The concept is good, However, there are now at least 2 companies competing directly with Redfin. They are Rex & Purplebricks and their approach is a lot better. I'll explain. Redfin has become essentially at touring company, because of the ease of arranging tours right from the app. If you work part time, independent contractor as an AA (associate agent) which is basically the touring person, you get paid for each event. It works if you want to do this as supplement income. However, your busiest days are really Friday - Sunday. You do get a couple of tours during the morning on weekdays but is usually a specialized inspection or just a one home tour nothing much. You can make some money but don't expect to be much. You can bring home average about $20,000 per year. This means having your calendar opened 7 days a week, say from 8am-7pm. Some AA's bring a bit more depending on their territory. I know of Touring agents that make more, they are always busier, but they cover a larger region, which means you also pay more on MLS Fees as you need to cover several counties. As an Associate Agent (Touring Agent) you are on a 1099 and you pay all your Real Estate fees. Now. the full-time folks, those are the buy-side Agents, sale-side agents or listing Agents. They are employees of the company and are on the company payroll with a salary (minimum) and benefits. They also get all expenses paid, meaning all the MLS, Realtor Boards, Mobile phone and any training, Plus they also get mileag
ProsFlexibility to have your own schedule if you are a Touring Agent (AA)
ConsYou move ahead only if you are part of the special Klan
The demand for the Associate agents varies greatly during the year. It’s feast or famine. If you want to make money, then you need availability during the weekends and weekday evenings when the clients want to tour. Which is great for people that want a flexible par time schedule. The local management also hires a lot of associates so they enough people available during the week. How it works is the events are first given to the deal writing agents, and any events they can’t do will be given to us. We mainly do tours, help out at the open houses and specialized inspections. There will not always be enough work to keep everyone busy so expect some downtime.
The associates are paid a fixed amount per event. We are independent contractors with no benefits or perks though expenses are tax deductible. Tour pay starts off well for the first home but the pay for each additional home is minimal. The company recently cut Associates pay across the board which makes doing some events less desirable. One cannot pick which events you want to do. This is a car dependent job, if you don’t like driving, then this job is not for you. If the driving is too much you can limit the areas that you cover but this will affect how much work you will receive.
There are a lot of unpaid hours with this job. Event pay doesn’t compensate for all the time it takes to setup appointments, rescheduling events with the clients, or researching the properties on the tour. Clients will expect you to b
Do not try to compare this to traditional real estate
First and foremost, if you are used to working 100% commission and making your own rules, and can't accept that this is a VERY different job, don't even bother. The first time I sent a commission check to corporate and knew what my bonus payment was going to be (assuming the client review was good), I nearly cried, but truly, as an agent at Redfin, you are merely the face of a giant team. Think of it in terms of what you would take home on a transaction were you were paying for top level advertising, a team of assistants and a top notch CRM tool. All of our customers (we don't call them clients until they make an offer) are given to us, though we do get a slightly higher bonus for customers we introduce to Redfin, referred or repeat customers. Think about that. ZERO PROSPECTING. At times, it is a bit like drinking from a firehose. That said, you are expected to CLOSE an average of 3 deals per month (summer months you tend to do a lot more). If you're overloaded, you're setting yourself up for either poor reviews, which affect not only your compensation, but standing in the company.
It is important to draw your own lines in the sand on work/life balance here. It is a tough nut to crack, because you want to be as available as you can to your customers, and the company is certainly not going to force you to take time away, so you have to put your foot down and just take it when you need it.
The company thinks their average agent is making 6 figures, but more common is arou
ProsAmazing support team, tons of opportunity, amazing benefits
ConsPoor work/life balance and lower pay relative to the effort put out
5.0
Transaction Coordinator | Tampa, FL | Nov 28, 2020
Redfin Cares
I have been with Redfin for a year and what a crazy year it has been! I came on as a new transaction coordinator, got my real estate license in another state, and as soon as I was up and running... the pandemic hit. My manager made sure I had access to him and any other resource I needed. He made sure I had access to him all day, he offered to do my work if I got overwhelmed, always offered positive feedback, was my biggest champion when I achieved goals (like getting my 3rd state license), and if I made a mistake he taught me how to fix it and avoid it in the future without making me feel bad for making the mistake. He even made sure that anyone affected by a mistake I made knew that I was new and that the issue was corrected. I was NEVER thrown under the bus or made to be a scapegoat as I have experienced at other companies. This positive environment has made being here during a crazy time rewarding. You can truly thrive here!
The company as a whole, from the CEO down, banded together to do everything they could to make it through the pandemic and make sure all of us who were there had access to whatever we needed to survive. Those who were on furlough were taken care of in some ways and always kept up to date on what was happening and what needed to happen to bring them back. Those of us who stayed made it our mission to bring our work family back as soon as we could, and they were brought back months ahead of schedule! There was stress but it was external and not brought
Redfin is a technology based real estate firm and I believe they are at the cutting edge of blending technology with the real estate business. For a consumer, they have some great home search apps and a creative webpage with current home listings. However, they are not a good company to work for and promote a cult-like atmosphere. Everyone who works for Redfin has “drank the Kool-Aid” and become a Redfinian and that included me. I worked for Redfin for 2 years as an Associate Agent, one of their contracted positions. I barely made enough to survive, but hung in there because I thought they would promote me to one of their full time W-2 Agent positions, which is what their "Market Managers" led me to believe. Regardless of what I was told about the position when I was hired, it was part time income at best. I never got promoted despite receiving consistent 10s on their Redfin customer satisfaction reviews and my tenured experienced as a successful real estate agent. Redfin is a clickish company managed by nerds with marginal people skills. They preach inclusion and transparency, but they do not practice the mantra with their own employees. The deal writing salaried agents do well income-wise and do get great benefits, but they pay dearly for them in the way of slave labor. They are required to be on-call 24/7, have a huge volume of clients to handle and might as well be working for minimum wage in comparison to the work hours logged. The consistent consumer complaint by Redfin
I'm not sure why these reviews are so angry! I joined Redfin as an Associate Agent this year, and couldn't be happier! An AA is an independent contractor that is paid for every single event that you perform. One of the many positives is that you make your own schedule. Do you have family obligations? Close your calendar. Want to go on vacation? Close your calendar. There is a whole team of AA's in the area available to make sure that a customer can see a house on their schedule.
It's true that the income isn't entirely reliable. It's based on the waves of business. If people aren't wanting to buy or sell, there is nothing for you to do. But I worked full time without any issue over the summer. The winter is quieter, but anyone in the business (or researched real estate before getting their license) knows that it isn't as crazy in the winter months. If you didn't save any money, go out and get a part time seasonal job. You can close your calendar!
The Redfin business model is customer centric. We are taking real estate to the next level by putting the needs and wants of our customers first instead of the possibly desperate traditional agent who is wondering where the next paycheck is coming from. Redfin is a business and pays its employees a salary and offers them a great satisfaction bonus in lieu of working for commission only. It allows an agent the opportunity to focus on the customer without struggling to survive.
Redfin isn't for everyone. Perhaps the other re
ProsMake your own schedule, paid for every event, opportunity for advancement, rewarding career
ConsIndependent Contractor, no benefits, work load varies with demand
Flexible Work Schedule with Little Support, Training and Advancement
As an Associate Agent at Redfin, they provide very little training to help you start your career in real estate. It is expected that you know how to do a visual inspection, open houses, show homes, and do pick up and drop offs of Supra boxes and flyers. Depending on your choices of areas/cities you want to cover, you will find out that you will be driving quite a bit. You will be responsible for the cost of the MLS, association fees, gas and maintenance of your vehicle.
You do have control on how much you want to work each day. Even if you take a week off, no one will care. There are no quotas to maintain nor the reviews by clients will not affect your pay like the Redfin Buying/Selling agents. You are paid by event. The more events you do, the more you will be paid. So it is really an easy position to do with lots of great client satisfaction and feedback. You will just "feel" you are alone because of the lawsuit that now forbids employees of Redfin from interacting with the Associate Agents who are all independent contractors.
If you decide you want to apply for a Redfin Selling/Buying agent position, think again if you don't have prior transaction experience. Without it, you will be told you do not qualify for the position. I was told that if I spend more time as an Associate Agent, they will reconsider me for the position. Sounds like they are dangling a fake carrot. In the Associate Agent role, you are not able to participate in the buying/selling contract portio
Best work life balance, best benefits, best company
I have never worked in a more supportive, kind, encouraging environment. For a large company, they treat each employee like they are important, cared for, valued and trusted. CEO always says that above all, family comes first. He speaks it, management follows through. The company cares about the employees, provides amazing benefits at a super low cost, encourages you to be a present, active, low-stress parent/spouse/person. Opportunity for growth and change is all over. The people are REAL, enthusiastic, helpful, and encouraging. Management legitimately wants you to do well. PTO is always approved. Flexibility is a way of life. The culture is the best I have ever experienced. As a salaried employee, the base salary is fair. The bonus is not capped. The benefits are amazing and cost next to nothing. They never throw you under the bus. If you make a mistake, they explain what you could do to not make it again, explains why it happened, and forgive you immediately. It’s a true team environment. This is by far the best company I have ever worked for. You feel like you’re working with family. You believe in the mission and WANT to do your part. Company meetings are so much fun, engaging and real. Glenn (CEO) is the kindest, most respectful, most amazing person. He genuinely cares, and openly encouraged all employees - even down to entry level positions- to email and call him as needed. Even just for support if you’re feeling down during the pandemic. The company provided each empl
ProsEnvironment, benefits, culture, employee support
ConsStarting hourly base pay could be better, but what that might lack, the benefits, bonus, flexibility and good people make up for!
I was interested in working with Redfin as a transaction coordinator after being a realtor for a while. After applying for the position a recruiter told me that there is not any roles at the current moment for TCs but that he can connect me to another recruiter to talk about the possibility as an associate agent. At first I was hesitant but decided to go through with it because my license was just hanging at my previous brokerage collecting dust. I started the application process midway through September and got called into an interview right away. It was a self recorded video interview where you have to answer a series of questions that are prompted. If you prepare appropriately and go through general interview questions you should be fine. Make sure to relate your personal work experience through them and also know a bit about Redfin. They look for enthusiasm and people who want to work for the AA position. Afterwards I was contacted the following week stating that they liked my interview and called me to explain how onboarding works. I had to wait a month due to a hiccup but I got on the boarding call and started early November.
Since then I really enjoyed being an associate agent with Redfin. November and December were slow because they are the holidays but now at the end of January things are slowly picking up and I can see how associate agents can make good money on the weekends. If you have the flexibility to work weekends and odd times for showings this position wil
ProsFlexibility, time off, get paid to show houses, people facing position
Redfin is a technological Company first and foremost and the only folks getting paid decent wages are the Seattle Engineers and Executives. Agents are paid based on reviews and sometimes regardless of how hard you work, you're not compensated regardless of the hard work you did. They claim paid benefits and dues, however your base salary is so menial along with bonus structure, you indeed are paying for all of those benefits they claim to offer. If you are a RE Agent and want unlimited earning potential, don't work at this place. If you're a brand new Agent with no experience, Redfin is a great place to start because they'll provide enough leads to keep you stressed out and under water. You will be expected to close a minimum of 3 deals per month, so forget any kind of work life balance. If you attempt to take a day off to decompress, you will be scolded and told you're not a team player. Also, given your compensation is tied to a review by the customer, you better be prepared to miss out on quiet time, family time, or even the birth of your children, because rest assure some consumer will claim in a review that you didn't respond to them in a timely manner and your already menial bonus will be cut further. The Average bonus after taxes is $1,000.00 and your base salary will be $10,000.00 so you do the math. A traditional Agent will be paid thousands in commissions, paid right away, and paid regardless of what the consumer thinks. Redfin's business model is rigged t
Prospaid cell phone, mileage reimbursement
ConsWork non-stop. Cult like culture
Questions And Answers about Redfin
What benefits does Redfin offer?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
Great benefits and salary
Answered Feb 11, 2023
Flexible schedule
Answered Sep 22, 2022
How often do you get a raise at Redfin?
Asked Jun 20, 2022
yearly
Answered Feb 24, 2023
Yearly
Answered Dec 24, 2022
What is the best part of working at Redfin?
Asked Apr 2, 2020
You can schedule your time, open or close your calender
Answered Jun 27, 2022
Medical Benefits
Answered May 31, 2022
How did you get your first interview at Redfin?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
Reply fast to the job post and write a brief cover letter of why you want to work for Redfin. They love people who are willing to compromise pay in order to change the real estate industry. “Redefine Real Estate” is their motto
Answered Mar 26, 2019
Red fin real estate
Answered Dec 26, 2018
Is there kind of training provided to prepare new Associate Agents for their positions, i.e. showing home giving tours and communicating with potential clients?
Asked Mar 1, 2017
Yes but it's all video training. It takes a few weeks to fall into your own groove. Be humble, don't overstep and you'll be fine.
Answered Apr 5, 2019
Yes. You will shadow lead agents or other experienced AA’s.
