No one can predict the future of real estate, but you can prepare. Find out what to prepare for and pick up the tools you’ll need at Virtual Inman Connect on Nov. 1-2, 2023. And don’t miss Inman Connect New York on Jan. 23-25, 2024, where AI, capital and more will be center stage. Bet big on the future and join us at Connect.
Redfin, which has long been an exception in the real estate world for paying its agents a salary and classifying them as full-time employees, announced this week that it will debut an all-new, commission-based payment program.
The program, called Redfin Max, begins on Jan. 1 in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Once it kicks in, agents in those markets will “earn competitive splits as high as 75 percent,” according to a company statement. Those agents will no longer earn a fixed salary independent of their production, though they will still be classified as full-time W2 employees with traditional benefits. They’ll also still have access to Redfin’s technology and support programs, as well as Redfin leads.
The statement describes the program as providing “big splits” with “zero expenses.”
Jason Aleem
In a conversation with Inman, Jason Aleem — Redfin’s senior vice president of real estate operations — framed the move as an effort to recruit and retain top-producing agents.
“We want top agents who have a book of business of their own,” Aleem said, adding later that “in a perfect world we’ve got all rising stars and we’ve got all rock stars.”
Aleem went on to explain that in the past, top-producing agents have sometimes been hesitant to join Redfin due to the company’s compensation model; such agents often already have their own client lists, and didn’t want to give up hefty commissions from those clients in exchange for a salary. Redfin Max is consequently an attempt to recruit such agents, with Aleem adding that “our goal is to make sure we retain our top talent and that we can recruit top…