Compare Flyhomes and Enkasa Homes

For Sellers

Listing Rate
1%
Commission
Minimum commissions and other terms may apply. Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) is not included, but you may be able to negotiate this as well. Flyhomes charges 1% to list a home.

For Sellers

Trade-in Program
1%
Service Fee
Minimum commissions and other terms may apply. Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) is not included, but you may be able to negotiate this as well. Flyhomes does not provide Trade-in program participants a rebate on the buy-side.

For Sellers

Listing Rate
Unknown
Commission
Enkasa does not openly advertise listing services for consumers. Instead, the company claims to offer "industry-standard agent commissions" that do not exist in the real world.

For Buyers

Buyer’s Savings
33%
Commission Rebate
When Flyhomes represents home buyers, it contributes 33% of its Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) to the buyer as a way to financially compete for a buyer’s business. Home buyers do not pay any taxes on the amount, the refund amount is always tax-free.

For Buyers

Cash Offer
1%
Service Fee
It costs 1% to make a Flyhomes Cash Offer, but buyers working with Flyhomes also receive 1% of cash rewards to apply towards closing costs. Cash Offer is not free since the buyer will not receive a commission refund when using a stand-in program. Cash Offers stand-in program is highly selective and may come with added risks in case a buyer decides to back out of the sale. Buyers should carefully review their agreement with Flyhomes.

For Buyers

Buyer's Savings
$299-$1,299
Consultation Credit
When Enkasa represents home buyers, it recieves a Buyer's Agent Commission (typically 2.5%-3% BAC.) According to their website, Enkasa’s Contractor Consultation costs between $299 and $1,299. Enkasa credit these amounts, where a "consultation service fee waived for any client who uses Enkasa to represent them as their agent in purchasing a home." Home buyers do not pay any taxes on the amount, the refund amount is always tax-free. This offer is only available where allowed by law.
Question: What is the difference between Flyhomes and Enkasa Homes?
Answer: Flyhomes is a full-service real estate agent and a stand-in cash program for buyers that offers savings to homebuyers and home sellers while Enkasa Homes is a buyer's real estate agent that offers savings to homebuyers
Compare Flyhomes and Enkasa Homes for home buying and selling. HomeOpenly is an impartial and an open resource focused on trending real estate services, portals and start-ups.

First published: 13 November 2021
Last updated: 13 November 2021

Buying and Selling with Flyhomes

Flyhomes is a multi-state full-service real estate agent offers consumers listing savings and buyer’s refunds in select areas across Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Massachusetts, and California.

In Oregon state law currently does not allow Flyhomes to offer buyer’s rebates to consumers.

Flyhomes Pricing

Flyhomes offers listing savings to sellers (1% listing fee) and commission refunds to buyers (32% estimated rebate where allowed by State law.)

Flyhomes also offers buyers Cash Offers stand-in program, where the company either assures buyer’s offer or buys a home and resells it to the buyer for an added fee (1% service fee).

A similar Trade-in Program is available for sellers.

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

Flyhomes Editor's Review:

Flyhomes is a consumer-focused saving real estate broker that offers a wide variety of value-added propositions for home buyers and sellers in select areas where it operates.

Agent Listings
As a listing agent, Flyhomes works with a seller to prepare their home for listing, including taking professional photos, pricing home, and publishing marketing materials. Flyhomes lists all homes on the local MLS as well as typical MLS Aggregators.

Trade-in Program for Sellers
Flyhomes is not an iBuyer. Flyhomes offers sellers a Trade-in Program where the company runs a pricing analysis on seller's current home and sets a conservative price guarantee for the amount that it will pay to buy it outright.

Once a seller selects a new home and her purchase offer is accepted, the company lists the seller's current home on the market in order to sell it for more than the price guarantee amount. Once the home sells company accounts for its expenses. Flyhomes Trade-in Program is a value-added proposition and a viable alternative to iBuyer Offers. Unlike Flyhomes, with an iBuyer seller inevitably loses a lot of their home net equity in the process due to the risk of holding and re-selling the home by the iBuyer. Sellers using Trade-in Program do not lose equity and only pay a moderate fee in the process. Granted, Flyhomes does not offer "quick cash" iBuyer proposition, where the seller still needs to list their home in the open market and wait for better offers to come in and pay expenses back, but the equity savings is why we rate this program as genuinely consumer-focused.

Sellers who use Flyhomes Trade-in program do not receive a rebate on the buy-side and Flyhomes charges sellers 1% commission as a service fee (this does not include the buy-side agent commission) to list their home. Flyhomes evaluates seller's home before the seller can participate in Trade-in Program and reserves the right to request repairs prior to seller's inclusion in the program.

Buyer's Agent
As a buyer's agent, Flyhomes works with buyers to find a home, schedule inspections, negotiate repairs and finalize the purchase. Flyhomes offers overall great value to consumers looking to buy or sell a home including a convenient "request tour" option on the Flyhomes website in order to easily schedule home viewings with their service team.

Guaranteed and Cash Offers for Buyers
Flyhomes offers buyers a unique Cash Offers stand-in program where Flyhomes purchases a home outright from the seller on a buyer's behalf in as few as 2 days and sells it back at the same price to the buyer on an agreed upon closing date.

When a Cash Offer is not available, buyers can utilize Guaranteed Offer instead. For the Guaranteed Offer program, Flyhomes guarantees the seller that the home will close, and if it doesn't, Flyhomes will then buy the home for the same terms.

Cash Offers stand-in program is not free, it is also highly selective. Cash Offers program may come with added risks in the event the buyer decides to back out of the sale. Buyers should carefully review their agreement with Flyhomes before participating in Cash Offers stand-in program so to fully understand the fees and potential penalties for backing out of the Cash Offer once it is made.

Buyers can only utilize Cash Offers when working with Flyhomes, which means that if there is another local real estate agent who offers a buyer a better commission refund, such as a flat fee option, the buyer cannot take advantage of these larger savings with Cash Offers.

In some cases, an alternative savings model may better serve buyers financially than Cash Offers proposition due to a sheer price tag of standard real estate commissions.

Where does Flyhomes operate?

Flyhomes currently operates in select areas across Greater Seattle, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco Bay Area, and Boston.

Buying with Enkasa

Enkasa is a tech-enabled real estate broker and a residential remodeling construction management company. Enkasa’s services are paid through a Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) concession, typically offered by the seller’s agent to the buyer’s agent when a property is advertised on the MLS.

If a home buyer is already working with another agent, Enkasa’s Construction Managers can conduct a property consultation, review disclosures, and assess feasibility of your ideas for repairs or improvements.

Enkasa Pricing

Enkasa brokerage revenue comes from Buyer Agent Commissions (BAC) amounts offered by the sellers' agents. Enkasa’s Contractor Consultation costs between $299 and $1,299. For comparison, a Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) offered at 3% for a $4 million home (not uncommon in California) is about $120,000 without a negotiated buyer rebate. Enkasa rebates consultation service fees to any client who uses Enkasa to represent them as their agent in purchasing a home.

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

Enkasa Homes Editor's Review:

Enkasa is a California brokerage that operates under a DRE license #02155340. Enkasa claims that: "Buyers don’t pay Enkasa anything. We charge sellers industry-standard brokerage commissions." First of all, buyer agents never work for free. Second of all, there are no industry-standard brokerage commissions in real estate. All commissions are eventually paid by the buyer when s/he writes a check (or takes out the new mortgage) on a newly-purchased property. Sellers lose equity due to costs of listing commissions, but buyers pay all closing costs including the costs of buy-side commissions built into the final accepted offer on a home.

Buyers in reality pay for Enkasa’s services through a Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) concession, typically offered by the seller’s agent to the buyer’s agent when a property is advertised on the MLS. In California, where Enkasa is licensed, a buyer can negotiate a rebate from this "blanket" BAC amount to reduce the cost of commissions financially. This rebate is a tax-free, fully negotiable amount is that converts an "industry-standard" BAC commission into a competitive rate.

Enkasa further claims that "because we help you buy sooner, we’re more efficient than other brokers, so we don’t charge you any extra fees for helping you plan your home improvements." Sooner than what? This is an empty statement with an unfounded claim that choosing Enkasa somehow will allow a buyer to purchase a home faster. The costs associated with "helping buyers plan for home improvements" are simply bundled by Enkasa into the Buyer Agent Commission revenue it will receive at the closing.

In the real world, the home buyer can openly negotiate tens of thousands in tax-free rebates with highly competitive agents and often use that money to not just "help plan home improvements," but to renovate a home.

According to their website, Enkasa’s Contractor Consultation costs between $299 and $1,299. For comparison, a Buyer Agent Commission (BAC) offered at 3% for a $4 million home (not uncommon in California) is about $120,000. If a buyer is able to negotiate a buyer refund at 50% of BAC from a competitive and a highly-qualified agent, that refund amount adds up to $60,000 in tax-free cash due to the buyer from their agent after the closing of the transaction. This rebate amount can be staggering when all services are shopped for competitively, rather than purchased on the notion that "buyer agents receive industry-standard brokerage commissions" from sellers.

The United States Department of Justice has made it clear in the 2020 settlement agreement with the NAR that buyer agents do not work for free and to advertise services as such is a deceptive practice. Provided that Enkasa’s services can be unbundled, the best way I can describe the financial incentive offered by Enkasa is a credit of $1,299 for the "consultation service fee waived for any client who uses Enkasa to represent them as their agent in purchasing a home." In another word, if you are a home buyer looking for a $4 home in California with Enkasa as your buyer agent, their brokerage may receive about $120,000 in Buyer Agent Commission as a fee before they credit you $1,299 as a cash incentive, an equivalent of a 1% cash rebate where the 99% of the BAC is kept by the brokerage.

Consumers should further carefully read Enkasa Terms of Service, where, for example:

…You will only be permitted to pursue claims and seek relief against Enkasa on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding; and …
…You are waiving your right to pursue disputes or claims and seek relief in a court of law and to have a jury trial on your claims…
… Enkasa provides services, including the transaction assistance, on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Enkasa does not provide any express or implied warranties, conditions, or representations regarding the services, including transaction assistance, or any information provided in connection with the services and Enkasa, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, contractors, agents, partners, suppliers, and licensors (collectively, the "Enkasa parties") disclaim any and all warranties, representations, and conditions of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including all warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, quiet enjoyment, accuracy, or non-infringement. Enkasa makes no guarantee that the services will function without interruption or errors…
…You acknowledge and agree that the Enkasa parties are not liable, and you will not seek to hold the Enkasa parties liable, for the conduct of third parties, including operators of external sites, and that the risk of injury from such third parties rests entirely with you. Enkasa makes no warranty that the goods or services provided by third parties will meet your requirements or be available on an uninterrupted, secure, or error-free basis. Enkasa makes no warranty regarding the quality of any such goods or services, or the accuracy, timeliness, truthfulness, completeness or reliability thereof…

In conclusion, the advertised premise where "Enkasa charges industry-standard agent commissions, so buyers and sellers don’t pay anything more than they would with other agents" is plain false. There are highly competitive agents who will compete for buyers’ with buyer agents rebates; there are no industry-standard agent commissions in California. In some states, such as Oregon, buyers cannot receive rebates due to anticompetitive state-specific rebate bans, but Enkasa is not a licensed broker in any of these ten states.

Because of such blatantly false advertising methods for services offered by Enkasa brokerage, this editor cannot possibly recommend them to any home buyer. The truth has a habit of revealing itself, and the deceptive advertising notions employed by Enkasa, as described in this review, should be enough to raise a common sense alarm for a savvy consumer.

The real estate industry likes to operate on false notions that "buyer agents work for free" and that "commissions are standard" because real estate brokers do not like to compete with each other on pricing. Yet the commission buyer rebate is the single largest line item for savings when buying a home. When shopping for a buyer agent, or a contractor, there are no gimmicks and there are no substitutes for open negotiations and multiple bids with clearly defined pricing schedules. There are no standard rates in the housing industry: everything is negotiable.

As always, we encourage consumers to post unbiased feedback about this business with any sentiment. If hiring this brokerage worked for you, or if it didn’t, other California consumers need to know.

Where does Enkasa Homes operate?

Enkasa Homes currently operates in select areas across San Francisco Bay Area.