Redfin revealed its latest upgrade this morning — notes from Redfin agents appended to the listings they’ve toured. “With each new home toured, Redfin’s online tools prompt the agent hosting the tour for free-form comments to share with customers, along with a form for cataloging key features such as whether the listing has plenty of tour activity, or an open floor plan, or a big backyard,” says the announcement at the company’s blog. Each comment includes the agent’s name and the number of times he or she has toured the home.
More than 13,000 properties already have been reviewed, Redfin says. It’s hard to see how many homes in and around Chicago have notes, but you can tell which ones do by looking for icons that include little gold stars. (Is that a wise indicator? Will new visitors understand that a gold star doesn’t indicate a special or recommended property?)
Most of the reviews I’ve read so far aren’t too interesting, but a few actually offer some criticism. “Some nice upgrades but 2 BR up and 2 BR down is a problem for a young family,” says one agent about a Northbrook single-family; “On kind of a busy street,” says another agent about a new-construction home in Wilmette.
Since the notes are offered well below the actual listing text, they probably won’t be misconstrued as comments from the listing agent or seller, but they may also go unseen by casual readers. To see the reviews, users will have to be registered with Redfin, which may be a turn-off. What do you think? As a buyer, will this be useful? Will listing agents freak out at every negative review? Does anyone care?
Umm.. YES. I have always wondered why real estate websites don’t allow for comments and reviews. I understand that it could be a moderation nightmare, but look at sites like Yelp or Amazon — the value of the good feedback outweighs the value of the noise. Mostly, I want to bitch out listers/agents for their awful pictures 🙂 It’s unbelievable that sellers/agents don’t take their time to take good photos of a product that is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and this could be a good way to augment the lack of photos and motivate sellers/agents to take better pictures.
Adam, I love your comment about the photos. I’m an agent myself and I get totally peeved about the awful photos I see on other listings. Do the sellers have any idea that the photos are as bad as they are?? I actually have recently started a draft post on my blog regarding this very issue.
Given the very high level of Realtor demand for truly awful photos that could have been shot anywhere, there’s a serious business opportunity here.
I’ve been giving some thought to opening a Web-based stock photo service that Realtors can access to download bad photos without having the bother of visiting the property.
The service could feature shots of corners, closet doors, toilets with the seat up, blank walls with windows blown out by backlighting, totally dark rooms, etc. Realtors would be able to personalize the photos by selecting wall colors and floor stains.
Hope nobody steals my idea and beats me to it.
As a buyer, I have read a few but they aren’t all that helpful. I would much prefer reviews from other potential buyers. But I guess that would be a potential minefield.
Let’s cut to the chase.
The comments are useful and long overdue. This kind of feedback by buyer’s agents should have been readily available years ago. Why should ever potential buyer that comes along have to be exposed to the same issue, example roof damage. The answer is they should not.
Now let’s focus on a few pieces of feedback that have been pointed out on this blog.
Yes, there are usability issues. A star represents should represent a favorite not a comment. Why Redfin did not use a tablet and pencil icon shows that they need to invest a but more in some quality user experience professionals or at least do some actual user testing.
As Joe has pointed out, the location and implementation of the comment is all wrong. If the comments have high value, which I believe they do, then place them higher up in the page right after the address. Also, there is no reason the comment cannot be shown early in the progressive reveal pattern used on Redfin.com. Why not show the comments on the right side preview pane.
As for the length of the comment. I can see value in keeping them short. Point out the major issues or stengths of the property Twitter style, 140 characters or less. Do not nickel and dime a property for it’s faults, but if there is a major issues either physically or from a livability perspective it should be pointed out.
Finally, this is the first attempt that I know of to provide this information on a potential buyer in written form (this all happen verberally in the past – buyer’s agents know the issues once they tour a property a couple of times). Since it is a first attempt it us not going to be perfect. With iterations, this type of insight will undoubtly get better and the before mentioned usability issues resolved.
Great topic Joe.
Dan,
I’ve talked to many buyers who love Redfin (although they don’t use Redfin agents) for the depth of info it presents, and who will probably scroll down far enough to see the comments.
Redfin has a great feature – Sites linking to [this listing] – that you see immediately above the listing history. The feature takes advantage of the trackback technology in blogs and automatically surfaces blog entries with the trackback link.
One strong indicator that sellers and their agents are opposed to comments of any kind is the number of listings that disallow public comments at the seller / agent request. The “disallow” option apparently applies to Redfin agent comments, since the Northbrook listing that Joe Askins linked in the post no longer surfaces the Redfin comment.
One of the real issues here is the utility of comments from Redfin agents who lack in-depth familiarity with many of the areas they visit and the apparent inability of others to respond to those comments.
A friend of mine, who’s lived on Isabella St in Wilmette for several dozen years, would be one of the many locals who would sharply disagree with the Redfin agent’s remark that the Wilmette listing Joe linked is on “a busy street.” It’s busier than many Wilmette streets, but I think the characterization is misleading and not helpful.
Another nail in the coffin of the “traditional” real estate business where obfuscation rules the day and disclosure is a four letter word.
I’ve already started reading these brief, but welcome notes. Hopefully they are the leading edge of what many realtors have resisted for ages: transparency and honesty about their listings.
I’m still waiting for a public database of homes that have failed radon, lead and termite inspections, much like VIN reports for used cars. Since it’s illegal not to disclose such reports, you think agents would embrace the idea, instead of playing “see no evil” and not reading the reports, so they can “legally” claim no knowledge of previous problems.
Not all agents engage in such shenanigans, but it’s common enough that the winds of change can’t blow them out of business soon enough.
The MLS and real estate establishment has played anti-consumer games long enough. Long live Redfin and the like.
I’ve questioned the local knowledge of Redfin agents on several occasions, including in the above comment. Since posting that comment I received the following via e-mail from a veteran agent whose judgment I respect:
“I did a transaction with Greg Whelan of Redfin. Was one of the most professional transactions I’ve had. Wish more were like that.”
Hi Joe,
Just wanted to clear something up… The disallow public commenting option doesn’t apply to our Agent Insights. The reason that the comment referenced in the blog post disappeared is because we removed a number of comments that referenced who our agents thought the home would be good for.