I would guess that Redfin's problem is retaining talent. If an agent can make more money going off on their own, they likely will. The agent who helped us buy that house was amazing. But, guess what, he isn't at Redfin anymore. It's too bad. I love Redfin's site and want them to succeed, but perhaps they don't do enough to retain good agents (or their model financially prevents it). That's just a guess, though. Also, their agents may have to cover a larger geographic area than other agents, so it's not possible for them to be as intimately familiar with particular neighborhoods.