Buy a Home: Negotiating Advantage
Buying with Redfin not only gets you a lower commission but often a better deal as well. After two years of negotiating deals, Redfin compiled comprehensive MLS data and found that our clients tended to pay below asking price, whereas clients of other brokerages tended to pay above asking price.
In our second year, Redfin customers benefited from:
- A negotiating advantage worth $3,594
- An average commission refund of more than $10,520
- A total average savings of more than $14,000
- High customer satisfaction: 95% said they would recommend us to a friend
The reason for Redfin's negotiating advantage is simple: keeping customers engaged in the negotiation leads to a better price. Redfin agents and our customers work as partners in the negotiations, and both are focused on getting the best deal. In addition, we pay our real estate agents customer satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, so our customers don't feel pressure to pay too much.
You can read the full results in a paper 
, or just scan the executive summary:
- Across the three counties included in this study, King County, Washington, and San Francisco and Santa Clara counties in California, Redfin buyers paid on average 0.603% less for their home than buyers who used other brokerages. This negotiating advantage saved our buyers an average of $3,594.
- The total Redfin Advantage, combining the average negotiating advantage and the average commission refund of 1.934% for the three counties was 2.537%. The total savings for the average Redfin customer was $14,114.
- 95% of the people who attempted to buy a home through Redfin, regardless of whether the offer was successful or not, would recommend Redfin to a friend.
The paper also gives you demographic information about Redfin's customers.
- 45% are first-time home-buyers, versus the industry average of 39%.
- 88% are 45 or younger.
- 33% of Redfin buyers work in high tech, a decrease from last year's rate of 48%.
- 36% come through word of mouth; 24% came from TV coverage or newspapers articles; 3% come from ads.
The results also include customer satisfaction data from Redfin surveys, and commission refund calculations based on Redfin financial records.
Get the full results:
Since the launch of the home-buying service in February 2006, Redfin has helped more than 1,500 people buy a home, with an average refund of more than $10,000.
