Compare Sold.com and Torii Homes
For Sellers
For Buyers
Answer: Sold.com is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements while Torii Homes is a buyer’s real estate agent and a referral fee network
Selling with Sold.com
WARNING: Unlawful Kickbacks, Broker-to-Broker Collusion, False Marketing, Wire Fraud, Price Fixing.
Sold.com) is a broker-to-broker collusion scheme, where "partner agents" unlawfully agree to pay massive kickbacks to receive your information and engage in market allocation, consumer allocation, false advertising, unlawful kickbacks, wire fraud, and price-fixing practices in violation of, inter alia, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, 15 U.S.C. § 1, 15 U.S.C. § 45, 12 U.S.C. § 2607, 12 C.F.R. § 1024.14. As a consumer, you will always significantly overpay for Realtor commissions subject to hidden kickbacks and pay-to-play steering promoted in this scheme.
United States federal antitrust laws prohibit consumer allocation and blanket referral agreements between real estate companies.
Be smart; do not allow your information to be "sold as a lead" to a double-dealing Realtor in exchange for massive commission kickbacks paid from your future home sale, or your future home purchase.
Sold.com is a referral fee network designed to collect fees by matching consumers with local real estate agents willing to participate. Sold.com operates as a licensed real estate brokerage in California under BRE License #01937601, but it does not produce any services that are typically offered by real estate agents and does not represent consumers when selling real estate in any State.
When consumers submit information to Sold.com, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with a 30% share of their commission.
Sold.com Pricing
Sold.com revenue comes from referral fees.
Listing Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Sellers
Buyer's Agent Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Buyers
Sold.com Editor's Review:
On paper, Sold.com seems to have a great idea – to provide its users with the best way to sell a home, but in reality, it is a referral network designed to steer consumers toward agents and other services willing to pay a cut of their commission back into the network.
Sold.com states that it is an “unbiased” and consumer-focused service, but the actual model turns out to be much less effective - Sold.com is a California licensed real estate broker that collects a 30% referral fee from all real estate agents that participate.
This fee makes it hardly a free service for anyone since referral fees are inevitably passed down to consumers. More importantly, Sold.com applies this pay-to-play bias towards all matching results, meaning, only real estate agents that have agreed to pay a referral fee are displayed in match results for consumers.
Sold.com audits all transactions because it needs to find out how much money real estate agents receive in commissions, inevitably collecting private details of consumer’s agreement for home purchase or sale.
Sold.com plays fees down to consumers - it states directly that the service is 100% free, but at the same time, it rigidly locks every participating real estate agent into 30% referral fee attached to the back-end of every contract. As a licensed real estate agent that doesn’t perform any real estate services or takes any responsibility for the transaction, it is not entirely clear how this process works under the Business and Professions Code and RESPA.
Clearly, real estate agents only sign-up with Sold.com because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client's agreement with excessive commissions. Sold.com receives the second lowest score because this service is clearly biased and it claims to provide the complete opposite of what it actually does.
Where does Sold.com operate?
Buying with Torii Homes
Torii Homes is a buyer's agent and a referral fee network that offers homebuyer’s refunds in select service areas. Torii Homes typically credits the buyer's refund savings against the miscellaneous transaction costs such as loan origination fees, appraisal fees, title search, title insurance, surveys, deed-recording fees, and credit report charges.
Torii Homes does not credit the buyer's refund savings against property taxes, homeowner's insurance, transfer taxes, interest, mortgage points (optional fees paid directly to a lender in exchange for a reduced interest rate.) orii Homes does not credit the buyer's refund savings against any recurring costs.
After the miscellaneous transaction costs are paid for, Torii Homes keeps the rest of the Buyer’s Agent Commission as a fee for representing buyers in the home purchase.
Torii Homes Pricing
Torii Homes offers homebuyers approximately 20%-30% of the Buyer’s Agent Commission as savings.
Listing Services
- This Service Does Not Openly Advertise to Home Sellers
Buyer's Agent Services
- Find the Property
- Accept and Deliver All Offers and Counteroffers
- Recommend Other Professionals
- Attend Inspection Services
- Schedule Private Showings
- Negotiate Needed Repairs
- Closing Duties
Torii Homes Editor's Review:
Torii Homes is a tech-enabled real estate brokerage. Torii Homes claims that it costs nothing to use the service: “The seller of a home pays the real estate commission, which we then put toward your closing costs. You don't pay Torii anything for our help.” This is false and misleading advertising because buyer’s agents never work for free. A recent settlement between NAR and US-DOJ prohibits licensed real estate brokers from making a claim that their services are offered for free.
The cost of hiring a buyer’s agent is always incorporated into the homebuyer’s final mortgage sum. As a buyer’s agent, Torii Homes is paid with a percentage of the home sale, Buyer's Agent Commission (typically offered at 2.5%-3% by the seller) and it contributes 20%-30% of this total amount to the buyer as a way to financially compete for buyer’s business.
Torii Homes provides homebuyers with a licensed expert real estate agent who helps with the home search, scheduling/attending showings, preparing a home purchase offer, and price negotiations.
Torii Partner Agents
Torii Partner Agents Referral Network (Torii Partner Agents) is a referral process that connects buyers with third-party real estate agents in exchange for an undisclosed blanket referral fee. Torii Partner Agents are not employed by Torii Homes, however, Torii Homes maintains a set of pre-arranged price-fixing agreements with random Partner Agents, claiming to offer consumers savings.
The price-fixing agreements between Torii Homes and Torii Partner Agents are presented to homebuyers as blanket incentives of $1,000 in buyer commission rebates.
Torii Partner Agents are employed by, or work with their independent brokerages, are referred by Torii Homes at their own discretion, as a blind match. Torii Homes keeps the referral fee amount it receives from these brokers hidden. This practice is highly deceptive and is designed to deceive consumers to utilize Torii Homes as a price-fixing scheme to receive savings from competing brokers.
A blanket incentive of $1,000 is presented before consumers as savings, but the cost of the referral fee always works against homebuyers. The blanket referral fee between Torii Homes and Torii Partner Agents is hidden in the final cost of commissions. This practice results in an inefficiency known as reverse competition between brokers and price-fixing. Ultimately, price fixing and kickbacks result in a lower quality of service or higher commissions paid by the homebuyers.
By engaging with Torii Homes, homebuyers authorize them to share personal information and home search history with any Partner Agent, regardless if a consumer wants to work with a Torii Homes agent directly.
Torii Homes dictates that Partner Agent rebates $1,000 of their commission as means to allocate homebuyers to other brokers. In the United States, all independent brokerage fees are always negotiable and each real estate agent establishes its own policy for a fee structure, amount of commissions, and issuing rebates to consumers.
Price fixing is firmly prohibited by federal antitrust legislation. To fix, control, recommend, suggest or maintain commission rates, rebates, and fees for other agents' services is an improper practice.
In summary, Torii Homes offers a legitimate buyer's refund to consumers spent against miscellaneous closing costs. However, Torii Homes cannot legally organize competing brokers into a referral fee network because blanket referral agreements, price-fixing, consumer allocation, and market allocation between licensed real estate brokers in the United States are prohibited.