The "Innovation" Companies That Keep Your Commissions High

Compass has raised over $1.5 billion in venture capital and generated billions in revenue. Their 2021 IPO valued them at roughly $8 billion, yet they've never posted an annual profit and their stock has lost approximately 60% of its value since going public.

Redfin has raised over $150 million in substantial venture funding and operates in dozens of markets. After 18 years in business, they're still burning cash with no clear path to sustainable profitability.

Here’s the investor reality check: If you'd invested $10,000 in Compass at IPO, you'd have lost $6,000+. If you'd bought Redfin stock at IPO and sold on its last day of trading, you'd have lost 25% before Rocket Mortgage acquired them in July 2025.

Meanwhile, you're still paying virtually identical commission rates to fund their corporate experiments.

Both companies maintain commission structures nearly identical to traditional brokerages while using investor money to subsidize operations that would be unprofitable at fair market rates.

Compass charges sellers the same 2.8-3% listing fees as traditional agents, plus they encourage the same 2.8-3% buyer agent commissions. Total transaction costs remain at 5.6-6%—identical to the traditional system they claim to enhance with premium service.

Redfin's "innovative" model? They charge 1.5% listing fees but still negotiate against you by building in 3% for buyer agents. You save slightly on one side while paying full freight on the other. Net result: You're still paying 4.5% in total commissions.

Neither company fundamentally challenges the two-agent system that doubles transaction costs—they just shift where you pay the inflated fees. Neither embraces full transparency around property conditions, comparable sales data, or competing offers—the basic elements that would actually empower consumer decision-making.

Real innovation in other industries drives prices down through efficiency. When Netflix disrupted video rental, your monthly costs dropped from $20+ in late fees to $8.99 unlimited subscriptions. When Uber entered transportation, ride costs became transparent and often cheaper than taxis.

In real estate, "innovative" companies have maintained virtually identical pricing to traditional brokerages while burning billions in investor money. That's not disruption—that's subsidized status quo preservation.

Actual real estate innovation would eliminate unnecessary dual-agent structures through transparency, price services based on actual work performed rather than property values, give buyers and sellers direct control and full visibility over their transaction data, and reduce total transaction costs to 2-3% through streamlined processes.

These companies avoid this path because it threatens the commission-heavy revenue model that attracts investor funding. It's easier to raise $100 million by promising to capture existing high-margin revenue than by building a truly efficient system.

When you work with Compass or Redfin, you're not getting innovation—you're funding their corporate overhead through the same inflated commission structure traditional brokerages use, subsidized by investor capital rather than genuine efficiency improvements.

The companies with the biggest marketing budgets are usually the ones with the least sustainable business models. True innovation doesn't require massive investor subsidies to work—it saves YOU money from day one.

Work with professionals who've built sustainable business models serving consumers, not companies burning investor cash while maintaining the expensive status quo.

Want to learn how to avoid paying inflated commissions to fund corporate experiments that don’t benefit your transaction? Email me directly at [email protected] or schedule a free strategy call.

The stock brokerage playbook that real estate refuses to follow: How Wall Street cut trading commissions from $100+ to zero—and why real estate brokerages are fighting the same inevitable disruption that's coming for them.

I'm Mathew Speer, founder of Real Estate Insider News and PropertyPage.io—the first consumer-centered real estate listing platform. I've invested in real estate for two decades, worked as an agent for 14 years including time at large brokerage firms, and owned and operated my own independent real estate brokerage, Local Real Estate Advisors, for eight years.

After witnessing an industry that profits from keeping consumers in the dark, I authored "The Consumer's Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate" and built PropertyPage.io to provide the transparency and control missing from traditional real estate transactions.

I write this newsletter to arm you with the knowledge that saves thousands while simplifying the process—exposing the tactics, revealing the truth, and giving you the power to transact on your own terms in a system designed to work against you.