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Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

Some of this is changing - I've heard that Redfin agents (who are employees - they don't split commissions the way other brokerages do) get paid a bonus structure that's tiered based on list price. So at the time they show you the house, the bonus they get if you buy it is already set, regardless what you pay for it. They still do have an incentive to show you more expensive homes, but they don't have an incentive to jack up your bid during the negotiations so that they get 3% of a bigger sale price. They also get paid for a bunch of other activities (like giving tours, writing offers, typing up agent notes that you see on the website), so it's not a total loss for them if you don't end up winning the bid.

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See, I used to think that maybe with the different compensation structure, Redfin agents' interested might end up being more in line with the buyers. I ended up working with one, and realized that is absolutely not the case.

First, yes, Redfin agents don't get commissions the way traditional real estates agents get commissions. However, Redfin agents do still want to close as many deals as possible. Also, while real estate agents have a tough job finding good leads (especially given that leads don't exactly keep buying property) Redfin agents do not have a tough time finding leads (they have one phenomenal website that just gives them constant leads). What it results in is that a good traditional agent will put in a lot more work to find an appropriate place for you, because not only do they rely on you buying through them, but more importantly, they rely on you being happy enough that you recommend them to other people.

Redfin does not need your recommendations, as they've got a line out the door. So if anything starts getting difficult with your purchase, Redfin has no incentive to stick around and figure it out.

I've bought three properties and made an offer that fell through on one, and looked around other times. I've tried both traditional agents and a Redfin agent, and will never again work with Redfin.

It works for a certain type of buyer, one who basically wants to drive the process themselves and just needs an agent for guidance. This described us pretty well, and many other Millennials. We basically just wanted an agent because we were househunting during COVID and needed one to literally get in the door, and to help guide us through the paperwork and process since we were FTHBs. Redfin was great for this; our agent didn't pressure us to buy or steer us toward any particular homes, then he had a bunch of useful information when it came time to negotiating and putting in an actual offer.

So, I wasn’t a first time home buyer and didn’t hand holding. What I did need was an argent which was actually working for me, not just trying to close at all costs.

I think in situations where the property doesn’t have any issues, where you’re just going in to buy a place, they can work out fine. Unfortunately you have no idea what kind of place you’re looking at until you’re trying to buy it.

Every worthwhile agent will have a ton of useful information before and after you purchase.

Yes, I have seen this too. It works against sellers too, in a cooler market; they are more incentivized to close quickly than to find the best price. Considering it's relatively trivial to list and find just about any kind of good these days, I just don't see the added value that agents bring to either side being worth much at all.

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