[jotux]

>I know Redfin is trying to work on reducing this but it doesn't look like they are doing something disruptive.

I sold my house and bought a new one with Redfin last year. I wouldn't call them "disruptive" but I would say the process was much better than a traditional agent (for me). A few things that make Redfin unique:

- If you're buying a house you get an agent but you don't see them very often. When you want to go see a house you just pick a time online and they'll send someone out of a queue of agents to go open the door for you. This is great if you're in a hot market and want to see homes really fast. Also, every agent we ever met was previously a regular real estate agent that knew the area pretty well. When you buy with redfin they'll give you a cut of the commission they receive. After we bought our home we got a check for ~$3k a month later.

- If you're selling a house they only charge 4%. Listing is easy and like 95% of the paperwork is e-signable.

The biggest complaints I've heard about Redfin from others, mostly from older folks used to traditional agents, is that the process is significantly less personal. You really just talk to whoever is available and they don't ever call or recommend homes for you to see. If you're not tech-savvy or not too serious about buying then it puts a significantly larger burden on you to stalk homes online as soon as they hit the market. This was great for me and I can't see myself ever going back to a regular agent.