Redfin: Buy, Sell & Rent Homes

Review by eFreeware

Redfin is a free real estate app from the company of the same name, now part of Rocket Companies, and it sits in the House & Home category on Google Play. It pulls listings from MLS databases around the country, so the catalog covers homes for sale and apartments for rent rather than a single brokerage's inventory. With more than 10 million installs and a 4.7 average from over 174,000 ratings, it is one of the better-established options in this category.

The main reason to consider it is the combination of breadth and speed. The developer says most MLS listings refresh every two minutes, and that its MLS integration gives Redfin a larger selection of properties than other real estate apps offer. For anyone watching a tight market, that pace is the selling point: new listings, price changes and open house details are meant to reach you while they still matter.

What a search actually looks like

At its core, the app is a search tool. You set filters for price, features and property type, choosing among single-family houses, apartments, condos, townhouses, mobile homes or tiny houses. Listings carry photos and current property details, and you can save searches and favorite homes to a Redfin account so they follow you between the app and the website.

The map is more flexible than a plain radius. You can draw your own search boundary around a neighborhood or a specific pocket of a city, which is useful when the interesting streets do not form a neat circle. From there, notifications can alert you in real time when a property matching your criteria appears, and a share option lets you send a listing to a partner through the app, by text, email or social media.

Two filters stand out for people with fixed constraints. You can search near particular schools or school districts, and a commute feature estimates how long the trip from a given home would take. Neither replaces a visit, but they narrow a list quickly before you spend a Saturday driving around.

Cost estimates before you commit

A mortgage calculator sits inside the search, so you can work through the monthly picture for a specific listing rather than in a separate tool. It covers the mortgage payment along with property tax, HOA dues and insurance, which are the numbers that often decide whether a house is realistic once the asking price has caught your eye.

The app also leans on its agent network for context you would not get from listing data alone. Redfin agents write comments about what a home is like after they have toured it, and the app flags which properties are likely to sell fastest. Sold home price data for nearby properties is available in most markets, which gives you a sense of where the asking prices sit relative to recent closings.

For buyers who want to move quickly, the developer describes a streamlined preapproval process through Rocket Mortgage, an affiliate of Redfin. Using that lending service is optional, and the app notes that you are not required to do so. The developer also offers free home buying classes and real estate events for anyone who wants to understand the process better before making an offer.

Tours, open houses and the agent connection

Touring is handled inside the app. You can book a tour with a local Redfin agent directly, subject to property and agent availability, and you can look for listings with upcoming open houses so you can plan a route and get directions. Sharing a home with a search partner happens before booking, which makes it easier to agree on a shortlist rather than trading links back and forth.

This is where the app stops being purely a listings browser. The agent comments, the fast preapproval path and the tour booking all point toward a service that wants to carry you from browsing to an actual visit. Whether that matters depends on how you like to work: some buyers want a self-serve search and their own agent, while others prefer the app to be the front door to the whole process.

What it asks of you and where it is narrow

Saving searches and favorites to a Redfin account is what makes them available across devices, so the syncing benefit depends on signing in rather than browsing anonymously. Tour bookings depend on an agent being available for that property, and photos, floor plans and 3D tours may not appear on every listing. Sold price data, meanwhile, is described as available in most markets rather than all of them.

The speed claim comes with a qualifier worth reading carefully: half of MLS listing updates received by Redfin are expected to post within two minutes. That is still quick, but it is not a promise that every listing appears instantly. If your search depends on being first to a new listing, the notification settings matter as much as the refresh rate.

The app is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases, so the cost question is about services rather than the download. The lending side runs through Rocket Mortgage, which is an affiliate of Redfin, though the developer states that you are not required to use its lending services. The focus is also clearly residential real estate in the United States.

Who gets the most from it

The people best served here are active buyers in competitive markets who check listings often and want alerts the moment something matches. If you have a firm budget, a school district in mind and a commute to protect, the filters, the map boundary tool and the cost calculator do a lot of the early sorting for you. Renters searching apartments get the same listing infrastructure.

Sellers have a place too, since the app covers the full arc of buying, selling and renting, and nearby sold prices help with pricing expectations. First-time buyers who want to learn before they leap are another fit, given the free classes and the agent-written notes on homes. What all of these have in common is a willingness to work inside one company's ecosystem, from search through tour to mortgage.

Whether it earns a spot on your phone

Redfin is a mature, widely used app, first released in July 2011 and updated as recently as October 2026, and the install and rating numbers suggest it has held up over that run. The strongest case for it is the combination of MLS breadth, quick listing updates, saved searches that sync, and practical tools like the mortgage calculator, school search and commute estimates. Those are the features that turn a listings feed into something you can act on.

The reservations are about scope rather than quality. Tours depend on availability, some listings lack photos or floor plans, sold data is not in every market, and the fastest-update claim applies to half of listing updates. The lending relationship with Rocket Mortgage shapes the experience, even though using it is optional.

I would suggest this app to buyers and renters who are searching seriously and want alerts, cost estimates and tour booking in one place, and to sellers who want to see what nearby homes actually sold for.

What's new in version 646.0

Thanks for using Redfin for your home search! This version includes several bug fixes and performance improvements. We're always looking for ways to improve the real estate experience for consumers. If you have any feedback, feel free to reach us at https://www.support.redfin.com.