Updated October 27, 2026. U.S. real estate context; all amounts USD. Published terms were checked on this date and may change. Calculations labeled illustrative are planning scenarios, not quotes, forecasts, or standard commission rates.
Which portal leaves you with more commission? The answer depends on the exact product, agreement, and resulting transactions—not the portal’s name.
Compare an upfront advertising proposal with another upfront proposal, or a referral arrangement with another referral arrangement. Mixing the two can hide the most important difference: when you pay and what triggers the expense.
Which Products Are Being Compared?
Zillow Preferred publishes variable buyer fees and a 40% seller-originated transaction fee. Use its pricing lookup and your agreement for the applicable obligation. Source: Zillow Preferred pricing
Realtor.com’s ReadyConnect Concierge publicly describes no-upfront-cost referrals with a fee on closed transactions. Its public product page does not quote one universal percentage. Source: ReadyConnect Concierge
Realtor.com also markets Connections Plus, a separate lead-generation and follow-up product. Obtain its written proposal instead of assigning Concierge’s payment model to it. Source: Connections Plus
Question | Zillow Preferred | ReadyConnect Concierge | Upfront lead proposal |
|---|---|---|---|
What determines price? | Published schedule and agreement | Signed referral agreement | Written local quote |
When is the acquisition fee paid? | On qualifying transactions | On covered closings | Under billing terms |
Is volume assured? | Confirm contract | Confirm contract | Confirm contract |
What else needs budgeting? | Required tools and servicing | Tools, splits, and servicing | Management, tools, and servicing |
What Do You Keep After a Referral Fee?
Use the actual negotiated commission for your transaction side. Compensation is negotiable; there is no standard commission assumed here.
Hypothetical sensitivity analysis: $10,000 commission, referral deducted first, then a 70% agent share of the remainder. These percentages are assumptions, not product quotes.
Assumed referral rate | Referral fee | Agent amount after assumed split, before other costs |
|---|---|---|
25% | $2,500 | $5,250 |
30% | $3,000 | $4,900 |
35% | $3,500 | $4,550 |
40% | $4,000 | $4,200 |
Formula: commission × (1 − referral rate) × agent share. Your broker’s deduction order, caps, and team arrangements can produce different results.
Is the Lower Percentage Always Better?
No. A lower fee is useful only alongside achievable volume, relevant opportunities, workload, and satisfactory margin. Compare held appointments and completed transactions from similar acquisition periods.
Ask what happens with duplicates, pre-existing relationships, repeat transactions, cancellations, and transactions completed after leaving the program. These are agreement questions, not assumptions to resolve from an online review.
How Do You Compare Two Actual Portal Proposals?
Request the proposal and agreement for the specific product in your location. Then create a one-page comparison using the same questions for each representative.
The most useful starting question is: “What event creates a charge, and what amount is that charge calculated on?” Follow with the term, renewal, required tools, and the treatment of an existing relationship. Those answers are more decision-relevant than a salesperson’s best-performing customer example.
If one proposal charges upfront and another deducts a fee at closing, evaluate cash exposure separately from eventual cost. The first may consume cash without a transaction. The second may conserve acquisition cash while taking a larger amount from a successful transaction. Neither difference, by itself, determines profitability.
Why Can the Brokerage Split Change the Winner?
The earlier table assumes a referral comes out before the agent’s share is applied. Your commission arrangement might work differently. Get a written example from your broker using the same commission amount for each offer.
Consider a purely hypothetical $10,000 commission, 35% referral, and 70% agent share. Deducting the referral first leaves $6,500, of which the agent receives $4,550. Calculating the agent share first gives $7,000; if the full $3,500 referral is then assigned to the agent, $3,500 remains.
Hypothetical deduction treatment | Agent amount before other costs |
|---|---|
Referral first, then 70% agent share | $4,550 |
70% agent share first, then agent bears full referral | $3,500 |
Difference | $1,050 |
These are alternative contract treatments, not descriptions of either provider’s universal practice. The example explains why “I keep 70%” does not tell you enough to compare take-home economics.
How Should You Handle Upfront Lead Pricing?
Ask for total committed dollars rather than just a starting monthly figure. Clarify whether the quote includes an estimate of connection volume, whether opportunities are shared, and how credits or disputed inquiries are handled.
Suppose a hypothetical six-month proposal costs $1,200 per month plus $600 in required setup. The commitment is $7,800. If it eventually produces two transactions, acquisition cost is $3,900 per closing before other attributable costs. If it produces one, that figure is $7,800. The monthly quote alone hides that sensitivity.
The same exercise applies to any upfront product you are considering. Do not attach the example price to Zillow or Realtor.com unless it is actually present in your written proposal.
Are Vendor Conversion Claims Comparable?
Check the date, population, denominator, and definition of conversion. A company’s “conversion” could refer to a response, appointment, agreement, or closed transaction. A comparison with a broad industry average may not describe agents working in your price range or service area.
Realtor.com’s Concierge page includes a conversion claim supported by its stated 2019 internal data. Treat that as a dated vendor claim, not a current independent prediction of your closing rate. Source: ReadyConnect Concierge, claim footnote
Ask for evidence applicable to the actual product and market. If it is unavailable, model conservative outcomes rather than replacing the missing information with a confident national estimate.
What Does a Useful Trial Scorecard Include?
Track source, product, acquisition month, unique person, inquiry type, contact outcome, appointment held, signed work where relevant, closing, and collected commission. Add the fee actually paid and direct servicing effort.
Separate duplicate people from duplicate charges. You may discover the same person through two systems, but your agreements and records determine whether one or more payment obligations exist. Attribution reporting cannot rewrite those obligations.
Review buyer and seller opportunities separately. A product that performs well for one need may look weak when combined with another. Also note whether an agent was available to accept or respond to opportunities; an operating bottleneck can make the source appear less productive.
What If the Proposals Use Different Definitions of Exclusivity?
Ask the representative to define the term in writing. An opportunity delivered only to your team through one product does not necessarily mean the person has contacted nobody else or will work only with you. Likewise, a shared inquiry does not establish that every receiving agent will respond or that the consumer is ready to appoint someone.
Separate delivery terms from the consumer’s eventual representation decisions. Model the work needed to reach and serve the person rather than adding an assumed exclusivity advantage to your closing forecast.
Also clarify how local availability affects the proposal. A product described nationally may not have the same inventory or enrollment options in every market. Your agreement and actual opportunity supply matter more than an example from another city.
How Should You Present the Recommendation to Your Team?
Show the written product, payment trigger, commission base, deduction sequence, total commitment, and conservative outcomes side by side. Add the service hours needed and who will cover them.
Recommend a specific next step: request clarification, negotiate an available term, run a bounded test, renew, or decline. Include the uncertainties that could change your recommendation. A clear decision memo is more useful than declaring a winner from an advertised fee alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Realtor.com always less expensive than Zillow?
No public universal comparison establishes that. Compare the specific product, contractual price, applicable fee base, conversion evidence, and servicing work. Two agents can receive different proposals and have different margins.
Can I compare both portals with the same referral percentage?
You can use a common assumed rate for sensitivity analysis, clearly labeled as hypothetical. That tests your business model, but it does not tell readers what either provider currently charges them.
Should I accept the source that delivers more leads?
Only if your team can handle the work and the additional opportunities produce adequate contribution. More invalid or unsuitable inquiries can consume capacity that would otherwise support existing clients.
What information should I take to my broker?
Bring both agreements, a sample negotiated commission, your split and cap terms, expected service workload, and conservative closing scenarios. Ask the broker to show the complete deduction sequence and any surviving obligations. That discussion can expose material differences before you commit.
Which Proposal Should You Request?
Ask both providers for the exact applicable fees, fee base, duration, additional expenses, allocation rules, termination terms, and ongoing reporting requirements. Get your broker’s explanation of how deductions will appear on your settlement or commission statement.
Choose from the written economics. Neither portal can promise that your personal conversion rate will match another agent’s experience.
Compare Your Acquisition Options With Revalto
Contact Revalto to discuss website and content marketing that can broaden your acquisition mix alongside portal relationships.
Read the opening comparison in this series: Zillow Leads vs. Google Ads.
