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The changes to how real estate commissions are advertised and sourced as a result of the National Association of Realtors’ proposed settlement has led to the creation of Shay, “the first self-representation platform for homebuyers,” according to an August 17 press release.

The company said its intent is to allow homebuyers to buy a home without the insight of a traditional agent.

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“Homebuyers finally have greater visibility and control over how much they pay their real estate agent,” says Peter Jeffrey, founder and CEO of Shay. “For the many homebuyers who find the cost of traditional representation too high, Shay guides them through the process of representing themselves. We are excited to support the next generation of homebuyers and save them tens of thousands of dollars.”

The software experience provides detailed guides on the sales process, offering tips and resources on what it takes to find a match, effectively negotiate, find a mortgage and step through escrow. Through task lists, guides, articles and an artificial intelligence solution, “Shay enables homebuyers to complete critical real estate tasks including generating offers, conducting local due diligence, negotiating and reviewing agreements,” the release stated.

Jeffery said paying a fixed percentage when buying a home is a “bad idea.”

“We enable homebuyers to save money by doing it themselves. This is similar to how TurboTax gives tax filers an alternative to accountants or Expedia gives travelers an alternative to travel agents. Shay offers a new solution for homebuyers to save money on an already incredibly expensive purchase,” Jeffrey said.

Shay is available now for a flat fee of $500 with additional funds required for more services.

A number of companies are emerging with tools and pitches on how to overcome commission settlement-related changes for both consumers and agents. Some are sharing which sellers are offering commissions and others are providing more comprehensive approaches to assist both agents and consumers.

For now, experts agree that simply following the guidelines in the temporarily approved settlement are best, which include not advertising a buyer-broker commission in a NAR-affiliated listing advertisement and ensuring execution of a buyer-broker agreement that clearly spells out the payment structure.

In an Aug. 17 interview with Inman, lead settlement attorney Michael Ketchmark said everything is still playing out, and that eyes are on the industry.

“[… F]rom our standpoint, everything’s just been set in motion, and we’re sitting back waiting for it to take effect. We believe it’s going to take a while for the free market to adjust to this and for us to see commissions start coming down. But we fully expect that’s what’s going to happen.”

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Redfin spent the second quarter of 2024 mostly treading water, with a new report showing that the company’s revenue rose even as losses and web traffic remained nearly flat.

In total, the portal and brokerage company earned $295.2 million in revenue between April and June of this year, according to a Q2 earnings report. That’s a 7 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023. At the same time, Redfin suffered a net loss of $27.9 million, just a hair more than the $27.4 million it lost one year earlier.

The report also shows that Redfin’s apps and website attracted “nearly 52 million average monthly users.” In Q2 of 2023, the company also had 52 million average monthly users.

Glenn Kelman

In the report, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman celebrated the results, saying that “in a still-declining market, Redfin grew revenues, profits and market share.”

The report shows that gross profit — a figure that calculates profits after production costs, but before other expenses such as interest or taxes — grew 9 percent year over year to $109.6 million. Redfin’s market share grew to 0.77 percent of U.S. existing home sales by units, the report adds, up from 0.75 percent a year earlier.

Heading into Tuesday’s earnings, Redfin shares were trading in the low $7 range. That was down slightly for the day and week, and down compared to a year ago when shares were trading in the low $10 range.

Shares fluctuated in after-hours trading following the publication of Tuesday’s earnings report but ultimately trended down.

Credit: Google

As of Tuesday afternoon, Redfin had a market cap of about $848 million.

Redfin last reported earnings in May. At the time, the company revealed that revenue jumped 5 percent year over year in the first quarter of the year to $225.5 million. The company also lost $66.8 million in the quarter, an increase compared to $60.8 million in the first quarter of 2023.

During a call with investors Tuesday afternoon, Kelman touted the growth of Redfin Next, a program that launched earlier this year and which shifts agents from a salary model to a commission model. Redfin initially rolled out the program in four California markets but has since expanded it to dozens of others.

Kelman said during the call that in 2025 the program will be rolled out in all of the company’s markets and that it has helped with recruiting. The report adds that “to date, Redfin has signed more than 200 top-producing agents to join the brokerage under Redfin Next.”

While fielding calls from Wall Street analysts during the call, Kelman added that “the next dimension for us is teams.” He explained that Redfin hopes to build teams around its top-producing agents, which will, in turn, allow the company to “develop new-to-the-industry agents” under those top producers.

“We think that’ll let us scale up hiring,” he added.

Teams have been a major real estate trend in recent years and have played a role in the rise of both established firms such as Coldwell Banker as well as upstarts such as eXp Realty. However, Redfin — perhaps thanks to its now-disappearing salaried agent model — has been largely absent from that conversation. Kelman’s comments, however, suggest the company now wants to hop more overtly onto the teams bandwagon.

Kelman also speculated during the call that Redfin may have a recruiting advantage thanks to the coming industry rules changes that resulted from antitrust litigation. The changes “may help with recruiting by encouraging more agents to consider a brokerage built to compete on price,” Kelman argued.

Later during the call, Kelman discussed the market, saying that it is “significantly shifting in buyers’ favor.” That’s thanks to growing inventory and falling rates, though he added that so far those lower rates haven’t spurred significantly higher rates of homebuying.

“It has been the first time in years that a major interest rate drop had no impact on homebuying demand,” Kelman said, adding later that “I can’t remember a time where rates came down this far this fast and the market has been so muted in its response.”

Kelman speculated that the “muted” response could be due to anxiety about the coming presidential election or about the economy. Or, he continued, it may be that recent rate drops simply came “too late” in the year when many people are on vacation or no longer paying attention to the housing market. However, he said it’s “inconceivable to me that there won’t be a reaction” and that if “rates keep falling, U.S. home sales should increase.”

“I believe the housing market is about to get better,” Kelman said, “and that Redfin is about to take share.”

Update: This story was updated after publication with additional information from Redfin’s earnings report, as well as with commentary from the company’s investor call.

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More U.S. adults have become open to buying a home in the coming months, and the factors driving active shoppers amid this depressed market are more varied than is often assumed, a new Intel survey finds.

• The share of working U.S. adults who said they were at least somewhat likely to buy a home in the next 12 months inched up by 3 percentage points from April to July, according to the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey.
• The share of adults who said they were actively shopping for homes also rose over the past three months — although this likely reflects seasonal activity in the heat of the summer market, when housing demand is near its peak.

The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey ran in early July and received responses from 3,000 adults with full-time or part-time jobs. Its results shed light on how potential real estate clients — both in the present and near-future — are thinking about the home market.

The survey also produced a host of detailed insights into consumer attitudes, including:

• What drove today’s active homebuyers to the market 
• What non-buyers say will pull them into the market in the months ahead
• How renters and homeowners are viewing the landscape in their own unique ways

Read the full findings in the report below.

More than just ‘forced to move’

Even in times of poor affordability, major life changes help prop up home transactions: events like job change, marriage, having kids, death or divorce.

And that’s part of the picture for sure.

But real estate professionals — and now, homebuyers themselves — will also tell you it’s more complex than that.

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Active homebuyers tell the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey that they are motivated by a host of factors — including, surprisingly, the desire to find a larger or nicer home even in this high-rate environment.

Share of active homebuyers in early July who said their decision to buy is motivated in part by…

• 32% — Seeking larger or nicer house
• 31% — Job-related relocation
• 29% — Financial benefits of homeownership
• 25% — Moving closer to family
• 17% — Getting married
• 17% — Planning to retire
• 15% — Having a child
• 15% — Seeking second home or investment property
• 15% — Seeking smaller or more affordable house
• 11% — Seeking better school district
• 8% — Getting divorced
• 7% — Children moving out of the home

The desire to upgrade one’s home often goes underdiscussed in real estate circles these days, but this survey demonstrates that it remains one of the top factors driving consumers to the home market.

That share of consumers may still be lower today than it was when mortgages were cheaper and homes more affordable. But because July was the first time the survey asked this question, Intel is not in a position say how that share had changed over time.

That said, the active buyers who said they were seeking a larger or nicer house did give some clues as to their thinking. Buyers seeking a home upgrade were less likely to say they were moving for family-related reasons, and more likely to say that a job change, a better school district or plans to retire were driving their decision to buy now.

Intel also identified that significantly different factors are driving homeowners and buyers to the market.

Today’s homeowners actively shopping for homes are more likely than renters to be driven by:

• Job-related relocation — 36%
• Seeking second home or investment property — 22%
• Moving closer to family — 29%
• Planning to retire — 19%

Today’s renters actively shopping for homes are more likely than homeowners to be driven by:

• Getting married — 22%
• Seeking a better school district — 15%
• Seeking a larger or nicer home — 35%
• Financial benefits of homeownership — 31%

These results represent the current pool of buyers that real estate agents were working with day-in and day-out in early July.

But Intel also sought the opinions of buyers who are not yet on the market, but expect to enter it sometime soon.

The next wave of buyers

The next 12 months are likely to bring more buyers into the fold — but they’re likely to be even more sensitive to affordability than the clients of today have been.

They’re also less likely to be investors, and less likely to expect to have to move as a result of a change in their employment.

• Only 20 percent of near-term future buyers say that they expect they’ll be driven by a job-related relocation. That’s compared to 31 percent of today’s buyers who say a job change is driving them to move. This may be largely driven by the fact that job changes can be difficult to predict in advance.
• A mere 9 percent of future buyers say they’ll be seeking a second home or investment property, compared to 15 percent of today’s buyers who say the same.

Instead, the next wave of homebuyers are especially likely to say they’ll be motivated by a desire to downsize.

• 19 percent of near-future buyers say they’ll look at downsizing or lowering their monthly housing costs when they hit the market, compared to 15 percent of buyers today.
• 11 percent of future buyers say that they’re planning to move because children are moving out of the home, compared to 7 percent of active buyers.

Certain tendencies also stood out among homeowners and renters who were likely to buy a home in the next 12 months.

Today’s homeowners who are not actively shopping, but expect to buy in the coming year, are more likely to be driven by:

• Planning to retire — 21%
• Getting divorced — 11%
• Children moving out of the home — 12%

Today’s renters who are not actively shopping, but expect to buy in the coming year, are more likely to be driven by:

• Financial benefits of homeownership — 36%
• Seeking a larger or nicer home — 38%
• Seeking a smaller or more affordable home — 20%

It’s notable that renters can be driven one of two ways, depending on their situation: Many are seeking a larger or nicer place than their current rental unit, as expected. 

But we also see signs that renters care more about affordability than other groups. As such, some consumers renting a house may be looking to move into a smaller place when they purchase.

The renters who plan to buy in the next 12 months are more likely to say they’re driven by the financial benefits of homeownership than renters who are shopping for homes today. In today’s challenging affordability environment, it’s possible that active shoppers are a bit less enthusiastic that their home purchase will be a sound financial investment.

About the Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Survey

The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted from July 5 through July 7 to gauge the opinions and behaviors of Americans related to homebuying. 

The survey sampled a diverse group of 3,000 American adults, ranging in age from 24 to 65 and employed either full-time or part-time. The participants were selected to produce a broadly representative breakdown by age, gender and region.

Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full- or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Beringer Capital.

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