What is Faira’s business model? Why would a home buyer ever use Faira and pay the extra fee?

Faira provides its basic services free to the home-sellers and charge 0.5% from buyers. Faira services are available in California and Washington states.

Faira’s basic services, which are free for sellers, exceed the services of most full-service agents. This is made possible due to the advanced economic-technology we have built. Faira is closest thing to ecommerce for homes! I am skipping the description of technology for now, since your question is more about the buyers. Will be happy to talk about technology too in a separate technology specific question. Now back to the buyers.

Buyer’s 0.5% Platform fee is includ ed in the price displayed on Faira website. This is a remarkable deal for buyers, since usually the price displayed on agent-listed homes includ e 6%, with no way to avoid it. A buyer is stuck with it in traditional model. Further, buyer has to pay additional fee on inspection report etc. On Faira, it is way easier for buyers to buy homes with essentially a few clicks, way more economical since 99.5% of your offer price is going towards the home and the remaining 0.5% towards upfront due-diligence such as inspection report, and way more safe since everything is fully transparent.

Buyers can buy two kinds of homes from Faira. Just like on Amazon, you have two kind of purchases, one which is sold by Amazon (retailer) and two which is sold by third party sellers (marketplace). Faira similarly allows you to buy two kinds of homes.

A). Faira homes — this is the coolest experience for the buyers. Buyer has a choice, whether to use a buyer’s agent or not. If a buyer uses an agent, just like in conventional process, the offer price will includ e the full compensation for the buyer’s agent. This is good for agents too, since they can make a digital offer for their buyers within two minutes, while earning full commission! The transparency also helps the buyer’s agent to have higher trust relationship with the buyers.

Since making an offer is very easy, the buyer can also make an offer by herself. If the buyer does so, the buyer saves on the commission which otherwise would have gone to the buyer’s agent. So no need to find an agent, who can kick-back a part of the commission rebate. You get the entire commission rebate upfront! Check out how to make an offer in the following video.

B). Non-Faira homes — this is any home available in the market, whether it is on Zillow, Redfin, local MLS, FSBO website, or even off-market purchase. The most interesting case if the home is available on MLS, say with, 3% buyer’s agent commission.

In this case, Faira collects offer-details from the buyer digitally. Convert the offer into a PDF file, get electronic signatures, and send the PDF file to the seller’s agent. Looks like a typical process, with two incredible values for the buyers.

1. The buyer gets the entire buyer’s agent commission back on closing, typically 3%. Faira charges 0.5% for its fee as described above. So the buyer comes out 2.5% ahead!

2. The buyer gets the home sooner. In a hot market, e.g., in Seattle, a given buyer has only 25% chance of getting a desired home with a conventional agent. With Faira the chance is 40%. So there is a 60% higher chance of getting your desired home. This shorten your house hunting by months.

You can start buying a non-Faira home at: Faira Offer Assist for Home Buyer

As you can see, on Faira, a buyer has a choice of having a dedicated agent or do-it-yourself.

Similarly on seller’s side, Faira allows a seller to use Faira basic services for Free. Faira basic services already exceed the services of most full service agents. Further, the seller has a choice of having a dedicated agent for just 1% commission!

This gives the sellers the best of both the worlds. Use of advanced economic-technology and the service of a dedicated agent! Faira would typically get 35% more buyers for your home and treat these buyers as seller’s high-end customers, rather than opponents as they are treated in conventional process.

So in summary, Faira is not about eliminating the middleman, instead Faira is about giving choice to both the buyers and sellers. It is about fairness, and it is the root behind our brand name, FAIRa. Faira welcomes agents, both on seller side and buyer side. Faira makes the home buying and selling easier. Seller’s agents who really care about their seller’s interest foremost should utilize Faira for their own seller’s homes.