You Shouldn't Have to Sign a Contract Just to Look at a House
By The Home Hub Team · · 6 min read
Business Insider ran a storythis month about homebuyers who are stuck with their real estate agents. Not stuck in the “ugh, my agent never calls me back” sense. Contractually stuck. One buyer in the piece signed a form at her first showing and only later learned that she couldn't fire her agent. She was locked in for a year.
If you haven't bought a house since 2024, this might be news to you. It was news to a lot of the buyers in the article too, which is sort of the whole problem.
A rule that was supposed to help
Quick background. In 2024 the National Association of Realtors settled a big class-action lawsuit over agent commissions for $418 million. One of the changes that came out of it: agents now have to get a written buyer representation agreement signed before they show you any homes. The thinking was reasonable. Buyers should know what their agent charges and what they're agreeing to up front, before they fall in love with a kitchen.
In practice, a lot of buyers are seeing this paperwork for the first time on the front steps of a house they're about to tour. They're excited, the agent is waiting, and the form gets described as standard. So they sign. Nobody reads a contract carefully standing on a porch.
The idea that buyer-broker agreements have to be signed before they show any houses is great. But the practice of springing this on a consumer at the threshold is amazingly unfair and dishonest.
And the terms buried in these agreements can be rough. Depending on the form, you might be agreeing to work exclusively with that agent for months or a year, to owe them a commission on any home you buy during that window (including one you found yourself), or to a cancellation process that requires the brokerage to agree to let you go.
To be fair to agents, most of them aren't trying to trap anyone, and a good one earns their fee. But the setup is backwards. A long-term legal commitment shouldn't be the price of admission for looking at a house.
Why we do things differently
This is honestly one of the main reasons Home Hub exists. Homes on our platform are listed by their owners, and buyers talk to sellers directly. There's no agent standing between you and the front door, so there's nothing to sign just to look around.
Concretely, that means:
- You can browse every listing without an agreement or even an account. Photos, prices, schools, flood zones, sale history, all of it.
- If you have questions about a home, you message the owner. They know the house better than anyone anyway.
- When you're ready, you make your offer directly to the seller and negotiate with them yourself. If you change your mind, you can withdraw it. No contract keeps you tethered to a middleman through any of this.
- Pricing information isn't gatekept either. Our free valuation tool shows you what a home is worth based on actual comparable sales, which is most of what you'd otherwise be relying on an agent for.
There's also no buyer-side commission built into any of this, which on a typical home is a five-figure number.
None of this means going it completely alone
Home Hub isn't a brokerage, and we're not going to pretend a website replaces professional advice. Plenty of buyers on our platform hire a real estate attorney to review the purchase contract, and some still bring in an agent for a specific negotiation. That's often money well spent. The difference is that you're choosing to hire someone, for a job you've defined, at a price you've agreed to. Nobody handed you a clipboard at the door.
And if you do end up working with an agent the traditional way, the Business Insider story has some practical advice worth taking: ask for the agreement before the showing, push for a short term and a clear cancellation clause, and don't sign anything you haven't had time to actually read.