The advertised Redfin commission is 1%, but you’re billed 2.0% first, and five costs sit behind that headline. That 1% is a rebate, paid only if you buy again with Redfin within 365 days. I’ll cover the billed rate, those five costs, the market minimums, buyer-agent fees, and the net math.
What the Redfin commission actually costs in 2026
Most sellers I talk to treat the 1% figure as the number that prints on the closing statement. I made the same assumption the first time I compared listing-fee brokerages, because the ads leave almost no room for another reading. Open Redfin’s published rate table and the billed listing fee is 2.0% in every one of the 87 markets.
The headline Redfin commission and the billed rate are different numbers, and the gap is the whole product. Redfin’s How You Save page advertises a low 1% listing fee when you buy and sell with them. Their footnote then tells you how that 1% is actually delivered.
Redfin writes, in its own language: “Sell for a 1% listing fee only if you also buy with Redfin within 365 days of closing on your Redfin listing. We will charge a 2% listing fee, then send you a check for the 1% difference after you buy your next home with us.”
You get charged the market rate at closing, and the rebate check arrives only after you buy your next home with Redfin inside that 365-day window. Miss the window, or buy with someone else, and you keep the 2.0% bill. I’ve watched sellers miss this on the first pass through the disclaimer, and I now open the rate table before I open the ads.
Here’s the billed number, without the ad copy around it. List with Redfin and buy your next home elsewhere, and you pay 2.0%. Buy that next home through Redfin inside 365 days and you still pay 2.0% at the listing closing, then receive a check for the 1% difference later. The distinction is unmissable once you read their sentence in that order: charge first, rebate after, clock running.
The 5 costs the 1% headline hides
Five line items sit under that 1% headline, and every one of them comes from Redfin’s own pages. I pulled them in the order a seller actually hits them, from the billed Redfin commission down to the buyer-agent side that never enters the listing fee at all.
- The billed 2.0% listing fee. Redfin charges 2.0% in every market in its table. The 1% arrives later as a check, and you only receive it if you buy again with Redfin within 365 days of closing.
- A market minimum that can override the percentage. Every market carries a minimum commission, from $2,000 up to $9,000 in San Francisco. Sell below the breakeven price for your market and you pay the dollar minimum, not 2.0% of the sale.
- Unrepresented-buyer surcharge. Redfin increases the listing fee by 1% of sale price if the buyer is unrepresented, so a no-buyer-agent sale is billed at 3%, not 2%.
- Concierge at 3.0%, with no path back to 1%. A Redfin Concierge listing is 3.0% and is ineligible for the 1% listing fee entirely. Buy with Redfin within 365 days and you save 0.5% off the Concierge fee, which is a different discount on a higher starting rate.
- Buyer’s agent fee, sitting off to the side. None of the listing-fee math includes the buyer’s agent fee. Redfin calls that fee separate, says the seller chooses whether to cover it, and notes that real estate fees are negotiable.
Where Redfin market minimums bite hardest
Sellers usually get this part backward. They multiply 2.0% by the expected sale price and stop, as if the percentage always wins. I run a different check first in high-minimum markets: divide the published minimum by 0.02, and any sale under that price pays the minimum instead.
Redfin’s table sets the listing fee at 2.0% in every row and lets only the minimum move. Across the published markets the floor runs from $2,000 to $9,000. San Francisco sits at $9,000. Orange County and San Diego sit at $8,500. Los Angeles sits at $8,000. Seattle and DC sit at $6,500. Boston and New York sit at $6,000. Philadelphia sits at $3,500. The All Other row sits at $2,000.
| Market | Minimum commission | 2.0% applies only above |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $9,000 | $450,000 |
| Orange County | $8,500 | $425,000 |
| San Diego | $8,500 | $425,000 |
| Los Angeles | $8,000 | $400,000 |
| Seattle | $6,500 | $325,000 |
| DC | $6,500 | $325,000 |
| Boston | $6,000 | $300,000 |
| New York | $6,000 | $300,000 |
| Philadelphia | $3,500 | $175,000 |
| All Other | $2,000 | $100,000 |
Watch how the effective rate moves as the price drops. A $200,000 sale in Los Angeles produces 2% of $4,000, but the $8,000 minimum applies, an effective 4.00%. A $250,000 sale in Seattle produces 2% of $5,000, but the $6,500 minimum applies, an effective 2.60%. A $300,000 sale in DC produces 2% of $6,000, but the $6,500 minimum applies, an effective 2.17%.
Even a sale at the NAR July 2026 national median of $434,100 can lose to the floor. In San Francisco that price produces 2% of $8,682, but the $9,000 minimum applies, an effective 2.07%. The pattern is ugly in a predictable way. The lower your sale price, the further the effective Redfin commission drifts above the number in the ad.
Coastal sellers under those cutoffs should treat the percentage as a ceiling they may never reach. I have had this conversation over a phone listing in Los Angeles more than once, and the $8,000 floor is what changed the decision, not the 2.0% line.
Who pays the buyer agent now, and why that changed
Sellers still arrive assuming the listing side and the buyer’s agent side travel as a fixed pair. They don’t, and they haven’t since the NAR MLS policy changes took effect on August 17, 2024. I keep a short version of those rules on my desk because the old habit dies slowly.
NAR’s settlement FAQs are plain on the mechanics. Offers of compensation are prohibited from being communicated on an MLS. Compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable. MLS participants working with buyers must have a written agreement before touring a home. A seller may still choose to cover some or all of a buyer agent fee as a concession. It’s a negotiated term now, not an MLS default.
Redfin’s own framing matches that split. Its footnote says the buyer’s agent fee is not included in the listing fee. The same note gives a worked example: if the buyer’s agent fee is 2.5%, the seller pays a total fee of 3.5%. Nothing in that example is mandated. The 2.5% is an illustration Redfin chose, and the listing-side Redfin commission stays on its own line.
Who writes the check for that second agent is a separate conversation from the listing contract. Who pays realtor fees on the buyer side now depends on what you and the buyer agree to, not on what used to auto-fill in the MLS. I’d rather see that concession written as a dollar amount in the offer than carried over as a percentage nobody negotiated.
Redfin commission versus a 1% listing fee: the net math
Put the listing-side numbers next to each other at the same sale price and the ad stops doing the talking. At the NAR July 2026 national median existing-home sale price of $434,100, the listing-side bill looks like this.
| Listing-side fee | Rate | Cost at $434,100 |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional listing side | 3% | $13,023 |
| Traditional listing side | 2.5% | $10,853 |
| Redfin billed listing fee | 2.0% | $8,682 |
| Redfin after the buy-back rebate | 1% | $4,341 |
| Houwzer listing fee | 1% | $4,341 |
Houwzer’s 1% is $4,341 less than Redfin’s billed 2.0% at that price, and $8,682 less than a 3% listing side. Houwzer’s published pricing is direct about the listing charge: “We charge a fair 1% to list your home, with 2-3% recommended for the buyer’s agent.” They also write, “Instead of paying us 3% of the sale price like many brokerages, we only charge 1%.” That page publishes no minimum-commission figure and no market-minimum table.
An unrepresented buyer changes Redfin’s side of the sheet. The clause adds 1% of sale price, which at $434,100 is a further $4,341, taking a 2.0% fee of $8,682 to a 3% fee of $13,023. Run your own sale price through the commission math before you treat any of these rows as your number. For the wider view of how discount brokerage models are priced, that breakdown covers the structures Redfin’s sits inside.
I’d pick Redfin in two real situations, and I mean both of them. Redfin’s own page says it saves sellers in more than 80 markets across the U.S., while Houwzer’s location directory covers 19 states. Selling somewhere Houwzer does not operate makes Redfin the option, not a compromise, and its published 2.0% still undercuts the 2.5% to 3% listing side Redfin itself calls typical. And anyone who genuinely intends to buy their next home through Redfin within 365 days does land at an effective 1% listing fee. That is the same headline rate Houwzer charges, with one brokerage handling both sides of the move.
Service quality and the in-house process are a different question. Readers who want that side-by-side should use the Redfin versus Houwzer comparison, since this piece stays on the fee mechanics.
Frequently asked questions about the Redfin commission
Is the Redfin commission really 1%?
No. Redfin bills a 2.0% listing fee in every market in its published table. The 1% is a rebate you receive only after you buy your next home with Redfin within 365 days of closing on the listing. They charge 2% first, then send a check for the difference. Skip the repurchase, miss the window, or buy with another brokerage, and the billed 2.0% is what you keep.
What is Redfin’s minimum commission?
Every market in Redfin’s table carries a minimum, and the floor is the only column that changes. It runs from $2,000 in the All Other row to $9,000 in San Francisco. Orange County and San Diego sit at $8,500, Los Angeles at $8,000, Seattle and DC at $6,500. On a lower-priced sale the minimum replaces the 2.0% line, which is how a $200,000 Los Angeles closing becomes an effective 4.00% listing fee.
Does the Redfin commission include the buyer’s agent fee?
No. Redfin states that any buyer’s agent fee the seller chooses to cover is not included. Its own example says that if the buyer’s agent fee is 2.5%, the seller pays a total fee of 3.5%. Since August 17, 2024, that second fee is not an MLS default. Compensation is fully negotiable, and covering it is a concession you choose, not a rate Redfin builds into the listing side.
How much commission would I pay on a $300,000 house with Redfin?
Redfin’s billed 2.0% on $300,000 is $6,000, and an effective 1% after the buy-back rebate would be $3,000. Market minimums can raise that bill. A $300,000 sale in DC pays the $6,500 minimum, an effective 2.17%. Boston and New York sit at a $6,000 minimum, so $300,000 is the exact breakeven. An unrepresented buyer adds another 1% of the sale price on top of whatever listing fee you already owe.
Can you negotiate the Redfin commission?
Redfin itself says real estate fees are negotiable, and it labels its savings figures as estimates. The published table still shows 2.0% in all 87 markets, with market minimums from $2,000 to $9,000 and a Concierge rate of 3.0%. Partner Agent transactions do not qualify for Redfin’s listing fees. I’d ask, in writing, which published rate they plan to put on your listing agreement before I treated the ad as the contract.
I’d rather a seller walk in knowing the billed Redfin commission is 2.0% and still choose Redfin, than walk in believing the ad and meet the real number at the closing table. The first person is making a decision. The second is reacting to a surprise.
