Compare mellohome and Faira

For Sellers

Referred Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
mellohome 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. mellohome 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 mellohome.

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.

For Sellers

Premium Listing
3%
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.

For Buyers

Referred Agents
25%-40%
Referral Fee
mellohome 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. mellohome 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 mellohome.

For Buyers

Buyer’s Savings
67%
Commission Rebate
When Faira represents home buyers, it contributes 67% 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.
Question: What is the difference between mellohome and Faira?
Answer: mellohome is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements while Faira is a full-service real estate agent that offers savings to homebuyers and home sellers
Compare mellohome and Faira 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 mellohome

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

mellohome 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.


mellohome is a referral fee network designed to collect fees by matching consumers with local real estate agents willing to participate. mellohome operates as a licensed real estate brokerage in Texas as mello Home Services, LLC TREC License # 9006745, 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 mellohome, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with 25%-40% share of their commission.

mellohome Pricing

mellohome 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

mellohome Editor's Review:

mellohome is a Texas licensed 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, mellohome is a real estate agent that "does not engage in actual real estate broker services." mellohome 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.

mellohome 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.

mellohome further claims to match consumers with "top-rated professionals," but there is absolutely no third-party evidence for this. The main qualification for real estate agents who participate with mellohome is their willingness to pay a referral fee.

mellohome is an affiliated brokerage of loanDepot. loanDepot is unable to collect referral fees from real estate agents directly due to rigid RESPA regulations. Instead, loanDepot is using mellohome'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.

mellohome plays fees down to consumers - it states directly "mellohome Services is a free service for real estate buyers and sellers," but 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 and RESPA.

Clearly, real estate agents only sign-up with mellohome because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client's agreement with excessive commissions. mellohome receives the lowest score because this service is clearly biased and it claims to provide the complete opposite of what it actually does. mellohome must be well aware of this issue 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 mellohome operate?

mellohome currently operates in select areas across United States.

Buying and Selling with Faira

Faira is a multi-state savings broker, offers consumers listing savings and buyer’s refunds in select areas across Washington, Arizona and California.

Faira Pricing

Faira offers savings to sellers (charges 0.5% platform fee to the buyer with an optional 1% listing fee) and commission refunds to buyers (2% of the purchase price).

For its in-house listings platform offers self-represented buyers a 2.5% independent buyer discount, to account for the fact that there is no need for Buyer's Agent Commission (BAC) expense for self-represented buyers.

However, we recommend that all Buyers work with their own competitive buyer's agent who offers a buyer's refund. Faira also offers Premium Listing option for a 3% listing fee.

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

Faira Editor's Review:

Faira is a consumer-focused real estate agent that successfully represents consumers across Washington, Arizona, and California and offers sizeable savings.

Faira listing service includes posting home on the MLS and MLS Aggregator services, professional photos in addition to all typical services offered by a traditional real estate agent.

Faira gives sellers access to a well-designed dashboard with great communication features. The pricing model at this brokerage may be an issue for some Buyers and Agencies who are unable to work with it due to the "platform fee" structure.

Buyer's commission rebate structure is also subjective with ambiguously defined savings. What is considered standard real estate services are advertised by Faira as Premium for a significantly larger fee.

While Faira does offer sizeable savings for Buyers and Sellers, we find that some service offerings by Faira are difficult to substantiate, especially when it comes to its Premium listings.

Where does Faira operate?

Faira currently operates in select areas across Washington, Arizona, and California..