One Redfin Listing Now Priced Below Estimate, Another Hides Info

Almost three weeks ago, we pointed to couple of awkward situations on a local Redfin listing. (Here's the prior post.)

Fortunately, one of those awkward situations has now mostly resolved itself, after a price cut.

Meantime, a second Redfin listing in Manhattan Beach has managed to avoid any unnerving controversy over its price by blocking the Redfin auto-valuation.

To reset the situation a bit...

Redfin is both the creator of a handy app and website, and a (discount) real estate brokerage.

On the app and website, Redfin displays estimated property values for everything on the market – and even homes not on the market.

But when Redfin lists a property, there can be a discrepancy between the valuation and the list price.

In mid-July, Redfin's listing at 1201 23rd (6br/5ba, 3442 sqft.) was asking $3.298M, down from its start at $3.500M. (1201 23rd is listed by Tom Royds, Redfin Corporation.)

But the automated valuation was showing $3.190M, or $108K below the asking price.

Awkward!

Now the price has been cut – for a third time, by $199K – to $3.099M.

The valuation is down a little too, to $3.187M.

At this point, the list price is $88K under the suggested value.

So it's no longer awkward to be displaying a valuation with the listing.

Now, the valuation is suggesting that the property is a steal of a deal!

Side note: The photo above is from the MLS and appears to be a recent addition to the set of listing photos. It's now the #1 featured photo. Opinions may vary, but it kinda doesn't seem like the best of the crop, does it?

Hill Section Listing Hides Auto Valuation

Flashback Dept.: Back in 2018, here at MBC we published an exposé demonstrating how Redfin sometimes hides "inconvenient" valuations from its own listings. (To their credit, Redfin copped to it, telling us straight up that sellers can ask their Redfin agents to disable the display of estimates.)

Redfin doesn't usually have many listings in Manhattan Beach, but it does have a second one today at 114 N. Poinsettia (5br/6ba, 6400 sqft.) in the Hill Section.

(114 N. Poinsettia is listed by Michelle Zabukovec, Redfin Corporation.)

Turns out, on this listing, they are hiding the automated valuation.

The current asking price is $9.600M, a little over 100 days into a listing that began on 4/20, just as the market generally became smokin' hot. (I'll see myself out.)

That price is quite a bit more than the same property was listed for last year. In June 2022, a local agent listed the property for $9.200M, and by September, cut to $8.499M. That listing expired in mid-November.

Depending on where you look, Redfin displays a range of different explanations as to why there is no automated valuation for the property. 

On mobile, the first thing you may see under "Key Details" and "Price insights" is that the Redfin estimate is simply "Not Available."

That's true, it's not available.

But why?

Keep scrolling, and ye shall find.

Later, there is a caption under the "Redfin Estimate" that says they "don't have enough information" for an estimate. 

But you – and we – already know that there is another explanation: Seller opt-out.

And you can find that explanation, too.

Click on "Learn More" (about "not enough information") and you can find an FAQ that is almost honest about this situation.

It offers that "the home seller's agent may have opted out of displaying valuations for that home on behalf of the seller."

Look at the same property on the desktop/web interface, and you'll find a slightly different display of the same explanation:

Here they say Redfin "cannot show" automated values for this listing, pointing to how the seller's agent may have opted out.

But we've been down this road before, in our first exposé.

Redfin's system is alluding to a potential choice that a listing agent has to forcibly block the use of automated valuation tools on a listing by any website or app that displays the MLS feed.

In reality, 114 N. Poinsettia is not blocking automated valuations (AVMs) in this way. On the backend of the MLS, realtors can see that this listing specifically allows AVMs. (That's the import of the very first "Yes" in this screen shot.)

Ergo, the most likely case is that the seller and listing agent both specifically excluded the Redfin estimate for this Redfin listing – a power that Redfin clients and agents do have. And perhaps that avoids the kind of awkwardness experienced over at 1201 23rd.

Meantime, Zillow has the property estimated at $8.969M, while Realtor.com estimates $9.175M-$9.517M. All of those value estimates are above last year's list price on the property, but at least a bit below the active listing price.

Someone, somewhere knows where Redfin's bots would value the property, but not any of Redfin's consumers.