A real estate brokerage built around a single principle: aligned incentives.

The traditional Seattle real estate model has a problem we think most people instinctively feel but rarely articulate: when an agent's pay is a percentage of the price, their interests stop being identical to yours.

If you're selling, your agent makes more money the higher the sale price — sounds aligned. But they also make money the faster the sale closes, and the difference between $1,000,000 and $1,030,000 is only $900 in their pocket. Pushing you to take an early offer is, mathematically, the better business decision for them. Not for you.

If you're buying, your "buyer's agent" technically gets paid by the seller — but their commission goes up if you spend more. They are, structurally, paid to encourage you to bid higher.

We didn't invent this critique. Steven Levitt wrote about it in Freakonomics twenty years ago. The data shows that agents, on average, sell their own homes for more money and leave them on the market longer than they do their clients' homes. The incentive gap is real, and it shows up in the data.

Our model

WA Homes charges transparent flat fees in Greater Seattle. Sellers pick a package that fits their scope — Free ($0) for MLS-only, Essentials ($1,995), Full ($4,495, our flagship), or Concierge ($7,995 flat) for higher-complexity listings. Buyers pay a capped flat fee based on home price, and the rest of the seller-offered commission is rebated back to them at closing. Same fee inside the same package, whether the home is $400K or $40M — because the work is roughly the same. Never a percentage.

It also frees us to give you advice that doesn't pay us. If your best move is to wait six months, we'll tell you. If you should walk away from a house you love because of a foundation issue, we'll tell you. If you don't actually need a buyer's agent for a particular new-construction purchase, we'll tell you that too.

How we actually work

We are deliberately small and deliberately local. The same broker who picks up the phone is the one who shows you the house, writes the offer, and sits with you at signing. There is no junior agent layer, no transaction coordinator with a script, no managing broker who only appears in your inbox at closing.

We use technology where it helps — MLS feeds, e-sign, document tracking — and stay out of its way where it doesn't. Real estate is a high-trust, high-stakes job, and most of the value is in the judgment calls.