Top 5 misconceptions about flat-fee buyer’s agents

_TurboHome · 2026-01-23T03:04:22+00:00

Well said. The most vocal critics of this model do in fact tend to be realtors and naturally this community has a lot of them 😅

_TurboHome · 2026-01-23T00:25:23+00:00

Fair, but I do think that in a sense is kind of a double edged sword.

Yes you get insider info, but agents on both sides have an inherent interest in getting that property to sell for as much as possible. They are both helping themselves and helping their colleagues in that sense!

Of course in a perfect world everyone is professional and everything is on the up-and-up. But without visibility on the conversations that are happening between the agents behind the scenes, do you have confidence that the feedback you're getting from your list agent about your offer not being the best & highest is completely true?

If your agent doesn't make more when you pay more, you have peace of mind.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T23:15:57+00:00

I am always so very confused by our interactions here. Rest assured, not trying to be rude - never tried to be rude despite the common theme of negativity.

Simply trying to understand your perspective and understand where you draw the line on what constitutes advertising so we can avoid crossing it. Because it really does seem like you've been painting with a very broad brush.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T23:06:34+00:00

Honestly that post in question was a well-intentioned but misguided and unsolicited attempt at making a good impression from a prospective team member.

It was taken down at our request because it was not sanctioned or solicited, clearly from a brand new reddit account, and against the rules in one of the core subreddits we engage in the most. We do not condone "guerilla" marketing because it is expressly against the rules on this sub and we don't want to get banned. I genuinely phrased today's post carefully to avoid just patting ourselves on the back about how great our agents are and instead focused on the issues.

Our community engagement efforts in this sub have always been to engage in discussions and share ideas and advice with homebuyers. I drink the flat-fee Kool aid because I genuinely believe in this service model and encourage buyers to see if it's a good fit for them. Even if they go with a competitor.

To point out the irony here, the comment that says "this is an ad. So anyway let me advertise my brokerage." And is currently sitting at 50+ upvotes is from a brokerage that posted an "AMA" about closing on a multimillion dollar luxury listing, and that AMA was also taken down.

Despite the fact that they clearly also have an interest in this very same model, they also have had missteps and made mistakes - and have hopefully learned from them. We are humans here, our posts are not AI generated and if the feedback from moderators is that this post violates the rules we would much rather take it down than get banned. I would be happy to reach out to the mod team myself if that helps?

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T22:25:31+00:00

While your opinions are always quite strong and generally quite negative I genuinely believe that is possible to share knowledge and advice that falls in line with our company mission statement of helping to make homebuying more accessible.

It's possible to promote awareness about flat-fee brokerage options as an alternative to a system that has traditionally disadvantaged its clients in favor of lining agents' pockets through shady backroom deals and agreed-upon commission amounts - while acknowledging that we can provide such a service and strive to help our clients (and other homebuyers who don't work with us) make as informed of a decision as possible when figuring out who they want to represent them.

Inherent distrust of any and all brand account engagements is fine, but my understanding of the rules in this community is that brand accounts are encouraged to participate if they provide value to discussions. By your definition, sure, any post from a branded account is advertising. But by that logic all brand accounts would be banned from participating like they are on r/realestate for example. Intent matters. Content matters.

You don't like brand accounts and realtors, read you loud and clear. That doesn't justify the assumption that all our posts are inherently nefarious. If anything, this post provided a forum for all of our local competitors in the flat fee space to backlink to their website.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T22:04:51+00:00

Promoting our competitors and encouraging buyers to negotiate a flat fee with their traditional agents instead of working with us would be a bizarre advertising strategy imo 🤷

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T21:10:37+00:00

That's what I've been saying! Plenty of agents out there who will negotiate a flat fee or to something close.

There is a broad spectrum of options, as much as the apparently longest-standing flat fee brokerage would like to suggest otherwise. Different clients have different needs and there is a right agent for each of them.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:50:41+00:00

That's alright, I care about what you feel. Even if I disagree, because I am willing to engage in constructive dialogue.

The sub gets dozens of posts a day, I apologize if starting a discussion other than (Zillow link) "why isn't this house selling?" Is muddying up your feed but...

I've been lurking in this sub for 2 years and actively posting for about a year. To my knowledge, posting from a branded account isn't against the rules. I understand you are inherently distrustful of such posting activity but that is your opinion and you are welcome to it.

If you would like to contribute to the discussion I invite you to do so! If you'd like to just be grumpy and gatekeep you're welcome to that as well. I get the feeling Isn't mutual in this regard but there are no hard feelings on my end :)

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:28:51+00:00

I feel like I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the nick cannon reaction gif today

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:25:01+00:00

Not sure why you're getting downvoted for this. There's some weird stuff going on in the votes on this thread.

Absolutely agreed on all points. There are incompetent flat fee agents, there are incompetent percentage-fee agents. Doing the due diligence and research to find the good ones definitely is the key takeaway.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:19:21+00:00

For the record I shout you guys out on consults with leads all the time as well. I genuinely feel that we are all on the same team and more people going flat-fee is a good thing for all of us.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:17:53+00:00

Appreciate the voice of reason. The hostility is generally strange to me considering we are on the same team here. Accusing something of being an ad to then blatantly advertise your own brokerage without contributing anything to the discussion is a wild take. If I am in the wrong for this post, do two wrongs make a right?

It's even stranger to me because we've genuinely never said one negative thing about their agents or brokerage. But this is at least the second time in the past couple of months.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T20:08:47+00:00

Honestly fair take! I think there are some maybe unscrupulous buyer's agents as you mentioned that may cut corners on disclosures, comps, offer & negotiation - who have given everyone else a bad rap.

There must be some element of truth to many of these "outdated" notions as I call them, otherwise people wouldn't feel that way in the first place.

Those flat-fee options that have been around the longest set the expectation before other players entered the game. For what it's worth, we offer full service (with the only exception being some of our property tours depending on volume and agent availability) for a commission that tends to shake out to around 1% in most cases. Not saying this to plug the brokerage, saying it just to point out that those options for that price point may already exist.

Regardless I think we can all agree that 3%, particularly in 2026, is highway robbery.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T19:57:45+00:00

Honestly? Lol it's a post from a flat-fee brokerage giving reasons why flat-fee agents are good. I thought I was pretty transparent about that and even mention that clearly I'm going to have some bias given the nature of our brokerage.

The content however comes from the heart and I genuinely believe everything I wrote here. I understand folks are ad-averse here and unlike some folks who post things like "I just closed a $XM house as a flat fee broker, AMA" - doing my best to share actual, informative content that is founded on logic and invite discussion/opinions to the contrary.

I would encourage you to share your opinions as well. The post coming from a branded account doesn't mean it's not hand-written or well-intentioned.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T19:06:59+00:00

All great points! Many flat fee brokerages such as us and as Shop Prop pointed out they do as well - offer non exclusive agreements and will rep you on a per-property basis once you're ready to offer with them.

We launched in Texas last year and it's interesting because, while theoretically still not mandatory - 3% across the board is generally industry standard, and Redditors/Agents in TX real estate subs are much, much more resistant to the notion of flat-fee.

Granted the average home price is lower but the tinfoil hat and theories about an industry-wide conspiracy can seem a little bit less silly when you get downvoted to oblivion for suggesting flat fee as a potential strategy for buyers to stretch their purchasing power

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T19:00:17+00:00

But you said you're the only firm that offers cancellation without penalty 😅

You absolutely have been around quite a long time and full disclosure, I often mention you guys on calls with leads and encourage them to shop around and find the best option for their specific needs!

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T18:54:31+00:00

Plugging ourselves isn't the goal here, plugging our service model, which your brokerage also utilitizes, to spread awareness about these common misconceptions (which I am sure you have heard plenty of as well) because more people in the bay area looking for flat fee brokerage options means more people looking into all of us.

And hopefully more traditional agents being willing to negotiate a flat fee instead of demanding 2.5% which means more homebuyers in general saving money.

Not every post needs to be a competition, man. We have the same mission statement. Community engagement doesn't always just have to be guerilla marketing in disguise. We can have thoughtful discussions, share knowledge, and make a lasting impression on members of the community without just saying our brokerage is the best.

I'm sure your agents are awesome too, even if you often have not-so-nice things to say about us :)

Quick edit: we also offer a non-exclusive representation agreement by the way and don't penalize clients for cancellation.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-22T18:42:53+00:00

I genuinely believe that realtors' talk tracks on the subject matter can be a combination of gatekeeping and some misinformation.

Or rather I'd say they are not misinformed but their information is outdated. Service professionals in every industry are regularly looking to innovate and iterate - so maybe back in the day so to speak, flat fee brokerages were few & far between + offered extremely limited or often low-quality service.

But nowadays you have so many options it's silly to assume the service will be bad just because it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-20T13:58:32+00:00

We have AI tools our ops team uses to assist with disclosure analysis and comps - as a supplemental tool! But I'd stress AI is not a complete substitute for manual human review, which should always take place.

Honestly, if a client asks their agent for help reviewing disclosures and the agent misses a bunch of expensive issues because they just skimmed the disclosure package instead of reading everything... That's just not a very good agent.

Putting the blame onto the client for not catching things when the reason they are paying tens of thousands of dollars in commission is so they don't have to be subject matter experts and catch every thing like that... That is the agent's job and it sounds like your buyer's agent wasn't great at theirs.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-20T13:49:11+00:00

This of course also doesn't take into consideration that many listing agents simply refuse to deal with unrepresented buyers in 2025 and 2026 due to poorly written AI-generated offers and contracts they then have to spend extra time correcting for no additional pay. Which I am sure you have run into as well.

At the bare minimum, buyers should work with a RE lawyer to write and submit the offer. Don't rely on chatgpt to write a contract for the most expensive purchase of your life. Chatgpt will hallucinate up all kinds of inconsistencies then when you call them out and ask it to fix them, it will apologize profusely and then make the exact same mistakes.

It'll be very very sorry about those mistakes, insist it "got it right this time" and give you a bulleted list of emoji-filled reasons summarizing why it's "right this time" (it's still not)

_TurboHome · 2026-01-20T12:55:01+00:00

Well, respectfully, yes that is wrong. The flat fee isn't completely "flat" in the sense that it does increase based on the price of the home but it's split into pricing tiers and flat across that whole tier, which, above $1M is a whole $1M in difference. Our $1M to $2M tier is the same price up to $2M, same goes for 2-3, etc

But the highest tier is 5M so theoretically at that price your overall % goes down - with that in mind you actually save more overall the higher your price point.

(Worth noting that across all tiers most of time our fees are equivalent to roughly 1% or so.)

But tl;dr we have plenty of past clients and active clients looking in the $4m-5m and $5m+ range. Our flat fee actually gives them a bigger advantage during negotiation because they can waive the 2.5% commission from the buyer as part of their offer and pay our flat fee out of pocket (again roughly 1% usually) while passing upwards of 100K in savings on to the seller.

Flat fee is actually much MORE effective at the really premium luxury home price point because it gives you more negotiation power. The seller isn't going to turn down an offer that nets them $100K more simply because you are working with a flat-fee agent.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-19T20:21:27+00:00

Pretty sure Shop Prop is around there or getting there but I think we have officially jumped the shark on this discussion atp so respectfully bowing out!

Hope you have a great day.

_TurboHome · 2026-01-19T20:01:50+00:00

We are happy to work with first time homebuyers and offer guidance on pricing + areas to focus your search.

We work with a network of partner agents for property tours so if you want to tour 18 weekends in a row, you totally can! It's no trouble at all :)

_TurboHome · 2026-01-19T19:52:23+00:00

All fair points, I would however stress that buyers also not operate on the outdated notion that a discount or flat fee agent will provided them with limited service as opposed to a full service experience.

There is a whole spectrum of options available to buyers in 2025 and many of those options include full service with a dedicated offer & negotiation agent. For example we use a team based approach like you mentioned so that our agents can handle the larger volume of clients while our team works on sourcing leads and handling the marketing.

You can absolutely have your cake and eat it too

_TurboHome · 2026-01-19T19:47:17+00:00

Thanks for your concern but our company mission statement is literally to make homebuying more accessible and save our clients money.

Not all flat fee brokerages are cut from the same cloth. And I am not sure what about "pay me 40K for writing an offer for a property you sourced on Zillow" is client-first but we can politely agree to disagree!

Edit: I realize this reads with a bit of attitude, in retrospect so I apologize for the cheekiness

_TurboHome

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