UpNest.com is a website that refers home buyers to real estate agents for a referral fee paid by the agent. Plain and simple it is a middleman. According to UpNest Agent Ambassador Sarah Hood, UpNest "made an executive decision a little while ago to no longer partner with agents that advertise flat or discounted services in their own marketing." Therefore, the only agents competing in the UpNest platform are agents with relatively high prices who do not believe in ordinarily saving their customers money on real estate fees.
This raises many questions. What happened to bring about this change? Were full price agents losing too many deals? Is UpNest trying to improve their profits at the expense of the competitiveness of the marketplace? Does UpNest think clients are not smart enough to compare agents normally offering rebates or sub 6.0% listings? Many top agents offer discounts such as free home warranties and free moving trucks, so are they are now excluded?
What is known is that it is disingenuous for UpNest to claim to be a marketplace where agents compete. Arguably the most competitive agents are intentionally excluded from participating in the platform. UpNest claims that it wants its customers to save money, but it will not allow the customer to review bids from all agents, even if that agent is better for the client.
I say let the customers decide who is the best agent. Otherwise, they should change their motto to "Full-Priced Agents Compete."
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