It didn’t go well.
The whole commission thing didn’t sit right with him, either.
After he lost out on several homes, his search stalled out.
Dutta wasn’t alone in his dissatisfaction with the traditional agent setup.
They’re all betting that one day they’ll no longer be outliers.
When Dutta resumed the hunt late last year, he tried a different tack.
But agents at TurboHome are employed by the company trading the uneven lump sums for consistent pay.
He closed on the three-bedroom home in February.
The success has left Dutta with some what-ifs from his prior home search.
He recalls one house for which he was outbid by just $5,000.
But it did offer enough changes to throw the real estate world into flux.
The first change is that sellers and their agents can no longer offer buyer-agent commissions through the MLS.
Buyers, on the other hand, face more paperwork as a result of the settlement.
It’s the difference between seeing someone casually and getting married on the first date.
“That downward pressure still exists.”
So how, exactly, could buyers and sellers start coming out ahead?
A big step is simple consumer education.
Old habits die hard, especially when there’s so much confusion around these changes.
And critics of the settlement say it’s actually opened up new pitfalls for buyers.
And some of the representation agreements floating around could end up locking buyers into exclusive relationships with incompetent agents.
For sellers, the main advice boils down to this: Don’t offer an exact commission anywhere.
Instead, allow buyers to make offers on agent payment, just like they do for the home itself.
Yet another, like Dutta, may not ask for any money back.
A credit to cover your agent’s commissions shouldn’t be any different.
The company mostly operates in California but has recently expanded to Texas and Washington.
Long before they start eyeing homes, buyers should also do some due diligence on their prospective agents.
Some agents may be able to articulate exactly why they’re worth every penny of the traditional commission.
“I would’ve liked it to go further,” Brobeck tells me.
“But it represents progress.”
James Rodriguezis a senior reporter on Business Insider’s Discourse team.
