I was a Redfin evangelist long before I ever thought of working here. It wasn’t just the terrific app and all the cool stuff I could get on the website. What sold me was the Redfin mission to make home buying and selling better for people like you and me.
I had my first taste of the housing business as a student working part-time at a title company, a job I held through college. While I researched properties looking for liens, fraud and other surprises, I got a side education in real estate. That schooling continued throughout my career as I took reporting jobs covering planning commissions, courts, the housing collapse and the U.S. economy.
Here’s what I’ve learned: The little guy is outgunned.
Buying or selling a home requires incredible amounts of paperwork heavy with jargon. Different laws apply to different properties. Heck, different laws apply to different mortgages. The picture gets even messier when you start talking about zoning, homeowner associations, taxes and county budgets.
Even more complex is the machinery behind your mortgage. Getting a loan almost always involves global financial players and might depend on the economic health of, say, Japan or China. Sometimes a big Wall Street investor cares a lot if a little home sale in rural America falls through – that’s one reason people bought houses they shouldn’t have in the run-up to the collapse.
How does the average Joe navigate it all? That’s where Redfin comes in. It’s not just the company’s whiz-bang technology. We’re challenging age-old industry habits that weren’t always in the consumer’s best interest. Redfin agents don’t get paid commission; they earn a salary and a bonus based on customer satisfaction. Their incentive isn’t to close a deal, it’s to make the client happy. And sometimes the best way to make clients happy is to tell them when not to buy or sell a house.
Redfin is just one player taking small steps to make the housing market more transparent and less confusing. But what we’re doing is important, and there’s a lot at stake. Getting it right isn’t just about having a cool place to call home or building personal wealth. Town halls, schools and a lot of jobs depend on a healthy housing market. So do banks, pension funds and the U.S. economy.
While Redfin agents make the process easier for clients, I’ll be working with our research team to help you understand what’s happening in Washington, on Wall Street and on your street. We’ll keep you up to date on changes to tax law, mortgage policy and anything else you need to know.
The process of buying and selling is still complicated, but Redfin is making it better and I aim to help. That’s why I’m here.
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