Redfin’s relaunched homebuyer refund program now available nationwide

A little over a month after formally relaunching homebuyer refunds under its Sign & Save program, Redfin announced that Sign & Save is now available to clients nationwide.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the brokerage noted that it had expanded the program to more than a dozen additional markets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego and San Francisco. The program is now available to Redfin clients across the country, except in states such as Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon and Tennessee, where commission refunds are prohibited by law.

First piloted in a handful of markets in September 2023 and formally launched in early February, the Sign & Save program provides buyers who sign up to work with a Redfin agent before their second home tour — and who purchase a property with that agent within 180 days of signing the agreement — a refund of 0.25% to 0.5% of the purchase price of the house. The buyer will receive the refund at closing.

With Sign & Save, at the end of a buyer’s first home tour, the Redfin agent will ask them to sign a buyer agency agreement, which creates a formal working relationship between Redfin and the buyer. Clients who sign the agreement before going on a second home tour with the Redfin agent will get a refund when they close on their new home.

The Sign & Save refund starts at 0.25% of the purchase price, but it rises to 0.5% for luxury homebuyers who purchase a home through Redfin’s Premier service.

“With Sign & Save, Redfin is giving consumers a better deal in real estate,” Jason Aleem, Redfin’s senior vice president of real estate operations, said in a statement. “This program rewards customers who commit to working with a Redfin agent early in the process, which is helping drive more sales for our agents.

“Not only are we putting money back in our customers’ pocket, we’re also educating them about how real estate commissions work and how Redfin can help them win. This is good for our customers, our agents and our growth as a brokerage, which is why we’re expanding it everywhere we can.”

In July 2022, Redfin moved to eliminate the commission refund it offered to buyers in 22 markets. During the firm’s Q2 2022 earnings call, CEO Glenn Kelman said the brokerage was hoping to fully eliminate the refund as early as January 2023.

But in the wake of the jury verdict in the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, many real estate industry professionals are concerned about homebuyers’ ability to afford representation if the practice of cooperative compensation is banned, as the Department of Justice has recently expressed as its desired policy outcome.