Compare Open Listings and Better.com Real Estate

For Sellers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
Open Listings does not offer listing services to consumers.

For Sellers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
Better Real Estate does not openly advertise listing services for consumers.

For Buyers

Buyer’s Savings
50%
Commission Rebate
When Open Listings represents buyers, it contributes 50% of its total Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) as a way to financially compete for buyer’s business. Home buyers do not pay any taxes on the amount, the refund amount is always tax-free.

For Buyers

Partner Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
Better Partner Agents do not work for Better Real Estate. Instead, Better Real Estate matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for 25%-40% referral fees. This is a form of collusion and all matched results suffer from pay-to-play bias because Better.com does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay cut of their commission. When using Better Partner Agents consumers subject their home purchase to hidden kickbacks and fake price-fixed savings.

For Buyers

Buyer's Savings
+/- 32% (see note)
Commission Rebate
When Better Real Estate represents home buyers, it contributes an estimated 32% of its Buyer's Agent Commission (1% rebate from the 2.5%-3% BAC) 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. This offer is only available where allowed by law. However, Better.com Real Estate buyer agent services and Better.com mortgage origination services are unlawfully tied. In this scheme, consumers are harmed by being forced to buy a fairly common service (mortgage origination service) to purchase a much more valuable service they want (buyer agent savings from a real estate brokerage transaction.)
Question: What is the difference between Open Listings and Better.com Real Estate?
Answer: Open Listings is a buyer’s real estate agent and a referral fee network while Better.com Real Estate is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements
Compare Open Listings and Better.com Real Estate 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: 15 September 2021
Last updated: 15 September 2021

Buying and Selling with Open Listings

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

Open Listings 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.


A multi-state broker rebates buyer part of the commission it receives. In some cases, Open Listings acts as an Internet referral service where it sets rebates for independent real estate brokers that do not work for Open Listings directly.

Open Listings Pricing

Open Listings offers home buyers a 50% commission rebate. Open Listings also requires a $5,000 minimum commission. Minimum commission requirement negates refund for homes priced under 150,000 USD.

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

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

Open Listings Editor's Review:

In some cases, Open Listings represents clients directly. However, Open Listings Referral Network (Partner Agents) is a referral process that connects buyers with third-party real estate agents in exchange for an undisclosed commission split or a referral fee.

A Partner Agent who is employed by, or works with their own brokerage gets referred by Open Listings at their own discretion, as a blind match. Open Listings keeps referral fee amount hidden and does not disclose the split amount it receives from real estate agents who operate under their own license – this practice is highly deceptive and is designed to deceive consumers into thinking that Open Listings is the brokerage they are actually working with.

By engaging with Open Listings consumers authorize them to share personal information and home search history with any Partner Agent, regardless if a consumer wants to work with an Open Listings agent directly.

When shopping for a Real Estate Agent, the price alone is not as important as being able to make an informed choice about representation. Open Listings Referral Network is a poor choice for Real Estate Agents and consumers due to lack of transparency.

Open Listings’ operations as a referral network result in an inefficiency known as reverse competition and possible price fixing. Such practice may result in a lower quality of service or higher commissions.

Once Open Listings refers a customer to a Partner Agent, that agent, not Open Listings, represents the customer from the initial meeting through closing. Open Listings dictates that Partner Agent rebates 50% of their commission in order to receive a referral, while Open Listings takes a commission cut after the transaction is complete.

In the United States, all independent brokerage fees are always negotiable and each real estate agent establishes its own policy for a fee structure, amount of commissions, and issuing rebates to consumers.

Price fixing is prohibited by antitrust legislation. To fix, control, recommend, suggest or maintain commission rates, rebates, and fees for other agents' services is an improper practice.

Open Listings does not represent home sellers, but the company was acquired in 2018 by a direct home cash buyer: Opendoor.

Opendoor does not represent home sellers either, it is a real estate investor who buys homes from consumers and resells them at a profit; this practice is known as house-flipping.

When working with Open Listings, consumers may be pressured to use Opendoor by their Open Listings real estate agent. There is absolutely no requirement for anyone using Open Listings when buying a home to sell their home to an Opendoor.

As buyer’s agent Open Listings’ job is to represent consumers when making a purchase of a new home, it should not advise consumers on their existing home listing, unless a separate listing agreement exists.

Real estate agents are required by law to place their client’s interest before their own. Consumers are encouraged to read our full review for Opendoor before using the house-flipping service.

Where does Open Listings operate?

Open Listings currently operates in select areas across California, Washington, Texas, and Illinois..

Buying and Selling with Better Real Estate

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

Better.com Real Estate 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.


Better Real Estate is a real estate broker and broker-to-broker collusion scheme designed to collect fees by matching consumers with local Realtors. Better Real Estate operates as a licensed real estate brokerage in a number of states, primarily in New York as BRE Services, LLC License #10991232130

When consumers submit information to Better Mortgage or Better Real Estate, this information is shared in exchange for an undisclosed fee with random real estate agents in a process known as a "blind match." In some instances Better Real Estate acts as an affiliate of Better Mortgage and may represent consumers directly, however, Better Mortgage and Better Real Estate services are unlawfully tied.

Better Real Estate Pricing

Better Real Estate revenue comes from buyer agent commissions and undisclosed referral fees from competing Realtors. Referral fees set by such networks range anywhere between 25%-40% of the entire agent’s commission.

Better Real Estate pricing for buyer and seller representation is impossible to determine because broker services are unlawfully bundled with mortgage services where company's offers are available "to conforming loan product customers who have (a) entered a purchase contract on a home using the Better Real Estate Agent or Better Real estate Partner Agent; and (b) closed a mortgage loan on said home with Better Mortgage Corporation."

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

Buyer's Agent Services

  • Find the Property
  • Recommend Other Professionals
  • Attend Inspection Services
  • Schedule Private Showings
  • Negotiate Needed Repairs
  • Closing Duties
  • Accept and Deliver All Offers and Counteroffers

Better.com Real Estate Editor's Review:

Better Real Estate is a licensed real estate broker and a broker collusion scheme that organizes and price-fixes services of competitors in exchange for hidden kickbacks it receives from the "partner agent" commissions.

Using its website, Better Real Estate engages in a process known as price fixing because it sets buyer rebates for independent real estate professionals (Better Real Estate Partner Agents) that have agreed to participate in the scheme. According to the Better.com website, "Purchase borrowers matched with a Better Real Estate Agent may receive $2,000 in lender credits and purchase borrowers matched with a Better Real Estate Partner Agent may receive up to 1% of the home sales price in lender credits." For purposes of the present discussion, brokerage fees are always negotiable and no broker should set rates and rebates for other brokers. Each firm should establish its own policy as to its fee structure and charges, amount of commissions, and rebates. Price fixing is prohibited by federal antitrust legislation. Individual agents must never discuss, or set rates with brokers outside of their own company.

By setting rates and rebates for a network of competing brokers across the United States, Better Real Estate operates with a sole purpose to collect referral fees, where such service effectively results in lower quality of service, pay-to-play bias, and a "blind match" with agents willing to participate.

The price fixed rates established by Better Real Estate scheme are severely inflated (for buyers, the buyer rebate is severely reduced) due to hidden kickbacks. Further, these same exact "partner agents" are in collusion with Better Real Estate, therefore, they are unethical and unlikely to provide any form of honest representation to homebuyers. Consumers using Better Real Estate "partner network" have zero control over what agents the company shares their information with. Instead of being "sold as leads" consumers looking for a competitive and fair representation can consider negotiating directly with real estate agents, or with help from unbiased consumer-focused online services that do not collect kickbacks.

Better.com Price-Fixing Harms Homebuyers

Better Real Estate offers a “discount” to consumers from a blanket referral fee earned, not from a commission earned. This is a form of price-fixing and is, effectively, a kickback derived from another kickback, instead of a legal buyer's rebate mechanism.

The true intention of Better Real Estate is to motivate the consumer to use the network with a “discount” tangled as a carrot, despite the massive disadvantages of a hidden referral fee. In such a scenario, the consumer ends up grossly overpaying for their buyer's agent commission due to the hidden kickbacks between the mortgage company and the brokerage in their referral network.

Better Real Estate Partner Agents do not compete with each other in the scheme on price and level of service – they are simply farmed out to consumers. In this price-fixing scheme, Better Real Estate is not involved in a transaction of the actual home purchase. Better Real Estate LLC does not produce any tangible service to the purchaser of a home, but it merely sets up a network of brokers for its own benefit – to siphon off a cut of the buyer’s agent commission.

More importantly, price-fixing is an unlawful practice, and every agent who participates with Better Real Estate is a participant in the scheme. Saving consumers from having to pay excessive brokerage fees can never be justified with price-fixing, especially in exchange for a financial gain between brokers.

Several laws combine to form the core of federal antitrust laws, but the Sherman Act is the primary piece of these regulations. Section 1 of the Sherman Act states: “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce … is declared to be illegal.” This means that (1) there must at least two parties agreeing to take action, and (2) the agreed-upon action must restrain free trade.

The parties in this case are Better Real Estate and any broker they refer a buyer to. These two independent parties are carrying out a common course of action by setting fixed commissions with the use of blanket referral agreements for mutual financial gain.

While Better Real Estate price fixes an arbitrary rate for all agents, such proposition becomes absurd when comparing home transactions worth $15 Million to home transactions worth $150,000 in different states, rural, or urban areas, variable market conditions, etc. Obviously, in some situations, consumers' interest maybe with the lowest fees, in other cases, consumers are looking for the most experienced agents, etc. Better Real Estate cannot account for these differences because the collusion scheme is not designed to deliver value, it is designed to lure consumers under a false premise for savings.

Better.com Kickbacks and Unearned Fees

Further, it is a per se violation of antitrust laws for brokers to set “standard” compensation that will be paid to other brokers. Referral fees amount paid to Better Real Estate are "blanket" fee agreements that do not comply with RESPA.

Real estate agents (only when they act in full brokerage capacity) may discuss or negotiate the referral fees concerning an individual transaction, but real estate professionals are not allowed to enter into “uniform” or “blanket” agreement on how a commission will be split, or a “standard” referral fee paid. The reason for this is exactly the premise behind the Better Real Estate scheme, where an organizer of a hub-and-spoke conspiracy steers consumers toward other brokers in exchange for a pre-arranged referral fees.

From this discussion, it becomes clear that quality and honest real estate professionals establish pricing for their services independently, and without any kickbacks. The truth is, every single agent is different, and every single agent has an individual commission structure.

The entire RESPA prohibition against kickbacks was enacted specifically to stop mortgage companies from entering into symbiotic relationships with real estate brokers. Better.com may seem like a clever by-pass of RESPA’s prohibition against kickbacks, but this loophole is built entirely on the use of blanket referral agreements between brokers designed to restrain free trade.

Better.com Tying of Services

Better Real Estate does offer brokerage services directly to consumers in some instances, but even then, these services are unlawfully tied into Better.com mortgage offerings. Better.com "savings offers" are "open to real estate agent referral customers who have (a) entered a purchase contract on a home using a real estate agent referred by Finche, LLC, dba BRE, Better Home Services and Better Real Estate; and (b) closed a mortgage loan on said home with Better Real Estate’s affiliated mortgage lender, Better Mortgage Corporation."

In this tying scheme, consumers are harmed by being forced to buy a fairly common service (mortgage origination service) to purchase a much more valuable service they want (buyer agent savings from a real estate brokerage transaction.) Consumers must be able to shop for mortgage origination services and real estate representation services independently. This tying agreement is further complicated with an unlawful price-fixing of services offered by competitors - Better Real Estate Partner Agents.

Why Better.com Colludes with Realtors?

The Realtor® commissions in the United States have long suffered from the "standard" 6% myth and the false notion that "buyer agents work for free." However, these myths cannot be resolved with price-fixing of commissions to some other level, in exchange for kickbacks. The Sherman Act imposes criminal penalties of up to $100 million for a corporation and $1 million for an individual, along with up to 10 years in prison. The actual damages are further trebled. No legitimate Realtor® will ever willingly allow themselves to be exposed to such massive liability.

The best, highly-experienced, well-educated, law-abiding, honest, and ethical Realtors® will never participate in price-fixing because it is a felony that carries massive penalties. The best Realtors® are able to recognize price fixing as wrong because they respect the true value of honest negotiations.

Better Real Estate buyer agent services and Better.com mortgage origination services are unlawfully tied. Better Real Estate engages in price fixing and consumer allocation with competitors. Why does this company do all this? This trend is a brazen new strategy used by a handful of VC-backed real estate companies, including Better.com, that are forced to deliver unreasonably high returns on billions of investments poured into them.

As of September 2021, Better.com has taken about $905 million in funding and suffers from a sky-high burn rate. To make up for this poor allocation of capital, commonly known as mega-rounds, Better.com uses a set of unlawful strategies to increase the gross revenue from mortgage origination services and real estate services by unlawfully bundling them.

The short answer is: Better Real Estate's intent to fix prices is directly tied into the massive kickbacks it receives from the "partner agents." This dynamic is archived by allocation of consumers to competitors and by the restraint of genuine competition. The "standard commissions" problem in the residential real estate sector can only be fixed legally by encouraging Realtors® to set and advertise competitive prices to consumers at scale without paying any kickbacks. All kickbacks taken by Better Real Estate are savings lost to consumers, funneled into the wrong bank account.

Where does Better.com Real Estate operate?

Better.com Real Estate currently operates in select areas across United States.