DIY / HOME IMPROVEMENT

Homelight Reviews: Features & Alternatives

Homelight is a real estate company that runs a technology-enabled website to help home sellers and buyers. Their website acts as an intermediary that allows property owners, sellers, and real estate agents to connect. The objective of Homelight is to help customers get the best solution for their needs.

Homelight has different packages and offers various services to customers. If you are interested to know more about them, you can go through this review. We tell you all about this company. We also tell you alternatives to this company.

Homelight – features, and services

Homelight allows home buyers and sellers to register their property. The website asks a few questions and on providing the answers, the customer service team would call the customer and suggest agents.

HomeLight ranks all the agents registered on their website. The customer can choose any of the agents based on their ranking or proximity to the agent. The agent would then work with the customer to ensure their property is sold or they get to buy the property of their choice.

For the services offered, the agents charge commission as per standard rates (usually 6%, this can be lesser). Homelight gets a referral fee from the agent for facilitating the transaction. The agents pay Homelight 25% of the fee they earn. 

The following are some of the features of Homelight you need to know about:

  • You can list your property on Homelight for free but you need to pay the agent the standard commission.
  • Homelight has a simple way of registering by asking questions and then suggesting an agent based on the answers provided.
  • They have a good network of agents on their website who offer good services.
  • The website is easy to use and the technology is customer-friendly. There are no signing fees or packages customers have to pay.
  • HomeLight’s agents are available in many of the top cities in the US. They may not cover all the states.
  • The main problem with HomeLight’s services is that there are no savings on the commission offered. The listing and selling agent would take the full commission, which they share with Homelight.
  • Just for connecting you to an agent, Homelight gets 25% of the commission. 

Our review with pros and cons

Homelight reviews show that their customers are quite happy with the services provided. They have an online rating of 4.51/5, which is quite good. Homelight is a licensed real estate brokerage registered in California. They are a legitimate company. 

The company claims to have helped a million customers complete real estate transactions. They also claim to have closed sales of 1 billion dollars every year. 

There is a small worrying aspect, which is that their number of agents has significantly reduced over the past few years. The reason for this is not known. 

Here are the pros and cons of working with Homelight.

Pros

  • They have a good network of agents who cover most of the cities in the US.
  • You can easily get connected to real estate agents by using their website.
  • They have a simple system for getting registered. 
  • Their customer rating of 4.51 is pretty good. They have an A+ rating on Better Business Bureau.

Cons

  • They don’t offer any savings on commission, which is a major downside.
  • The agents suggested may or may not be quality agents.
  • They collect a 25% referral fee on the commission just for listing on the website.
  • Some reviews suggest there is a lot of spamming by Homelight staff and agents.

Alternatives to Homelight

Since Homelight is like a regular real estate agent, you cannot expect any savings in commission. If you are looking to save commission money, then there are other options available for you. Here are a few alternatives to Homelight you can consider. 

1) Houzeo

Houzeo is a technology firm that offers a flat fee MLS model allowing customers to save a lot of money on commission. They have attractive packages coupled with good service that will help sellers get the best deal. Houzeo reviews show that their customers are happy with the services offered. This is why they are rated 4.9/5, which is impressive. 

The biggest benefit of working with Houzeo is that you can get significant savings in commission. Their flat-fee model allows you to get a listing on the MLS thus saving on the listing agent’s commission money. Houzeo’s website is user-friendly, and its customer service team is effective, which is why you can consider working with them.

2) UpNest

UpNest is a discount brokerage. Their working model is similar to HomeLight, and they allow buyers and sellers to find agents easily. The difference is that their agent network is quite good. They have nationwide coverage allowing you to find an agent easily. You can expect good service from the agent.

While agent selection is their advantage, the problem is that there are no savings offered for the customer. The full commission has to be paid to the agent. This works out to be similar to HomeLight.

3) Ideal Agent

Ideal Agent is a real estate brokerage company that helps buyers and sellers find agents. They charge a listing fee from customers, which works out to be 2% of the sale price. Customers can thus save around 1.5% of the commission if they work with Ideal Agent. This represents savings but is not very significant.

Their website does not have a customer dashboard. While they have good coverage of agents, they suggest one agent. If the agent is not competent, then it could lead to a problem for the customer. 

4) Redfin

Redfin is a discount real estate brokerage with a national presence. It is A public company that helps sellers by listing their property on its website. Since they do the listing themselves, they charge 1% to 2.5% as the listing fee. This helps the customer save some money, though it is not as much as Houzeo

They have various packages like a Concierge service where they offer a premium service. Redfin Now purchases homes from sellers for cash as an ibuyer service.

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