Compare UpNest and Rocket Homes

For Sellers

Referred Agents
30%
Referral Fee
UpNest does not provide real estate services to home sellers. Instead, this company matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for a 30% referral fee. UpNest results suffer from pay-to-play bias because the network does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay 30% of their commission to UpNest.

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

Referred Agents
30%
Referral Fee
UpNest does not provide real estate services to home buyers. Instead, this company matches consumers with various real estate agents in exchange for a 30% referral fee. UpNest results suffer from pay-to-play bias because the network does not match consumers with agents unwilling to pay 30% of their commission to UpNest.

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 UpNest and Rocket Homes?
Answer: Both UpNest and Rocket Homes function as a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements.
Compare UpNest 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 UpNest

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

UpNest 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.


UpNest works as a referral fee network that collects pricing and services data from a limited pool of Referred Agents and sends it to consumers as non-binding proposals. UpNest operates as a licensed real estate brokerage in California under BRE License # 01928572, 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 UpNest, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with a 30% share of their commission. If an Agent does not want to pay a referral fee, the consumer will not see any proposals from them using the UpNest platform.

UpNest claims to provide savings, but consumers are likely to overpay for their Referred Agent's commission due to added mandatory 30% referral fee.

UpNest Pricing

UpNest 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

UpNest Editor's Review:

UpNest is a referral fee network in business to collect fees for matching brokers with consumers. Referral fees are highly disadvantageous for real estate consumers because these are hidden and not negotiated. One of the major expenses for real estate consumers, when buying or selling a home, is real estate service fees and closing costs associated with the purchase, or sale.

Service fees and closing costs are, for the most part, a necessary expense. Real estate agents significantly help home buyers and sellers to navigate a complicated and competitive real estate process in exchange for a legitimate commission as a reward. Other closing fees usually include required services such as property appraisals, inspections, title insurance, etc. – all in some way help to legitimize the sale and to manage risk. There can be much said with regards to managing closing costs by choosing a motivated competitive agent who is willing to offer a buyer’s refund or a competitive listing rate.

On the other hand, while claiming it saves money to consumers, UpNest simply adds referral fees into already a fee-ridden process – consumers experience false and fabricated savings in this model. In economics, this process is known as reverse competition.

The platform works with a limited pool of Referral Agents willing to pay a very significant part of their commission to UpNest. This referral fee is back-loaded into Referred Agent's agreement, instead of being handed to the consumer directly. The consumer technically does not pay UpNest, but he/she ends up with a higher cost of commissions when working with their Referred Agent. UpNest is not a free platform, these fees are simply hidden.

Let's say a real estate consumer, James, wants to hire a buyer’s agent in one of the States that allow buyer's rebates when buying a median-priced home for $250,000. A local competitive buyer’s agent, Jill, offers James a 50% buyer's refund while helping him in this process. This is a typical refund Jill is able to organically negotiate with all her customers. The estimated commission refund, in this case, is $3,750 paid back to James from Jill in a form of buyer's refund, assuming a 3% Buyer’s Agent Commission.

On the other hand, James also receives non-binding proposals using UpNest platform from Referred Agents with a 30% referral fee attached to the back of every proposal. When James is faced with these types of proposals, results are quite different. Firmly assuming that the profit margins and service offerings remain the same for Jill and Referral Agents using UpNest, any possible buyer's refund offered by Referral Agents must be reduced to account for the UpNest referral fees. The referral fee in this scenario estimated at $1,125 due to UpNest from a Referral Agent. With the profit margin fixed, the estimated commission refund a Referral Agent may offer to James is now only $2,625.

James just effectively “paid” UpNest $1,125 for a service that is supposed to be “free”.

One reason the amount of savings may ever be matched by Referred Agents versus Jill's competitive savings is due to broker-to-broker pricing collusion - if Referral Agent is willing to reduce their fee beyond market rates to compensate UpNest out of their own pocket, which is highly unlikely and unreasonable to assume.

Because referral fees are pre-set between UpNest and Referral Agents in advance, the cost of the referral has to be eventually be paid by the real estate consumer.

The reason we give UpNest a low score is due to exigent fees and the way these fees are structured. UpNest plays down fees to consumers, it states directly that the service is 100% free, but then it rigidly locks every Referred Agent into an added cost. The vast majority of competitive agents refuse to play this game and UpNest simply steers consumers toward a limited pay-to-play network. As a licensed real estate agent that doesn't perform any real estate services, or takes any responsibility for the transaction, it's not entirely clear how this process works under the Business and Professions Code.

Should real estate agents distribute "bids" of other agents for a fee? If one to say that the 30% fee is indeed necessary, why not structure it as an actual service fee that is properly charged, instead of having to be back-loaded into Referral Agent's agreement? The answer is simple – if UpNest was to charge Agents for its service directly, no Agent would ever sign-up. Agents only sign-up with UpNest because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client's agreement.

UpNest clearly doesn't provide any tangible value to the real estate consumers as a licensed real estate agent. UpNest 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.

This effect is known as a “blind” match. Truly competitive agents who offer great savings to consumers can never use UpNest. For example, a highly competitive flat fee listing service has a set competitive price – they would never be able to pay 30% of this amount to a third-party. UpNest 30% referral fee only works is with services who are “silent” on their commission – if a client comes directly to an agent, one price is given, if a client uses UpNest, another price is in play. We strongly believe that real estate consumers looking to buy or sell a home should always use 0% referral fee platforms in order to avoid paying a higher cost in commissions.

By using UpNest, consumers further encourage pay-to-play referral fee bias to thrive in a broken real estate industry.

Where does UpNest operate?

UpNest currently operates in select areas across United States.

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..