MaxEntropy_Man wrote:for people with recent experience buying and/or selling a home -- what do you think of using a totally online agency like redfin or ziprealty as opposed to the traditional commission based agency? redfin in particular claims to have salaried agents and is supposed to give you money back both as a buyer and a seller and these amounts are non-trivial. i am in the process of both selling and buying and i am not entirely sure what a traditional agent who works on a 4-5% commission brings to the table. we eliminate so much by just looking at the listing and mapping it on google -- power lines, busy roads, railway lines, electric/propane heating, kitchen that looks like a time warp, direction etc. we pretty much know the town/s we are looking at thoroughly. traditional agency seems like such a dinosaur.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:for people with recent experience buying and/or selling a home -- what do you think of using a totally online agency like redfin or ziprealty as opposed to the traditional commission based agency? redfin in particular claims to have salaried agents and is supposed to give you money back both as a buyer and a seller and these amounts are non-trivial. i am in the process of both selling and buying and i am not entirely sure what a traditional agent who works on a 4-5% commission brings to the table. we eliminate so much by just looking at the listing and mapping it on google -- power lines, busy roads, railway lines, electric/propane heating, kitchen that looks like a time warp, direction etc. we pretty much know the town/s we are looking at thoroughly. traditional agency seems like such a dinosaur.

doofus_maximus wrote:
i don't know about online agencies. But we got rid off of our agent after a month or so when we were looking for houses. We did all the work. We looked online, checked locations, proximity to highways, etc etc..and then would call and let him know. He would just take us to the showing by following our car. That is all he did. All the information we needed was provided by the sellers' agent on site. So we got rid off him.
I have no experience selling a house.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:i know that in principle buyers don't pay a commission, but in practice they do because the commission still comes out of the check that the buyer and his bank are going to write to the seller. in other words the commission that the seller negotiates with the agent has an effect on his bottom line which is going to affect the sale price and hence the buyer's net outlay.

my question was NOT about commission structures; i already know all that. but redfin has a totally different method of operating. i was wondering if anyone here has used them.

Sasthi wrote:Unless otherwise you commit to your traditional agent they wouldn't commit to you...

When you tell the buyer's agent that your agent is redfin...he would not care much for you and he/she would rather not have any offers, coz most of them don't how how this redfin works?! Imagine when most of them don't know anything about the properties they sell...how can you expect them to understand redfin.

Also, you being an elite and all is having a little confusion about redfin and imagine about the poor realtors?!

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Sasthi wrote:Unless otherwise you commit to your traditional agent they wouldn't commit to you...

When you tell the buyer's agent that your agent is redfin...he would not care much for you and he/she would rather not have any offers, coz most of them don't how how this redfin works?! Imagine when most of them don't know anything about the properties they sell...how can you expect them to understand redfin.

Also, you being an elite and all is having a little confusion about redfin and imagine about the poor realtors?!

eh? if i decide to go with them, redfin will be MY (i.e. me the buyer) agent. so i am not sure what you mean by "When you tell the buyer's agent that your agent is redfin..".

and what exactly does "Also, you being an elite and all is having a little confusion about redfin and imagine about the poor realtors?!" mean?