Who is Sawbuck?

Transparency

Traditionally, the real estate business is built around keeping buyers in the dark. Brokers and agents keep the “secret data” of the MLS to themselves, knowing that once they share it with you, you’ll feel obligated to become their client. Mortgage companies keep their pricing information to themselves, trying to mark it up as much as possible. Settlement companies don’t tell you how they really make money, hoping to justify as many extra fees as they can.

Throw in the fact that these companies are often extremely friendly with each other, paying each other, or are outright owned by each other. So no one has an incentive to lift the curtain and explain just how it all works. Keeping buyers in the dark has served these companies well for decades.

Sawbuck is different. We believe in giving buyers as much information as possible. We show you as much MLS data as we’re allowed—more than any other real estate company. Then we give you the best tools around to search, filter and manage that data—better tools than most agents have.

We explain exactly how the real estate, mortgage and settlement businesses work—what they do and how they make money. We show how the cozy relationships between these businesses came to be, and why they are bad for buyers. Then we show you how we make money—so you understand how the Free Mortgage and Free Settlement are possible.

Business Model

Most of the trends in the traditional real estate business are working against consumers (buyers). In dollars, commissions have skyrocketed in the last decade—home prices have doubled or tripled, but commission percentages have stayed about the same. Yet buyers aren’t really getting anything more for that money. Why is that?

Because those larger commissions attracted a flood of new agents to the business. The average agent doesn’t make any more money than they did before—they just do it with many fewer deals. Instead of spending their time and money helping buyers or sellers, they now spend it marketing—fighting the dozens of other agents in their neighborhood for a finite number of deals.

So all that new commission money has really gone to: 1) pay agents to spend their time marketing and networking to get clients; and 2) buy agents’ television, radio, newspaper and internet advertising. None of it is left to help buyers get a better deal.

At the same time, real estate companies (brokers) have invented new ways to make money from their buyer clients, including:

• The “admin fee”: Many charge their clients a $300 fee at closing. Unlike the commission, this fee goes to the broker and is not split with the agent.
• Mortgage: Brokers created in-house lenders to make more money from buyers.
• Settlement: Brokers set up ABAs with settlement companies to split the title insurance revenue.

So despite much higher commissions, buyers are getting a WORSE deal.

Sawbuck was created to turn this model upside down, giving buyers not just a good deal, but the BEST POSSIBLE DEAL.

Sawbuck is designed to redirect business from less experienced, less efficient, low-volume agents to the best, most experienced, most businesslike teams and agents. Customers benefit from our screening and research because they get a great, knowledgeable, local agent. These top agents benefit because they can spend all their time and money on helping buyers, not on marketing and networking. In other words, they can focus on what they do best.

This frees up part of the commission to actually help the buyer. Sawbuck is designed to get the maximum bang for these bucks:

• Great technology: We develop and maintain the best search tools for buyers. Buyers are happy because the information they want is at their fingertips. The agent is happy because they don’t have to spend time emailing and faxing listings back and forth.
• Early consultation: Sawbuck works with buyers early on in the process to help focus their search, walk through financing options and get the ball rolling.
• Free Mortgage: Sawbuck subsidizes every mortgage so buyers get a below-market interest rate and pay no closing costs. They save thousands up-front and six figures over 30 years.
• Free Settlement: Sawbuck has negotiated the lowest possible settlement costs with leading title companies. Buyers only pay for title insurance and pass-throughs. No ABAs. No fees. No markups.

It’s really that simple. The money is there to get buyers a better deal—even using a top agent. But only if that agent can focus on real estate and not marketing. Sawbuck makes it happen.