San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

We use them to tour homes. Very easy to use. No pressure as the agent is not realtor. They just open the door for you.
And you pick the houses you want to look. They won't suggest or recommend you any houses.
If you know what you are doing, they are great.
Unlike regular realtor, we feel less pressure to buy when we use their service.

That's an excellent idea. I usually like to see more houses than my agent would recommend or would be willing/have time to take me. And I don't want to be rushed, or influenced.

How much is the fee for this service?

You get a certain amout of free tours (5 I think) and then you have to pay after that, but you only pay if you end up using their service and they just take it out of your rebate check.

They no longer have a limit on the "free" tours... you can see as many as you like as many times as you like for no cost or obligation (except short sales which they won't currently deal with.)

Two questions - One is if you are using an agent but would like to see more properties than your agent has time for, is there anything wrong with you using Redfin agents to see other houses?

Secondly, why are listings on redfin listed as active but ones on SDlookup for the same one listed as Contigent?

redfin does not have Contigent status. That is for CA only, so they don't have it yet.

We also use a regular agent to see short sale houses.

glad none of you are my clients. i wouldnt put up with you. Getting good service and quality representation requires some degree of loyalty. So many of you will dismiss realtor ethics but turn around and think nothing of using some one never intending to do business with them. Wonder why some realtors are the way thy are.

BTW, I just put a client into escrow after a 2 year search. They listened to my advice, stayed patient and are buying something 33% off what they were willing to spend 2 years ago. Best of all they got something they really like and more than they thought they would.

Same as shopping for golf clubs, cars etc... Im not endorsing it but it happens in other industries.

Having said that, I just wondered if it was against rules/ laws and clearly it isnt the most ethical thing to do.

That's true, but why would you mind if your client sees more houses with a service like this one, if they still close a deal with you? I mean literally just seeing. I know my agent is very busy, and I feel bad about calling him to see something that caught my fancy on paper and turns out to be a no go. And I get very excited easily and want to go see a new listing NOW. Women, deh!

Actually, after I read the terms of redfin, I would have felt better to pay a fee for just seeing houses and still use my agent for advice, seeing other houses etc. and certainly for the whole process of offering and closing. At least that was my thinking. I can see people double-dealing with this and I don't think it is fair to use 2 agents, unless it is spelled out. I'd prefer to pay upfront for seeing houses, and then my agent gets his commission. I was worried about not being too fair to Redfin agents, but I think they keep that in mind...

So has anyone actually ever used redfin to buy a house? or just for tours?

My main concern is the disadvantage it may put us in bidding on a property using redfin. Can anyone speak to that?

LAFTER
When was the last time the guy at the golf shop put you in his car and spent hours driving you around to go try out clubs?

Scarlett
Why I would mind is because what comes around goes around. if you will screw with the redfin guy eventually you'll screw with me. No thanks.

I guess they would if they're trying to sell $500k golf clubs :-). I can't speak for everyone, but I would much rather go see the places myself. Just give me the code. Would be nice if they establish a finger print system and anyone can go in if they want to and if the house is available for showing. Those who want their hands held can still pay for it. At this moment in time, there's really not much option for those who don't want their hands held.

Actually I agree with this method.

SDR - I meant that when buying cars and clubs, you can go to any store that sells those items, and waste the salesmans time so they can show you a product and try and sell it to you, all the while knowing you are there to test the product out. The salesman makes no sale on showing you the product.

I feel just like you. I am not a first time buyer anymore and I learned a lot in the process. I don't mind paying some fee for the privilege of showing. That is what I meant, and if sdr wants to interpret it otherwise, I am sorry. I think the Redfin guys are fully aware of this possibility, but it still doesn't seem very fair to their agents.

Fine. I thought I explained that I was actually concerned with the fairness towards the Redfin agents. I am sure lots of people wouldn't have even thought twice. As for me, I am very loyal and honest to MY personal realtor and I expect likewise. Initially I thought that Redfin had a service of just showing houses for some fee, which would be pretty clear cut. But it's not quite that cut & dry, because they would like you to use them as agents when you decide on a house, so you are in a ethical limbo if you want to use them AND your agent in that case. So I will not get in this situation.

100% with you on this, AN.

We don't want someone to "sell" us anything. We know what we want, know how to price things, and know how to negotiate (if we ever wanted to do that ourselves).

Quite frankly, many agents get in the way of transactions because they stand between the buyers and sellers. I honestly think we could negotiate a cleaner, easier deal without agents, but they hold the keys to the MLS and lockbox system, so buyers are pretty much forced to use them.

BTW, I fully acknowledge that not all buyers/sellers are capable of negotiating deals, but for those of us who don't want to waste our time with ungodly amounts of paperwork, and who would rather sit down at a table -- directly communicating between buyers/sellers -- and quickly see if we can come to a conclusion, the whole realtor-led method can make things much more adversarial than necessary.

I think Scarlett was clear that she did **NOT** want to waste a realtor's time if she wasn't going to close a deal with them. At least that's how I read it.

Tell ya what AN
I'll send you my finger print (or maybe someone else's you wont know). Will you give me 24 access to your house?

CA R
Simple solution. Call the agent's number on the sign. They're looking out for your interests anyway;)

In all fairness, sdr is right. I understand the need of a 'licensed' person that is responsible, liable, etc. to be present when I see the house. Otherwise in order to be able to get in with a fingerprint or a retina scan or whatnot, there will have to be a huge background check plus huge deposit to allow a stranger access to your house, even if it's during show hours. Or else sellers agent or a guard or something like that should be there during the show hours, which may be too difficult to arrange everyday with every lookyloo.

Tell you what sdr, how about go through a screening process to get into the system, if you're a serious buyer. Then, if you list your house in the market, you'll get a kit that contains many surveillance camera that you can place all around the house. This is just a few suggestion. You can also require a seller/seller agent be there when you can go into the house. Even w/ a realtor, buyers don't have access to the house 24 hours a day anyways.

And who isgoing to apy for setting up that screening process. Who will be liable when some pedophile has their way with someone's kid?

Who wants surveliiance cameras in their house. Other than in the bedroom;)

Sorry guys I was just stirring the pot on this issue. Time for nice tall glass of vino............

Easiest method is to become friends with a local realtor who will give you the number to the lockbox. You can preview the home at your leisure. I've even run across the same combo at different properties.

That's really appalling, not to mention unethical. Realtors like your friend are the reason I refused to allow a lockbox on the rental I was living in.

Wow. Appalling and unethical. Whatever.

It is against MLS rules.

From the Sandicor agent homepage last month:

"Lockbox combinations are considered confidential information and should only be conveyed to other MLS participants and subscribers. Any member found in violation of giving a client a one day show code or combination for a combo box is in jeopardy of losing their keycard and MLS privileges. Sellers and listing agents are encouraged to contact the authorities should a member of the public be found entering the property without the accompaniment of an MLS participant as it is considered trespassing."

I'll laugh when somebody's dog bites you.

The government of course. Better yet, the buyers, the sellers, the agents, the brokers, the loan brokers, the advertiser, Google, MSFT, YHOO, etc. BTW, what kind of parents leave their kids alone when strangers come into the house?

I am not sure if you are talking about me, but we do intend to use redfin to buy our house. But, if it happened that our regular agent gets us into a short sale house, we certainly can not go with redfin and have to use our regular agent to close the deal.
So, maybe I was not very clear, but we tour short sales with regular agent. We never ask her to take us to regular sale houses.
And we use redfin for most of our home tour and will close with them if that is what we end up with.

My wife and I thought about using Redfin but ended up using the listing agent from a failed short sale. We didn't have a buyer's agent on that deal, so he acted in a limited dual agency role. After that deal fell through due to BofA's idiocy, he offered to split his commission with us as a buyer's agent. Why? He saw how we operated: we wanted to do our own research, didn't make a hobby of tramping through houses we didn't really want to buy, etc.

As it turned out, he showed us exactly one house (another short sale, natch). We put in an offer, then a counter-offer which was accepted by the seller in late April and approved by their bank last Thursday. We didn't waste his time or ours pursuing houses we weren't really interested in. Easier money for him, a nice chunk of money back for us--everybody wins.

Some of you sound like chronic lookie loos. Are you really trying to find a house to buy, or is it just a fun pastime?

Can't speak for others but I did buy my house, so I wasn't a lookie loo. I had many low ball offers sight unseen. On ones where I went to go look at are ones where I would offer at listing. I was very loyal to my agent(stick w/ him for over a year until we actually bought a house w/ him) and didn't bother him unless I'm ready to submit an offer. I wish MLS would have many more pictures. I think it would reduce the amount of showings from lookie loos. If you have A LOT of pictures and stitch them together w/ Microsoft PhotoSynth, people can have virtual viewing w/out having to actually go to the house until you're ready to make an offer and just want to double check in person.