Redfin discovers Earth: “It was wetter than we were expecting…”
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Wednesday, June 6th, 2007, 10:20 pm MST
Category: Disintermediation, Marketing, Real Estate
You just can’t make this stuff up. Redfin’s Glenn Kelman:
At lunch with Cynthia and a local real estate baron, we heard about a new tactic for getting a deal on a property. Rather than offering a lower price, ask the seller to handle closing costs, which can run up to $10,000 or more.
How long have they been doing real estate? And today they discovered that they can negotiate the closing costs?
Recall that Kelman claims that Redfin agents are better negotiators. I mentioned closing costs when discussing why that claim might not be true:
A complicated negotiation might result in a higher reported sales price but a better overall deal for the buyers — for example, repairs or even remodeling, seller concessions, no out-of-pocket costs, etc. These are the types of arrangements more likely to be made by more-experienced agents.
A question their clients — and their clients’ attorneys — might ask: What else don’t they know?
In a word: Yikes!
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18 Comments so far
Um… wow.
its the blind leading the blind… thats why they have a crack team of legal pros on staff.
For all of Glenn’s efforts and exploitation of the media’s insatiable appetite for a new white collar renegade that has made him so popular as of late you would think that he’d exercise a bit more caution before making himself look like a bottom of the barrel greenhorn in the field of real estate.
Greg, I don’t quite understand how this is related to Redfin. Did I miss something?
Aha ~ it is now apparent why Redfin charges less
Quite amusing, I see no one is letting him off easy either (as they shouldn’t).
Good one! Here’s another one I picked up recently – If your client wants the refrigerator, you can ask for it in the offer! Sometimes, the sellers will agree, and the buyer can, like, keep the fridge and everything! Holy cow, this real estate stuff is fun!
But Kris -
What if the seller switches out the refrigerator prior to close? And leaves the 15-year-old Kenmore, that the buyer noticed in the garage, instead of leaving the SubZero that was in the kitchen during the viewing. My goodness, whatever should we do?!
Speaking of Rfin….did you see where their petition for their “Consumer’s bill (bull) of rights” has a grand total of ……. are you ready?……..131 sigs? And this is after a renewed plea for sigs after the NWMLS fined them. http://blog.redfin.com/2007/05/down_dog_and_kennel.html
That one caught on…..
What planet do these guys come from? We’ve been negotiating everything from price to to gold fish in the pond for years. Some people just don’t understand that they can fertilize a large farm with the stuff that spews from their mouths.
Thank god for feed readers. One doesn’t even need a bloodhound to find humorous gems like this, in the blogosphere. I haven’t been able to wipe that smirk off my face since this morning, and it’s lunch time already.
I’m blown away! Even consumers know to negotiate closing costs! I wonder what the reaction will be when he discovers seller carrybacks!
Shailesh
Does the garage door come with the house, too?
Perhaps the Redfin agents got their training in negotiation at a no haggle Saturn dealership.
I think that may be his way of “teaching the public”. Great post and blog. Visit me at :
http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com/
Do I really need buyer representation more than a rebate?…
With a hat tip to Greg Swann, the big dog at the Bloodhound Blog , I noticed this skilled new? negotiating…
hmm, I would agree with elliott here. I think his audience is the house buyer… he might even be angeling for the gen x/y folks here (who may not know)… I remember a Lowes commerical where they showed how to fix a stripped screwhole in wood with some matchsticks… well duh… but people loved that…
or who knows… Glenn could just be that dumb?
but if he can get 300 people to read his blog and post negative comments about his post, A… generates buzz, your talking about him right? and B… you’ve reinfoced his position that “traditional real estate” hates Redfin… and the consumer he’s trying to educate…
[...] The fact is, these Dilberts don’t actually work in real estate, or they never have until now. Not just Redfin.com, but all the venture-funded Realty.bot mechanics. I think there were people at Zillow who really did believe that real estate could be sold without intermediaries. And Redfin beams with an infant’s delight every time it discovers something actual working professional Realtors have known for years — had to learn in order to survive as actual working professional Realtors. [...]