Who Offers the Largest Real Estate Commission Refund in the Bay Area
More Bay Area real estate brokerages are realizing they don’t need to be paid$50,000+ to help Bay Area home buyers buy their home.
More Bay Area real estate brokerages are realizing they don’t need to be paid$50,000+ to help Bay Area home buyers buy their home. And Bay Area home buyers are calculating how much an agent makes off their deal, and are seeking ways to ‘earn’ that commission for themselves (we have had a number of clients tell us they were thinking of getting their real estate license so they could earn the2.5% when they bought).
At Unlocked, we think it’s time rethink agent commissions, particularly for tech-savvy Bay Area home buyers. That’s why we’ve added the 1% cash back rebate into our Buyer Concierge service as a standard offering.
Here are some other Bay Area brokerages that also used to offer a rebate:
Redfin: Established in 2002 in Seattle, WA, Redfin is one of the oldest brokerages that offers cash back to their buyers. Redfin agents provide all of the services of a traditional real estate agent. Up until 2022 (we think), Redfin offer buyers a 0.4% rebate, but it appears that they have since suspended their homebuyer rebate program.
OpenListings: OpenListings offered buyers50% of the commission as a cash back incentive. For most Bay Area listings which offer the buying agent 2.5% commission, that means a 1.25% rebate to the buyer. As of 2018, OpenListings was acquired by OpenDoor.
Faira: Started in 2015, Faira offers Bay Area homebuyers a 1.5% commission rebate. However, Faira states that they offer less of the services than a traditional real estate agent (“homebuyers find the home they want to buy on their own, without the help of an agent”). For a $2,000,000 Bay Area single-family home, that would represent a$30,000 commission rebate. As of January2022, it looks like Faira is no longer in business.
Unlocked: Unlocked offers that biggest buying agent rebate for Bay Area homebuyers. With Unlocked, buyers get all of the services of a traditional real estate agent, and get 1% of your purchase price cash back. For a $2,000,000 Bay Area single-family home, that would represent a$20,000 rebate.
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We cover the entire Bay Area. We've helped clients buy homes in San Francisco, North Bay, East Bay and South Bay. We also cover LA and San Diego in Southern California.
We provide all of the services of a traditional real estate agent, with better data-driven tools, increased transparency and more responsive customer service. We can help with as little or as much of the home-buying process as you require. Some clients come to us with a home already found and a price in mind, and need assistance with assessing the home and executing the transaction. Others are still figuring out their budget, what they're looking for, and advice on where to focus their search. Wherever you are in your home buying journey, we’re here to seamlessly guide you through your home buying process - finding the right home, valuing it, understanding the disclosures, submitting a competitive offer, and closing the transaction. We're with you from start to finish.
Yes. Unlocked is a fully-licensed California brokerage (CalDRE #02060530) and all of our agents are fully-licensed California sales agents and members of the California Association of Realtors (TM) and the National Association of Realtors (TM).
With Unlocked, you’ll be working with one of our fully-licensed real estate agents to get all of the services provided by a traditional real estate agent, with better data-driven tools, increased transparency and more responsive customer service. So in many respects, your buying experience will be the same as working with a traditional real estate agent - only better!
In terms of how we’re different, firstly, we offer 1% cash back. This is the largest buyer’s rebate in California (that we know about)! That is tens of thousands of dollars that you can put that towards buying new furniture, renovating your kitchen and bathrooms or throwing that all important housewarming party (or more responsible uses like paying down your mortgage).
Secondly, our backgrounds are different than traditional real estate agents. We are a Stanford MBA and a Yale Law JD, who have also worked at some of the top management consulting, law and private equity firms (Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Wachtell and Bain Capital). We leverage our data-driven, customer-oriented experiences to deliver a more insightful, analytical and responsive home buying experience.
Thirdly, Unlocked has built custom analytical tools to bring data, insight and transparency to the key buying decision points and streamlined the buying process. For every home you’re interested in, we provide our Custom Valuation Report, an easy-to-interpret spreadsheet of recent comparable transactions, competing listings and third-party valuations, as well as our Disclosure Review Summary, a comprehensive summary of the 200+ pages of disclosures.
All-in-all, we’ve designed the buying experience that we would have wanted when we bought our homes, and we’re sure you’ll love it, just like our current and past clients have (check out our Yelp reviews).
One of our licensed real estate agents personally leads each transaction and will be your day-to-day point of contact throughout your home buying journey. We work closely as a team, and are able to jump in for each other if and when you have a time-sensitive request.