Redfin Reviews

Cons

As with any realtor, work life balance when you are a successful agent is hard, but the company is working on making that a reality.

Cons

Redfin is a growing company. With that, there are hurdles. I am impressed at how our leadership adjusts quickly when needed.

Cons

There are None that I know of

Cons

You're always busy. Work-life balance is very difficult.

Cons

They say work life balance is important but now that the company has gone public, that is secondary to meeting your metrics. They are pushing to sell more faster - used to not be that way which is why I was attracted to the company at the beginning. Now it feels like any other big corporate entity.

Cons

Management
No Room for Growth

Cons

No respect for agents - our CEO is fond of saying "we're a tech company that happens to be a brokerage". Really? Please tell me how you make money.

Little innovation in recent years - having a website isn't novel anymore. Redfin is now scrambling to catch up with competitors and copy industry innovators.

People/departments who roll out strategies and new ideas have no idea how real estate works and cannot answer basic real estate questions.

Redfin used to be known as a churn and burn brokerage with limitless clients. New lead-throttling policies now mean that you are very restricted on the number of clients you get - but the pay structure has remained the same. Do not believe the hype around Redfin's claim that the average agent here makes $90k+. That's a joke - you'd have to sell 50+ houses. It's possible, for maybe 5% of agents. You will work round-the-clock to make $40k.

If you got your real estate license so you could escape the corporate machine and manage your own business and schedule, this is not the place for you. Be prepared to be micromanaged to death, attend endless meetings, and comply with newly invented metrics every month.

Redfin tries to sell work/life balance. Let's be honest, there is no work/life balance in real estate. You will still be answering 11PM phone calls and dealing with needy clients 24/7.

Let's talk about the leads you'll get. 50% of them already have an agent. Redfin will tell you that we can earn their business and convince them to use us instead. Ask any experienced agent how successful that is. 25% of them are people who got bored or drunk on Friday/Saturday night and decided that they had nothing better to do the next day. You will cringe when you open your email Saturday or Sunday morning and see those tour requests. Of the remaining 25%, it is probably their first tour ever. They don't have a pre-approval yet, but will want to see 40 houses in the 20 mile radius surrounding Seattle. They will ask you outlandish questions and be astounded that you can't answer them - but remember, they're going to get a survey, so you'll have to act like it all makes sense.

The survey is probably one of the worst aspects of being an agent. Forget being honest with your clients and having the often-required tough talks with them. When your pay depends on getting a perfect survey, you are basically forced to cow-tow to their every whim. Even when you do, and they write a glowing review, they may still give you an 8/10 because they don't believe that ANYONE deserves a 10 - and there goes your bonus.

Lack of transparency. How decisions are made, who gets promotions or choice clients, how metrics work - be prepared to never understand any of the above. If you ask, you'll be viewed as a problem.

When sales are down, agents are the first ones to be blamed. The brilliant solution provided by management? Take your clients to coffee, and they'll buy a house. Really.....now why didn't I think of that.....

Cons

Everything that you are told during your interview process is not true. Everything from your pay (salary is $1000/month with the average deal size being $1000/transaction) to your work life balance (you will work around the clock, 7 days a week). You have no support from managers- want to go out of town? You need ask one of your over worked colleagues to cover for you. Need to ask them a question? They won't get back to you in a timely fashion. Instead of the best sellers becoming managers (or anyone with managerial experience), the people who have kids and can no longer work 100 hr weeks, become managers. You can work your butt off on a deal, but instead of getting paid the measly $1000 (when a traditional agent would have made $5500), you only get $500, because your client was having a bad day and surveyed you a 6 stars (and you're even not allowed to tell them how much it docks your pay if you don't get a 10 star review). Even customers who don't successfully buy or sell a home with you are asked to survey you, and those surveys too, eventually affect your pay/promotion.

Cons

Low salary at the first

Cons

Redfin attracts a lot of customers who don't value agents and their behavior shows it. The volume of customers makes it hard to give them all the attention they demand.