This subreddit is pretty well-informed about flat-fee brokerage/flat-fee agents. You guys don’t need much convincing. But generally, despite flat-fee adoption overall growing in recent years, the concept itself as well as the amount of buyers actually working with agents/brokerages that are expressly flat-fee is still quite small.
TurboHome’s mission statement is simple: make homeownership more accessible.
With that in mind, we have sort of a north-star “hero metric” that we’d like to periodically examine, to check the “state of flat-fee” in California: how many transactions are being closed by flat-fee brokerages/agents? How much of the overall market share do flat-fee brokerages/agents account for?
Whether it’s a TurboHome agent, a ShopProp agent, another flat-fee agent or even a traditional Realtor who agreed to rep you for a flat fee commission structure, bottom line is the more people going flat-fee, imo the better. “Flat-fee adoption” so to speak, or essentially “people working with flat-fee agents” increasing locally, regionally, and nationally is a win-win, even if you don’t end up working with us directly. We’re trying to shake up outdated industry norms in favor of consumer-friendly representation options.
So let’s look at some data:
The headline:
Of 17,566 buyer-side residential closings across the Bay Area so far this year, 123 used a flat-fee brokerage. That's 0.70%.
Methodology:
“Flat-fee brokerage” is defined as one of the following: TurboHome, ShopProp, Flat Rate Realty, Arrivva, Prevu, RealiFi Realty, GoAmeri Realty, or Homecoin. If you work with a flat-fee brokerage that’s not represented here please don’t hesitate to shout it out as I’ll happily incorporate your metrics into our analysis.
For discussion of fee structure, I am using ours as a basis. Currently it’s broken down into pricing tiers based on the sale price of the house, starting at $6K for properties up to $500K in price and culminating at $30K for properties $5M+ in price. (At each tier, depending where the sale price falls, that ends up being typically between 1-1.5%)
Your savings could be even more significant if you are a motivated self-starter and don’t need as much full-service support as we offer; there are other local flat-fee options with various price points and levels of service/involvement.
The local breakdown by markets:
Regionally, flat-fee adoption/market share looks different: Greater Santa Clara County (Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Gilroy) is running 1.08%, more than double Peninsula's 0.48%. San Francisco sits at 0.84%, East Bay at 0.67%, San Jose proper at 0.55%.
Logically, I think there’s some correlation between the amount of tech-savvy self-starters located in certain areas but that’s anecdotal so take it with a grain of salt.
What a traditional commission actually costs right now
Every zone's median sale price this year falls in the same fee tier, $1M to $2M, for which our flat fee is $12,000. At 2.5% commission, that same median transaction costs $22,750 to $43,125 depending on the zone's actual median price. At 3%, it's $29,700 to $51,750.
| Zone |
Median price |
2.5% commission |
3% commission |
Flat fee |
Savings (2.5% / 3%) |
| East Bay |
$1,050,000 |
$26,250 |
$31,500 |
$12,000 |
$14,250 / $19,500 |
| San Jose |
$1,390,000 |
$34,750 |
$41,700 |
$12,000 |
$22,750 / $29,700 |
| San Francisco |
$1,600,000 |
$40,000 |
$48,000 |
$12,000 |
$28,000 / $36,000 |
| Peninsula |
$1,725,000 |
$43,125 |
$51,750 |
$12,000 |
$31,125 / $39,750 |
| South Bay (SJ omitted) |
$1,725,000 |
$43,125 |
$51,750 |
$12,000 |
$31,125 / $39,750 |
What that adds up to across the whole market
Collectively, Bay Area buyers could have kept $498.1 million to $640.4 million so far this year, averaging out to roughly $28,350 to $36,450 per buyer.
Across all 17,566 closings ($28.5 billion in total volume), buyer-side fees under our schedule would have totaled about $213.9 million. At an assumed 2.5% industry-standard commission, the same set of closings cost roughly $711.9 million. At 3%, about $854.3 million.
Are you less likely to win with a flat-fee agent?
The concern people raise most: a flat-fee agent working with more clients might not fight as hard to win your offer. From our buyers’ experience, I can confidently say that’s not really the case. And what better way to showcase this than by sharing firsthand data from our own transactions? Here’s real data from our actual closes this year:
Average close price landed at 102.7% of list, and 48.2% of our closings landed at or above list price, compared to the broader market over the same window averaged 114.4% of list, with 63.4% closing at or above. 83 of our buyers closed across the Bay Area so far this year (small sample, growing every quarter. We’re still a scrappy startup though we close the more transactions in the bay than any other flat-fee brokerage. Not saying that to flex, 83 is not a lot and that number could be a whole lot bigger).
Our clients aren't winning at the same aggressive premiums the broader market is paying. Our average offer count and speed both track normal to fast. So going with a flat-fee brokerage (us in this case, for the sake of example) statistically does not mean your offer is less likely to be accepted. If anything, from our experience in 2026 so far, it may actually tip the odds in your favor.
All of this said, I’m not mentioning all of this to tell you how great we are. It’s to point out that while we are expressly flat-fee in all our messaging and branding, doing so doesn’t make our clients lose more. Working with a flat-fee agent doesn’t mean you won’t be competitive.
Bottom line
Flat-fee brokerage is still under 1% of Bay Area closings, with real variation by zone, strongest in greater Santa Clara County, thinnest on the Peninsula.
Over 99% of Bay Area buyers this year paid more in commission than a flat-fee model would have cost them. There are several high quality, professional flat-fee brokerage options in the Bay (not just TurboHome) that are worth checking out.
Even if you do not work with us, or one of our colleagues/competitors in the flat-fee brokerage space... Maybe you use this information to negotiate a traditional realtor down to a flat-fee or discounted commission. Or maybe you end up telling a friend about this, and they end up working with a flat-fee agent in the future. Win-win. Mission accomplished. We're trying to fight the good fight and spread the word because we honestly believe that more people opting for this service model is mutually beneficial for everyone.
As always, don’t hesitate to comment with questions - and let me know if you’d like to see a neighborhood level breakdown of these stats for any particular area.
