Redfin

We used Redfin to purchase our home. Our agent, Dave Pollock, was very responsive and helpful throughout the whole 3 – 4 month long process. He and the Redfin systems would send us listings that matched our criteria, and helped give us ideas about where we might want to live. Some others may complain that Redfin doesn’t do enough hand-​holding and spoon-​feeding. Personally, I prefer to be in the driverseat and be able to tell the agent which houses I want to see, and when. Redfin let us do just that. We could see practically any home we wanted on a moment’s notice, all because of Redfin’s flexibility. They also do a great job of putting you into contact with recommended inspectors, real estate attorneys, etc. Because everything is documented in their online portal, it was easy to know exactly what was going on with my purchase at all times. On on top of it, they provide you a REFUND of some of their sales commission. Not sure how anyone can justify not going with Redfin.

Alyssa is nice, but she seems so busy and has no time to help us more. So during the process of buying a house, I lose my time and money due to her mistake. I will definitely not use her as my agent again.

I used Redfin for my home purchase, and was very happy with service and money back. You can verify that this review is real — I left the same one on Redfin, on which the purchase is verified.
Risa is very knowledgeable about the home-​buying process — likely due to her substantial experience. She offered good guidance in touring the house, when first looking and in the final walk-​through prior to a sale. She also has a good read the market, and give you some advice on negotiating (although, whomever your realtor is, I suggest not relying completely on them — use some of your own judgment). We had what felt like a difficult negotiation process for our initial offer (took nearly a week), and the purchase and sale (again a lot of back and forth), and she was very helpful through all of this. We were particularly concerned when we discovered the seller was a corporate real-​estate lawyer (which can make things more difficult) during the contract stage (however the seller seemed very nice in person, when we finally met). But with her guidance (and Ali, one of the lawyers she recommended), we were well-​covered. It also doesn’t hurt that she isn’t the only realtor in her family.
She also was very accessible (although I should mention that we were shopping in the late winter/​early spring, which is not a busy season). Still, it was impressive to be able to usually reach her directly, or have her respond very quickly, regardless of when we were calling in the morning or later (ish) evening.
She also has put together a good list of references. We were very happy with the lawyers (Ali) and inspector (Dan) she suggested (although I should mention that I am not very handy, and likely am not the best for judging home inspectors).
Overall, I had no negative experiences with Risa. I would highly recommend her.

I used Redfin to buy my condo in Somerville. Peter Phinney was my agent and he was awesome — extremely responsive, made sure I got into every property that I wanted to see, and the website was great — easy to use with a map of the areas I was interested in.

We had the pleasure of buying our first home through Redfin. We had the good fortune of working with Liane Parness throughout the process. Redfin was perfect for us fior many reasons; no sales pressure, redfin rebate of about $ 4K was put towards our closing costs, we got to pick the homes that we wanted to see online and schedule visits as needed which worked best for our lifestyle and preferences. Handholding when you need it, but not when you dont! I will never buy a house another way.

Redfin might not be for everybody. They don’t hold your hand through the process, especially in tough, competitive markets (Cambridge, Somerville, Boston, Arlington). That’s not to say they’re not responsive or helpful, but if you’re thinking that buying a home is going to be like what you see on HGTV, think again.
The process is designed so that you run the show. You select the houses you’re interested in, you go to the open houses you want to see, you book the home showings you want to go to. Our agent was always fast, responsive and professional and gave us lots of great advice about the market and buying in general.
In the end, they made the whole process manageable and we were never pressured into anything. All the information we needed was always provided for us and they communicated wonderfully every step of the way. Plus, you get a rebate for using them. How could you lose?

I can’t imagine a better buying experience. Redfin is a great approach for buyers and Nico was an amazing agent. From helping us with our search, to the offer process, to closing, Nico went above and beyond expectations to help us find our new home. I will highly recommend him to friends and if I move, you can bet he’ll be the first person I call.

My wife and I just purchased our first home in Cambridge and honestly, without Redfin and their approach to real estate, I don’t think we would’ve been able to find our dream home. Transparency, top-​notch professionalism, incredible service, and they pay you (via a closing discount) for working with them! Absolutely game-​changing service that needs to be scaled nationally and globally. Many of the vendors, services we procured were simply of result of being in Redfin’s good company. I STRONGLY recommend using Redfin for your next, or first home purchase. I’ve also included our review of our agent below. Thank you Redfin!
******Redfin Agent Review*******
Simply put, my wife and I would be homeless right now if not for Matt’s professionalism, steadfast loyalty and determination, and commitment to securing us a home. Three months ago our landlord decided he was selling our apartment and forced us into housing market without a clue of how to start. Matt was our personal guide, confidant, adviser, and guardian through the entire process ensuring we were well prepared for each phase and situation that came our way. He was extremely forthcoming with any and all data involved regarding the 4 offers we put in and through the closing. He always made himself available, within reason, at all hours and consistently went above and beyond the call of duty to put us position to buy our first home. A quintessential «Matt moment» came just 5 days prior to closing when the contractor informed us the seller wouldn’t complete a big item on our punch list at all, least not before our closing date. While the contractor and listing agent’s rep were conciliatory to the seller’s penny-​pinching, Matt dug-​in and would not take «no» for an answer. As a result we were able to close on time, and get the seller to complete the punch list by accepting a hold on funds until all work was completed. Buying a home, let alone your first one, can be a daunting, intimidating, and scary process. It is critical to have support and also to have someone champion your cause. We had an inordinate amount of wild things turn up that could’ve derailed our closing, but Matt was our champion through it all. Three months ago we had no clue how to buy our home; 2 weeks ago we were 24 hours away from being homeless; today we have the home of our dreams. If you are in the market for a home, Matt Zborezny and his Redfin team are phenomenal! They are the utmost professionals and you will ensure yourself an all-​star supporting cast with these guys on your team. I would very strongly recommend Matt and reach out to him again if we re-​entered the housing market. Thank you Redfin!

My husband and I used redfin to sell our condo. Our agent (Shawn Flynn) was AWESOME… to say the least. We had a great experience and wished that their services expanded to where we were moving to. The Redfin website is great and such a good tool to use.
We also attended a first time homebuying class that Redfin offered before we decided to list with Redfin to get a feel for them and how they work. They were there every step of the way and were always there to help us with any questions we had. The Sale of our condo was a breeze, we went under agreement in less than 60 days and got an offer that we just couldn’t refuse. Thanks to Shawn and his staff we had a great first time selling experience :-)

Our honest-​to-​goodness true review we submitted to Redfin for our agent is below.
My husband and I just purchased a single family in Somerville through Redfin.
If you are skeptical of using them consider these points:
***No pressure– you pick out the places you want to see and a field agent (who gets paid every time they show you a property) brings you through. The sale is not tied to them so you can say whatever you want. They love showing you as many places as you want to see because they paid each time.
***You pick what you want to see– No pushy realtors showing you places outside your price range or that you’re not interested in.
***Up to the minute info– The Redfin website updates every 15 minutes and shows you the info that realtors see.
***Insight– Since Redfin works on high volume, they know who gets the job done right and has excellent suggestions. Our agent Peter Phinney never steered us wrong.
***REFUND! –You get money back, part of the buyer agent’s commission. What other real estate company does that? None except Redfin that I’ve ever heard of.
This IS the new way to buy a home– if you are still using the same system that is not in your best interest, time to try something new. Redfin Realtors get paid based on your satisfaction. I wish everything worked that way.
We can not say enough good things about our entire Redfin experience and working with Peter Phinney! Every time we shared the news that we were house hunting with a friend, we heard numerous horror stories! Thankfully, we have no such stories to add to any subsequent real estate conversation! Peter was extremely knowledgeable, honest and non-​judgmental. (We were looking for what most people overlook.) When it came time to put in an offer, Peter responded immediately and advised carefully. Closing was a breeze, and because of Peter Redfin has two very satisfied customers. We have already recommended Redfin and Peter to several friends and will continue to do so.

I had an excellent experience with Redfin purchasing a condo in Somerville near Davis Square.
Another realtor mentioned to me that they have a great website, so I started with that. The site and mobile app (especially on the iPad) is second to none.
I first attended one of their first-​time homebuyer classes, which gave me a good idea of the home-​buying process.
When it came time to visit properties, I worked with Peter Phinney, my agent, and Bohdan Mastykaz, my field agent. They patiently went with me to view a lot of properties in Cambridge, Somerville, and Charlestown. I never felt rushed, and they thoughtfully discussed with me my goals.
When it came time to put down an offer on a place, Peter was in constant contact with me and took his time in discussing strategy. I always felt like I was in control of the process.
Peter’s recommendations for an inspector, lender, and counsel were excellent as well.
Finally, I’m going to get a substantial commission rebate from Redfin, which is a nice bonus.

Good things:
Awesome online MLS property search
Rebate (if you get one)
Bad things:
Scheduling
Mixed quality field agents
No Rebate (on inexpensive properties.)
Impersonal service
My experience with RedFin is mixed. In 2010, my wife and I used their website to find properties, but stuck with a (good) local realtor. This worked well, as the Redfin website provides very powerful functionality for finding properties, and we had a single very responsive point of contact with our local realtor. Due to bad circumstances, we had to abort our house hunt before finding a good place.
Now, in 2011, we’re looking for a house again. We decided to use Redfin’s agents, because the rebate made it seem like a good deal. The scheduling system that they use for scheduling tours doesn’t work well. They scheduled a tour with an agent who was on vacation, and then rescheduled it arbitrarily at time that didn’t work for us at all.
We went on three tours with two different agents. One of the field agents we worked with seemed competent. He was helpful, told us what he know about the properties, and generally did what I expect of a realtor. The other guy was a flake. He didn’t seem particularly knowledgeable or confident. And on the second tour, scheduled at 9AM, he called at 8:50AM, when we were already driving out, to tell us that the sellers agent wasn’t going to be available for the tour of the first house. This would have been fine, except he left us to toodle around for a half hour without thinking to mention that the next two houses on the tour were on lock boxes, and we could have just gotten into them early.
We did find a place that we were interested in, and then realized that Red Fin wasn’t going to save us a penny. The rebate would be exactly $ 0. At this point, we had to ask ourselves why we were working with a budget realtor at the full-​service price. So we decided to give our business back to our local realtor.

Pennywise, pound foolish. At no point in my life has the phrase rung more true than my experience with Redfin.
Having just signed the P&S on our first home purchase made through another realtor, I can confidently say you should be very careful about using Redfin.
New to the home buying process, we found a house we really liked, but we knew it was way overpriced. However, while we went on home tours with one Redfin agent, Heidi was going to be in charge of our negotiation. She did some comps and thought the house was priced well at around $ 450 for the area and suggested and opening offer of $ 435. I couldn’t believe this, as I had seen comparable homes and just knew this home was overpriced. She hadn’t seen the home and was comparing a huge portion of the comps on sq. footage — but the upstairs was a very low roof cape and basically made the 2 bedrooms up there hard to live in. Lucky for us, we had my fiancé’s father who is in real estate check out the house in person and give us his thoughts and we were saved from over offering because we liked the house.
After that, we started working with a traditional realtor who saw the houses we did and held our hands a little more as first time home buyers.
But here is really the thing — regardless of the hand holding, going with Redfin could have cost me $ 72,000. That home that I was told to offer $ 435 on – sold months later for $ 363.
While my fiancé and I did a lot of work online and bought into the Redfin model at first, getting back a few thousand dollars at closing certainly doesn’t justify an agent telling you to overpay by $ 72k or 17% more. Luckily our instincts knew better and we had some other assistance.
While everyone at Redfin was certainly nice, I could never recommend the use of Redfin to anyone in retrospect. If you do, be sure to be extra diligent about doing all your own homework.

Loved every bit of our first home buying experience with Redfin. We looked for over a year with Redfin which involved numerous home tours, emails and questions. Redfin’s agents took care of all of these requests very promptly and patiently. If you are a first time home buyer, you must attend their home buying class as that is very educational. Their website and iPhone app are the best I have seen in Real Estate.
Fast forward, once we put our mind to a home the lead agent we worked with was Sean Valiton and he made sure that every bit of this process was painless for us and ensured that all our questions were answered so that ultimately we could make smart decisions throughout the way. He introduced us to Marcus Sohn from Leader’s Bank for lending and David Camiel who we used as our attorney. In the end, it was because of Redfin that we had a powerful team which was easy to work with. Redfin in my mind, took the pressure away from the home buying process and empowered me to make the decisions I need to make and made me feel like I was in control throughout this process. Redfin has my highest recommendation and I will be using them, infact the exact same team, next time around I am in the Real estate Market.

I am upgrading their review to three stars now. Risa and Shawn’s manager called me after reading my original review and apologized for their inconsistent conversations I had with his 2 agents.
In short, Shawn didn’t realize that Risa had promised a tour to me (even though I asked him about it during our call). After today’s call I was assured that we could still go on a tour with Redfin, but even more importantly I am now more aware of Redfin’s business model. It’s clear that because we aren’t focused on one town or a couple nearby towns that Redfin isn’t for us. This is why I still think Redfin deserves a less than perfect rating. There’s clearly a very select group of people that will work well with Redfin, but there are also many other groups that are neglected by the way they are set up to run.
I feel bad still having to give them 3 stars because I’d love to work with them, however it’s not a perfect world and it’s just not going to work out.

We found our place using Redfin and open house listings on
. After a few months of looking at places on our own (i.e. plotting out our route over Sunday brunch, racing across town to hit as many open houses as possible, then going home to sort out what we saw), we felt like we had a reasonable idea of the market and what we could get for our price range.
When we thought we might make an offer, we brought a Redfin agent into the process and off we went! From there, everything was fast paced and Matt did a great job explaining everything to us — making sure we always knew about upcoming steps, explaining the process, and prompting us to think about consequences that first-​time homebuyers might not know to think of.
It was clear that Matt was busy but he was always responsive. He was also very much so on our side. We’re excited about Redfin’s structure where its agents are paid based on both commission and buyer satisfaction with the agent. The kickback doesn’t hurt either :)

As a tech-​geek, I love Redfin. I have worked with conventional brokers in the past and have found the experience lacking something. That something was ME! Back then, I always felt like a donkey being led around to house after house, with little direct input on which places to go see. Also, because a conventional broker makes money based on the sales price of the house and no money if you don’t buy, he/​she is under extreme pressure to get you in something, anything that will keep food on their table.
Enter Redfin: The brokers are not on commission, you get a percentage of the brokers fee returned to you, and you pick the properties in a very knowledgeable way from an interface that brings all the relevant information about the property to one place for your viewing pleasure. No more broker-​driven listing sheets, with all the data Redfin pulls together, you can see all the info. Kinda like reuniting you with your dignity and intelligence. I love that!
Yes, it is true that occasionally you get a broker that is very «casual» about showing you the property, border-​lining on indifferent. You are not, however, attached to that particular broker, so you can change no questions asked. Also, Redfin frees you from your broker’s schedule. Because any free broker can show the property, you can literally mold the showings around your schedule.
So are there any downsides? You betcha. For example, if you’re in a market where intricate knowledge of the neighborhood is important, Redfin may come up a little short. The kind of knowledge I’m talking about is the info that you don’t find on the MLS: knowing the history of certain streets or houses, or pointing out the difference between the «good» and «bad» sides of a given street.
Aside from that, they’re excellent, which is why I give them 5 stars. Especially for first-​time buyers, they hold your hand through the entire process. They work closely with lenders, lawyers, inspectors, and everyone in the process to make sure it goes smoothly. Literally, I had a conference call with the agent, the loan officer, and my attorney. Show me a conventional agent that will go to the mat for you like that!
If you’re reading this and planning to buy a house/​condo/​whatever, I will make a couple suggestions.
#1: IF you like an agent, request him/​her as your primary agent on the site (write it in the comments on showings)
#2: Buy a scanner (or at least a decent multifunction, as you will scan and email more than you ever have in your whole life.)
#3: Create a list of questions to ask the listing agent for every place you see. If someone suggests a new question, write that one down too and continue asking it.
#4: Check out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac properties for sale: Freddie Mac (
) Fannie Mae (
) you can often find some steals there.
Disclosure note: I am in no way affiliated with this amazing site, but recently purchased a condo via Redfin and am looking at investment properties through the site.
Good Luck!

My wife and I started looking for houses over one year ago. Initially, it was fairly informal, just looking at information online. I mostly stuck to
and a few local realtor sites. Then one of my coworkers, who was also looking for a house, mentioned
. An odd name, I thought, but worth checking out.
I was really impressed with their online interface. Zillow gave a good amount of information but was frustratingly slow. Redfin was fast, gave lots of good info, and was easy to filter. So I started using it more and more, including to scout out open houses.
After a few months of open houses, we decided to get more serious about finding a house. I considered using Redfin, but I was hesitant: Surely they couldn’t provide as good service as a «real» broker could, right? My wife and I both knew pretty much exactly what we wanted, and spend most of our lives on the internet anyway, but we still thought we might miss something by not using a traditional broker. Boy were we wrong.
We called a broker we met at an open house, and started looking at houses with her. It was a big disappointment. After a few months, we decided to «break up» with our realtor and give Redfin a try. I placed a request to see a house we had wanted to look at that went off the market, but had just come back on. Literally five minutes after I placed the request, I received a call from the local Redfin tour coordinator, and we scheduled a tour in two days.
On our second trip out with Redfin, we found a house that we decided to place an offer on. Filling out the offer form on the website was a bit nerve-​wracking, partially because they ask you how much you want to offer — something that is normally suggested to you by your agent. Redfin did provide good tools and guides on their website though for determining a good offer price though. We heard back fairly quick from Hannah, one of the main Redfin Boston agents.
The experience of putting together the offer went pretty smoothly, though I did feel like I could have used a little more guidance when it came to the offer price.
In the end, this particular house fell through due to a terrible inspection.
Over the next few months, we worked with Madeline, an excellent Redfin tour agent. We loved that she never ever pressured us towards liking a house, and always gave her honest opinion when we asked.
Then one day late last summer we found our house, and gave Hannah a call on the way from the house. That night Hannah put together a comparative market analysis on the house and the next day helped us put together an offer. We received a much higher counter-​offer, but this time Hannah gave us some very specific advice on how to respond which was very helpful.
We gave Redfin a thorough testing over the next few months. While our inspection went fairly smoothly, we did need to have a few contractors look at some issues that came up. Hannah was great at recommending people for the job, and also took care of making sure a Redfin agent would be present when the contractor showed up.
Then we had an issue with the appraisal, which was a nightmare in many respects, but Hannah and Redfin were there the whole time for us.
I think my only criticism of Redfin is that they only have three closing agents for all of Boston, and I often felt as though Hannah was overworked. For example, she seemed to be at a closing nearly half the days I called her! She did always get back to me the same day though. More importantly, she took as much time as was needed to explain things and help calm my frayed nerves.
I also got the feeling Hannah was a really good agent — she seemed to know a lot about the business. For example, when I mentioned we’d be using the bank’s attorney for our closing, she strongly recommended against it and gave me a list of lawyers. We went ahead with the bank’s attorney anyway and regretted it immediately. So we hired one of the lawyers Hannah recommended, who ended up being fantastic, and was absolutely essential when we ran into issues with the purchase & sale agreement and appraisal.
We finally closed, which funnily enough was the first time we met Hannah in person. Then 10 days later, as promised, we received a check for over $ 4,000 from Redfin. I mention the specific number because I want people to know that you do actually get a non-​taxable check from Redfin for the amount they tell you you’ll receive. We actually got paid to buy a house!
In the end, I wholeheartedly recommend Redfin to anyone who feels as though they have a good idea of what they want from a house, and who doesn’t mind spending time on the internet searching out houses.
Now that the check has cleared, I can even say that I would have gladly used Redfin even without the commission refund!

We have been watching the Boston market for years, and unfortunately missed the boat. As we saw the home prices shooting up in price, we worked with other agents in the past (2003 – 2004), and were always let down. They thought that they knew what we wanted, and ended up completely wasting out time. We drove out to 4 or 5 houses that ended up being on busy roads, were complete dumps, etc. We were completely fed up and stood back, waiting for the bubble to burst.
Flash forward to 2009, my wife and I (and now 2 sons) were ready to jump back into the market now that prices and mortgage rates had fallen. We found the Redfin site and absolutely loved the interface. All of the data that we had painstakingly searched for years ago was right before us. Satellite, map and street views provided us with the ability to weed out houses that were on main roads, next to industrial sites, close to highways, etc. Haha, the only downfall is the reliance upon the photos taken by the seller’s agent; we noticed many painstakingly crafted photos that mislead buyers into thinking the house is in good shape. You can’t fault redfin for this though.
The process of buying a house was really smooth. We checked their website and tracked all new houses, price changes, etc. We combined open-​houses with guided tours accompanied Redfin Agents. All of the agents were great to work with and offered very candid input. We spent most of our time with Risa, who was incredibly patient and helpful. My two son’s still ask about her, she was so nice during all of the tours.
Along the road, we placed multiple offers on a bunch of different houses. Lost some due to bidding wars, and had one accepted. The inspection identified a number of issues and we ultimately backed out. Our agent, Sean Valiton was incredibly helpful along the way, and completely supported us when we decided to cancel our offer.
We finally found «the one» and had a smooth process w/​Redfin to place an offer. Risa was in close communication w/​Sean and promptly put together and submitted our offer. On recommendation from Redfin, we put together a strong team of Mortgage broker & Real estate lawyer. All three worked incredibly well together to make our first-​time home buying experience and incredibly smooth one. They were incredibly patient with us and took the time to answer our many, many questions, even at 10pm on a Friday night (sorry, Sean!).
We just closed a few days ago and can’t wait to get our check in the mail! Although we don’t plan to buy another home for many, many years, we fully endorse Redfin and recommend them whole heartedly. Their business model is a great one and is really shaking up the industry.

I just recently purchased my first home using Refin and with all else being equal, I actually can’t understand why you wouldn’t use them. I was fairly uneducated about the process — but they guided me through it all from the offer to the P&S, inspection and closing. they had great references for everything you need throughout from inspectors to attorneys. Nancy was great on home tours and Sean excellent throughout the offer/​closing process.
the deal is this — they have the most robust online website that provides the most research available on homes in certain markets. before i spend hours of time visiting properties — i did my research there — and that’s the deal — they put the onus on you to find the places you want to see — and for that — you end up getting half the buyers agent commission back at the end. i just got my check last week and that certainly will come in handy after closing and as i move in (and is not taxable).
i was a little skeptical going in — but would highly recommend using redfin — they are the real deal and why not get paid half of the buyers agent commission for doing what you would intuitively do — research the properties you want to visit.