Faira is a multi-state savings broker, offers consumers listing savings and buyer’s refunds in select areas across Washington, Arizona and California.
Faira offers savings to sellers (charges 0.5% platform fee to the buyer with an optional 1% listing fee) and commission refunds to buyers (2% of the purchase price).
For its in-house listings platform offers self-represented buyers a 2.5% independent buyer discount, to account for the fact that there is no need for Buyer's Agent Commission (BAC) expense for self-represented buyers.
However, we recommend that all Buyers work with their own competitive buyer's agent who offers a buyer's refund. Faira also offers Premium Listing option for a 3% listing fee.
Faira is a consumer-focused real estate agent that successfully represents consumers across Washington, Arizona, and California and offers sizeable savings.
Faira listing service includes posting home on the MLS and MLS Aggregator services, professional photos in addition to all typical services offered by a traditional real estate agent.
Faira gives sellers access to a well-designed dashboard with great communication features. The pricing model at this brokerage may be an issue for some Buyers and Agencies who are unable to work with it due to the "platform fee" structure.
Buyer's commission rebate structure is also subjective with ambiguously defined savings. What is considered standard real estate services are advertised by Faira as Premium for a significantly larger fee.
While Faira does offer sizeable savings for Buyers and Sellers, we find that some service offerings by Faira are difficult to substantiate, especially when it comes to its Premium listings.
Purplebricks offers consumers flat fee listing savings and buyer’s refunds for select cities in California, New York, Connecticut, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and New Jersey.
As of October 2019, Purplebricks no longer offers real estate representation services to consumers in the United States.
Purplebricks is a consumer-focused flat fee real estate broker. As a listing agent, Purplebricks works with a seller to prepare homes for listing, including taking professional photos, pricing home, and publishing marketing materials.
Purplebricks lists all homes on the local MLS as well as typical MLS Aggregators. Sellers don't have to pay anything until the property is sold or until 6 months have elapsed. In the unlikely event that the property hasn't sold after 6 months, Purplebricks will still market the property until it is sold.
Purplebricks maintains a well-designed online platform that allows sellers to communicate with all parties involved in a sale.
As a buyer's agent, Purplebricks works with buyers to find a home, schedule inspections, negotiate repairs and finalize the purchase.
Purplebricks offers a buyer's refund incentive of $1,000 paid at closing and it keeps the rest of the commission, typically 2.5%-3%. While Purplebricks offers great savings to sellers, the buyer’s refund policy is a bit weak - Purplebricks keeps almost all of the buyer's side commission.
It is not unusual for some agent to offer a much better 50% commission refund. Purplebricks has also suffered some initial problems entering the US market and it’s not yet clear if these have been fully resolved. For sellers, the listing fee is charged up-front and is non-refundable, although that is a very minor setback compared to thousands saved over a typical 3% sellers’ commission.
Purplebricks should be near the top of the seller’s list, but for buyers, there may be better local options. Still, $1000 buyer’s refund is better than zero refund offered by traditional buyer’s agents.
Purplebricks offers overall great value to consumers looking to buy or sell a home.