Is HomeLight Legitimate? What to Know About the Real Estate Technology Company

In recent years, the online real estate landscape has been changing nearly as fast as homes have been selling. Agent referral services, iBuyers with instant cash offers, and home trade-in programs, have all played a role in making home buying a selling faster and more convenient.

However, confusion and concern can also accompany change. So it’s understandable that some consumers are asking, “Are these real estate companies legit?” You may even be wondering, “Is HomeLight legitimate?”

The answer is yes, HomeLight is a legit online real estate company. That’s good news for you, especially if you want to sell your home. You’ve come to the right place to find out the answers to your questions and help as you plan on selling your home.

Imagine that you are ready to sell your home. Maybe you’ve decided to sell because it’s time to downsize. Or perhaps your job allows you to work remotely, and you want to find a new space. No matter what the reason – you are ready to sell.

The task can feel monumental, especially since you have to go through the daunting effort of finding, vetting, and hiring a real estate agent. This is where HomeLight can help. HomeLight reduces the hassle of finding an agent and monumentally smoothes the house selling process.

Is HomeLight legit? Read on to learn more about the company and its vision for real estate, products and services, and record of success.

What is HomeLight?

HomeLight matches you with top-performing local real estate agents who know your market. We partner with 28,000 agents in our nationwide network to find the highest rated agents that know your market.

HomeLight’s matching algorithm accounts for factors like:

• the agent’s sale to list price ratio
• how the ratio maps to local price trends
• average days on market (DOM) to show how fast they’ve sold homes like yours
• The agent’s client feedback

HomeLight is a free, fast, and convenient service to empower you to achieve better outcomes during the selling process. Our vision is a world where every real estate transaction is simple, certain, and satisfying.

All in all, our leading agents handle over $1billion in real estate transactions on HomeLight’s platform every year.

Beyond speed and convenience, HomeLight provides a substantial advantage when you’re selling your home.

Is HomeLight legitimate and worthwhile?

HomeLight is both legitimate and worthwhile. For instance, over 1,151,100 people have successfully used HomeLight to get a better outcome when buying or selling their homes. Additionally, HomeLight has a 4.72 out of 5-star customer review status with the Better Business Bureau.

Finally, the independent finance site Moneyunder30 rated HomeLight 9/10. The finance site caters its advice to young adults. That’s a strong endorsement because part of HomeLight’s success comes from the changing demographic of homebuyers.

An estimated 45 million Millennials (26-35) are entering the real estate market. This younger, tech-inclined generation has discovered the cost and time-saving benefits of real estate companies like HomeLight.

How does HomeLight work?

For home sellers

HomeLight works by matching home sellers to top real estate agents that sell homes faster and for money. Here’s how HomeLight works for sellers:

• you tell us a bit about your property and when you want to sell
• our matching platform analyzes an agent’s specialties, experiences, and market presence in your area
• we analyze over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews
• Agent Match provides the top recommendations in your area

It takes two minutes to receive your agent matches. You can be sure that you will get unbiased agent recommendations because agents don’t pay us to be listed on our platform.

Your HomeLight network agent can provide complete service to help prepare your home for sale, including:

• price trends analysis and local price per square foot
• home prep and staging
• arrange for professional photographs of your home
• list your home on the multiple listing service (MLS)
• market your property
• handle showings, tours, and open houses

Our data shows the top 5% of agents across the U.S. help clients sell homes for as much as 10% more than the average real estate agent. All in all, our top performing partner agents can put more money in your wallet at closing.

For homebuyers

HomeLight works for you by tailoring your agent search to your specific needs. This service is 100% free and is at no cost to you. In about two minutes, you can match with an agent who can:

• take the stress out of house hunting
• get a grip on your housing market
• navigate the home buying process with you

Ultimately, your agent works for you to make buying a home easier. To help find your dream home, a top agent can:

• prepare all the documents and offers
• provide detailed knowledge and experience in your local market
• strategically advise you during the homebuying process

HomeLight matches buyers with top agents who can provide comprehensive service to you. Those services can include:

• share knowledge and experience to help you navigate the local market
• give strategic advice throughout the home buying process
• prepare all required documents and written offers
• negotiate to get you the best price
• review financing options
• Monitor and guide the process through to closing

We’ve introduced more than 1 million buyers and sellers to top local real estate agents. Due to our success, that number keeps climbing higher.

Put this success to work for you and get in contact with an experienced agent in your area using our Agent Match tool.

How does HomeLight make money?

First, top agents don’t pay HomeLight to receive a listing. Suppose you and one of our in-network agents complete a successful home sale or purchase. Then, HomeLight receives a portion of the agent’s commission as a referral fee.

The referral fee ensures there is no cost to you to use HomeLight. Another thing to remember is that the Agent Match service has no catch. This 100% free service makes home buying or selling more manageable and a win-win for everyone involved.

What is Simple Sale?

As a seller, you may want to connect directly with cash buyers instead of listing your home on the market. Cash offers can be especially helpful if you need to sell fast, such as selling an inherited home located away from where you live. Or perhaps your home is in need of expensive repairs you can’t, or don’t want to fix. To meet that need, in 2019, HomeLight introduced Simple Sale, which provides a cash offer to buy your home.

Simple Sale is HomeLight’s marketplace where you can connect with cash buyers in your area. We have direct-buy partners countrywide ready to make nearly instant cash offers on your home for sale. The service gives you a convenient and streamlined method for selling your home online.

Sellers appreciate HomeLight’s Simple Sale because of these benefits:

• avoid agent fees
• sell your house “as is” with no repairs or renovations
• connects you with one of the largest buyer networks in the U.S.
• skip home prep, staging, or showings
• receive a competitive cash offer
• Fast and simple transaction
• can often let you pick the closing date

With Simple Sale, you can sell your home fast with the certainty of a cash offer in as few as 10 days.

HomeLight Reviews

Sellers and buyers who use HomeLight are happy with the services we provide. Our testimonial page has scores of satisfied sellers and buyers. People like:

• Sam R. (Temple, Texas) closed the sale on his home and happily explained that one of our top agents made everything as “stress-free as possible.” Sam was also happy to receive his cash in hand “in no time.”

• Michael H (Tallapoosa, Georgia) was initially overwhelmed by the whole selling experience and had many questions. When he used HomeLight, Michael was able to find an agent who provided “frequent updates” and was “quick to reply anytime.” Michael was so happy with the experience that he used HomeLight to buy a property.

• Jordyn D (Berthoud, Colorado) used HomeLight to find a Realtor® in his area and bought his first home. Jordyn liked that his realtor team was “experienced with construction” and could help them with their newly built home.

• Dolly K (Dallas, Georgia) used HomeLight’s Simple Sale and sold her home with a cash offer. “I would like to thank HomeLight for finding us a professional investor to buy our house. I did not expect it would be that simple, fast, and hassle-free.” She contacted HomeLight and then “the next day I got a few interested parties…closing went through smoothly. Superb!”

Another place that catalogs HomeLight’s success is BBB’s customer reviews. The reviews provide good insight into HomeLight and how people like the agents we suggest. For instance:

• CM J appreciated that his agent explained the seller’s side of the process and helped list the home. Within 48 hours, CM J “had three, all-cash offers” and would “definitely utilize HomeLight services again.”

•  John S said the process of selling his home was “so much easier than expected.” With HomeLight’s agent’s help, John says the “process and experience was effortless” and looks forward to selling another home using HomeLight’s services.

Finally, SiteJabber shows that HomeLight has a 4.5/5 star rating from 209 reviews. The rating shows customers are satisfied with our company.

• Luann P showed her gratitude to HomeLight’s agent, who was “knowledgeable, kind, and so helpful.”

• Robert S explained he had a “great experience with HomeLight.” Using the matched agent, Robert was able to sell his home before listing it on the MLS and said, “you can’t beat zero days on the market!”

A note about reviews — sometimes people confuse HomeLight with a power tool company called Homelite, which manufactures hedge trimmers, chainsaws, and blowers. Sometimes we catch a stray review from their customers.

What other services does HomeLight provide?

HomeLight offers a variety of services to make your real estate transaction go smoothly. You can click on the links to learn more about:

• HomeLight Home Loans: You’ll have a dedicated loan office, low rates, and exceptional speed and certainty with our mortgage services.
• HomeLight Trade-In: Selling and buying at the same time? You’ll receive a guaranteed offer on your house. When you find your new home, we buy your existing property. After we sell your old house, you keep any profit above our guaranteed offer.
• HomeLight Cash Offer: We’ll purchase your dream home for cash on your behalf, giving you extra bidding power. Then we’ll sell it to you using our mortgage service or one of your choosing.

Some services are not available in all areas.

HomeLight provides additional tools resources to smooth the home buying and selling process:

• Home Value Estimator: Harnesses the power of multiple sources to provide a value estimate based on current market trends.
• Agent Commissions Calculator: You can look up average commission rates for your city.
• Home Affordability Calculator: We help buyers budget using current savings, income, and down payment.
• Net Proceeds Calculator: We help buyers budget using current savings, income, and down payment.
• Best Time to Sell Calculator: Analyzes market data and home sale price data to determine the best time to sell quickly and for the most money.
• Informative Blogs: We provide expert advice, checklists, and quick tips in the HomeLight Seller and Buyer resource centers.

Other frequently asked questions about HomeLight

Do real estate agents pay HomeLight to be part of their network?

No, agents don’t pay to be listed. The agent has to be identified as a top-performing real estate agent to partner based on a number of metrics and curation of reviews.

Is HomeLight worth it? Do they deliver on what they promise?

If you check out the testimonials page, you will see story after story from sellers and buyers alike who were happy to work with HomeLight. We always strive to deliver on what we promise whether we are helping you find a top agent, securing a competitive mortgage, providing a no-obligation cash offer, or working toward an on-time closing.

What else should I know about HomeLight?

People like to work at HomeLight because it’s a good company. For instance, HomeLight has been repeatedly recognized as one of the best workplaces by organizations such as Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces (2019 and 2020). In addition, the website Comparably shows a 98% positive rating from HomeLight employees.

Bottom line: HomeLight provides valuable services to home sellers and buyers

In this article, we answered, “is HomeLight legit?” You learned what type of company HomeLight is, how it makes money, how much clients like to work with HomeLight, and a list of its valuable products and services.

Navigating real estate transactions is not always easy. Sometimes, it’s reassuring to have a knowledgeable and experienced partner to guide the way. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home, HomeLight can help!

Check out our 100% free agent-matching service to find a top-rated agent who can guide you during your real estate journey.

Header Image Source: (Matt Kay / Shutterstock)