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What are the best features specific to redfin? As a first time home buyer, I had a mostly painless buying process. I got an agent, looked up properties on a website specific to my state, called my agent, he set up a time to show. When I decided to buy, the agent set up a few choices for the mortgages, I got cleared with one of them, did the inspection, appraisal, and we proceeded with closing. Where does redfin fit in, in that process, that makes the experience better?
A few things:

- You get a fairly substantial rebate if you use Redfin.

- You're not locked into a contract. Most agents will make you sign an exclusive contract with them, and if you end up not liking their work you're in a messy situation.

- Since Redfin agents are paid for their work and not commission, they're not just trying to get you to buy the most expensive property or pressuring you to buy ASAP so they can collect their money.

- Since you're not under contract with them (other than for the houses they show you), they won't be upset if you decided to pop into an open house.

The first reason is true not matter what agent you choose. The other three points might not come up if you get a good agent, but it's hard to get a good agent, and these are all pretty common problems. If you know someone who you're certain is a good agent, then it might be worth going with them (even considering the financial hit from the first point). If you don't, Redfin would probably be a better bet.

The buyer feels more in control with Redfin, since the buyer is using best of breed tooling to select the target house. It's hard to say if the ultimate result is any better for the buyer, but certainly many buyers want to feel in control and view broker fees as a regrettable overhead.