Home buyers are profit centers for many industries including real estate brokerages, banks, title companies and other market segments that support the home buying process. Many home buyers accept offers at face value for services in the process to close. ACATIO was created by real estate veterans to help home buyers monetize their transaction by having real estate brokers bid for their business by offering their highest rebate, which is, in a sense, sharing a percentage of their commission with the buyer. ACATIO will also assist in getting good deals on other services as well in the home buying process including mortgages, title services and home warranties.
Jeffrey Johnson and Judy Hollowell of Above Atlanta, an Atlanta-based high rise real estate firm that is partnered with ACATIO, realized during the pandemic that home buyers were finding their homes online on the many real estate websites and just needed an agent to get them in the properties and prepare the contract if they chose to make an offer. Since the buyers are doing half the work by finding the properties themselves online, why shouldn’t they share in the commission their broker earns. Buyer rebates are legal in 40 states. ACATIO will educate the consumer and help them to take advantage of these rebates that many brokers are not telling them are available.
In 2019 there were over 6 million home buying transactions according to Census statistics. The median real estate purchase was $320,000. A typical real estate commission on the buyer side is 3% of the sales price. ACATIO will put the buyer profile out for a rebate bid to real estate brokerages in the area the buyer is looking to purchase in. A typical rebate is 33% or more of a typical 3% commission on the home’s sales price. ACATIO’s mission is to put at least 33% of the over $57 billion in brokerage commissions in home buyer’s pockets, which equates to almost $20 billion in savings. Real estate brokers and other services will give referral fees to ACATIO for the buyers that become their clients and close on real estate purchases. This makes the service from ACATIO free to home buyers.
“Home buyer rebates are a profit center that most buyers are not aware of and therefore they are missing out on these incentives,” said Jeffrey Johnson, founder. “ACATIO will help home buyers harness their power and monetize their property purchase.”
ACATIO is based in Atlanta, GA and founded by Jeffrey Johnson and Judy Hollowell. Jeffrey Johnson is the owner of Above Atlanta LLC, a real estate brokerage focused on selling and leasing high rise properties. He also founded Underneath.com during the dotcom boom of the late 90’s, which was an online retailer of brand name intimate apparel and noted by several national publications as one of the top Internet retailers at the time. Judy Hollowell was in developer services and was involved in selling many of Atlanta’s high rise condominium developments.
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