About a year ago I blogged about Redfin and expressed my doubts about their business model.
Up until this past week I hadn't had any dealings with Redfin or any of their agents. All that I knew is that Redfin has excellent search engine results, but beyond that I knew nothing more.
On Thursday I received a call from a Redfin agent (let's call him "Joe" for the purpose of this blog) asking to show one of my listings this weekend. We confirmed a date and time and met at the property.
As I always do, I introduced myself to both the agent and the clients and proceeded to show them the property, giving them my most professional tour.
When we were done, I thanked the clients for viewing the property and suggested that should they wish to see the property again, or have any further questions, I'd be happy to arrange a second showing or respond to their questions through their agent, "Joe".
It was at this point that "Joe" said "No, that's not how it works with Redfin."
He was only present to show the clients the property, and should they wish to proceed with an offer, they would need to contact Redfin who would refer them to another agent responsible for writing offers.
I was dumbfounded for a few seconds .... and not quite sure what to say.
Is this the brilliance of their "business model"? Do client's appreciate being passed around like like that?
How does the agent writing an offer know what the actual property is all about if they've never even seen it?
I recognized buying signals from the client's behavior and comments and know the clients liked the property .... but Redfin's "Joe" obviously had no responsibility to call me with feedback.
It's the old story that "you get what you pay for", or in this case, what you don't pay for.
See Redfin: The Real Estate Scientists are a No-Show
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