A Brief History of Rebates on New Homes in Houston
← Back to BlogHow Houston Became a Rebate Market
Houston’s new-home market has been the largest in the country for most of the last two decades. With that much volume, builders competed hard for buyers — and agents competed hard for builders.
As buyers started doing their own research online, the work of finding the home shifted away from the agent. A handful of Houston agents responded by sharing commission with the buyer rather than pretending nothing had changed.
The Department of Justice has supported this the whole way, stating plainly that rebates make buying a home less expensive. Today the practice is legal in Texas and in the large majority of US states.
What started in Katy, Cypress and Sugar Land is now standard across Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.