Ask HN: Buying house – any disruptors I can use?

We are disrupting the housing market! https://better.com/

We don't charge any mortgage broker commission (eww, it's gross) we'll give you transparency into the mortgage process so you can configure loans to your hearts content to optimize for what you want on your own terms.

We also have a fleet of real estate Agents that can help you find your new home and currently we'll cut 1% of the purchase price off of your eventual mortgage at closing if you use one of our Agents https://better.com/realestate

You're in SF so I don't think we're live there yet with our cash offer program, but in case anyone else see this from other markets, we can make you a cash buyer https://welcome.better.com/cash-offer/

We are actively working to make the homeownership journey less painful and there's a lot more we'll do in the future but as is we're one of the main disruptors in the space

Happy to answer any questions since I do work for Better!

Ask if they do borrower paid compensation. you might also want to check a local credit union.

You might also try looking for mortgage brokers and small banks in smaller towns in CA with lower property values. They might be willing to give you a break since your loan amount will look big to them. And they are used to doing loans for 4-6K

Also make sure you get the inspections worked out upfront. Last thing you want to do is try to round up all the inspectors at the last minute.

Here are some you may need: pest, radon, structural, general, one with moisture detector

for buyers agent https://www.upnest.com/ finds agents willing to offer buy credits

Most of the paperwork for offers etc are standard forms that are used in the state. You can put in an offer and get a mortgage on your own. There is some overhead of learning it, but it's not difficult. If you do run into anything tricky (covenants, etc), most agents just tell you to talk to a real estate lawyer anyways. You should be able to save the 3% that a buyer agent typically charges.

I suspect who you will eventually see move into this space is Airbnb. This may be some time off though and after they absorb hotel booking.

Another possible one is Zillow or one of the real estate apps. They seem less savvy than the Airbnb guys though so I'm not so sure about that.

Both of those seem like good places for innovation to me. One of the challenges you might find is that in both cases they are connecting to the legacy economy with phone calls rather than api's to get things that haven't been put on the internet yet (random bankers, listing that haven't been posted yet).

Those aren't insurmountable problems though.

As far as stuff you can use today, you can shop banks yourself rather than using a mortgage broker (obviously here you run the risk that the broker would have found the better rate).

In a way just using sites like Zillow or realtor is a big disruption. Think about how much more dependent on a real estate agent you would be if calling them on the phone or driving by a for sale sign was the only way to find a house.

Any commissioned agent - buyer's or seller's are incentivized for transaction to occur.

No one is acting in your (or seller's) best interest.

However either seller's agent keeps all the commission or split it with buyer's agent. Which essentially you paying anyways, unless you find FSBO house.

So i don't think you're losing anything by having buyer's agent. Just use this person for what he/she is good at, make them work harder to give you information to help you to make an informed decision.

If your current buyers agent is lousy - call another one. You're not married to an agent. However seller is.

We used mortgage broker few years back because we had issues with credit. They do have connections that maybe beneficial.

Why not call banks and find out your own rates? You can compare with the ones from broker.

Not an alternative idea - just want to mention that don’t trust inspector picked by the bank. Pay for extra independent inspector - it will save you thousands especially if it’s an older home with potential hidden issues.

I've never heard of the buyer having to pay a mortgage broker a fee. When I bought my house I didn't have to pay them. The guy used gets a commission from the bank when he sales a mortgage.

However when I refinanced I didn't use a mortgage broker. I just went through my credit union.

Is a 1% broker fee normal in the US? We just bought a house in the UK, and paid a flat fee of £300 to the broker (on a £415k house). The broker saved us £3,000 overall, so well worth the cost. The broker gets a much bigger commission from the lender

In Australia/UK these are both typically not a problem because the lender pays the broker not you and you don’t use a buyer agent you just do it yourself.

Homie might be what you're looking for. I don't know if they're nation-wide yet, so they may not be in the market you're interested in.

I don’t remember paying a mortgage broker commission. Do they hide that fee somehow? The mortgage closing costs did seem high.