Compare Home Bay and Rocket Homes

For Sellers

Listing Rate
$2,500
Flat 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. Home Bay flat fee rate modestly increases relative to sale price according to the company’s fee schedule.

For Sellers

Referred Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
Rocket Homes does not provide real estate services to home sellers. Instead, this company matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for an undisclosed referral fee; typically these fees are 25%-40% of the agent’s entire commission. Rocket Homes results suffer from pay-to-play bias because the network does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay 25%-40% of their commission to Rocket Homes.

For Buyers

Buyer’s Savings
50%
Commission Rebate
When Home Bay represents home buyers, it contributes 50% 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

Referred Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
Rocket Homes does not provide real estate services to home sellers. Instead, this company matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for an undisclosed referral fee; typically these fees are 25%-40% of the agent’s entire commission. Rocket Homes results suffer from pay-to-play bias because the network does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay 25%-40% of their commission to Rocket Homes.
Question: What is the difference between Home Bay and Rocket Homes?
Answer: Home Bay is a full-service real estate agent that offers savings to homebuyers and home sellers while Rocket Homes is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements
Compare Home Bay and Rocket 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: 17 February 2019
Last updated: 25 April 2021

Buying and Selling with Home Bay

Home Bay is a multi-state savings broker, offers consumers listing savings and buyer's refunds in select areas across California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and Colorado.

Home Bay Pricing

Offers savings to sellers (2,500 USD base flat listing fee) and buyers (50% of the Buyer’s Agent Commission).

It should be noted that Home Bay flat fee rates do modestly increase relative to the home's sale price according to the company’s fee schedule, so the final listing rate flat rate will vary.

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

Home Bay Editor's Review:

Home Bay is a consumer-focused flat fee real estate broker. As a listing agent, Home Bay works with a seller to prepare homes for listing, including taking professional photos, pricing home, and publishing marketing materials.

Home Bay lists all homes on the local MLS as well as typical MLS Aggregators. Home Bay maintains a well-designed online platform that allows sellers to communicate with all parties involved in a sale.

As a buyer's agent, Home Bay works with buyers to find a home, schedule inspections, negotiate repairs and finalize the purchase.

Home Bay offers overall great value to consumers looking to buy or sell a home.

Where does Home Bay operate?

Home Bay currently operates in select areas across California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and Colorado..

Buying and Selling with Rocket Homes

WARNING: Unlawful Kickbacks, Broker-to-Broker Collusion, False Marketing, Wire Fraud, Price Fixing.

Rocket Homes 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.


Rocket Homes is a referral fee network designed to collect fees by matching consumers with local real estate agents willing to participate.

Rocket Homes operates as a licensed Michigan real estate brokerage Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC License 6505-346028, 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 Rocket Homes, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with 25%-40% share of their commission.

Rocket Homes Pricing

Rocket Homes 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

Rocket Homes Editor's Review:

Rocket Homes is a Michigan 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, Rocket Homes is a real estate agent that “does not engage in actual real estate broker services.” Rocket Homes 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.

Rocket Homes 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.

Rocket Homes further claims to match consumers with “top-rated professionals,” but there is absolutely no third-party evidence for this. Rocket Homes Terms of Service directly states that “it does not guarantee or warrant the products or services of other product or service providers to whom it may refer you, including, but not limited to, real estate brokers/agents, lenders and escrow/settlement companies.”

The main qualification for real estate agents who participate with Rocket Homes is their willingness to pay a referral fee. Rocket Homes is an affiliated brokerage of Quicken Loans. Quicken Loans is unable to collect referral fees from real estate agents directly due to rigid RESPA regulations. Instead, Quicken Loans is using Rocket Homes’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.

Rocket Homes suffers from an incredibly poor Privacy Policy. Company states: “we will share your personal information (such as your name, address, telephone number and e-mail) to allow third parties to contact you (even if you are previously listed on any state, federal or corporate do-not-call list) regarding their products or services that include mortgage, moving companies, telephone service providers, internet service providers, cable and satellite television service providers, and real estate agents.”

Rocket Homes plays hidden referral fees down to consumers, but it rigidly locks every participating real estate agent 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 Rocket Homes works under the Business and Professions Code and RESPA.

Clearly, real estate agents only sign-up with Rocket Homes because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client’s agreement with excessive commissions.

Rocket Homes receives the lowest score because it simply sells user information to third parties without any clear benefit to anyone other than itself. There are exactly zero benefits to consumers when using this referral fee network - the only effects consumers gain with Rocket Homes are hidden fees, privacy concerns and blind matches with agents willing to part with 25%-40% of their commission. This model incorporates in itself everything real estate process shouldn’t be. Rocket Homes must be well aware of these issues but continues to operate on pay-to-play methodology in order to collect fees that needlessly make home buying and selling more expensive.

Where does Rocket Homes operate?

Rocket Homes currently operates in select areas across Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington..