Homie Reviews (2024)

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  Written by Franklin Schneider

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  Edited by Ashley Simon

Main takeaway: Homie is a discount brokerage that offers a flat $5,000 listing fee to sellers and a 25% commission rebate to buyers. 

Homie’s $5,000 minimum fee is on the high end, meaning that Homie doesn’t quite make the list of companies that offer the lowest real estate commission. And its high-workload salary-based agent model can mean Homie’s local agents may not have the time or incentive to give you as much personalized support as you need.

Homie is able to offer a flat listing fee to all sellers because it employs salaried local agents who handle many clients at the same time, and work mainly online instead of in person. While this saves money, Homie reviews suggest that Homie local agents can become overextended, and may sometimes fail to respond to their clients in a timely manner.

Still, Homie charges a flat $5,000 listing fee which represents big savings for sellers who have a high-priced home; for example, clients who sell a $1 million home would save nearly $20,000 by using Homie, compared to using a conventional real estate agent.

Savings | Services | Customer reviews | Homie vs. the competition | How Homie works | News | Bottom line: Should you use Homie?

How much can I save with Homie?

Homie’s listing fee	$5,000 (or $10,000 deluxe package)
Nationwide average listing fee	2.83% of home sale price
Amount saved with Homie	Varies based on home sale price

Your potential savings with Homie is going to depend almost entirely on the sale price of your home. Using the national average listing commission of 2.83%, let’s look at some example price points.

• If you sold a $300,000 home, the average listing commission of 2.83% would come to $8,490, which means you’d save $3,490 by using Homie.

• If you sold a $500,000 home, the average listing commission of 2.83% would come to $14,150, which means you’d save $9,150 by using Homie.

• However, if you sold a $150,000 home, the average listing commission of 2.83% would come to $4,245, which means you’d actually pay $755 more by using Homie.

Clearly, at the higher end of the price spectrum, you’re in line for substantial savings by using a Homie realtor. However, below around $170,000, you’re better off using a conventional real estate agent, or a discount broker with a lower minimum fee such as Clever Real Estate.

That shouldn’t be difficult to find. Homie’s pricing is on the high end of the spectrum; comparable discount real estate brokers like Clever Real Estate or Redfin have minimum fees of $3,000, while Houwzer’s minimum fee is only $2,500. And many of these less-expensive brokerages offer a true full service experience.

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Service breakdown

Homie’s standard $5,000 listing fee package includes:

• A dedicated agent
• Listing on MLS, Zillow, etc.
• Home value report (similar to a comparative marketing analysis)
• Professional photos
• Yard sign and lockbox
• Floor plan
• Access to tour planning app

While this includes most of the same basic services you’d get from a traditional real estate agent, note that this package doesn’t include agent-assisted home showings or any marketing help that you would receive from a traditional realtor who offered a full service experience. However, if you opt for Homie’s $10,000 full service package, you get all of the above, plus agent-guided open houses and enhanced real estate marketing services, including social media marketing and a 3D home tour.

This is an important difference. If you’re in a hot real estate market, and your home is desirable enough that it sells itself, you won’t need any full service marketing help from your agent. On the other hand, if you have a unique property or are in a lukewarm real estate market, you may end up feeling abandoned by your Homie agent, as evidenced by some Homie reviews.

Do yourself a favor and find a real realtor. The “savings” are not there if you think about how much work you have to do yourself.

— ML, Yelp, September 2022

The main realtor that was working with us was hard to get a hold of. There were a couple time sensitive things that needed attention ASAP, and after calling and emailing several times, they didn’t pick up.

— from a blogpost detailing one seller’s experience with Homie

Keep in mind that Homie sellers will still have to offer a buyer’s agent commission throughout the home selling process, which can limit your savings. It’s also not clear from Homie’s website how much agent assistance you can anticipate during the home inspection and home appraisal phases of the sale process, which is when many of the benefits of a full service top local agent kick in.

Homie also offers various real estate services including:

• Homie Title: a title and settlement company
• Homie Insurance: an insurance brokerage
• Homie Loans: in-house financing
• Homie Provider Marketplace: a referral network for various home services

Homie reviews: What customers are saying about working with a Homie agent

Homie’s pricing model does offer savings to many sellers, and the Homie real estate reviews show that. But some reviewers also complained that their Homie local agent wasn’t very responsive, and took hours or days to return messages.

Review site	Rating
Google	4.4/5 (906 reviews)
Yelp	2.1/5.0 (37 reviews)
Zillow	5/5 (35 reviews)
Average rating	4.3/5.0 (978 total reviews)

Customers who worked with Homie were generally positive about the smoothness of Homie’s sale process, the money they were able to save with the flat listing fee that Homie charges, and their agent’s responsiveness. Happy sellers thought it was nearly comparable to a full service agent experience.

Here are the common themes we found in Homie’s positive and negative reviews:

✅ Savings

Homie’s main selling point is their flat listing fee of $5,000, and sellers with higher-priced homes were able to save thousands of dollars by using Homie instead of paying a conventional percentage-based commission to a traditional realtor.

And don’t even get me started on their flat rate fee, seriously saved us so much money that we were then able to put toward a new home!

— Alex H., April 2024, Google

✅ Convenience

Many satisfied customers said they enjoyed the fact that Homie offered a whole suite of real estate services, and that it led to a smooth transaction.

“They did everything that they could to make the process go smoothly! We loved that Homie has everything in one place — the realtor, broker, title company, insurance, etc…. It was a one-stop shop!!! We saved around $8,000 by going with Homie!”.

— Jana V., April 2024, Google

✅ Good communication

Homie home sellers who had a positive experience often singled out their agent’s communication and responsiveness, with many agents going above and beyond to answer sellers’ urgent questions.

[Agent] at Homie is a great realtor. Responsive and gave good guidance. Even though I’m a nightshift worker he would answer questions at night.

— Braydon P., April 2024, Google

❌ Poor responsiveness

Many negative Homie reviews reported that Homie agents took a long time to return their messages and generally showed poor responsiveness. This could be the result of Homie agents’ heavy workloads, and would be a big disadvantage in a hot, fast-moving real estate market. See this Homie review:

Homie was extremely unresponsive for the sellers I bought my house from who used Homie. My real estate agent frequently had to wait long timeframes for a reply. […] My agent got permission from the seller to contact him directly with questions instead of going thru the Homie agent, since it was slowing the process so much.

— Sheila H., 2020, Google

Trying to reach a person is difficult. Reaching our unresponsive Realtor has been awful.

— Patrick C., Jan. 2022, Yelp

❌ Poor grasp of market conditions

Multiple negative Homie real estate reviews described how Homie agents initially mispriced their home, causing it to sit on the market for an extended period of time. Their Homie agents then instructed them to lower the price— multiple times, in this case— in an attempt to find a buyer. While conventional real estate agents may occasionally have to reduce a listing’s price, this sounds more like inexperienced agents who failed to find accurate comps.

Homie’s agent came out to look at our property and told us based on the market/comps we should list for what I thought was a high price. But the market was hot and I trusted them. We had only a couple showings for the 6 month listing which should have been an indication that it was overpriced. After a couple months I reduced the price by 10%, which was in the hundreds of thousands. At the very end of our contract, the agent texted me and told me I needed to lower the price of my house another 25% … which would have made the reduction just over a third of the original professionally proposed price.

— Max O., 2023, Google

“Homie works fine in a hot market, but in a down market they will frustrate you. […] The only selling strategy they employed was to tell me to keep lowering the price. “This is the price it will for sure sell at.” Then when it doesn’t sell, “Ok now this is the price it will for suuuure sell at.” Over and over again. My agents didn’t know basic metrics like how many showings we’d had, and they kept reassuring me that my property was getting a lot of traffic, when it wasn’t.”

— Jordan M., 2023, Google

Homie vs. the competition

How Homie works

What to expect as a seller

Homie offers a fairly standard, if barebones, flat fee service package for sellers that includes pricing assistance, professional photos, an MLS listing, a yard sign and lockbox for showings, and an appointment managing app. It doesn’t include agent-assisted open houses or significant real estate marketing help.

Once you fill out an online form, a Homie agent gets in touch with you and arranges for professional real estate photos to be taken of your home. Homie will then list your home on the MLS, Zillow, and other platforms, and send over a yard sign and keybox. From this point on, any marketing or open houses are the seller’s responsibility.

Homie agents are salaried and carry a heavy client load; they communicate with home sellers primarily by phone, email, or text, and clients typically get little to no face time with their Homie agents. This is the main difference between a Homie agent and a traditional agent. It’s unclear if a Homie real estate agent will show up on the day of closing, though they may attend a remote session. Sellers will pay Homie their $5,000 flat fee at closing.

What to expect as a buyer

A Homie buyer can take advantage of the Homie buyer rebate program, which offers up to 25% of the buyer’s agent commission, applied to their closing costs— but only if they also use Homie’s in-house title and mortgage services.

Buyers who want to purchase through a Homie agent can schedule showings through Homie’s website, or the Homie app, and will be accompanied by Homie partner agents throughout the process. 

Homie news and updates

Founded in 2015, Homie received millions of dollars from investors through several rounds of funding. However, the company seems to have hit significant turbulence in recent months.

After an April 2024 Salt Lake Tribune article¹ alleged that Homie was “calling it quits,” the company fired back by clarifying that it was only converting its salaried agents to independent contractors. This comes after several rounds of layoffs and the departure of its CEO.

But while the company once employed hundreds of traditional agents, and was hiring 1,000 more agents² as recently as 2021, it currently employs only 18 agents as contractors, plus “a handful” of salaried agents. It’s unclear whether the company is merely contracting in a rough market, or is about to close its doors permanently— but sellers who want to take advantage of Homie’s flat fee model should probably do so quickly, while they still have the chance.

Bottom line: Should I use Homie?

Homie is a legitimate real estate brokerage that does offer some advantages over a traditional agent. But like a lot of discount real estate brokers, not all sellers will benefit equally. Sellers who have a high-priced home that doesn’t need much marketing help could save thousands of dollars of realtor fees with Homie’s flat fee model, compared to working with a conventional real estate agent.

However, sellers who want or need a personalized real estate experience from their agent, or have a more modestly-priced home, may not get what they want out of a Homie experience. 

FAQ about Homie

Related articles

Homie isn’t the only real estate company that offers discounted listing fees, so compare your options! Read on to learn about Homie alternatives that offer bigger commission savings, better service quality, or both.

What Companies Offer the Lowest Real Estate Commission Fees? Homie’s listing fees are cheap, but how do they stack up against the competition? Find out which discount service charges the lowest commission rates.

Discount Real Estate Brokers and Agents | Everything You Need to Know: Selling with a discount real estate broker like Homie is often a very different experience from using a conventional realtor. Learn more about how discount brokers work.

Clever Real Estate Must-See Reviews: Whether you’re buying or selling, Clever can help you find top-rated real estate agents in your area. Learn how its free agent-matching service can connect you with full-service realtors who charge just 1.5%.

Methodology

The Real Estate Witch team evaluated Homie on a variety of factors, including savings, customer service, online reviews, agent quality, and how it compares to the competition. Our mission is to empower you to make an informed decision about whether Homie is right for your next real estate transaction.

Our low commission real estate brokerage rankings are based on three key criteria:

• Cost and savings. We compared Homie’s pricing model to top competitors and average prices across the U.S., including the average listing fee, minimum fees, and any buyer incentives offered.
• Customer service. We performed an in-depth analysis on Homie’s customer reviews across review sites. We broke down the sentiment of reviews, looking at themes around agent responsiveness, expertise, and meeting customer expectations.
• Ease of use. We evaluated how efficient it is for customers to find, compare, and select an agent through Homie, evaluating their agent network size, technical platforms, communication methods, and post-transaction support.

Sources

1. The Salt Lake Tribune, ‘Homie, the Utah company meant to ‘disrupt’ real estate, sheds its last agents’, Accessed May 7, 2024, https://www.sltrib.com/news/business/2024/04/19/homie-utah-company-meant-disrupt/ ↩︎
2. Inman, ‘Homie to add 1,000 new buy-side agents’, Accessed May 7, 2024, https://www.inman.com/2021/03/18/homie-to-add-1000-new-buy-side-agents/ ↩︎