Why Buying with Unlocked is Better than Buying with Redfin
Redfin was one of the early pioneers of the real estate buyer’s rebate. We created Unlocked to deliver an even better buying experience than Redfin.
Unlocked offers a buyer rebate 5 times that of Redfin.
Get 1.0% cash back when you upgrade to an Unlocked agent.
Redfin was one of the early pioneers of the real estate buyer’s rebate. Founded in 2004, Redfin initially gave buyers 2% of their purchase price in the form of a cash back rebate. Over time they reduced the amount of the cash back rebate, and it is now around 0.4% in the Bay Area (Redfin does not disclose the percentage, but it can be approximated from active listings).
At Unlocked, we agree with Redfin that technology can be leveraged to provide a better buying experience to Bay Area home buyers. We created Unlocked to deliver an even better buying experience than Redfin. Here’s how we’re different / better:
BIGGER REBATE:
Unlocked offers a 1.0% cashback rebate, compared to Redfin’s 0.4%. That is over twice the rebate, and is the largest rebate offered in the Bay Area! That additional money can be put towards renovations, new furniture or even paying down your mortgage.
BETTER AGENTS:
Unlocked's licensed real estate agents aren’t your typical real estate agent. One of us is a Yale Law JD and the other is a Stanford MBA. We’ve worked at the top management consulting, law and private equity firms (Bain &Company, Boston Consulting Group, Wachtell and Bain Capital). We bring more to the table than the typical real estate agent, and get great client feedback on our customer service, data-driven approach and thoughtful advice.
GREATER TRANSPARENCY / MORE DATA:
The Redfin Estimate is useful tool for approximating a home’s value. However, the estimate itself is a “black box”, which makes it less useful when it comes time to actually submit an offer. At Unlocked, we provide our clients with our Custom Valuation Report, an easy-to-interpret dataset of recent comparable transactions, competing listings and third-party valuations. This tool provides our clients with greater transparency, and is a more useful tool for determining what offer price to submit on a home.
If you're interested in learning more about Unlocked's better buying experience, feel free to Contact Us or learn more about How Unlocked Works.
Got Questions?
We've Got Answers
No question is too big or too small. Find answers to everything you've been wondering about Unlocked.
We cover the entire Bay Area. We've helped clients buy homes in San Francisco, North Bay, East Bay and South Bay. We also cover LA and San Diego in Southern California.
We provide all of the services of a traditional real estate agent, with better data-driven tools, increased transparency and more responsive customer service. We can help with as little or as much of the home-buying process as you require. Some clients come to us with a home already found and a price in mind, and need assistance with assessing the home and executing the transaction. Others are still figuring out their budget, what they're looking for, and advice on where to focus their search. Wherever you are in your home buying journey, we’re here to seamlessly guide you through your home buying process - finding the right home, valuing it, understanding the disclosures, submitting a competitive offer, and closing the transaction. We're with you from start to finish.
Yes. Unlocked is a fully-licensed California brokerage (CalDRE #02060530) and all of our agents are fully-licensed California sales agents and members of the California Association of Realtors (TM) and the National Association of Realtors (TM).
With Unlocked, you’ll be working with one of our fully-licensed real estate agents to get all of the services provided by a traditional real estate agent, with better data-driven tools, increased transparency and more responsive customer service. So in many respects, your buying experience will be the same as working with a traditional real estate agent - only better!
In terms of how we’re different, firstly, we offer 1% cash back. This is the largest buyer’s rebate in California (that we know about)! That is tens of thousands of dollars that you can put that towards buying new furniture, renovating your kitchen and bathrooms or throwing that all important housewarming party (or more responsible uses like paying down your mortgage).
Secondly, our backgrounds are different than traditional real estate agents. We are a Stanford MBA and a Yale Law JD, who have also worked at some of the top management consulting, law and private equity firms (Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Wachtell and Bain Capital). We leverage our data-driven, customer-oriented experiences to deliver a more insightful, analytical and responsive home buying experience.
Thirdly, Unlocked has built custom analytical tools to bring data, insight and transparency to the key buying decision points and streamlined the buying process. For every home you’re interested in, we provide our Custom Valuation Report, an easy-to-interpret spreadsheet of recent comparable transactions, competing listings and third-party valuations, as well as our Disclosure Review Summary, a comprehensive summary of the 200+ pages of disclosures.
All-in-all, we’ve designed the buying experience that we would have wanted when we bought our homes, and we’re sure you’ll love it, just like our current and past clients have (check out our Yelp reviews).
One of our licensed real estate agents personally leads each transaction and will be your day-to-day point of contact throughout your home buying journey. We work closely as a team, and are able to jump in for each other if and when you have a time-sensitive request.