Redfin has launched a new home-selling service that is a lot more hands-on than its traditional offering, known as “Redfin Concierge Service.”
In a nutshell, the enhanced option allows home sellers to take advantage of a suite of services to improve their home before they list so it sells for top dollar.
And ideally, those improvements will boost the property’s chances of selling quickly as well, which coincides with a higher sales price.
What Redfin Concierge Provides
- Deep cleaning
- Landscaping
- Painting
- Staging
As noted, Redfin Concierge comes with a variety of services to improve a property before its listed.
After all, you only get one chance to make a first impression – and in real estate, time is money, literally. The more your home languishes on the market, the lower the chance your property will sell for list or above.
That’s where Redfin’s new service comes in; they’re here to help with important yet tedious stuff like deep cleaning, painting, landscaping, and home staging.
While important, a lot of these things fall outside the scope of traditional real estate services, especially a discounted real estate agency.
But they can make or break a listing, so in a sense they’re pretty invaluable.
As part of your listing with Redfin, they’ll create a custom plan “to deliver the optimum presentation to buyers.”
In other words, they’ll focus on all the details they think will maximize a return and get buyers to sign on the dotted line.
That will of course vary from property to property depending on its condition and buyer wants/needs in the target market.
This doesn’t mean you can throw a fixer-upper their way and expect them to overhaul the thing and sell it for maximum value
But if the home could use a little tidying up, and maybe a new coat of paint and improved curb appeal, this service could do the trick.
Those with more major projects who don’t want to put in the time, and/or want to sell quickly, can look at a service like We Buy Ugly Houses instead.
Redfin Concierge Service Doubles Listing Fee to 2%
- Standard Redfin listing fee: 1%
- Redfin Concierge listing fee: 2%
- Typical real estate listing fee: 2.5-3%
While Redfin’s Concierge Service sounds pretty awesome, it comes at a pretty big cost. We’re talking a doubling of the listing fee, from 1% to 2%. That’s a 100% increase.
The good news is that the 2% is still lower than what most full-service real estate agents charge their customers, though it aligns with another service called REX.
Typically, real estate commissions range from 5-6%, with each side earning either 2.5% or 3%. So the 2% is still cheaper. It might be closer to the 4% real estate fee you may have come across.
And as mentioned, most real estate agents don’t offer ancillary services like cleaning, painting, and staging.
So if all works out, you might get more for less, and sell your home for a lot more. That’s the hope at least.
Redfin still offers the option to do it yourself for the 1% fee, but it’s probably going to be pretty tempting to just have someone else do it, especially if that extra 1% can be absorbed via a higher sales price.
The new service is initially rolling out in just two markets, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., with more expected in the future if all goes well.
It is currently available for homes priced at $500,000 or higher.
The list of provided services is deceptive. We just tried to use this service for our home which will be listed at 849K. Our Redfin concierge wasn’t even able to cover interior painting and staging for the incremental 1% … considering our home is a mere 1200 square feet it’s disappointing that this service doesn’t even cover the basics. What’s worse is we wasted critical time going through the quote process because the concierge didn’t have a basic understanding of the costs for our area.
When speaking to agents from ERA and Realtor.com I was told the Redfin 1.5% listing fee is just the piece that Redfin takes at the time of sale. The Seller is still required to pay the ‘buyer’s agent’ commission on the sale which is ranges 2.5% to 3%. Example: Buyer has an ERA Realty agent that found the Redfin listing for the Sellers home and worked with Redfin agent on the listing. The house sells to the client of ERA. Redfin’s rate of 1.5%. Seller pays 1.5% to Redfin PLUS 2.5% or more to the second agent for a total of 4% or more.
Grace,
Yes, that makes sense, they can only control the sell side in your scenario but 4% total might be better than 5-6%.
A Nightmare Experience with Redfin Concierge Services
If you’re considering using them, I strongly advise you to think twice.
First off, they entered our home without notifying us to remove furniture. We had no idea this was happening, which left us scrambling and without the opportunity to photograph the home for our new listing. Can you imagine? This was our home, and they treated it like just another property to manage.
To add insult to injury, we were charged an outrageous $11,721 for staging the house *twice*. Initially, we had a cash offer that went to closing, but it was mishandled due to a lack of fund verification. They destaged the house for this cash buyer, only for the offer to fall through. Then, we had to restage the home, incurring even more costs. It’s unbelievable that a company claiming expertise in real estate could mishandle such a crucial process.
When we tried to address these issues, we encountered the concierge manager, who was shockingly rude. Instead of taking accountability, she offered us a measly $250 credit for the furniture removal fiasco. Seriously? That felt like an insult given the chaos we endured. Plus, she backtracked on her promise to provide us with the photographer’s contact information. This meant we had to shell out an additional $500 just to obtain the rights to use our own home’s photos!
To top it all off, a previous manager mentioned she was being let go as Redfin was in the process of eliminating concierge services due to a significant decline in quality. This was painfully evident during our interactions with the regional concierge manager, who showed no empathy whatsoever.
The lack of communication, exorbitant fees, and terrible customer service left us feeling frustrated and undervalued. If you value your time, money, and peace of mind, do yourself a favor and avoid Redfin Concierge Services. A home deserves respect and professionalism, and Redfin clearly failed on all fronts.