Compare NAEBA and RedfinNow

For Sellers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. does not provide real estate referrals for sellers.

For Sellers

Cash Offers
15%-20%
Home Equity
RedfinNow does not provide real estate services to home sellers. Instead, the company buys homes directly, repairs and resells them to consumers or investment companies that rent them to tenants. RedfinNow make an offer equal to 80%-85% of home value accounting for fees and any cost of the repairs and resale.

For Buyers

Referred Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. does not provide real estate services to home buyers. Instead, this company matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for an estimated 25%-40% referral fee. NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. results suffer from pay-to-play bias because the network does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay 25%-40% of their commission back to NAEBA.

For Buyers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
RedfinNow does not provide real estate services to home buyers. RedfinNow does resell some of the homes it buys on the open market, just like any other real estate investor aiming for the highest return on investment.
Question: What is the difference between NAEBA and RedfinNow?
Answer: NAEBA is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements while RedfinNow is a direct home cash buyer that buys select homes off-market with cash offers and resells them at a profit to homebuyers
Compare NAEBA and RedfinNow 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 NAEBA

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

NAEBA 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.


NAEBA claims that it is a professional organization of real estate buyer agents and buyer brokers who only represent home buyers, designed with consumers in mind, but this is not true.

NAEBA is an intricate web of For-Profit (Business) Corporations and brokerages designed to collect referral fees from all transactions it originates. NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. provides referrals to brokers for an undisclosed fee, it does not represent consumers.

NAEBA Pricing

NAEBA revenue comes from referral fees, dues, and sale of user information to real estate brokers.

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

Buyer's Agent Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Buyers

NAEBA Editor's Review:

National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) operates as a Non-Profit corporation. Further, NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. is a 100% NAEBA-owned Domestic For-Profit (Business) Corporation in Arizona No 19566663 operating under a separate Tax ID with Gea Elika as its Director and Kenneth Reid as President. NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. operates a for-profit brokerage called Buyer's Broker of Arizona working under a License Number CO656331000 with a designated real estate broker Kenneth Reid. Why such a complicated web of companies?

NAEBA claims that it is a professional organization of real estate buyer agents and buyer brokers who only represent home buyers, designed to educate consumers.

In reality, NAEBA is an intricate web of For-Profit (Business) Corporations and brokerages designed to collect referral fees from all transactions it originates.

NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. provides referrals to brokers for an undisclosed fee, most likely set anywhere between 25%-40% of the agent's entire commission.

In this process, NAEBA makes a few dozen referrals each year in exchange for a lucrative payout. In 2016 NAEBA Non-Profit brought in $522,261 in revenue; where membership dues account for only $24,583. In the same year Non-Profit claimed additional $431,010 in revenue, classified as a Miscellaneous, this amount comes directly from NAEBA Referral Service, Inc., where office expenses are further split 50/50 and salaries are billed by the hour for actual hours.

In 2016 NAEBA Non-profit Corporation spent 82% of its revenue, or $483,192 for salaries, employee benefits, and other expenses. It is unclear what additional revenue NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. keeps on its own books without an obligation to publically disclose full amount as a private For-Profit Corporation.

These financial incentives clearly point to the process of collecting referral fees as the primary reason for NAEBA operations.

NAEBA collects fees where "agents only pay if there are a match and the consumer purchases a property." There are a number of problems with this process and, eventually, consumers end up paying higher commissions when working with real estate agents that NAEBA recommends.

When consumers submit information to NAEBA, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with 25%-40% share of their commission.

This fee makes it hardly a free service for anyone since referral fees are inevitably passed down to consumers. More importantly, NAEBA applies this pay-to-play bias towards all matching results, meaning, only real estate agents that have agreed to pay a referral fee are displayed in match results for consumers.

NAEBA further 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.

NAEBA plays fees down to consumers while 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 in Arizona.

Clearly, real estate agents only sign-up with NAEBA because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client’s agreement by way of excessive commissions. NAEBA receives the lowest score because this service is clearly biased and it claims to provide the complete opposite of what it actually does. NAEBA claims to help buyers, but in reality, it only makes the home buying process more expensive with unnecessary fees.

The best proof of NAEBA's flawed model comes from that fact that it remains absolutely silent on the issue of Buyer's Rebates. Why? Simply because informing consumers about these actionable savings eats directly into NAEBA’s bottom line – if agents that NAEBA recommends beginning to offer consumers fair pricing and rebates, NAEBA would no longer be able to collect excessive referral fees as part of its business.

Buyers should avoid using NAEBA referral service and negotiate directly with real estate agents for a competitive representation, or use services that offer consumers a clearly-defined 0% referral fee structure.

Where does NAEBA operate?

NAEBA currently operates in select areas across United States.

Buying and Selling with RedfinNow

RedfinNow is a real estate investment company, owned by Redfin. RedfinNow is one of the only direct home buyers that openly admits that when listing a home on the open market, sellers may be able to sell a home for more than RedfinNow's offer price.

RedfinNow does not represent sellers in the sale of their home. If a seller decides to sell to RedfinNow, neither Redfin nor RedfinNow will represent the seller's interests regarding the sale.

RedfinNow further recommends that sellers seek independent representation in the sale of a home, which directly contradicts the claim that RedfinNow process saves 4%-6% in traditional real estate agent commissions.

RedfinNow Pricing

RedfinNow makes money with a difference between buying and selling each home. This difference is a combination of fees and home value appreciation between what RedfinNow buys and seller each home for.

Sellers can expect to receive 80%-85% of their home value from this type of sale after any fees, cost of the minor repairs, and resale. RedfinNow claims 7% - 9% in service fees, but this amount does not include a discounted cash offer seller typically receives.

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

Buyer's Agent Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Buyers

RedfinNow Editor's Review:

RedfinNow will buy a home at a price that is below market value due to necessary repairs, renovation, and other factors. After RedfinNow buys the home, it renovates and resells it for a profit to other buyers or companies that rent homes to qualified tenants.

RedfinNow claims that its fees are limited by 7% - 9% RedfinNow fee, but this fee does not mean that RedfinNow will offer consumers a fair market offer. RedfinNow is not obligated to present consumers with a fair offer for their property because, unlike a real estate agent, it does not represent consumers when selling a home. Additionally, similar to a traditional home sale process, the seller is responsible for covering their closing costs. This typically includes (but is not limited to) title insurance policy, attorney and escrow fees, and any HOA transfer fees.

With higher fees comes a convenience of an all-cash closing when selling a home. RedfinNow claims to provide convenience, speed, and certainty of a fast sale. Dubbed as an iBuyer, RedfinNow makes an offer on a house within days or hours, but this offer is highly conditional.

Each offer RedfinNow makes is just an estimate, it is non-binding until the company makes a home inspection. At the inspection, RedfinNow will often find reasons to lower its original offer when it finds items that need repair or if it has made a mistake in its original valuation.

When the company is unable to make an offer, it simply redirects consumers to a real estate agent - either a Redfin Agent or a partner Agent in exchange for a 30% referral fee. RedfinNow offers fast home sales, but these are typically accompanied by higher fees. RedfinNow only makes offers to select homes in select regions.

The main disadvantage of using RedfinNow is high losses in homeowners’ equity. RedfinNow is a “heavy” model, backed by a large amount of VC capital ready to buy homes in all-cash transactions. As any real estate investor, RedfinNow is susceptible to losing money in any given transaction. This model is susceptible to a number of risk factors, high operational costs and a continued need for higher-than-average Return on Investment (ROI) with each flip. RedfinNow is not legally bound to represent consumers, its main legal obligation is to its shareholders.

RedfinNow’s fast transaction and easy move-out experience typically come at an extremely high price because this model incurs “double” transaction costs during the purchase, holding period, rehab work and final sale that includes real estate agent fees. RedfinNow pays real estate agent commissions like any other buyer and seller of real estate, so these costs must be accounted for in the company’s fee structure.

The facts continue to point against RedfinNow’s claims that it offers fair value for the houses it buys. Moreover, because most homes in the United States are financed, homeowners own only partial net equity in their home. Banks receive the same amount of the remaining mortgage sum regardless of how any given home is sold, whereas only homeowners’ net equity is lost in transaction fees paid to RedfinNow.

Typically RedfinNow uses the following factors when determining the offer: existing condition of the home including repairs needed, time it will take to finish needed repairs, value of a home compared to other comparable homes in the area, real estate commission required to resell, costs associated with maintaining a home during repairs, including taxes, payments, insurance, utilities and homeowner dues.

Today, there are a number of highly qualified real estate agents who offer competitive listing rates and flat fee listings across the United States. Unless a situation absolutely requires a quick sale, HomeOpenly recommends that consumers first consider using a licensed real estate agent working on competitive terms to properly list their homes on the open market before turning to RedfinNow option.

Some real estate agents are now offering Concierge services that include painting, landscaping, and other services that help consumers place their home on the open market without upfront costs and high loss to home equity.

Where does RedfinNow operate?

RedfinNow currently operates in select areas across Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire in California .