Redfin.com's Home Buying Guide II

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Finding a Home: An Overview

When you use Redfin to search for a home, you have access to an array of free, powerful online tools. Though we hope you'll enjoy the Redfin experience and decide to buy a home with us, you're never under any obligation to work with a Redfin agent. Search, save, organize, and get updates on your favorite homes, anytime and anywhere.

Here's how it works:

Searching on Redfin

Redfin displays full MLS listings, plus for-sale-by-owner homes, bank foreclosures, REOs, and sales records in the cities where we offer service. Most real estate sites offer only a fraction of the listings we provide -- as a licensed real estate brokerage, we can give you access to the same information used by agents across the country. Our listings are updated frequently, so you'll always see the latest and most accurate details.

Listing Details Page

When you do find a home you like, it's time to dig into the details. On our listing details page, we show you as much information as we're allowed to for every home. We provide photos, details on the home, plus information on previous sales, price changes, county records, local price trends, nearby homes with similar features, and more.

Favorites & X-outs

Our Favorites and X-outs feature lets you keep a closer eye on homes you like, and weed out homes that don't interest you. You can sort Favorites and X-outs by price, square footage, recent changes, and nearly a dozen other factors. You can also sign up for email updates, schedule tours, view upcoming open houses, download data into a spreadsheet, and more.

More Free Resources

Redfin offers many more free resources for home buyers, from blogs and newsletters to forums and our online glossary. If you need advice, information, or just a place to discuss your home purchase with other real estate buyers and enthusiasts, we've got you covered.

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Searching for a Home on Redfin.com

Redfin displays MLS listings, plus for-sale-by-owner homes, bank foreclosures, REOs, and sales records in the cities where we offer service. Our listings are updated frequently, so you'll always see the latest and most accurate details.

Our search map also give you a way to save searches, download home data into a spreadsheet, organize your favorite homes, and more.

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Property & Listing Types

When you look for homes on Redfin.com, you may see a few different types and colors of home icons on the search results map. What do the different shapes and colors mean?

Property Types

    House: This is the bread-and-butter of your typical search -- a detached building designed to house a single family. Usually, the owner of the home will also own the property rights for the land on which the home stands.

    Condominium: A condo is a unit that you own in a multi-unit complex, such as an apartment building. While each condo is individually owned, the common spaces are shared by all the owners in the complex. Condo developments are managed by a homeowners association that collects monthly dues, maintains operations and enforces policy.

    Townhouse/Townhome: A type of home that's usually constructed as a two or three-story unit with a common wall or walls bordering the adjacent unit. The common form of ownership is similar to a condominium project in that the property owner not only owns his or her respective unit, but also an undivided interest in any common area. Townhouse ownership sometimes differs from condominium ownership in that the townhouse owner owns the physical structure rather than just the airspace between the walls, floor and ceiling. However, in many areas "townhouse" now refers to the physical style of the structure rather than the form of ownership.

    Multi-family: A type of home or building with multiple units owned by one or more parties. Condo buildings and duplexes can be considered multi-family residences; but with a duplex, both the property and the land are recorded on one deed. Whereas with a condo, the owners only own their individual units, not the common space or land, and each have their own deed. Redfin shows all the multi-family homes for sale in the MLS and we service tours and offers on these properties with up to four units.

    Land: Vacant property with no permanent residential structure, or with only a tear-down structure. Redfin does not service this type of property, but we offer the option to include land in your search results in order to provide you with the most information possible.

    Other: This includes properties which do not fit into any of the above categories, such as timeshares, parking and ranches. Redfin does not service these types of property, but we offer the option to include them in your search results in order to provide you with the most information possible.

Listing Types

    MLS-Listed Home: These listings have been entered into the Multiple Listing Service by an agent or owner. The majority of homes listed for sale fall into this category.

    MLS-Listed Foreclosure: These listings have been entered into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) by an agent or owner, and the marketing remarks contain keywords such as foreclosure or bank-listed-foreclosure.

    For-Sale-By-Owner Home: These listing results are posted for sale without a listing agent. A for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) listing may be listed in the MLS, or on a number of for-sale-by-owner websites. Redfin does not currently service FSBO homes.

    Foreclosed Home: These are homes that are currently in foreclosure. These homes are likely not for sale, but may be listed for sale later, once the bank has processed them. At that time, they would be listed as MLS-listed foreclosures, as described above.

    Sale Record: These are recent property sales pulled from the MLS and public records. Recent past sales can be useful benchmarks for evaluating the price of a listing or doing a Comparative Market Analysis. You can select a time range (from 1 week to three years, or all sales on record) in the drop menu below.

Schools

    School: Redfin also displays local schools on the map alongside your results. You can click on schools in the results map to learn more about it. Please note that a home's proximity to a school does not guarantee enrollment. If you have questions about school enrollment requirements, contact the school directly.

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Listing Status: What Does it Mean?

When you look at a listing for a home to sale, you should take note of its listing status. Most homes currently available for purchase are listed as Active; this mean the home seller is accepting offers from buyers.

However, there are many different listing statuses, which can vary in meaning from one location to the next. Let's go through all of the different listing statuses you can expect to see in Southern California. If you'd like to see status definitions for other markets, select a different city from the drop-menu at the bottom of the far left column.

Listing Status Terms and Definitions

    Active: As stated above, an Active status means that the home is available for purchase, and the seller is accepting offers. This is usually the most common type of listing in your local MLS.

    Backup Offers/Looking for Backup Offers: This listing is under contract, but the sellers are looking for additional offers in case the current offer falls through. (In LA, Redfin generally doesn't submit backup offers on homes already under contract. Doing so would prevent you from making offers on other homes while you wait for a backup offer to go through, which rarely happens in this market.)

    Cancelled: The listing has been taken off the market by the seller. This is often because the seller has decided not to sell the home after all, or has decided to find a new listing agent. Some sellers cancel their listings, wait a month or two, and then re-list it in an effort to make their home look like a new listing again; new listings typically attract more buyer attention than old, stale listings.

    Closed Sale/Sold: This home has been purchased by another buyer. It is no longer for sale.

    Contingent: This means the sellers have accepted an offer on the property, but success may still depend on passing a home inspection or getting financing. It may still be possible to tour these properties and submit a backup offer in case the current one falls through.

    Expired: When a homeowner contracts a listing agent to sell their home, that relationship usually has a pre-set expiration date. A listing that has expired has reached that date. The seller may re-up with the same agent, try a new agent, or give up selling the home altogether.

    First Right of Refusal: This indicates that the seller of the listing has an agreement with a buyer that allows the buyer a set amount of time to purchase the home. The seller is keeping the home on the market and may accept a backup offer in case the current buyers decide not to close. If another offer comes in, it's up to the buyers to decide whether or not to continue with the purchase. In short, the seller gives the buyer the first right to refuse a potential backup offer.

    Hold (Do Not Show): This listing has been taken off the market by the seller, but will probably be available again at some point. Sellers sometimes withdraw their listings to consider a new selling strategy, or to make repairs and improvements to the home before taking another shot at selling. Or, the seller may simply be going on vacation or feeling under the weather.

    Pending/Pending Sale: This listing is set to close and all contingencies have been fulfilled. The lender, the escrow agent or attorney are processing the loan and title documents to make sure the deal will close on time.

    Withdrawn: The seller has withdrawn his home from the market, but has not ended the listing arrangement with his listing agent.

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Redfin Listing Details

When you view the listing details page for a home on Redfin, you'll have access to more information than you can find on any other real estate website. We start with the information provided by the local MLS system then add in county records, price and sale history, neighborhood statistics, links to similar sold and for-sale homes, information on local schools, and links to even more free data.

We provide all this information because we think people deserve it. You don't need to sign up with our agents or make any kind of commitment to working with us.

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Favorites & X-out Page

Adding homes to the Favorites & X-out page of your My Redfin account is a great way to keep track of homes that you're interested in, or homes that are comparable to your own home. There's no limit on the number of favorites or x-outs that you can save, so keep track of as many homes as you'd like.

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Free Redfin Resources

When you're looking for a home, you can never get too much information. Especially when it's free.

You may already know about Redfin's cutting edge home search. But have you checked out our other free resources?
Home Buying Classes

If you live in one of the cities where Redfin operates, you can take advantage of our free, no-strings-attached home buying classes. We'll provide dinner, beverages, and three hours' worth of great information on buying a home in your area. You can ask questions, chat with our agents and partner lenders, or just hang out in the back and stuff your cheeks full of pizza. No sales pitches, no pressure -- just good, solid info (and free food).

Forums

Our Redfin user forums are a great place to talk with other home buyers, as well as sellers, agents, and real estate enthusiasts of all stripes. Whether you need specific information, a second opinion, a good debate, or just a place to vent, our forums are waiting for you. You can even ask questions about our website. Just log in, play nice, and have fun.

Market Reports

Want to find out what's happening in the real estate world, both nationally and in your own neighborhood? Sign up for free market reports from Redfin's team of experts:

    Redfin's Roundup: This report synthesizes data collected by economists, government agencies and others to provide a complete portrait of what happened in the market over the past month.
    Redfin Insider Report: Usually published by the 12th of each month, the Insider analyzes our own databases to identify the major trends in listing inventory and prices, as well as sales activity and consumer traffic. It also offers insights from Redfin agents, who provide first-hand accounts from the real estate front lines.

Our Glossary

Confused by real estate jargon? Our glossary includes complete, reader-friendly definitions for terms you might encounter during your home search.

Blogs

Redfin offers three types of blogs. Our Sweet Digs blogs are specific to your home city, and cover information that affects your neighborhood. Our corporate blog tackles issues that affect the national housing market, and also offer a sneak peek behind the scenes at Redfin. Finally, our developers' blog is designed for total nerds technically-minded Redfin fans who want to understand where we get all those wonderful toys.