Redfin is a Political Activist Organization, NOT a real estate company

For a video version of this, click here: https://tinyurl.com/3xeumdwf

For the Email version, click here: https://tinyurl.com/47xbasez

Redfin's stated mission mission has been to fundamentally change how real estate is sold in America, and in their 22 years the market has only become worse for both homeowners and potential buyers, in part due to their "disruption" of the market. When companies like Redfin say they want to "disrupt" the market, most typically, and in this case, it means they want to destroy the small businesses that built our country and replace it with a faceless corporation serving the interests of Wall Street and other investors. in the real estate industry has resulted in reduced home affordability, unfair destruction of competition, all while Redfin pays nothing in federal taxes and continues to use its power to destroy competition, one agent at a time. While in the past I have reviewed their specific strategies, today we'll take a 30,000 foot overview of the wake of destruction Redfin is creating.

Before we go into that, let's take a look at the market and see where we're at.

I always say there's two parts to an economy and this is actually just standard economic theory. There's demand and supply. Demand is measured probably or at least driven by interest rates in the housing market and supply is how many houses are for sale.

Let's take a look at the latest demand, driven by mortgage rates. At the end of the year, rates increased to slightly over 7%, and last week they reversed that direction and moved down to close at 7.08%

Since late September, rates have risen about 1%, and while we were in this rate at the beginning of the summer last year, these rates are beginning to enter an area where more buyers will be unable to buy a home. More importantly, its important to watch for any jumps up or down as the market is always most volatile after a major move like this.

Now, on the supply side, housing inventory continues to drop while staying near to historic lows.

The inventory, while still about 12% higher than last year, and is dramatically below the historic pre-COVID averages by 30-40%. As long as inventory remains at these levels, housing prices cannot crash or decline significantly absent some dramatic change to the economy. All that said, these numbers may change in reaction to the jump in mortgage rates these past 3 weeks.

Now, real estate is a local market here in Los Angeles, my primary market.

The overall market rating has settled into the 36 rating that indicates a seller's market, although not as strong as over the last few years. That said, everything will change as a result of the recent fires, although it is not yet clear what direction that will move things. I imagine that so many homes have been removed from supply that will not be replaced for decades that it will only strengthen the hands of current owners and sellers.

If you follow me, you know that I regularly call out Redfin for their practices. Redfin's influence is not really measured in their sales, which are significant, but their outside influence on the real estate industry, using their advertising business to get national attention and to use that to push their political ambitions.

That's funny, for a company that does not have profits, and as a result does not pay federal income taxes. The real estate agents they fined "inefficient" at least pay federal taxes, but somehow Redfin both makes profits to sustain their growth and their mission, but pay no taxes on that profit.

Let's take a look at how Redfin defines itself. On its mission statement, it states "Profits Fund Our Purpose. Anyone deciding how we spend our time or money has to know which decisions are profitable. Profits sustain the growth of our company, our people and our mission.

Additionally, they say "Culture of Dissent, Bias for Action: It’s good to identify a problem no one wants to talk about, but also insufficient. Everyone at Redfin can be a leader, proposing and enacting solutions. After we disagree, we commit whole-hog to a decision.

Interesting claim, but, in fact, Redin is one of the most monolithic organizations I have ever seen, with

their workforce 98.5% registered Democrats, and the Democratic Party the exclusive recipient of their political party donations.

I would think its hard to have disagreements if you only hire people that agree with you. I find it hard to imagine how Redfin could manage this. When I used AI to try to calculate the odds of 98.5% being registered Democrat in a population of 80% registered Democrats, the probability is essentially zero, meaning this must be the official HR policy of the company, and I would advise those few Republicans at Redfin to be concerned for their jobs. I would think even Democrats would find such a high percentage as abusive and unnecessary, unless the goal is to act as an agent for the Democrat party.

That said, you see the focus of the Democratic Party agenda in their operations.

For example, while their stated mission is to change how real estate is bought, their 2nd most important place on their content website is about the rental market. The 3rd is Equality and Policy, which again seems misplaced if your goal is to focus on how real estate is purchased, unless their is some political agenda underlying it.

This is not surprising when you see who owns Redfin, basically Wall Street investors. The largest shareholders are Vanguard and Blackrock, and less than 5% is owned by insiders, managers, or employees of the company, so this is basically just a Wall Street zombie "disrupting" an industry while avoiding paying taxes and implemented the social justice agenda of its choice.

Like most anti-American Wall Street driven companies, Redfin uses the H1B visa program to avoid hiring Americans at competitive wages for their top jobs, employing foreigners that cannot leave them for competitors and who are paid less than Americans would have to be paid for these jobs.

Contrary to common belief, these are high paying jobs, with the minimum reaching over $95k in 2024, with the average $150k.

There are not Americans for these jobs? Either there are, and Redfin would rather pay a lower salary to an employee from India or China to avoid giving a raise to the American, or there are not enough Americans capable of these jobs, a terrible indictment of our education system. In decades past, leading companies would support high schools and collages and create trade schools to build their employee base, in this case large tech monopolies like Redfin just pay off politicians and get employees on the cheap from other countries. And why not? Their owners are international Wall Street firms, NOT American citizens and neighbors like you and me, and they laugh to the bank while avoiding paying federal taxes and importing foreign workers to replace you or your children or your customers or your neighbors.

In the news, the LA Fire.....

Well, there is a lot to say, but I would like to focus your attention on a problems that I think is not getting enough attention, the California insurance system is destined to either be bankrupted or use some political maneuvering to avoid paying claims.

The largest issuer of new homeowner policies in California has been the state of California, those geniuses in Sacramento, where the Insurance Commission, a man who never worked for anything other than a political organization, oversees over $450 billion in insurance in force, and has only $700 million in cash on hand to pay claims.

If they have to pay 700 $1 million claims, or 350 $2 million claims, there is no cash left, and guess who has to pay the bill? I predict the system will slow walk claim responses as well as find legal loopholes to avoid paying claims, as unlike insurance companies, their reputation is already worthless and cannot get worse. Stay tuned.

I found a great article in the news worth review on the subject of avoiding probate, or estate planning. Kiplinger wrote an article titled "7 Estate Planning Best Practices," part of their online resource for estate planning.

I agree with the best practices they recommend, as I see the consequences of those who do not follow them regularly in my business:

1. Have backups for different roles;

2. Communicate with your loved ones;

3. Check your state’s laws;

4. Remember your pets;

5. Share with health care providers;

6. Don’t forget to put assets in your trust; and

7. Review and update regularly.

I could elaborate on each, and in fact I have just launched a new podcast "Estate Planning Weekly" that will cover these topics and more with industry experts, and I look forward to sharing this with you going forward.

So, what should YOU do about buying or selling real estate in today's market?

If you are looking to buy a home and live there for a while, real estate has always been a great long-term builder of wealth and there is nothing to suggest that is changing if you can afford the home.

If you want to move or downsize, it's still a great market to sell, but a bit more challenging than in the last few years.

Finally, if you can find a property that will give you cash flow, this is a great time to get solid cash flow and enjoy the tax benefits of real estate.

How can I help you? Call, text, or email me.

Bill

Bill Gross

Broker Associate, BRE 01022275

Certified Probate Expert

Direct: 310-210-0008 , [email protected]