The old way: explain your real estate needs and desires to an agent, he searches for listings, wait, wait, wait until he shares the details with you.
The Redfin way: search for real estate on your own terms, whether in your PJs or work duds, get immediate information.
The old way: once you fell in love with a place the only way to find out what other nearby homes sold for nearby was to call an agent and ask for a comparative market analysis, or CMA.
The Redfin way: DIY! Redfin let’s you figure it all out yourself!
Let’s say you’re looking at moving to Pioneer Square in Seattle because you just accepted a job offer at Redfin. After a few minutes searching on Redfin.com, I found 97 S. Jackson St. #402.
But is this a good deal?
Redfin.com will tell you everything you need to know to make that determination. First, I would look at the details page for the listing (click on “Full Details” in the listing pop-up box).
Does it have a Zestimate? This one has a Zestimate of $618,021.
Does it have any past sales information? Yes, it sold for $387,000 in 1999.
Next, I would go back to the search page and look for similar listings on the market. I search for 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot listings and find 12.
At the bottom of the list below the map, we can see that similar units have a median price of $521,975, average square footage is 1,189 and average $/sq ft is $535.
This gives you a good sense of similar units on the market, but what have other similar units sold for? Click on ‘Show more options’ and select a timeframe under ‘Show Past Sales’ such as ‘Last 1 year’ or ‘Last 6 months.’
Now we can see a list of the units we are interested in along with two previously sold units in the same building.
Clicking on these similar past sales, we can get a good sense of what other listings have sold for in the neighborhood and compare the listing we are interested in.
Happy CMA’ing :).
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