This week, the fight over which homes youâre allowed to see moved deeper into federal court, and a major portal offered to cover your down payment. Meanwhile, the industryâs own trade group confirmed what Iâve been telling you since July: buyers have the leverage. The open question is whether youâll get to use it.
đŚđŚđŚ Strong signal â Hidden homes: finding every home for sale is getting harder
Eight multiple listing services are now in litigation with Compass over its push to market homes privately before they reach the MLS, the shared database that feeds nearly every home search site. Separately, four large brokerage groups announced Open Real Estate,1 a listing-sharing network launching in early 2027.
Every side says itâs fighting for consumers. âSeller choice.â âBuyer access.â Access is the sound bite. For buyers, the inventory that used to sit in one place is splitting into private networks, office exclusives and competing databases. No single brokerage, portal or search app sees all of it. This may change as litigation progresses. Iâll let you know if that happens.
I find this development alarming for consumers.
For decades, the one thing buyers could count on was a shared, complete picture of what was for sale. That picture is what let you compare, negotiate from knowledge and know you werenât missing the right home. When inventory fragments, the buyer is the one left guessing. You canât evaluate what you never see, and you canât know what youâre missing. The burden shifts from the system to you, and to whoever you hire to do the looking.
Fragmented listings also mean fragmented sales data, and thatâs what appraisers and lenders price risk from. When valuations get shakier, lenders protect themselves by requiring bigger down payments and tighter terms. Cash buyers will feel it less, but everybody suffers if solid data isnât available to comp properties.
đĄ What this actually means for buyers:
A search app is no longer a complete picture of whatâs for sale, and that gap will likely keep growing.
Surfacing listings now takes deliberate work: monitoring office exclusives, private networks and coming-soon inventory across brokerages, not just one.
Ask every agent you interview: âWalk me through how you find homes that never show up on the public sites, including listings held at other brokerages.â Listen for a process.
đŻ Bottom line: No one network has the whole market anymore. You need an agent who hunts across all of it.
đŚđŚâŹ Medium signal â âFreeâ money: Zillow will cover your FHA down payment. Thereâs one condition, and itâs a biggie.
Zillow Home Loans launched a program giving eligible FHA buyers up to 3.5% of the purchase price as a second loan. It carries no interest and no monthly payment, and itâs forgivable over time. That covers the full FHA minimum down payment.
The condition: your mortgage has to come from Zillow Home Loans. Youâre free to refinance later, but doing so early may mean paying back the assistance. And if you do, look at whatâs left: you gave up your choice of lender to get the money, then paid the money back. You traded something real for nothing. The money is only âfreeâ as long as you stay put.
If youâve been saving for years, thatâs a real offer. But read it as a trade, not a gift. The down payment is the hook. The loan is the product.
Once assistance is tied to one lender, your leverage to compare that lenderâs rate, fees and responsiveness quietly shrinks â in the one market where comparing should pay off most. And Zillowâs business doesnât stop at the loan. Its partner agents pay Zillow for buyer leads.
đĄ What this actually means for buyers:
Put the Zillow lenderâs full Loan Estimate next to two others. Free money upfront can be outweighed by a higher rate or fees over the life of the loan.
Before you sign, get the repayment terms in writing: what happens if you sell, refinance or move out early.
Ask any agent youâre considering: âDo you pay a referral fee to any platform for my business, and do you have a relationship with any lender youâd recommend to me?â
đŻ Bottom line: More companies want to own more of your transaction. Bundles can be convenient. They can also narrow your choices before you realize youâve made any.
đŚđŚâŹ Medium signal â The leverage you might not get to use
The last two issues of the Homebuyer Intel Drop covered the shift. This month, NAR confirmed it. September pending home sales fell 11.3% from a year ago, which CNBC reports is the lowest level in 25 years, and inventory reached a 4.8-month supply. Mortgage rates are a big reason why: even after easing for two straight weeks to 7.24%, theyâre still more than a full point higher than a year ago. NARâs chief economist put the result plainly: âHigher inventory and lengthening days on market give buyers improved negotiating power.â
I see a lot of buyers in those numbers who could act but are waiting for rates to fix the math. In a market like this, the math gets fixed at the negotiating table â with credits, buydowns and terms. Most buyers sitting it out donât realize that, because theyâve never been shown what the right agent does with this kind of leverage.
What feels like the worst time to buy is really the best time to negotiate. The crowd will come back when it feels safe, and bring the competition with it.
đĄ What this actually means for buyers:
Leverage arrives as an opening â room on price, seller-paid closing costs, rate buydowns, repair credits, better timelines. Every one has to be asked for and structured.
These stats are national numbers. Leverage is local and can look completely different one neighborhood to the next. Find out what it means on the blocks youâre shopping before you act.
Ask: âWhat does buyer leverage look like here right now, and how would you use it in my offer?â
đŻ Bottom line: Even the industry now agrees you have the leverage. Whether you get to use it depends on the agent you choose.
Thinking about hiring an agent a friend called âfantasticâ?
Join me live Saturday, Dec 5, for Great Agent. Great for This Market? â how to test that referral before you sign anything.
â Live.WhyHireForward.com
đ FROM THE HIRE:FORWARD⢠DESK
This was the week everyone in real estate claimed to be on your side.
A major portal offered to cover your down payment. Brokerages and listing services went to court in your name over which homes youâre allowed to see. And the trade group told you that you have negotiating power.
Each of these signals sounds like good news. None of it does anything for you on its own. Someone has to check what the âfreeâ money costs, look past their own network and use the leverage for you.
That someone is the agent you hire. And most buyers will choose that agent the way they always have: a name from someone they trust.
A referral is a reasonable place to start. But âthey were fantasticâ is a report on one purchase, in one market, at one moment â and this market just changed. Thatâs the Downstream Effect of your agent hire: you find out how good it was at the offer, the inspection and the closing table.
Join me in a few short weeks for a special workshop.
Great Agent. Great for This Market?
How to test that referral you were handed. (No referral? This works for you, too.)
Saturday, December 5 ¡ 11am PT / 2pm ET ¡ Live on Zoom
What a referral actually tells you â and what it canât
How higher rates change every part of an agentâs job, seen through The Five Dimensions of Outstanding Buyer Representationâ˘
Whatâs negotiable when rates are high, and how the right agent asks for it
The Comparison Imperative⢠and the Hire:Forward Shortlist Protocol⢠â six names to three to one
Live Q&A: bring the referral youâre unsure about and the questions youâve been sitting on
Canât make it on the 5th? Every registrant gets the replay through Thursday, December 10. $49.
Keep the referral. Give it a fair test.
Hire:Forward â providing homebuyer resources built for buyers, not the industry.
â Register at Live.WhyHireForward.com
Disclosure: I hang my real estate license with eXp (AGNT), a founding member of Open Real Estate.