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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 conventiona

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 receive 6% commission on the sale of a house.

Danihan 9y ago
Well, technically the brokers get most of that.
- deelowe 9y ago
  Actually, they typically get 1/2.
- jdross 9y ago
  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
  - dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
    Is this true in high-demand, low-supply markets? I've found the brokerages get much more greedy in these situations. See: Seattle, San Francisco, NYC.
existencebox 9y ago
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.
- everybodyknows 9y ago
  How to: Find a good Redfin agent. 1. Search local Redfin web site for agents who have done deals near your locale of interest. 2. Check internal reviews of agents on Redfin. Bad reviews don't get posted, so "chose not leave a review" on a transaction means either: a) client had unreasonable expectations, or b) agent performed badly. 3. Interview agents in person, and ask challenging questions. If you don't get responses that are either: a) correct and candid, or b) "I will get back to you tomorrow with an answer", move on to the next agent. This recipe led me to a very good Redfin agent, working inside an office run by a very bad but "senior" agent.
- aetherson 9y ago
  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.
  - existencebox 9y ago
    We got, unfortunately, MULTIPLE realtors through redfin; some on our own request, some when they simply would disappear from the company/stop answering our emails. There was neither quality nor consistency, and we had marginal ability to impact that choice on our own, whereas with a personal realtor we went with someone highly recommended from work peers. I absolutely agree the individual realtor impacts the experience, that's pretty much the crux of my whole issue :) My conclusion was that Redfin doesn't offer as much control/guarantee to ensure this, and in a hot market, this matters quite a bit. (To be fair, I'd say the same thing about my experience with mortgage lenders, BoA did an abysmal job and very nearly left me in the lurch, whereas a smaller local lender picked up the slack and pulled our asses out of the fire. Perhaps my overarching statement should be to wonder if we (businesses) suck at scaling customer support? (I'm pretty much saying "well duh" to myself as I write this statement, frankly))
gist 9y ago
> 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.
- clamprecht 9y ago
  Can I just pay a real estate agent per hour instead? That solves the problem of me deciding to not buy a house from them later.
  - runako 9y ago
    I tried this when purchasing my last house. I offered a pretty hefty hourly fee, knowing full well there's no way the hourly fees would approach 3% of the transaction. IIRC the response was essentially that they are prohibited from doing so by their Realtor organization (?). This was in Georgia.
  - jrs235 9y ago
    That's dependant on your state (state laws) and the broker. I know of a broker that offers showings at $50 per hour.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
just4themoney 9y ago
If you really want to get your blood boiling about buyer's agents, watch this - https://youtu.be/jxcCJxN8aJE https://youtu.be/jxcCJxN8aJE Red Fin doesn't operate in my area but if it did I'd be all over it in a heartbeat when I bought my house.
- pweissbrod 9y ago
  First two minutes of that video states the issue is limited to the case where the agent represents both the buying and selling parties which is only legal in canada. I'm not canadian. I dont know how commonplace this is. But as an american it sounds pretty foolish of someone to accept a deal on your next mortgage with someone who openly controls both parties.
  - everybodyknows 9y ago
    Double-ended deals are legal in some US states e.g. California, and they are indeed an opportunity for breach of fiduciary duty. The way it works is that a crooked agent would get the seller to sign a listing contract that stipulates 3% to whatever agent represents the buyer irrespective of who that agent was working for. Then present only double-ended offers, or lowball outside offers to the seller -- hiding any higher offers that came through buyer's agents. And naive sellers have been defrauded this way. The seller's defense is simple: Refuse to sign any listing contract that stipulates more than a 1% commission to a buyer's agent that is in any financial way affiliated with the listing agent's office. 1% being roughly in line with the actual effort required from the listing agent to deal with buyer-side coordination as well. Such a stipulation doesn't quite close the door on collusion through favor trading, among agents in the local old-boy-and-girl network. But it's enough to shield you the seller from the grosser frauds out there.
fizixer 9y ago
Let me guess, that ~$5k is less than 1% of what you would pay in total. No offense (and sorry for being off-topic) but I never get how people obsess over the under 1 or 2% cost savings while completely ignoring the overvalued principal. Two other examples, - People go over to buy a $50-$70k car and later boast how "they made" the salesman give them a $500 or $1k discount. (well what about a fully-functioning $20k car, or the same car but 2-3 years old but costing $8-12k?) - People buying stupid stuff off amazon etc, and worse, travelling to random places, just because they have credit-card cashback and travel rewards, and looking at you funny when you tell them you only have one credit-card and you make sure you don't overspend but never paid attention to how many points you accumulate.
- valas 9y ago
  Bigger picture is that agents conventionally get 6%, which is obnoxious in the Internet age. Sure 1% maybe is not much, but anything that helps to squeeze that industry is great. No?
  - dforrestwilson 9y ago
    Yes. Is there even another real estate market in the world where intermediaries capture so much of the gain on sale?
  - fizixer 9y ago
    Maybe. Though I haven't gotten over the obnoxious housing prices in the first place, so I guess I'm not seeing what you're seeing.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- scottLobster 9y ago
  Just speaking for myself, 5k is a lot of money. So is 1k, so is $500. I can do a lot with that money. Percentages are arbitrary. I agree however that people buying luxury items and then boasting is kinda dumb. If you're willing pay premiums for luxuries, getting a slight discount on said premiums is hardly a victory. It's like people who buy stuff they don't need and won't use because it's "on sale" and then brag about how they "saved money".
hijinks 9y ago
I wanted redfin to work when we solf our house in the SF Bay area a few months ago. Redfin's issue is the selling agent was located 45 minutes away and just ran random comps and said our house was 120k lower then market. She said it would never sell for what I thought it was worth. So we ended up going with a local agent who put it on market for more then we thought and it sold for 1% over asking.
- vostok 9y ago
  This happens with full price agents too. In my experience, their "expertise" is really just confidence and bluster. Commissions are high not because real estate salespeople are good, but because they are inefficient and because they operate under a de facto cartel.
  - hijinks 9y ago
    I agree, we just ended up going with someone who specialized in the area instead of dealing with Redfin agent who said it would never sell. I love their site for searching.
  - ryuker16 9y ago
    It depends on the agent. Some are pretty good at getting you more. The opposite is a house dumper or bad one(the house dumper is pro, excellent for buying). I've sold in other industries before....good ones are worth every penny and know how to twist arms. Granted it is a cartel that hopefully Zillow will destroy. I suspect the agent will still be around for the lazy, elderly, or those who can't sell well.
- opo 9y ago
  I used Redfin to sell a house and the realtor helped get the property ready for market (which took a while) and pulled multiple comps to help watch the market trend. Place sold quickly for much more than I thought it would.
foolfoolz 9y ago
after I bought a house with an excellent agent I can't imagine how you can't use an agent. at least for your first house it's awesome. pictures online are no substitute for going in person. the agents main value is being correct in paperwork and knowing the neighborhood. I think they are a great tool but not a replacement. great agents are very useful
- dmoy 9y ago
  Redfin has agents who walk you through houses, help you with paperwork, and live in the neighborhood... (And you still save thousands over a traditional agent)
- soperj 9y ago
  Do agents even write up most of the paperwork? I was under the impression that they just contract that out to a lawyer.
  - foolfoolz 9y ago
    my agent walked me through the entire 150+ page offer and I asked a lot of questions, they knew. they found errors with me during escrow signing. they were with Alain pinel so I'm betting there's corporate help available but she really knew her stuff
manyxcxi 9y ago
I think in a lot of cases realtors aren't the necessity they used to be, because of tools like Redfin. It used to be VERY hard (or near impossible?) to pull past sale data, comps, and various other bits of info on your own. As a buyer, a realtor is rarely a bad choice because they likely won't cost you any money, as they usually negotiate out of he seller's fees. They help out a ton when it comes to bidding, what we could likely ask for, and the personal relationship they may have with the selling realtor. Need recommendations for an inspector or mortgage broker? They likely have some good contacts. As a buyer, I'll probably always use a realtor, likely the last realtor I used- she was so smart and tactical that she probably would be successful in any career path she chose. We moved from Seattle to Portland about a year ago, I grew up in Portland and didn't need any help figuring out where to live- I sure did need help in figuring out how to stand out when we were consistently one of multiple offers (one house had 13 offers three hours after the open house and closed for ~25% over asking). The inspector we used was recommended by our realtor and was so good/such a bulldog he even got the construction company to repair things they initially considered 'within spec' (we bought brand new). Counter to that, my mom sold her house for $60K (about 15%) over what some realtor estimated she could, using only Redfin. She received 5 offers on day one.
- edaemon 9y ago
  If your mom's house was also in Portland, I'm not that surprised by the outcome for the same reason that a house closing at 25% over doesn't seem that extraordinary: Portland's housing market is bonkers.
TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
I'm not sure I follow what's happening here. Doesn't the person selling the house pay the real estate agent? Why would someone sell their house for ~$5k less? This reads a lot like buying a vacuum cleaner at 10% off sale and thinking you saved 10%. Redfin helped sell the house at the price the market would bear.
- cowsandmilk 9y ago
  When you buy through redfin, they pay you part of the commission they receive. For instance, in my neighborhood, there is a house listed for $294,000. Redfin states you would receive a refund of $904 if you bought the property through them. It doesn't scale linearly, so a $395,000 house has a $1,785 refund, nearly twice as much. It also differs by market. These are in Boston and thus are probably lower than other markets because here it is a 2.5+2.5 split rather than the 3+3 in most markets.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
    > there is a house listed for $294,000. Redfin states you would receive a refund of $904 if you bought the property through them. People still fall for these marketing gimmicks. If the listed price is $294,000 with a $904 refund then the price is $293096. The only reason I can find for listing it as two figures (list price + refund) is because it makes the buyer take longer to tell the story about buying their house. "I paid x but got a y refund" has more talking points than "I paid x". Especially so if the "refund" is applied long after the transaction / settlement has occurred as it now compels you to tell the story again: "I just got my y refund from my house purchase!". And the agency gets to maintain a slush fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars of pending "refunds". Marketing. I thoroughly disagree with these sorts of practices and personally believe they should be regulated out of existence. But people seem to love them, so there's that. And I'm skeptical that more regulation is ever the correct answer to anything. Perhaps.
chewyland 9y ago
The real estate business, especially in Canada is essentially the mafia.

Danihan 9y ago

Well, technically the brokers get most of that.

deelowe 9y ago
Actually, they typically get 1/2.
jdross 9y ago
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
- dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
  Is this true in high-demand, low-supply markets? I've found the brokerages get much more greedy in these situations. See: Seattle, San Francisco, NYC.

existencebox 9y ago

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.

everybodyknows 9y ago
How to: Find a good Redfin agent. 1. Search local Redfin web site for agents who have done deals near your locale of interest. 2. Check internal reviews of agents on Redfin. Bad reviews don't get posted, so "chose not leave a review" on a transaction means either: a) client had unreasonable expectations, or b) agent performed badly. 3. Interview agents in person, and ask challenging questions. If you don't get responses that are either: a) correct and candid, or b) "I will get back to you tomorrow with an answer", move on to the next agent. This recipe led me to a very good Redfin agent, working inside an office run by a very bad but "senior" agent.
aetherson 9y ago
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.
- existencebox 9y ago
  We got, unfortunately, MULTIPLE realtors through redfin; some on our own request, some when they simply would disappear from the company/stop answering our emails. There was neither quality nor consistency, and we had marginal ability to impact that choice on our own, whereas with a personal realtor we went with someone highly recommended from work peers. I absolutely agree the individual realtor impacts the experience, that's pretty much the crux of my whole issue :) My conclusion was that Redfin doesn't offer as much control/guarantee to ensure this, and in a hot market, this matters quite a bit. (To be fair, I'd say the same thing about my experience with mortgage lenders, BoA did an abysmal job and very nearly left me in the lurch, whereas a smaller local lender picked up the slack and pulled our asses out of the fire. Perhaps my overarching statement should be to wonder if we (businesses) suck at scaling customer support? (I'm pretty much saying "well duh" to myself as I write this statement, frankly))

gist 9y ago

> 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.

clamprecht 9y ago
Can I just pay a real estate agent per hour instead? That solves the problem of me deciding to not buy a house from them later.
- runako 9y ago
  I tried this when purchasing my last house. I offered a pretty hefty hourly fee, knowing full well there's no way the hourly fees would approach 3% of the transaction. IIRC the response was essentially that they are prohibited from doing so by their Realtor organization (?). This was in Georgia.
- jrs235 9y ago
  That's dependant on your state (state laws) and the broker. I know of a broker that offers showings at $50 per hour.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

just4themoney 9y ago

If you really want to get your blood boiling about buyer's agents, watch this - https://youtu.be/jxcCJxN8aJE https://youtu.be/jxcCJxN8aJE Red Fin doesn't operate in my area but if it did I'd be all over it in a heartbeat when I bought my house.

pweissbrod 9y ago
First two minutes of that video states the issue is limited to the case where the agent represents both the buying and selling parties which is only legal in canada. I'm not canadian. I dont know how commonplace this is. But as an american it sounds pretty foolish of someone to accept a deal on your next mortgage with someone who openly controls both parties.
- everybodyknows 9y ago
  Double-ended deals are legal in some US states e.g. California, and they are indeed an opportunity for breach of fiduciary duty. The way it works is that a crooked agent would get the seller to sign a listing contract that stipulates 3% to whatever agent represents the buyer irrespective of who that agent was working for. Then present only double-ended offers, or lowball outside offers to the seller -- hiding any higher offers that came through buyer's agents. And naive sellers have been defrauded this way. The seller's defense is simple: Refuse to sign any listing contract that stipulates more than a 1% commission to a buyer's agent that is in any financial way affiliated with the listing agent's office. 1% being roughly in line with the actual effort required from the listing agent to deal with buyer-side coordination as well. Such a stipulation doesn't quite close the door on collusion through favor trading, among agents in the local old-boy-and-girl network. But it's enough to shield you the seller from the grosser frauds out there.

fizixer 9y ago

Let me guess, that ~$5k is less than 1% of what you would pay in total. No offense (and sorry for being off-topic) but I never get how people obsess over the under 1 or 2% cost savings while completely ignoring the overvalued principal. Two other examples, - People go over to buy a $50-$70k car and later boast how "they made" the salesman give them a $500 or $1k discount. (well what about a fully-functioning $20k car, or the same car but 2-3 years old but costing $8-12k?) - People buying stupid stuff off amazon etc, and worse, travelling to random places, just because they have credit-card cashback and travel rewards, and looking at you funny when you tell them you only have one credit-card and you make sure you don't overspend but never paid attention to how many points you accumulate.

valas 9y ago
Bigger picture is that agents conventionally get 6%, which is obnoxious in the Internet age. Sure 1% maybe is not much, but anything that helps to squeeze that industry is great. No?
- dforrestwilson 9y ago
  Yes. Is there even another real estate market in the world where intermediaries capture so much of the gain on sale?
- fizixer 9y ago
  Maybe. Though I haven't gotten over the obnoxious housing prices in the first place, so I guess I'm not seeing what you're seeing.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
scottLobster 9y ago
Just speaking for myself, 5k is a lot of money. So is 1k, so is $500. I can do a lot with that money. Percentages are arbitrary. I agree however that people buying luxury items and then boasting is kinda dumb. If you're willing pay premiums for luxuries, getting a slight discount on said premiums is hardly a victory. It's like people who buy stuff they don't need and won't use because it's "on sale" and then brag about how they "saved money".

hijinks 9y ago

I wanted redfin to work when we solf our house in the SF Bay area a few months ago. Redfin's issue is the selling agent was located 45 minutes away and just ran random comps and said our house was 120k lower then market. She said it would never sell for what I thought it was worth. So we ended up going with a local agent who put it on market for more then we thought and it sold for 1% over asking.

vostok 9y ago
This happens with full price agents too. In my experience, their "expertise" is really just confidence and bluster. Commissions are high not because real estate salespeople are good, but because they are inefficient and because they operate under a de facto cartel.
- hijinks 9y ago
  I agree, we just ended up going with someone who specialized in the area instead of dealing with Redfin agent who said it would never sell. I love their site for searching.
- ryuker16 9y ago
  It depends on the agent. Some are pretty good at getting you more. The opposite is a house dumper or bad one(the house dumper is pro, excellent for buying). I've sold in other industries before....good ones are worth every penny and know how to twist arms. Granted it is a cartel that hopefully Zillow will destroy. I suspect the agent will still be around for the lazy, elderly, or those who can't sell well.
opo 9y ago
I used Redfin to sell a house and the realtor helped get the property ready for market (which took a while) and pulled multiple comps to help watch the market trend. Place sold quickly for much more than I thought it would.

foolfoolz 9y ago

after I bought a house with an excellent agent I can't imagine how you can't use an agent. at least for your first house it's awesome. pictures online are no substitute for going in person. the agents main value is being correct in paperwork and knowing the neighborhood. I think they are a great tool but not a replacement. great agents are very useful

dmoy 9y ago
Redfin has agents who walk you through houses, help you with paperwork, and live in the neighborhood... (And you still save thousands over a traditional agent)
soperj 9y ago
Do agents even write up most of the paperwork? I was under the impression that they just contract that out to a lawyer.
- foolfoolz 9y ago
  my agent walked me through the entire 150+ page offer and I asked a lot of questions, they knew. they found errors with me during escrow signing. they were with Alain pinel so I'm betting there's corporate help available but she really knew her stuff

manyxcxi 9y ago

I think in a lot of cases realtors aren't the necessity they used to be, because of tools like Redfin. It used to be VERY hard (or near impossible?) to pull past sale data, comps, and various other bits of info on your own. As a buyer, a realtor is rarely a bad choice because they likely won't cost you any money, as they usually negotiate out of he seller's fees. They help out a ton when it comes to bidding, what we could likely ask for, and the personal relationship they may have with the selling realtor. Need recommendations for an inspector or mortgage broker? They likely have some good contacts. As a buyer, I'll probably always use a realtor, likely the last realtor I used- she was so smart and tactical that she probably would be successful in any career path she chose. We moved from Seattle to Portland about a year ago, I grew up in Portland and didn't need any help figuring out where to live- I sure did need help in figuring out how to stand out when we were consistently one of multiple offers (one house had 13 offers three hours after the open house and closed for ~25% over asking). The inspector we used was recommended by our realtor and was so good/such a bulldog he even got the construction company to repair things they initially considered 'within spec' (we bought brand new). Counter to that, my mom sold her house for $60K (about 15%) over what some realtor estimated she could, using only Redfin. She received 5 offers on day one.

edaemon 9y ago
If your mom's house was also in Portland, I'm not that surprised by the outcome for the same reason that a house closing at 25% over doesn't seem that extraordinary: Portland's housing market is bonkers.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago

I'm not sure I follow what's happening here. Doesn't the person selling the house pay the real estate agent? Why would someone sell their house for ~$5k less? This reads a lot like buying a vacuum cleaner at 10% off sale and thinking you saved 10%. Redfin helped sell the house at the price the market would bear.

cowsandmilk 9y ago
When you buy through redfin, they pay you part of the commission they receive. For instance, in my neighborhood, there is a house listed for $294,000. Redfin states you would receive a refund of $904 if you bought the property through them. It doesn't scale linearly, so a $395,000 house has a $1,785 refund, nearly twice as much. It also differs by market. These are in Boston and thus are probably lower than other markets because here it is a 2.5+2.5 split rather than the 3+3 in most markets.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  > there is a house listed for $294,000. Redfin states you would receive a refund of $904 if you bought the property through them. People still fall for these marketing gimmicks. If the listed price is $294,000 with a $904 refund then the price is $293096. The only reason I can find for listing it as two figures (list price + refund) is because it makes the buyer take longer to tell the story about buying their house. "I paid x but got a y refund" has more talking points than "I paid x". Especially so if the "refund" is applied long after the transaction / settlement has occurred as it now compels you to tell the story again: "I just got my y refund from my house purchase!". And the agency gets to maintain a slush fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars of pending "refunds". Marketing. I thoroughly disagree with these sorts of practices and personally believe they should be regulated out of existence. But people seem to love them, so there's that. And I'm skeptical that more regulation is ever the correct answer to anything. Perhaps.

chewyland 9y ago

The real estate business, especially in Canada is essentially the mafia.