Is It Worth It to Work With Redfin?

Today I’m giving you a little insight on Redfin to help you decide if taking their discounts is really worth it.

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Is it worth it to work with Redfin?

It’s not just about finding the right home. Finding a home is the easy part. Anyone can go to Redfin or Zillow or get listings from a Realtor and find their own home.

The challenge is in writing up the offer. That’s when you really need someone who has experience and is really going to be an advocate for you. Their job is to help you find the best lender and craft an offer that will get you the best price and the best terms. They will even help you find the best home inspector so you can be sure you really know what you’re buying.

There is so much that goes into the escrow process. In my industry, anybody who offers large credits is considered to be a discount brokerage. When you work with a discount brokerage, there is going to be a level of discount service that comes with it. There are going to be areas that you will need to fill, or gaps in the process. So is it worth your time and potential gaps to receive that rebate?

When you work with a discount brokerage, there is going to be a level of discount service that comes with it.

My team and I don’t compete on price—we compete on service. For example, when you go to Nordstrom, you’ll have a professional helping you find that perfect outfit. When you go to Nordstrom’s Rack, you might get a great outfit, but you’re going to have to work for it. You’ll have to dig through clothes and compete for the attention of someone to help you. You’re going to earn that outfit, just like you’ll earn those Redfin savings.

You’re busy with work and your family, so you need to decide if you really want to micromanage the entire process. If you’re thinking about using Redfin or another alternative option, I’d love to sit down with you and go over what my team and I could do for you.

If you have any questions or would like me to cover a real estate topic you're curious about in a video, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’m more than happy to help.

An Explanation of the “4-1 Rule”

To truly sell your home for top dollar, you need to prepare it properly. We like to take our time, using the “4-1 rule.”

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I recently spoke to a homeowner who was unsuccessful at selling their home in the past. When we started talking about the type of preparation his previous agent had him do before his home went on the market, I found out his previous agent didn’t really do anything to prepare it. He got his listing contract signed, put a sign in the front of the house, took some photos, and started showing it three days after he met the seller.

The “4-1 rule” is something that we utilize on most of our listings, especially those that were unsuccessful at selling in the past. It boils down to spending four weeks preparing the home to sell so that it can sell within one week of being listed on the MLS. Nine out of 10 sellers who follow this rule end up winning.

90% of our sellers who follow this rule end up winning.

Why do we need four whole weeks to get your home ready? Well, every situation is different, but there are always things we can do to improve a home’s appearance. A typical home needs some minor repairs and a deep cleaning at the very least. We also take photos, shoot video, create flyers, pre-market the home online, and stage it. The list goes on and on.

To truly prepare a home to sell for top dollar, you’ve got to take a few weeks to prepare. Once it hits the market, you have a top-quality product.

If you have any questions for me or want to know how our team can prepare and market your home differently than your previous agent did, give us a call or send us an email today. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

The Difference Between a Home’s Value and Its Sale Price

In a hot seller’s market, there is a great opportunity to sell for over asking price. In fact, we recently sold a home for $30,000 over its aggressive list price.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

What a home is worth and what it sells for can be two completely different things. Right now, we’re seeing a market with a really high demand for homes and a very low inventory. The inventory is down by almost 30%, and the pending sales are up close to 20%. Homes are selling as fast as they are being listed.

An appraiser is going to look at past sales data to come up with your home’s worth. They’ll take info from past sales and give you a market value. There is a disconnect between what an appraiser does and what an agent does, however. While an appraiser uses past sales data on its own, an agent like myself looks at everything, including inventory and pending sales data, to figure out how to market the property in order to get the highest possible offer.

What a home is worth and what it sells for can be two different things.

Let me tell you a short but exciting story about how having different opinions of a home’s value can help you. I recently took a listing in north Irvine. The home was probably worth between $510,000 and $515,000 as far as the appraiser was concerned. However, we knew that we could price a little aggressively in this market, so we decided to list it for $520,000.

The end result was that we had more than 250 people come to the open house, we received nine offers, and ended up selling the home within three days for $550,000. Is the home worth that much? To this buyer in this market, it sure was.

The message out there for all you homeowners considering selling is that you need to talk to an agent to understand not only what your home is worth now, but what it could sell for based on all of the external factors.

If you have any questions for us or you’re interested in buying or selling a home in Orange County, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.