Orchard Reviews
Buying and Selling with Orchard
2022 Editor’s Score Update: Orchard (formerly known as Perch) is a VC-backed real estate company headquartered in NY that has recently pivoted (changed their business model) from what used to be an iBuyer to what is now a bridge loan Fintech-assisted home buying and home selling.
This is a positive business model change that has organically improved the Editor’s score for Orchard on Geodoma platform with an updated Editor’s review for this business. The archived version of the previous Editor’s review for Orchard is available here. Geodoma Editor’s Score is adaptable to businesses in the US housing sector either improve or degrade their service offerings to consumers. An organic imporvment in Geodoma Editor’s score is a sign of companies’ willingness to improve their practices. When companies improve their practices, Geodoma Editor’s Score organically follows.
Geodoma Users’ Reviews for Orchard are published in accordance with Consumer Review Fairness Act and fair marketing and advertising principles. Geodoma never removes legitimate Users’ Reviews posted by consumers. However, we recommend that consumers reference newer Users’ Reviews posted. Some older Users’ Reviews for Orchard posted by consumers may no longer reflect upon Orchard’s current real estate and Fintech bridge loan services.
Orchard Pricing
Orchard primarily makes money with real estate commissions, but also with a difference between buying and selling each home when a home seller accepts a Guaranteed Offer. Sellers can expect to receive 80%-85% of their home value from Guaranteed Offer type of sale after any fees, cost of the minor repairs, and resale. As a Fintech-enabled Listing Realtor, Orchard Realty charges Move First fee (the same as List with Orchard fee) at 5% to 6% of your home sale (where Orchard acts as a dual agent and collects the 3% listing fee plus the 3% BAC Buyer Agent Commission.). Buy with Orchard fee is paid from the BAC Buyer Agent Commission typically offered via MLS at 2.5% to 3% to buyer agents. When acting as a buyer agent, Orchard does not offer any rebates from the BAC amount it receives, but the service includes Orchard's cash-backed offer as an added value (when compared to buying the same home with another buyer agent who does not offer rebates to buyers.)
Listing Services
- MLS Listing
- Zillow, Trulia, etc. Listing
- Accept and Deliver All Offers and Counteroffers
- Hold Open Houses
- Professional Floor Plans
- Yard Signage Installation
- Spare Key Lock-box Installation
- Schedule Inspection Services
- Schedule Private Showings
- Closing Duties
- Professional Photography
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
Orchard Editor's Review:
Move First and Home Listing Services
Orchard Brokerage offers home sellers a Fintech-enabled buy before listing Move First bridge loan option in certain areas where it operates. This program is potentially a value-added service for consumers where a home seller can list their home for sale after they buy another home and move into a new property. This program is not free, and home sellers must be aware of program specifics to fully understand if this is the right option for your case. The Editor's review examines the program based on the cost vs benefit, as well as the available alternatives to home sellers.
The one critical difference in this program is that Orchard offers two separate (and business-wise unrelated) services to home sellers as “tied” into a single offering: (1) service of a real estate listing agent and (2) service to produce a bridge loan between two mortgages.
This tied notion is important because it directly affects the home selling fees associated with using Orchard compared to an alternative real estate service that may offer home sellers lower costs of real estate commissions and/or an alternative Fintech-enabled bridge loan program that may offer an untied bridge loan on better terms. Home selling fees (Realtor commissions) are the biggest single line-item expense in real estate transactions.
For example, let’s examine the 6% commission rate currently advertised for Move First service (if Orchard acts as a dual agent and collects the 3% listing fee plus the 3% BAC Buyer Agent Commission.) On a $4 million home sale, the total 6% gross commissions taken by Orchard amounts to $240,000. This is the amount of equity a home seller would need to convert into fees to pay Orchard for their service, and a buyer to pay for out of his/her new mortgage sum. How Orchard advertises these fees becomes very important in a competitive real estate market where competing Realtors may offer much lower listing fees or similar fees for very different services rendered.
For a home seller, it is important to shop for listing broker commissions because of the significant difference between net equity and total equity left after a home sale. The bank does not care how much in fees are lost during a sale, only homeowners’ net equity is lost in transaction fees. Remember, every dollar in net equity from a home sale is paid for with years of mortgage interest, insurance, taxes, and other life-cycle costs.
Buyer Agent Services
For home buyers, Orchard offers the services of a buyer agent supported by cash-backed offers. This bridge loan program is not free for buyers, it is a product of high interest in a short period, paid for with fees. In Orchard’s case, these fees are BAC Buyer Agent Commissions offered on MLS. However, unlike cash iBuyers that drain equity, the premise of a bridge loan cash leverage is to improve the outcome of the real estate transaction with a more reliable offer made by the home buyer, backed by rapid access to someone else’s cash. This distinction allows a buyer to use Orchard’s VC cash vault to secure a home purchase on better terms.
The purpose of the cash-backed offers benefits the home buyer, but this program also places the home buyer into an agreement with Orchard where the home buyer may face fees and penalties for backing out of the deal, as well as limited acceptance into the loan program based on home buyers’ financial standing, location, home value, and other situational requirements, etc. Orchard does not currently publish specifics for these terms anywhere, and it does not disclose the acceptance rate into the program. This is not a regular loan product, thus it largely remains a black box. It should be noted, however, that this is a universal issue with any similar Fintech bridge loan product because the program must assume that a home buyer is able (and likely) to secure a mortgage.
The home buyer pays for the bridge loan product because it is coupled with the Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) that Orchard receives from the home purchase. This amount is offered on MLS, typically at 2.5% to 3% of the home sale price. Some of Orchard’s competitors offer rebates from this BAC amount as a way to compete for home buyers' business. For example, on a $4 million home purchase, Orchard Brokerage receives about $100,000 as a Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) amount. If a competing brokerage offers a home buyer on that same sale, a 50% rebate that is a $50,000 tax-free cash in the home buyer’s bank account (this is typically subject to lender approval and only in 40 US States and Washington DC. Ten (10) US States currently maintain anticompetitive state bans on buyer rebates.) This potential cash rebate is the opportunity benefit that a home buyer gives up to use Orchard Brokerage to represent them with a bridge loan program. Is the buyer rebate better or is the bridge loan better? This is up to each home buyer to decide, but either one of these options holds an inherent value.
Guaranteed Offer
Orchard was born as an iBuyer, but the company has since shifted its business model to a Fintech-enabled Realtor. iBuyers systematically make below-market offers to home sellers, at about 80% of the true open market value when adding together the lower priced offers and the exigent fees.
For example, Orchard claims that their fees to take the Guaranteed Offer is 7% of the home value, but that does not include the hidden fees of below-market offers made to home sellers. Orchard Guaranteed Offer may seem like a good idea to a home seller, but it is probably the worst equity drain there is. Remember, a mortgage company does not care how a home seller sells their home – they receive the same remaining mortgage sum amount regardless if a home seller has lost 20% of their equity or 2% of their equity in real estate transaction fees. A 20% loss in total equity easily translates into 90% of net equity the home seller has in their home. Transaction fees in real estate are often hidden from home sellers because they are paid out from the mortgage sum, but this money is very real when it comes to the remaining net equity after the sale.
iBuying suffers from “double transaction” costs and ultra-high risks of buying and reselling a home on the open market. iBuying is systematically the most expensive way to transfer ownership of real estate in the United States. The best way for consumers to transfer real estate is on the open market, subject to competitive commissions and fees.
When Orchard Brokerage acts as a home sellers’ primary listing agent and a representative, it creates a conflict of interest by offering their client an offer on their home that the company knows is below the market price. By tying the service of a self-serving iBuyer and a service of a Realtor into a single proposition is a serious conflict. Selling directly to Orchard should be the sellers’ last resort option. Even Orchard itself admits that this program is a statistical UX failure where 95% of their customers do not choose to sell to Orchard. Orchard claims that the Guaranteed Offer helps to protect the seller, but the true cost of accepting a below-market iBuyer option makes their claims statistically unsupported. Either way, a consumer would need to hire another Realtor to help them evaluate the Guaranteed Offer from an unbiased perspective, where Orchard Brokerage cannot be trusted to make such determination in self-interest. iBuyers do not have a duty to represent home sellers, they only have to represent their balance sheets and shareholders.
Neutral Rating for Orchard
Geodoma Editor’s rating for Orchard is Neutral. First of all, Neutral is not a bad rating on Geodoma - it is Neutral. The main aspects of the Orchard services offer added value to consumers as a Fintech-enabled real estate brokerage, a bridge loan, and an inclusive home listing repairs and home staging Concierge. At the same time, some of the Orchard practices should give consumers a pause to think.
Orchard has already made a great effort to primarily switch their model from an equity-drain product of an iBuyer to use VC cash as leverage to help consumers, which means that the company is willing to improve its services. As always, Orchard’s customers are encouraged to share personal feedback as the ultimate gauge of service and value with any sentiment.
FAQ for Orchard
What are the alternatives to Orchard?
Orchard directly competes Fintech-enabled and savings real estate agents in thier specific service areas that may include Flyhomes, Redfin, Jovio, SimpleShowing, TRELORA, and others.
What are the pros and cons of Orchard?
Pros: Orchard is a full-service Fintech-enabled real estate agent and a stand-in program with an ability to make cash-backed offers. For the most part, Orchard is a value-added proposition to home buyers and home sellers with somewhat transparent pricing and added value of a VC-backed bridge loans service.
Cons: There are several main disadvantages to Orchard.
First, the above US national average 6% listing commission rate (when Orchard acts as a dual agent.) This difference is especially true with high-end $4+ million valued home sales and home purchases, where Orchard takes a much higher than a national US average 6% commissions that can easily amount to $100,000 working as a buyer agent or listing agent, and $240,000 working as a dual listing agent.
Second, sometimes Orchard operates as an iBuyer and makes direct a high loss of equity Guaranteed Offer to buy a home with a 6%-7% iBuyer fee. However, when adding for fees and loss of top market value, seller loss may become as much as 20% of total equity or much more in net equity. There is no value to this offer to consumers, the only value is to Orchard. Orchard claims that less than 5% of their customers accept the Guaranteed Offer because the home didn't sell on the market at a higher price, making this a 95% failure rate proposition to consumers.
Third, the conflict of interest (and/or duty to care) whenever Orchard acts as a listing Realtor and a potential cash iBuyer for the same property, where Realtors’ legal obligations must only represent the best interest of the home seller. The legal conflict arises because the Orchard Realtor knows for a fact that the Orchard's Guaranteed Offer is underpriced. By combining two elements (an iBuyer and a Realtor) into a single proposition, Orchard creates a conflict of interest where a Realtor says to a home seller they represent: 'I'll buy a home from you,' at what he or she knows is a lower than market price. A Realtor cannot act in self-interest when representing any client.
Fourth, some of Orchard's real estate services and bridge loans services are tied together and offered as a single offer proposition. It is difficult to compare bridge loan fees at Orchard as opposed to fees at Ribbon Home, for example.
Fifth, Orchard proposes their 6% commission as standard, but brokers do not have standard commissions. This is a lost opportunity of tens of thousands of USD in listing commissions savings and cash buyer agent rebates that may be available from competing real estate companies. This is a problem of false advertising. By stating that fees are the same elsewhere, Orchard implies that consumers should not shop around for better rates. This is simply a bad practice on Orchard's end.
Sixth, although technically legal under 12 C.F.R. Part 1024.15 (Regulation X) as affiliated business arrangements, Orchard steers consumers toward three affiliated products: Orchard Insurance, Orchard Title, and Orchard Loans. This means that it is unlikely that Orchard will recommend a better service to consumers in these three verticals, unlike an independent Realtor who does not have similar affiliated business arrangements.
Seventh, (this is a universal problem for all bridge loan propositions we see that we do not expect to be easily fixed by any Fintech-enabled real estate company, but it still is a problem that we mention) cash-backed offer benefits the home buyer, but it also places a home buyer into an agreement with Orchard where a consumer may face fees and penalties for backing out of the deal, as well as limited acceptance into the loan program based on home buyers’ financial standing, location, home value, and other situational requirements, etc. Orchard does not currently publish specifics for these terms anywhere, and it does not disclose the acceptance rate into the program. A bridge loan is not a regular lending product, and it largely remains a black box outside of typically transparent lending practices subject to TILA. Ideally, a consumer should see the terms of every bridge loan product somewhere on Orchard's website.
What is Orchard?
Orchard is a multi-state real estate Fintech-enabled online real estate brokerage and a direct home cash buyer that offers a variety of services to home buyers and home sellers
Is Orchard legitimate?
Yes, for the most part. Orchard Brokerage is a legitimate Realtor that represents home buyers and home sellers with value-added Fintech-enabled bridge loans service propositions in select service areas. However, in some cases, Orchard acts as a Realtor and an iBuyer, creating a potential conflict of interest between legal obligation before its stakeholders and the duty to represent the best interests of its clients. Further, Orchard Brokerage fees are above national US average commissions, and some of their unrelated service offerings are 'tied' into a single offer proposition. Consumers should carefully evaluate both, Pros and Cons, before using Orchard Brokerage. Geodoma currently offers a Neutral rating for Orchard, due to a specific set of business model deficiencies described in the Editor's review.
Where does Orchard operate?
Orchard User Reviews
I do not recommend you use this company this realitor name above. Totally dismissed my information on a property and it's issues as well as selling the property with a lien on it when I contacted her she basically told me to lawyer up. Completely unethical and unprofessional. Not to mention she broke the law on multiple levels by not disclosing I go to a buyer and selling a property with lien. This is a horrible way to treat people. No due diligence as it is required by law. Thank you for reading .
CEO
Sean court
Lazy wood properties LLC.
Orchard gave us enough money up front to put down over 20% on our next house without having to list first. The shopping experience was a little intimidating because of the market, but we were able find a house and make the winning offer in less than a month. Even though we had to go 40k over asking, the house appraised and we had more than enough for a big down payment from Orchard's cash offer.
Skipping the listing process before moving in to our new house was just what we needed. Having a toddler while working from home was stressful enough and I couldn't imaging dealing with showings.
Our old house ended us listing for a little longer than we wanted, but when it finally sold it gave us enough extra money to upgrade the family car!
Thanks to Orchard, we got a new house and a new car without having to deal with listing our while working from home during Covid.
My initial contacts with Dash Foster and Dana Posocco were quite positive. However things deteriorated rapidly once Travis Wilson entered the picture. He started by sending me an email on Friday 9/17 asking for my schedule for the weekend so we could set up an initial call. I provided him my schedule that day but never heard back. I got an email from Travis on Monday, 9/20 apologizing for ignoring me and saying he would be available for a call later that day. I advised we had moved and our internet was not yet working but we could have a conversation that afternoon. I never heard back. He sent an email on the morning of Tuesday, 9/21 apologizing again and saying the call would definitely take place later that day…it didn’t. I wrote him on 9/22 asking for a specific date and time for a call which finally took place on 9/23. At this point I should have realized what I was dealing with but I ignored the signs.
The initial call took place and we talked about specifics and Travis told me a lockbox would be placed on my property. I told him to let me know when that happened and I could make arrangements for a neighbor to place a key in the lockbox.
Travis sent me a text on September 28 telling me a lockbox was placed on the property and asking if I could have a neighbor place a key in the lockbox. I asked my neighbor to do so and he did not find a lockbox on the door. Travis advised it might be on the hose bib so I sent the neighbor back and it wasn’t there either. He said it might be on the utility meter so the neighbor went back and it wasn’t there either. Turns out no lockbox was on the property. The following day someone else from Orchard called and told me a lockbox was now on the property and asked me to have a neighbor place a key. I advised I needed to know the exact location before sending a neighbor over there for a 4th time. This finally happened and the key was placed in the lockbox.
The listing went live on Wednesday, October 13th. I was looking forward to hearing how many showings we had on the first weekend. According to my dashboard on your website, there were a grand total of 3 which is frankly ridiculous. I received a text from Travis on Saturday, October 16th asking if I could have the neighbor place another key in the lockbox because apparently the one that was in there had been taken. By now I was a bit pissed and I advised Travis where the spare keys were and to make sure one was placed in the lockbox without me involving my neighbor. The following morning, I received a message from a prospective buyer telling me they wanted to make a cash offer on the property but they couldn’t get into the property because there was no key. I sent 2 text messages to Travis on Sunday asking if this had been corrected but never received a response. When he did respond the following day he said it had been corrected but the bottom line is the opening weekend this property was listed was destroyed.
On Monday October 18, I spoke with Dana and told her how dissatisfied I was with Travis. She said she would mention this to his superiors but since I never heard from anyone I have no idea if that actually happened.
Travis advised me the offer on the home was $410K. Considering that was lower than my price guarantee with Orchard, I declined. He said he might be able to get them to go higher but her never mentioned any other showings or offers on my property. The next day he let me know the offer had been increased to $445K. At that point I was so sick of Orchard, I accepted.
A few days later the inspection report revealed the property needed a new roof and a new deck. Travis suggested I agree to the concessions of reducing the sale price by $5K and paying the deductible on a roof claim. He assured me I would still come out ahead of Orchard’s buyout offer so I agreed. After several more days of aggravation, the final figures revealed that the amount due to me would be $2,600 less than the buyout guarantee from Orchard. When I expressed my dissatisfaction with this, the $1,500 concierge fee was waived so I only ended up $1,100 under the guarantee amount. It is significant to note Orchard did not waive any of their commissions.
The fact that local Orchard management was involved in this final resolution and never once contacted me says all I need to know about this company. Take my advice and go with a company who actually cares about you. Orchard is not that company.
The day it was supposed to go on the market and a listing was to be posted (she told us Friday at noon) the posting was over 7 hours late. With extensive errors in the listing. When confronted as to why it was late she said that she had questions she didn't know the answers to and she sent an email (at what would have been 4 hours late). All the questions she had I already answered on a call the day before (she seemed very rushed and I felt like I was an inconvenience on that call). She admitted she forgot all the information I had given her when I asked about it.
When the listing first went up I responded with a list of errors within 5 minutes but I did not receive a message that they would be addressed until 2 hours later. Some were addressed. Messaged the next day during showings to get the errors corrected. Some were addressed. Messaged the day after that to get the last of them addressed.
Our realtor only gave us updates on if we had offers or interest when directly asked. No information was ever given freely. Asking after our status (once a day) felt like pulling teeth. If a question was not asked perfectly it was ignored.
Through the entire process I was made to feel like an inconvenience and not worth the effort. She came to the property once to drop off the contract and was not interested in a tour. She seemed annoyed when errors were pointed out, these were not minuscule details either, saying we don't have AC in the desert when we do can greatly affect interest in a property. The listing description was bland and felt like the address was just inserted into a pre-written paragraph, not mentioning the state park 2 blocks away or the light rail 1 block away. The remodeling of the kitchen, patio, and bathroom also went unmentioned. While those are not blatant errors they could have helped garner more attention to our home.
We were given no advice on how to present our home for showings, no guidance through the process at all. Instead we were saddled with an agent that required us to babysit her and her work while we tried to prepare a house for sale for the first time.
No. Don't use Orchard, at all. Find a company that will actually look at for your best interests
They did a bad job listing it and not putting the good point about the house in their ad. But thats there goal is for them to not be able to sell it!
Very stressful time would never do it again!
They have lots of loop holes to trip you up !
So i invited them in to do a home inspection and give a valuation of what they would pay for the house.
After over 2 weeks and 3 different visits by home inspectors they cam back with a number nearly 200K under that initial valuation number
We ended up selling to Redfin Now for for MUCH MUCH more -
Overall orchards agent seemed clueless and the company itself didn't really seem to have it act together.
Poor customer service.
Actually they just let the contract expire without answering my phone calls. Then after that date said my foundation was 2 inches off and my electrical needed updating so no deal. That is fine, but 2 weeks to keep me waiting just to reject me? I could have had my house on the market two weeks ago. So much for a stress free experience. Save yourself the trouble and use a realtor.
Went under contract and the first house was dropped by $44,000. The second house was said to have a report they were waiting on and the customer service rep (I won’t mention her name). Said I’d have an answer by Wednesday. For my final offer on the 2nd house, instead of calling me to give me the updated report/offer they never even reached out and instead just sent me the termination offer.
It was by far the WORST experience I’ve ever encountered in any type of transaction.
After Perch did the home inspection, they stated that they made a mistake in valuation and dropped the original offer by 30k. In addition, they were charging for little items such as a knick in the molding to a garage door, a cracked electrical outlet, or a fence, that isn't on my property (proven by a survey when we purchased the house), that needs repairs. The total cost of repairs came to another 20k. I know my house isn't perfect, but it does not need 50k worth of repairs. You could easily spend ~10k and sell for 340k in my area.
I would not recommend using this service unless you enjoy wasting your time. COMPLETE SCAM designed to prey on people that are desperate to sell their house.
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