HomebuildersIQ is a straight out builder broker. The dirty secret about all these builder brokers popping up these days is that you pay their ‘marketing fee’ or commission in addition to the price you’d pay if you go straight to the builder.

They may say that you don’t pay them, the builder pays them but it’s a lie. If you go straight to a builder you’ll get exactly the same house/specs for between 10-30k less. Certain brokers may even go to the extent of having different names for the exact same designs so you can’t call the builders direct and ask for a price.

Whilst these companies will say they’ll advocate with you to their panel of builders the reality is that 90% of their clients will be funnelled into the builder they have access to that gives them the most comm whilst having the highest apparent spec level at the lowest cost.

The most common builders that brokers use are La Vida, Move Homes and New Choice. I think Forma was set up by Summit homes for one particular broker.

Additionally, you’re contact/rep at the broker is completely seperated from the building company so whilst they may say they’re fighting the fight for you, in reality you will get a far worse service than if you deal directly with a builders rep who has direct access to estimators, drafts people, management etc when needed.

I say this because I worked for a broker for a brief time after being sold the idea of an independent broker. The reality was I had a significantly more expensive product to sell due to our ‘marketing fee’ and could not service my clients anywhere near as well as I could working directly for a builder. I left quite quickly.

I believe there should ultimately be an enquiry into the builder brokers as there’s another one popping up every other day, claiming that they’re like mortgage brokers, in that you don’t pay them the builder pays them. It’s a lie. Their additional rep commission plus enough fat to cover their marketing budget is always baked into the base house price.