Quick tip: Real estate alerts from Redfin arrive just as quickly as MLS

When you’re working with a real estate agent, they usually set up your search criteria inside of the MLS. Via email, you then begin to receive alerts only for the search criteria they’ve entered. Real estate alerts from Redfin arrive just as quickly as MLS.

What I’ve found is that when you set up your own searches on Redfin, those alerts happen just as fast, if not quicker sometimes. These alerts come via email but also can be set up as a phone notification on the app too.

I also like the fact that you can draw very detailed boundaries inside of Redfin. It allows you to avoid certain areas or streets where you do not want to purchase.

Set your own Redfin search by following these steps

First – Go to Redfin.com and search for a town

You can search for a City, Address, School, Agent, or Zipcode.

Second – Set your search criteria

This is where you choose the price range and type of property you’re looking for.

Third – Click Remove Outline

Removing the outline is not always necessary, but It clears the page so that you can zoom easier.

Forth – Draw in the area you’d like to search

For this example, I circled the “West Loop” area. You can zoom in as close or far as you’d like to an area you’re searching within.

Fifth – Save the search

This saves your current settings to your saved searches and allows you to change the alert settings for this specific search.

You can have it email you Instantly, Daily, or Never. If you’d like you to change the settings for a search, it can be done inside your saved searches.

Summary

In conclusion, real estate alerts from Redfin arrive just as quickly as MLS. I’m a huge advocate for setting up as many detailed searches as you like. It helps eliminate emails for random properties you’d never be interested in. Now, it’s possible that the MLS has these capabilities too, but you’d have to contact your realtor anytime you’d like to make a change, so I prefer this method.

Set up those searches and let me know your thoughts!

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