Compare Houwzer and mellohome
For Sellers
For Buyers
For Buyers
Answer: Houwzer is a full-service real estate agent that offers savings to homebuyers and home sellers while mellohome is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements
Buying and Selling with Houwzer
Houwzer is a multi-state savings broker, offers consumers listing savings and buyer’s refunds in select areas across Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.
Houwzer Pricing
Houwzer offers savings to sellers ($5,000 flat listing fee)
Listing Services
- MLS Listing
- Zillow, Trulia, etc. Listing
- Accept and Deliver All Offers and Counteroffers
- Hold Open Houses
- Professional Photography
- Professional Floor Plans
- Yard Signage Installation
- Spare Key Lock-box Installation
- Schedule Inspection Services
- Schedule Private Showings
- Closing Duties
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
Houwzer Editor's Review:
Houwzer is a consumer-focused flat fee real estate listing broker. Houwzer does not openly offer buyer’s refunds to buyers.
As a listing agent, Houwzer works with a seller to prepare homes for listing, including taking professional photos, pricing home, and publishing marketing materials. Houwzer lists all homes on the local MLS as well as typical MLS Aggregators.
Houwzer does not openly offer buyer's refunds and keeps the entire Buyer's Agent Commission when it represents home buyers unless individually negotiated.
Houwzer offers a “bundle” rebate applied to the cost of listing if a consumers buys new home first. In order to qualify, a buyer must purchase a home with Houwzer and the company will reduce listing fee by $2,500 to sell buyer’s current home on the open market.
Where does Houwzer operate?
Buying and Selling with mellohome
WARNING: Unlawful Kickbacks, Broker-to-Broker Collusion, False Marketing, Wire Fraud, Price Fixing.
mellohome) 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.
mellohome is a referral fee network designed to collect fees by matching consumers with local real estate agents willing to participate. mellohome operates as a licensed real estate brokerage in Texas as mello Home Services, LLC TREC License # 9006745, but it does not produce any services that are typically offered by real estate agents and does not represent consumers when buying or selling real estate in any State.
When consumers submit information to mellohome, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with 25%-40% share of their commission.
mellohome Pricing
mellohome revenue comes from referral fees and sale of user data.
Listing Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Sellers
Buyer's Agent Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Buyers
mellohome Editor's Review:
mellohome is a Texas licensed real estate broker that collects an undisclosed referral fee (estimated at 25%-40% of agent's commission) 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, mellohome is a real estate agent that "does not engage in actual real estate broker services." mellohome systematically applies pay-to-play bias towards all matching results, meaning, only real estate agents that have agreed to pay a referral fee are matched with consumers.
mellohome 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.
mellohome further claims to match consumers with "top-rated professionals," but there is absolutely no third-party evidence for this. The main qualification for real estate agents who participate with mellohome is their willingness to pay a referral fee.
mellohome is an affiliated brokerage of loanDepot. loanDepot is unable to collect referral fees from real estate agents directly due to rigid RESPA regulations. Instead, loanDepot is using mellohome's license as a loophole to bypass RESPA provisions that were designed to protect consumers from illegal kickbacks between real estate agents and mortgage companies.
mellohome plays fees down to consumers - it states directly "mellohome Services is a free service for real estate buyers and sellers," but it rigidly locks every participating real estate agent into a 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 mellohome because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client's agreement with excessive commissions. mellohome receives the lowest score because this service is clearly biased and it claims to provide the complete opposite of what it actually does. mellohome must be well aware of this issue but continues to operate on pay-to-play methodology in order to collect fees that needlessly make home buying and selling more expensive.