Nay sayers, traditionalists and pessimists have predicted Redfin’s demise from day one but we are pleased to report they are wrong. Both figuratively and factually. You already know that we are a progressive bunch of real estate junkies with a tech bent and certain twisted drive to buck an antiquated system that we feel is much in need of revamping. Well, with two years under our belt, we can truly say that our model is working to your advantage and we can prove it.
Last week, Redfin published its annual report, The Redfin Advantage, a twelve month compilation of real estate records that shows our buyers and agents negotiated better prices on homes than buyers who used other brokerages. On average, Redfin buyers succeeded in securing purchase prices averaging $5,048 less than traditional transactions. We are also pleased to report our customer satisfaction rate is 95% for those who have used our home buying program in the last year and our average commission refund is $10,520. Not too shabby for a start-up!
TradingMarkets.com followed with an article on Tuesday detailing Redfin’s data collection and reporting methods, in part which states “[a]s the real estate downturn has increased pressure on all brokers to negotiate prices, this year’s report documents a larger Redfin advantage over other brokers. This negotiating advantage is consistent across different…agents and different counties, and in markets that were healthy and slumping alike.”
In keeping with Redfin’s belief in transparency, the reports use publicly available real estate records and the records and methodology were made available to others, inviting validation from other brokers with negligible correction. Redfin also released the results of its 1,200+ customer satisfaction surveys, a tool that is directly tied to agent performance measures. Of the customers who signed an offer with Redfin in 2007, 72% said they preferred the Redfin model to a traditional agent (toot toot).
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The 2006 and 2007 Redfin Advantage reports are available at http://www.redfin.com/advantage.