There’s a new startup out there called “Homie” that transforms the old way people buy and sell homes by harnessing today’s technology and (kind of) ditching real estate agents.
Well, in some cases the real estate agent will remain (at least one of them), but the service aims to help save buyers and sellers money by letting them go it alone.
The service is currently available in the states of Arizona and Utah, with plans to expand to other states in the near future.
Be Your Own Real Estate Agent with Homie
- Instead of paying the typical 5-6% real estate commission
- Home sellers can unload their home for less than $2,000
- Which depending on the sales price
- Could amount to thousands in savings
In short, you can get help from Homie to list your property (including on the MLS) and save on the typical 5-6% real estate agent commissions in the process.
For a flat fee of $199, Homie will help you list your home on Homie’s own site, Trulia, Zillow, and other websites.
Included in that price is a home value report to help you determine a good listing price, a custom phone number, a yard sign, attorney legal assistance to navigate paperwork and negotiations, a tour scheduler, an offer generation tool, automated contract reminders, and professional photos of your home.
You basically get a full suite of for-sale-by-owner tools to assist you in selling your home, along with a seller dashboard to keep track of the process.
The idea here is that individuals can do most of the work a real estate agent would do thanks to technology and all the readily available real estate data that anyone can now access online.
The home value report is meant to be a starting point to come up with a listing price, which along with things like a Redfin Estimate and a Zestimate, could help the seller come up with an appropriate sales price.
As noted, you can add your property to the MLS (the traditional approach). However, this is more likely to attract buyers with agents, which means you’ll be on the hook for the buyer’s agent commission.
In order to navigate all the forms and what not, Homie provides the offer generation tool and a digital signature tool (perhaps DocuSign), along with those contract reminders and the attorney assistance.
Homie’s sellers can also tap into a provider marketplace for things like escrow, title, and other ancillary services.
Once the property goes under contract and sells, you pay another $1,799 to Homie.
So all in, you’re looking at $1,998 to sell a home, versus say 5-6% of the sales price.
On a $300,000 home sale, that’s savings of $7,201 if the buyer has their own real estate agent, or $16,002 if they don’t.
Homie thinks these savings can give you an advantage when it comes to pricing your home because you can technically list for slightly less if you’re paying less commission.
That may bring in the buyers, even if you don’t have a listing agent or the MLS at your disposal.
Home Buyers Can Also Save with Homie
- Homie’s services are free for home buyers
- Similar to traditional buyer’s agents only collecting commission from the seller
- But that could mean a lower sales price
- And you can even get up to $5,000 back to cover your closing costs
You can also buy a home via Homie and save because the home might be priced more attractively without real estate commissions baked in.
And your offer may be seen as more competitive by the seller if they don’t have to pay your non-existent real estate agent a commission.
As you can see from the screenshot above, you can potentially save money in the way of interest if your purchase price is lower sans the real estate agent commission.
Homie doesn’t charge home buyers a fee and they give you access to their software tools and a real estate attorney to help with paperwork. However, you can use them with an agent or without.
If you do happen a buy a non-Homie home and the seller has agreed to pay a buyer agent commission, Homie will refund up to $5,000 of that for mortgage closing costs.
However, you must sign a Buyer Broker Agreement (BBA) with Homie and get pre-qualified for a mortgage with Homie Loans.
If you buy a property from a Homie seller, you won’t get the closing cost refund but you might save even more because no commissions will be inflating the sales price.
This is known as a “Homie-2-Homie deal” where two homies are transacting and forgoing the real estate agents in the process.
Since launching in 2015, Homie has apparently saved its customers more than $8 million and counting.
Homie Loans Just Launched
- Homie also offers mortgages to its customers
- Thanks to the acquisition of Econ Mortgage
- Their loan officers get a flat fee per loan
- Which the company believes can save homeowners up to half in typical lender fees
After acquiring a Utah-based mortgage company by the name of Econ Mortgage recently, the company launched “Homie Loans,” which aligns with the company’s goal of revolutionizing the real estate industry.
Instead of paying their loan officers commissions on a percentage basis, they’ll get a flat fee per loan.
Homie believes this will save the average customer “up to half” what they typically pay to lenders in the way of fees and closing costs.
Their goal, per Homie VP of Mortgage Operations Phillip Burnett, is to “reduce bloated commissions and traditional transaction costs.”
These savings will ideally be passed onto consumers in the way of lower closing costs, quicker closings, and lower purchase prices (that still benefit the home seller).
Homie Loans offers all the typical stuff, including conventional, FHA loans, and VA loans, and they’ve automated the process (upload docs, e-sign) to save time and money.
Should You Use Homie?
- It’s only available in Utah and Arizona
- But Homie could be a good option to at least consider
- Alongside the traditional home buying and selling avenues
- If you feel comfortable forgoing the real estate agent
At the moment, Homie is only available in two states, Arizona and Utah. They just expanded to Arizona in January 2018. Chance are more states will get the service soon if everything goes according to plan.
While Homie sounds like it could be a winner, most real estate agents will probably disagree and tell you that it’s not worth going it alone. And they might be right in a lot of cases.
Often, their commissions can be “paid for” via a higher sales price, so it’s basically awash. Of course, the buyer ends up paying it via the increased sales price.
Additionally, it’s nice not to have to do any work, or at least less work, when it comes time to buy or sell a home. Typically, you’ve got other things to worry about when you’re moving…
At the same time, thanks to the wealth of information online and new technologies, it is getting a lot easier to buy and sell real estate, and if you feel you can navigate the pricing portion of the process on your own, you could save thousands of dollars for some additional legwork.
This is especially true at higher price points, where real estate commissions can total $50,000 or more.
Or in cases where you don’t have much home equity and need to sell without going into pocket.
Considering today’s red hot market, it might be the perfect time for a seller to try a service like this, though you do have to be careful not to leave money on the table.
If you’re a buyer, you could make lowball offers and see if they stick, without the need to bring an agent along. You just have to be sure to do your diligence (inspections, contingencies, etc.) along the way.
Read more: Opendoor wants to help you sell a home in 3 days.
Homie was phenomenal in handling both the sale of my home as well as the purchase into my new home. I saved enough money to buy a new car (although it will be going towards my children’s college fund) still could have bought a new car!
Thank you Homie for all your help! I will gladly recommend you to everybody I know.
Having homeowners sell their own home does not work 80% of the time which is why they work with a professional license agent.They can get all the paperwork they need but they don’t understand buyers enough to close the deal most of the time. I am not an agent I work in financing and see many FSBOs, Flat Fee listings fail.
Zack, you sound like a fake or paid comment. Why not just do a fake testimonial somewhere on the site?