Compare mellohome and Reali

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
$950-$9,950
Flat Fee
Minimum commissions and other terms may apply. Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) is not included, but sellers may be able to negotiate this as well.

For Sellers

Radius Agents
30%
Referral Fee
In 2019 Reali has entered into a market allocation agreement with Radius Agent to farm out clients Reali is unable to serve in exchange for referral fees to random real estate agents.

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
$950-$9,950
Flat Fee
When Reali represents home buyers, it keeps only $950-$9,950 of its entire Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%), the rest of the amount is refunded to the buyer 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

Radius Agents
30%
Referral Fee
In 2019 Reali has entered into a market allocation agreement with Radius Agent to farm out clients Reali is unable to serve in exchange for referral fees to random real estate agents.
Question: What is the difference between mellohome and Reali?
Answer: mellohome is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements while Reali is a full-service real estate agent that offers savings to homebuyers and home sellers
Compare mellohome and Reali 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 Reali

Reali is a California-based savings broker, offers consumers listing savings and buyer’s refunds in select areas across Northern and Southern California.

Reali Pricing

Reali offers flat fee listing at $950 for homes up to $250,000, $4,950 for homes up to $750,000, and $9,950 for homes priced over $750,000. Buyers receive a 100% refund of the Buyer’s Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) at the close of sale, minus a fee set at $950 for homes up to $250,000, $4,950 for homes up to $750,000, and $9,950 for homes priced over $750,000.

When Reali is unable or unwilling to provide services to buyers or sellers, it allocates consumers using a referral fee network called Radius Agent in exchange for a 30% referral fees.

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

Reali Editor's Review:

Reali is a consumer-focused real estate agent that successfully represents consumers across California and offers sizeable savings.

Reali pricing structure closely resembles a listing rate set at 1% of a home sale or a refund set at 67% for buyers; it is highly transparent.

Reali Agents are salaried client-service focused employees measured by customer satisfaction who are not motivated by commissions. Reali is a technology-driven agent that offers customers tools and data to drive an efficient real estate transaction process.

Reali service includes posting home on the MLS and MLS Aggregator services, professional photos and 3D images in addition to all typical services offered by a traditional real estate agent. Reali gives sellers access to a well-designed dashboard with great communication features.

For Buyers, Reali offers real-time listing notifications, on-demand home tours and a client web portal for monitoring the purchase process - making it easier to find and buy homes. Overall Reali offers an excellent proposition to Buyers and Sellers alike.

Consumer Allocation with Radius Agent

In 2019 Reali has entered into a market allocation agreement with Radius Agent to farm out clients Reali is unable to serve in exchange for referral fees to random real estate agents. Reali declined to comment on our request for details, but generally, the Radius Agent platform allows brokers to trade consumers’ information with other brokers in exchange for 30% in referral fees.

Radius Agent keeps a portion of the fee and Reali receives the rest. Consumer brokering is an act of selling information of potential home buyers and home sellers (paid referrals) between real estate brokers, in exchange for a cut of a broker’s commission.

Brokers on each side of the adopted scheme, cause direct damage to the real estate representation market with reverse competition, hidden referral fees, limited choices to consumers, unnecessary high commissions, and client confusion. Since these random referred brokers are not employed by Reali, they cannot offer consumers the same rates and benefits as Reali, in fact, Reali can never dictate any terms of such agreements.

Farming out leads with Radius Agent to random brokers is a pay-to-play scheme that serves no benefit to consumers. Consumers are highly likely to overpay for listing commissions and receive little or no refund when their information is traded as a commodity with use of the Radius Agent network. The added junk fee makes it impossible for agents to offer consumers competitive market rates.

Where does Reali operate?

Reali currently operates in select areas across California.