RedfinNow Review 2023 | Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

Published March 3, 2023

Written by Thomas O'Shaughnessy
Edited by Jessica Johansen

📌 Important Note

In a company memo dated November 9, 2022, Redfin announced it’s closing its RedfinNow subsidiary. If you’re looking for companies similar to RedfinNow, we’ve ranked the six best companies that buy houses for cash.

RedfinNow reviews summary

RedfinNow has a number of negative reviews from customers who were offered significantly lower prices due to errors in the company’s initial valuation. Redfin is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has a C– rating overall.

Our #1 RedfinNow alternative

If you’re considering a cash offer from RedfinNow, we strongly recommend comparing it to what you can get by selling with a realtor. Chances are you’ll get significantly more for your house on the open market. It’s also a good idea to request a free cash offer from some of RedfinNow’s competitors. Other iBuyers may offer you a better price for your home and charge lower fees. Sign up for Clever Offers to compare offers from top cash home buyers near you!

What is RedfinNow?

*Varies by market
Description 2	Description 2
🤝 Service fee	5–13%
⏱️ Time to close	10–90 days
📍 Locations	31 cities in AZ, CA, CO, GA, IL, MD, MA, MN, NV, NC, OR, TN, TX, VA, WA
🏡 Eligible homes	Valued between $150,000–$1.5 million* Lot size under .5 acres Owner-occupied or vacant

RedfinNow is an iBuyer service that buys homes for cash and lets you close in as little as 10 days. It’s worth considering if you need to sell quickly, but the convenience comes at a price.

Like all iBuyers, RedfinNow pays less than what you’ll get on the open market. Its fees are also extraordinarily high — some sellers lose up to 13% of their home price to service fees.

Who is RedfinNow best for?

RedfinNow may be a good option for homeowners who need to sell on an extremely short timeline. But it’s not a great choice if you want to sell your home for what it’s worth.

All iBuyers typically offer less than market value for homes, and RedfinNow’s extremely high fees mean you’ll be left with even less money in your pocket.

Before accepting an offer from an iBuyer, compare it to what other iBuyers are offering and to what a realtor could potentially sell your home for.

The easiest way to compare cash offers from RedfinNow and other companies is through Clever Offers. Clever will set you up with an agent who’ll walk you through all of your options to sell, whether that’s with an iBuyer, with a cash buyer, or on the open market.

Your Clever agent will also give you a free home valuation — not just an estimate on your home’s value — so you’ll know exactly what it’s worth.

How does RedfinNow compare to other iBuyers?

iBuyer	💰 Service fees	🌎 # of cities available in
RedfinNow	5-13%	31
Offerpad	5%	25
Opendoor	5%	47

RedfinNow is one of the three main iBuyers, along with Opendoor and Offerpad. You can expect to pay the same in closing and repair costs with other iBuyers, but the biggest difference between RedfinNow and other major iBuyers is its variable 5–13% service fee — compared with Opendoor’s and Offerpad’s flat service fee of 5%.

On the sale of a $500,000 home, RedfinNow’s charges could mean $40,000 more in fees than other iBuyer companies for basically the same service.

You can request offers from multiple iBuyers to compare them, as long as they are available in your area. RedfinNow, like all iBuyers, tends to only be available in major metropolitan areas.

» MORE: The best iBuyer companies of 2023

RedfinNow vs. Offerpad

Fast closing

Offerpad

Flexible closing times

Full Review

6% service fee
Close in just 8 days
Great customer service

✍ Editor's take

Offerpad can provide home sellers with a fast cash offer and quick closing (as little as eight days). We noticed that most recent Offerpad reviews are positive, with home sellers noting that Offerpad reps were friendly and helpful throughout the selling process.

✅ Pros & cons

Pros

You can close in just eight days.
There’s no need to repair or prep the home.
Home sellers have an extended stay option.

Cons

Some customers report high repair costs that reduced their final offer.
Free local moves are available only within a 50-mile radius.

📍 Locations

Offerpad is available in 25 metro areas across AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IN, KS, MO, NV, NC, OH, SC, TN, TX.

⭐ Customer reviews

Customer reviews of Offerpad are mostly positive, with an average rate of 3.9 across 524 reviews.

Offerpad is the second-largest iBuyer in the United States. Overall, we think Offerpad offers better value — especially in terms of speed and lower fees — than RedfinNow does.

That said, RedfinNow does have some advantages over Offerpad. It is available in more markets — 31 vs. Offerpad’s 25 markets — and generally has less stringent criteria for which homes qualify. While every iBuyer has strict criteria for purchases, homes that are older or require repairs are somewhat more likely to qualify for RedfinNow than Offerpad.

But Offerpad wins in terms of fees and time to closing. It generally has lower fees than RedfinNow, with Offerpad charging a service fee of 5% compared to RedfinNow’s 5–13%.

Also, Offerpad offers faster closings than RedfinNow. The closing date with Offerpad can be in as little as eight days (depending on market), compared to RedfinNow’s 10–90 days.

If you’re looking to sell fast, but without having too much of your final sale price eaten up by fees, Offerpad is your best bet. Just keep in mind that your home will need to qualify and you’ll have to live in a market where Offerpad operates.

RedfinNow vs. Opendoor

Best tech

Opendoor

The largest iBuyer

Full Review

5% service fee
Available in 50+ cities
Choose your close date

✍ Editor's take

In comparison to other iBuyers, Opendoor offers the best value because the fees are capped at 5% and it pays close to fair market value for homes. Sellers should be aware that Opendoor deducts repair costs from their final offer, and the company no longer allows home sellers to handle repairs on their own.

✅ Pros & cons

Pros

You get a free, no-obligation offer.
You can choose when you close.
With late checkout, you can stay in your home up to 17 days after closing.
Opendoor is available in 50+ markets and continuing to expand.

Cons

You have no control over repair costs.
There’s strict criteria for purchasing homes (e.g., no structural damage, no homes pre-1930).

📍 Locations

Opendoor is currently available in 47 major markets in AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IN, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, DC.

⭐ Customer reviews

Customer reviews of Opendoor are mostly positive, with an average rating of

4.3 across 3,322 reviews.

Opendoor is the largest iBuyer in the United States and operates in more markets — 47 — than RedinNow does (at 31). If you’re looking to sell to an iBuyer, you have a much greater chance of Opendoor being available to you than RedfinNow.

As with Offerpad, Opendoor’s fees of about 5% are also much better than RedfinNow’s 5–13%.

But Opendoor is also far more restrictive about which properties it will buy. Older homes and homes that are in need of repairs have a much harder time qualifying for Opendoor than for RedfinNow.

RedfinNow’s closing window of 10–90 days is also more flexible than Opendoor’s 14–60 day window. If you have a specific timeline for when you want to sell, that flexibility makes RedfinNow a better option.

Where does RedfinNow buy homes?

RedfinNow is only available in limited areas, operating in 47 metro regions nationwide including:

Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Nashville, TN
Phoenix
Washington, D.C.

Selling somewhere else? Our friends at Clever can match you with a top-rated real estate agent in your area. Their agents work for low, pre-negotiated rates of just 1.5% — helping you save thousands!

How does RedfinNow work?

RedfinNow makes it easy to sell your home in six steps:

Description
1. Request an initial cash offer. Enter your home address on the RedfinNow website and click “Get My Offer.”
2. Receive your initial offer, which is also usually the final cash offer. Get your cash offer a few days after submitting the request. Redfin uses its valuation model to determine what your home is worth.
3. Accept the cash offer. If you like the initial offer, sign the form Redfin sends over and choose a closing date within 10 to 90 days later.
4. Schedule an inspection. Redfin sets up inspections to determine if your home is structurally sound. These could include a general home inspection as well as specialized ones, as needed.
5. Receive the inspection report. The report will detail any problems with the home as well as the estimated cost of repairs. RedfinNow deducts repair expenses from the final cash offer — but you have the option to cancel the sale if you disagree with the estimates.
6. Close the deal. In most states, you can close in as few as 10 days, following a title search and final walk-through. On the actual day of closing, you’ll sign the sale documents at the office of an attorney or title company to formally transfer the title and complete the sale.

What homes does RedfinNow buy?

RedfinNow has strict criteria for purchases. Generally, RedfinNow makes offers on single-family homes, condos, and townhomes that were built after 1930.

RedfinNow purchase criteria

*Varies by market
Description
💰 Valued between $150,000 and $1.5 million*
🌳 Lot size under .5 acres
📁 Clear title
✅ Good physical condition
🔑 Owner-occupied or vacant

RedfinNow fees

RedfinNow charges a variable fee of 5–13% of the final sale price — on top of closing costs and repair costs.

RedfinNow fee breakdown

Description	Fees
💰Service fee	5–13%
⏱Closing costs	1–3%
🛠Repair credits	1–2%
Total	7–18%

RedfinNow’s variable service fee can be as much as 13% of the purchase price of the home. That’s a LOT to pay for the convenience of a quick sale — on a $500,000 home, as much as $65,000 could be earmarked for RedfinNow!

The costs of using RedfinNow go beyond the service fee. You will also have to pay for any necessary repairs and routine closing costs out of pocket.

How does RedfinNow calculate its service fee?

Unfortunately, RedfinNow does not disclose the service fee by market, so it can be difficult to know whether you’ll pay at the higher or lower end of the range. However, the company considers factors such as risks associated with reselling your home and expenses incurred until the home is resold in setting your rate.

Redfin wants to make sure it can resell the home quickly, so it considers comparable sales and home-buying trends. If you’re in a hot market where properties tend to sell quickly, the service fees should be lower.

The costs associated with owning your home until Redfin finds a new buyer will also influence whether you pay at the high or low end of the 5–13% fee. Some of the expenses Redfin assesses when calculating your fee will include:

Homeowner’s association dues
Property taxes
Potential maintenance
Home insurance
Utilities

Should I sell my house to RedfinNow?

Unless you absolutely have to sell immediately, you’ll likely walk away with a lot more profit if you sell on the open market — especially if you list with a low-commission realtor that offers discounted rates.

Our friends at Clever can connect you with a top local agent and pre-negotiate a 1.5% listing fee for you. Clever’s partner agents come from brokerages like Berkshire Hathaway and RE/MAX, and they guarantee full service.

Selling with RedfinNow: Pros, cons, and reviews

✍️ Editor’s note:

In June 2022, Redfin announced that it plans to lay off 10% of its staff as a result of lower demand. While it’s too early to say definitively what this means for you, depending on where those cuts are made, they could impact the quality of your experience with RedfinNow.

Because RedfinNow purchases fewer houses than other iBuyers, it’s difficult to find verified reviews. However, across the few RedfinNow reviews that we were able to find, we noticed a few common advantages and disadvantages:

Pros	Cons
✅ Speed	❌ High fees
✅ Convenience	❌ Lower-than-market-value offers
✅ Certainty	❌ No negotiation
✅ Flexibility	❌ Limited availability

Pros of selling with RedfinNow

Here are the biggest benefits of selling to RedfinNow:

Speed. In October 2020, homes were on the market for a median of 53 days, according to Realtor.com. With RedfinNow, you can get a cash offer within a few days of making a request and can then close within 90 days. Being able to sell your property more quickly could be a major advantage.
Convenience. Preparing your home for sale can involve cleaning and making cosmetic repairs, staging the property for open houses, and having dozens of potential buyers visit your home. You can skip all that with RedfinNow and get a cash offer sight unseen.
Certainty. You’ll know within days if you’re eligible for a RedfinNow offer and what amount the iBuyer is willing to pay. You won’t need to hope and wait around for a buyer — or worry about their financing falling through.
Flexibility. When you sell to a traditional buyer, you have to agree on a closing schedule that works for both of you. With RedfinNow, you choose the closing date so you can work on your own schedule. And if your sale closes before you’re ready to move out, you can rent the home back from RedfinNow for $100 per day for 29–60 days after the closing date.

Cons of selling with RedfinNow

Here are some of the biggest disadvantages:

High fees. You’ll have to pay the RedfinNow service fee, which is generally going to be more expensive than traditional real estate commission — up to 13% of the home’s sale price. You will also have to pay for closing costs, typically an additional 1–3%.
Offers are below market value. Redfin couldn’t profit by paying exactly what your home is worth, so expect an offer to be approximately 5–15% below market value.
No option to negotiate. With traditional buyers, issues such as the purchase price, repairs you’ll pay for, and even who pays closing fees are all up for negotiation. With RedfinNow, the offer is take it or leave it.
Limited availability. Unless you live in one of the few areas where RedfinNow operates, you won’t be able to sell your home to this iBuyer.
Poor reviews. RedfinNow has been the subject of customer complaints, including some home sellers indicating they experienced substantial drops in their offer price due to errors in the initial valuation. The operating company Redfin also receives a C– rating from the Better Business Bureau, though many BBB complaints focus on its broader business services rather than its iBuyer program.

Positive RedfinNow reviews

This seller indicated that the process was convenient and they received the money in their account quickly.

RedfinNow complaints

While some home sellers have had a positive experience, others definitely haven’t. These two sellers both complained about the high fees and the low offers they received for their property.

And this seller had a problem with the iBuyer’s repair requests.

When you work with RedfinNow, you give up your bargaining chips and pass up the chance to get top-dollar for your property — in exchange for being able to sell your property quickly for cash.

In a traditional real estate transaction, you can negotiate with would-be home buyers about repairs, or can choose to sell your property “as is” (and not make any repairs or offer any discounts if problems turn up during an inspection). But when you sell to RedfinNow, you’ll have no leverage — you’ll either have to follow their repair requirements or walk away from the deal.

If you don’t want to make this trade-off, contact Clever today to get matched with a full-service agent who will charge an affordable fee to help you get the best price possible for your home.

FAQ about RedfinNow

Does RedfinNow charge fees?

Yes, RedfinNow charges service fees — and they're VERY high compared with its competitors. RedfinNow fees typically run 5–13%, which is more than twice what Opendoor charges and several times as expensive as selling with a low commission real estate agent.

How does RedfinNow work?

RedfinNow makes instant cash offers on homes in select markets. It makes money by purchasing homes for less than their full market value and then reselling them at higher prices. It also charges sellers expensive fees that could cost up to twice as much as ordinary real estate commission. Learn more about how iBuyers like RedfinNow work.

Is RedfinNow a good deal?

It depends on your priorities. If a quick sale is what matters most, selling to an iBuyer like RedfinNow is generally a better deal than selling to a We Buy Houses for Cash company. However, RedfinNow is looking to resell your home at a profit, so it's not going to pay as much as an ordinary home buyer. Find the best ways to save money when you sell a house.

Should I sell my house to RedfinNow?

RedfinNow may be worth considering if your top priority is selling quickly. But if you want to walk away with as much money as possible, you may have better options. For example, selling with a low-fee brokerage could put thousands of dollars back in your pocket.

Which is the best iBuyer?

Our team of iBuyer experts rank Offerpad as the best iBuyer company in 2023. It’s fast — with closings in as little as eight days — and has great customer service. However, like all iBuyers, it comes with high fees and you may get less for your home than you would on the open market. If you’re looking to save money and sell fast, we recommend checking out our list of the best iBuyer companies.

Can you negotiate with RedfinNow?

No, usually you can’t negotiate with RedfinNow. Its first offer is typically its final offer. However, if you think RedfinNow missed something important — such as a recent renovation — you can request a correction, which may affect the offer. You can also request an offer from one of RedfinNow’s competitors.

How does the RedfinNow home inspection work?

Your RedfinNow home inspection will usually take place within 10 days of accepting RedfinNow’s offer. The home inspection is free, but if the inspection turns up any problems, then RedfinNow may deduct repair costs from your initial offer price. You can either accept the reduced offer or cancel the sale without penalties if you disagree with the estimated extra charges. Learn more about how RedfinNow works.