but at least within that: A "reasonable" house goes on the market. ("reasonable" defined by A real estate agent helped me in multiple steps of the above. - Having an offer ready ahead of time with lots of contingencies/tradeoffs well understood so we could tune it quickly and get it out and under the wire. - Knowing how and where t…

Did you look at areas that haven't been gentrified? Plenty within 1 hour of Seattle that are affordable.

That's more or less where I ended up buying, and managed ~400 for a respectable 3b2b. That being said, the gentrification is spreading so aggressively and was already well in place even when I bought; in the last month 3 of my neighbors went on sale, all sold within a week at far higher prices than comparable for when I bought. (I only had... 2 other bidders, if I recall, when I bought, so it's certainly less hot than redmond where 10-15 competing was common)

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#162

Post by svachalek »

IshKebab wrote: post #131
aetherson wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unha…

This is really confusing. I just bought a house in the UK, and the process is as follows: 1. Look for house on Rightmove or Zoopla. 2. Call the estate agent or private seller to arrange a viewing. 3. Show up at the appropriate time. Look at house. 4. Make an offer. Offer gets accepted/rejected/they want more. Repeat until you get it or get outbid or give up. 5. Offer agreed (hopefully). Now do all the actual buying t…

In the US, the real estate industry controls the MLS "multiple listing service" which essentially makes them the Google of houses, with negligible competition coming from classified ads, Craigslist, and the like. They charge a standardized 6% commission to the seller, which they split with the buyer's agent, and both agents end up giving some to the brokers that handle the actual transaction.

In recent years, they've been losing ground on the commission so often it's less than 6%, and the buyer may end up getting some share of his/her agent's cut as well, but so far it's pretty hard in most markets to work around the cartel.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#163

Post by just4themoney »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #110
msielski wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knowledge of process, not just market. Which, don't get me wrong should also be easy to automate.

The hubris of this forum is astounding sometimes. Zillow and Redfin have attempted to automate just the valuation of properties (with enourmous resources behind them), and still aren't as accurate as traditional appraisers. It's easy? Edit: Even Zillow agrees. There's a million dollar prize if you can do better. http://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/D24B68EC-4090-11E7...

So? Real estate agents aren't appraisers and shouldn't do "official" appraisals because of misaligned incentives (among other reasons).

Appraisals are kind of weird anyways, they are only an somewhat educated guess until someone actually buys the property and they are pretty individually subjective. My friend had 3 different appraisers come to her house and do three different appraisals and they all varied by quite a bit and one was absurdly high, much higher than the others, and extremely unrealistic (IMO). Appraisers also have information that algorithms don't because they actually go to the house and view the property with their own eyes. They can take into account better the condition of the property and "soft," more subjective inputs that you can only tell by actually viewing the property. It's not really directly comparable to an algorithm since there's just a subjective bend to the whole process and there's much more information available to appraisers.

Not only that but when the bank does an appraisal for a mortgage the appraiser's job is only to justify the selling price. They start with the agreed upon selling price and they use data to justify it, they don't go into it blind, they consider and analyze the agreement of sale as part of the valuation. Zillow obviously can't take that info account as Zillow doesn't have that information. So you're comparing apples (a market analysis based on public information) to oranges (a justification of a privately agreed upon sale price).

An appraisal is also cheap, especially compared to a real estate agent. Ours was a flat $425.

https://theappraisercoach.com/why-most-purchase-appraisals-s...

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#164

Post by acdha »

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.…

That sounds like the Seattle manager is slacking. I had the opposite experience in DC, which makes me wonder how good a handle they have on agent quality.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#165

Post by just4themoney »

jasode wrote: post #129
MichaelGG wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't professional appraisers actually go to the property and look around? As for the rest, why should the process of selling a house require "expertise"? Apart from inspections, which require domain knowledge of infrastructure.

>why should the process of selling a house require "expertise"? At a fundamental level, one could say sellers don't require outside expertise to sell a home. Real estate agents are optional. There is a concept called "for sale by owner" which is a strategy some homeowners use. They can list the house on their own (not on MLS though), vet potential buyers, coordinate the showing of the home (appointments and/or open h…

Most of the time you can list a FSBO house on the MLS for a small fee. Our MLS has plenty of the FSBO houses listed.

https://fsbo.com/flat-fee-mls

The thing is, a lot of time FSBO houses tend to be overpriced, which is very unfortunate.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#166

Post by alexchantavy »

jjppott wrote: post #147
toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

I generally have a different opinion. I am somewhat in the industry (construction side) and I feel that generally most realtors dont really have much knowledge of what they are selling. Furthermore, it is relatively easy to get a real estate license (at least where I live) and the handful of acquaintances that have gotten their license really dont know more than the average person. I actually find the lack of knowled…

Any rules of thumb/advice you can offer on evaluating home quality from your experience?

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#167

Post by AJRF »

IshKebab wrote: post #131
aetherson wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unha…

This is really confusing. I just bought a house in the UK, and the process is as follows: 1. Look for house on Rightmove or Zoopla. 2. Call the estate agent or private seller to arrange a viewing. 3. Show up at the appropriate time. Look at house. 4. Make an offer. Offer gets accepted/rejected/they want more. Repeat until you get it or get outbid or give up. 5. Offer agreed (hopefully). Now do all the actual buying t…

Rightmove is a property portal, Redfin is an online residential estate agency.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#168

Post by acdha »

Simon_says wrote: post #66
wyc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a house is among the largest purchases of many peoples' lives. It could be worth the $5,000-$50,000 (~6% of value in U.S.) for the piece of mind. People are used to using realtors. I don't think enough economists and business people give culture enough credit for its impact on businesses and finances. It's common enough that if the buyer tries to make direct contact with the seller, all parties are startled an…

That fee could easily be 3-6 months salary. That's a hefty price to pay for culture and piece of mind.

Spread over a 30 year mortgage? I'm not saying it's nothing but many people really value peace of mind.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#169

Post by just4themoney »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #122
hueving wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't know the difference between an appraiser and a real estate agent, you should stop commenting in such a condescending tone.

Fair point! A realtor can still walk a property to perform a market analysis, which is still more accurate than an automated valuation. I'm exhausted by the never ending comments here "it's easy! Anyone can do this!" when it's clearly not. I'm simply countering the disingenuity, whether the source is ignorance or arrogance.

>A realtor can still walk a property to perform a market analysis, which is still more accurate than an automated valuation

Wow, how on earth do you know that!? That's a pretty bold statement and I don't really see anything to justify it at all. You start with "algorithm aren't as accurate as traditional appraisers" and then conclude from that "real estate agents (who aren't appraisers!) can give a more accurate market analysis than algorithms." There's a big leap there.

Even if this was true that real estate agents do a better job than automatic algorithms it's still kind of irrelevant because an appraiser cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-$600 where as an agent costs $5,000-$10,000+. If you need an appraisal you hire an appraiser, not an agent.

Re: Real estate site Redfin files for IPO

#170

Post by svachalek »

jbob2000 wrote: post #11
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?

Have you ever sold a home? Potential buyers will drive you nuts with all the stupid questions they'll ask. A good realtor has the communication skills to move you along to a sale much faster.

And it only costs about $50,000 for that...
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