Sold.com Reviews: Learn About This Real Estate Service

If you are looking to buy or sell your house, you will quickly discover dozens of companies that claim to offer better experiences for you. These online brands promise to streamline the stressful real estate process as an alternative to hiring a traditional real estate agent.

However, most of these startups aren’t actually changing the game. Many just use online tools and referral fees to recommend agents to homeowners or potential buyers. This is the case with Sold.com. 

Sold.com says it will help buyers and sellers find the best method to meet their real estate goals. However, it doesn’t necessarily provide an experience that’s different from Google. At best, this limits the number of options you see. At worst, the website recommends poor-performing Realtors who want an endless stream of leads. 

Learn more about this company and read Sold.com reviews before submitting your contact information to its online form. 

What is Sold.com?

This company is vague about what it does when you look through its website. Sold.com says that its mission is to, “save time, reduce stress and improve sales outcomes for home sellers by delivering data-driven content and personalized recommendations.” It says it provides information to sellers so they can make strategic decisions. 

In clear terms, Sold.com is a recommendation engine. You give the website your address and it sends you a list of local real estate agents in your area. This is a free service for buyers and sellers but the agents pay a 30% fee on any leads that Sold.com sends that actually close. This is standard in the real estate industry and you can find similar fee levels when working with various other referral sites. 

Along with recommending real estate agents, Sold.com can also suggest iBuyers and local investors who can make offers on your home. They claim this is part of the value-add system. Not every seller wants to hire traditional real estate agents.

By suggesting potential investors and cash buyers, some sellers might work directly with them as For Sale by Owner (FSBO). 

Sold.com has also expanded into recommending services for buyers and sellers throughout the real estate process. Users can get quotes for mortgages, insurance, home warranties, moving services, various other home services, and even debt relief. The more professionals that Sold.com recommends to customers, the more money it can potentially make on referral fees.

This agent matching service is free for buyers and sellers, which means the real estate agents and vendors are the main source of income for Sold.com. There’s a common marketing saying that if you aren’t the customer, you are the product.

Sold.com relies on a large audience of buyers and sellers to use its service and attract vendors. This is why it creates a lot of content to attract sellers and has expanded to recommend various other service providers. 

However, some real estate agents are still wary of working with Sold.com because of its pricy referral fees. Not everyone can afford to give up 30% of their commission on a sale. 

As an example, let’s say you sell your house for $400,000 through a real estate agent you found on Sold.com. Most sellers will pay around six percent in Realtor commissions on their home sale, which means you will have about $24,000 in fees. This is then split between your agent and the buyer’s agent, so your Realtor receives $12,000. They would then owe $3,600 to Sold.com because of the 30% referral fee.

Realtors also have to pay a fee to the licensed real estate brokerage they work with. This can be anywhere from 10% to 40% depending on their agreement. This means another $3,000 is taken from the agent’s commission. 

Your listing agent’s take-home pay after the $24,000 in fees you give them is only around $5,400 – and that’s before they subtract the costs that came with marketing and selling your home.

Sold.com is a legitimate company and can be used to help buyers and sellers take the next steps in the real estate process. There are certainly benefits to finding real estate services through this website. Here are a few pros of using Sold.com.

• There’s no risk for buyers and sellers. The service is free so you can find local real estate agents and decide whether you want to work with them. 
• Sold.com can narrow your Realtor search. Using search engines like Google can be overwhelming. A referral engine can help you review a few top choices. 
• The company provides multiple agent matches. Unlike some real estate websites, this company lets you look at several potential agents rather than assigning you one. 
• You can review your home sale alternatives. There are multiple ways to sell your home. Along with reviewing the partner agents, you can also see offers from investors, cash buyers, and iBuyers who are interested in your property. 

There are plenty of agent matching services online. However, the main benefit of using Sold.com seems to be the various options it provides for selling real estate. Very few websites would recommend both a real estate agent and an investor at the same time. This company also stands out by pairing you with mortgage lenders, moving services, and other essential vendors. 

Just because Sold.com is a legitimate company doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for your needs. Here are a few reasons you might be wary of this service.

• You don’t know what the company does with your information. Some agent matching services pass on your contact information to various Realtors. You might receive multiple calls, texts, and emails for days after submitting the contact form. 
• You are given a limited pool of real estate agents to choose from. Only a handful of agents work with Sold.com. Your ideal real estate brokers might not be on this site. 
• The agent you hire might not give you their full attention. Because your Realtor has to take a 30% pay cut on their commission because of the referral fees, they might not allocate as much time and energy to your sale. If they have a lot of other clients and leads, your agent might be hard to reach. 

Naturally, these are a lot of assumptions. Many Realtors assume that high fees are a normal cost of working with a referral network. Sold.com might have high-quality Realtors that go above and beyond for clients. However, it is still important to thoroughly vet agents before you hire the best one. You might end up using other agent matching services on top of Sold.com to find a diverse pool of Realtors that could meet your needs.

One of the best ways to understand what it’s like using this website is to read Sold.com reviews. You can find comments and posts from both customers and agents across the web.

The first place to start when reading Sold.com reviews is the website itself. This is where you can find several positive comments from buyers and sellers who worked with the company.

While these are biased, you can use these reviews to understand the values of other people who search for agent matching services. Here are a few comments. 

• “After spending some time trying to sell a rental property, I was looking for alternatives… I listed with their recommended partner and am off and running,” – Heather L, five stars.
• “They have done all the research and saved me the hassle of having to do it myself. I chose one of their top-tier agents who was responsive and very professional. I listed with them the same day I met them,” Robert A, five stars.
• “I started out For Sale By Owner but realized I needed more help. I spoke to the SOLD.com concierge team to understand my options and they connected me with a local expert at no cost!” – Heather M, five stars.

One of the frustrating things about these reviews is that you can’t see how many comments have fewer than five stars – if any. This highlights a lack of transparency by the company if it is only publishing positive Sold.com reviews.

HomeOpenly

HomeOpenly is a competitor to Sold.com. It is an agent matching service that claims Realtors pay zero fees for finding leads. This website also collects reviews for various other agent matching services across the web.

These posts are just as biased as the positive Sold.com reviews on the company website, but they still provide clear examples of some of the complaints that customers have along with frustrations by agents. Here’s what some people have to say. 

• “They give few leads, and the ones they give are just wanting the free CMA so they can sell their home on their own. Others have literally cussed me out stating they are tired of getting calls,” – Andrew B, one star.
• “I was contacted by this outfit and they said I would get an appraisal on our home. I never got an appraisal, it appears this is nothing more than an ‘Angie’s List’ type of operation that sells your house info to various brokers and salespeople,” – Bill H, one star. 
• “Agent was extremely rude, laughing at my discontent stating she gets paid whether I’m happy or not,” Pete J, one star.

Several agents claim the 30% referral fee isn’t actually what they end up paying for leads. They pay the company upfront or are charged fees to access leads. This is what makes agents say Sold.com is a scam because they don’t always receive high-quality leads after they make these payments.

This could also explain why buyers and sellers are frustrated. They have to deal with aggressive real estate agents who are trying to get the most out of the leads they have paid for.

Better Business Bureau

If you are looking for objective Sold.com reviews, turn to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Despite being in business for 25 years, this website is not accredited by the BBB. The website gives Sold.com an F rating and it has received 12 complaints in the past 12 months. Sold.com has a 1.5-star rating out of five stars on this website with eight reviews. Here are some comments from users. 

• “They will tell you that their customer leads are protected from other agents, but they are not. They are sold to multiple agents,” – Eddie G, one star.
• “They say they will send you leads and set your appointments but they don’t do any of that. I’ve been with them nearly a year at this point and have not gotten a single appointment,” – Tom G, one star.
• “I have asked numerous times to be taken off their call list. I don’t buy leads and am not interested in their service,” – Andrew W, one star. 

Most of these comments are from agents who are unsatisfied with the service. There is only one positive review on the BBB and it is from a customer. This is also the only review that Sold.com has responded to. 

If licensed real estate brokers aren’t happy with the agent matching service provided by Sold.com, they will leave the network. This means buyers and sellers will have fewer people to review and interview when choosing a Realtor. This creates a worse customer experience overall.

SiteJabber

One final place to look at Sold.com reviews is SiteJabber, where people can review online experiences. Sold.com has a rating of two out of five stars with 24 reviews. Many of the reviews are from the past year so they accurately reflect the experiences of today’s users. Here are a few comments. 

• “I have had some great introductions from this service. Great support from their staff. As soon as I close I will update to 5 stars,” – Brad D, four stars.
• “I gave this a shot because my friend referred me. I had a wonderful experience selling my house with great customer service…They only work with the best agents so I imagine not all agents are happy depending on how good they are,” – Pat M, five stars.
• “I asked for a refund because all the leads said they never signed up to sell their houses and to take me off their call list. One kind woman said she fills out surveys and this sort of thing happens because her surveys get sold and that is how you get the lead,” – Christine H, one star. 

Overall, buyers and sellers seem happy with this agent matching service. They gain access to the agent network and get to decide who they want to work with. However, many Realtors have had mixed experiences. If you are a featured agent, you might get several leads each year. However, many Realtors say there are undisclosed referral fees because it costs more to expand their range into multiple zip codes. They also have concerns about the lead quality. 

If you are unsure about using the real estate services provided by Sold.com, look into a few alternatives. You can either find a referral network that better meets your needs or use traditional methods to find and interview multiple agents who can sell your home. Here are a few options. 

FastExpert

FastExpert is one of the best places on the web to find a real estate agent. Not only does it have a large agent network, but you don’t have to worry about selling your information or spreading it across the web. All you need is to tell us your zip code and we can provide a list of Realtors in your area. These agents will also never call or harass you. You can reach out first and decide how comfortable you are speaking with them. 

Try FastExpert to get the agent quality you expect from online representation services.

Open Houses 

A final way to find agents in your area is to attend open houses for properties that are similar to yours.

Look for these events in your neighborhood or for properties with similar price points. You usually don’t have to attend these with a buyer’s agent and can just walk in. 

This could be a good way to have in-person meetings with agents before you read reviews online about their performance. You can also meet Realtors who already work with homes similar to the one you want to sell. 

Hire a Licensed Real Estate Brokerage You Can Trust

There’s nothing wrong with using agent matching services to help you narrow your search. However, you need to make sure the website you use is reputable, has ethical business practices, and has a large agent network.

While Sold.com seems to have a good business model, it has a lot of unhappy agents who criticize the company for its high fees. You might be better off looking into other agent matching services if you need to hire a local Realtor. 

Along with Sold.com, look into FastExpert to find your next Realtor. We think our service is better because we provide detailed profiles of agents that buyers and sellers can read without having to complete a contact form. We never sell your information and are happy to let you review and interview different Realtors until you find the best real estate agent for your needs. At FastExpert, we believe in transparency and providing positive experiences for everyone involved. 

Try FastExpert today and see how we stand above most agent-matching services.

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• Source: https://www.fastexpert.com/blog/sold-reviews/