I’ve been doing some research to see how Redfin works. It seems like some of their agents do pretty well. I’m curious; does Redfin do the marketing with their website and feed their agents all the leads? Do the agents do any marketing for themselves? What are their splits likes? Has anyone on this forum worked for Redfin or currently work for them?

I have not worked for them but I believe you are paid hourly something around $20 hr or so.

Yeah, I read that their agents get paid differently and not off commission. I guess they get bonuses based off of customer satisfaction. What I would really like to k now is if they only get leads from Redfins website or do they get leads some other way?

They recently made their agents employees. I'm starting to see Redfin yard signs in my market.

As far as how they work with buyers, I know that you pay an upfront fee in order for them to send you to so many listings on your own without an agent. Their "cash back" (as with any online brokerage) is usually a refund of the money you paid to go look at the listings. However, there have been a few buyers who didn't fully do their research before working with them. Some have not gotten their money back, however, that's not really Redfin's fault. Their lender needs to address that with them prior to closing, some lenders don't allow for it, never knew it was at the lender's discression, but apparently in some cases, it is!

Redfin? This is the first I am hearing of them. They are not in Upstate NY.

There are two types of agents--their actual employees, and their "partner agents." Their employees ARE indeed employees, they work exclusively for Redfin, and they are salaried, though I don't know the details of their salary schedule. The partner agents give up a certain percentage of their commission to Redfin as a referral fee, and Redfin gives some of that back to the buyer. I think it's something like 35% total--25% goes back to the buyer and Redfin pockets 10%. I know one of the local partner agents, and while he does get a fair amount of business from Redfin, it doesn't comprise the most significant part of his income.

Thanks for the info everyone. I’m curious if they are feeding their agents, who are employed, just from their website or do they market in some other way. I see that someone mentioned there was a Redfin sign. I take it that some agents do some marketing on their own.

Matt from Redfin here...

@drejon: we do all the marketing for our agents (we pay for signs & flyers, have a great website, etc). Agents don't need to do any marketing themselves. We don't have splits. Our field agents (who show primarily show homes, attend inspections) are paid by event. Our agents (negotiate deals, show homes) are paid a base salary and bonus based on the customer's satisfaction.

@MrsSea Many of our agents are employees. However, there is no upfront fee for working with Redfin to buy or sell.

@AndyPerkins We do have partner agents where we split the referral fee we get with the client.

Here are some numbers on our partner program:
[url=http://activerain.com/blogsview/2045601/2010-redfin-s-partners-ignite-]2010: Redfin's partners ignite![/url]

And here is some insight into how our agents are paid:
[url=http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2010/05/what_kind_of_person_would_work_as_a_redfin_agent.html]What kind of person would work as a Redfin agent.[/url]

If you have more questions, just let me know!