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Three brokerage mergers in 12 months — and the case for shopping anyway

Rocket-Redfin. Compass-Anywhere. Real-RE/MAX. The pitch is convenience. A 25-year closing attorney calls it consumer haze — and he wants you to compare anyway.

By Wallace HardyMay 1, 20268 min read

If you bought or sold a home anytime in the last year, the company on your closing paperwork may already be different from the one whose sign was in the yard.

In March 2025, Rocket Companies — the largest mortgage lender in the United States — announced it would acquire Redfin, the most-visited real estate brokerage website, for $1.75 billion.1 The deal closed July 1, 2025. Redfin now operates under the brand "Redfin Powered by Rocket," and the combined company offers a program called Rocket Preferred Pricing: a one-percentage-point reduction on the mortgage rate when a buyer uses both a Redfin agent and a Rocket loan.2

Six months later, Compass — already the largest real estate brokerage by transaction volume — announced an all-stock combination with Anywhere Real Estate, the parent of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, ERA, and Better Homes and Gardens. The merger closed January 9, 2026. The combined entity, Compass International Holdings, brings roughly 340,000 agents across 120 countries under one corporate roof.3

Then on April 27, 2026 — three business days before this article was published — The Real Brokerage announced an $880 million deal to acquire RE/MAX Holdings. The combined company, which will operate as Real REMAX Group, would have more than 180,000 agents worldwide and place Real in the industry's top three real-estate enterprises by scale.4

Three deals. Twelve months. A combined headcount in the seven figures.

The press releases all read alike. They emphasize "end-to-end" experiences, "seamless" service, and "differentiated value" for the consumer.

We asked Jim Vanderpool — a Tennessee real estate attorney with more than 25 years and 15,000 closings — what this looks like from the closing-table side. Here is what he said, in full.

"I've spent over 25 years helping buyers and sellers with a single aim — to help them make informed decisions about what's actually best for them. As an attorney, I have a different duty than almost anyone else in the room. I have to zealously represent my client. I don't — and ethically can't — care what's best for their realtor, their lender, or anyone else. And I want my clients to understand that this is a time to be selfish and ask one question: what is actually best for me?"

"What I tell every client is simple: it's your money. You should get the best value, and there's only one way to get that — you have to compare. The truth is, most buyers and sellers are literally too overwhelmed to take that step. That's the very reason Vanderpool Law offers a free savings check. Doing that has literally saved my clients tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a 25-year career."

"But in my opinion, that's exactly what this wave of consolidation is designed to take away. Rocket-Redfin. Compass-Anywhere. And now Real-RE/MAX — and many others. These deals are built to make it 'so easy' you don't need to compare. The pitch is essentially: 'Everything's right here, just sign here, sign there, use our people. Isn't it amazing how convenient it is to spend all your money under this one-stop-shop umbrella?' That's what I call consumer haze."

"Most buyers and sellers don't really know how a closing works in the first place. They don't know what vendors are needed, what those vendors should cost, or who's getting paid by whom. They don't know the realtor may have recommended a particular lender and title company because both are paying the realtor's marketing costs — or because there's an ABA, an Affiliated Business Arrangement. Ask a buyer or seller what an ABA is and most will tell you they love that song Dancing Queen. They don't even know that the attorney sitting at the closing table probably doesn't represent them."

"They just trust."

"And in today's world, unverified trust is almost always misplaced — and expensive. It's not that consumers are dumb — they're not. They're just ignorant of how dirty the real estate industry can be. And in my opinion, trust built on convenience — through consolidation and one-stop shopping — is very clever marketing dressed up as service. The process was never built for buyers and sellers to see it clearly, and consolidation makes the haze thicker, not thinner."

"RESPA has begged consumers to shop and compare since 1974. Every one of these mergers works against that message at every turn. Buyers and sellers in today's market need real advocacy more than ever — not a smoother path through a single company's vendor list."5

What this means for your closing

Vanderpool's reference to RESPA is not rhetorical. The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 is the federal law that governs settlement services on a federally related mortgage, and it has been telling consumers the same thing for fifty-one years: shop, compare, and read the disclosures.6 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the modern enforcer of RESPA, and it has issued repeated guidance and enforcement actions on Affiliated Business Arrangements — the regulatory framework that lets a brokerage refer a buyer to its in-house lender or title company so long as the relationship is disclosed.6

That framework does not stop at one agency. The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee have repeatedly examined title-insurance pricing, settlement-services competition, and kickback risk in the closing chain. At the state level, real estate commissions, departments of insurance, and state attorneys general all regulate parts of the same transaction — and several have brought their own cases over undisclosed affiliations and steering.

The regulatory architecture exists. The message has not changed in over half a century: consumers are supposed to compare. A merged company that owns the brokerage, the mortgage, and a title affiliate is legal. It is not, by itself, a violation. What it does is reduce the practical likelihood that any individual buyer or seller will compare quotes from a third party — because the path of least resistance now leads through one corporate vendor list. Consolidation does not change the law. It changes the path.

What to do this month, if you're buying or selling

  1. Compare the rate over the life of the loan — not just the closing-day numbers. Rocket Preferred Pricing's one-percentage-point rate reduction is real money: on a $400,000 30-year mortgage, a single percentage point of rate is roughly $95,000 over the life of the loan. That is the dominant number — and it's the number the bundled package is built around. But the right question isn't whether the bundle saves you something on closing day. The right question is whether the bundle's rate actually beats what an independent lender would quote you on the same credit profile, and whether the title, escrow, and settlement charges on the other side of the bundle eat into the win. Saving $1,000 at the closing table is meaningless if you're paying tens of thousands more in interest over thirty years — and the reverse is also true. Get a real quote from at least one outside lender (rate and projected closing fees) and one outside title or settlement provider, and put the rate and the all-in numbers side by side.
  2. Ask, in writing, who at the closing represents you personally. The answer in most U.S. states is "no one." In states where attorney representation is available — Tennessee among them — it is an entirely separate hire from the title company.
  3. Ask whether an Affiliated Business Arrangement disclosure has been or will be provided. Federal law requires the disclosure when an ABA exists. Reading it tells you who is being paid by whom on your file.
  4. Compare the all-in number, not the headline rate. Convenience is a real value. Tens of thousands of dollars is a different real value. Both belong on the same page.

About the source. Jim R. Vanderpool, Attorney, founded Vanderpool Law in 2002. With more than 25 years of practice and over 15,000 closings across Middle Tennessee, he represents buyers and sellers as their personal attorney at closing — not as a title company employee or neutral facilitator. His firm provides full title services at the same price as a title company, with the added protection of attorney-client representation. Jim loves saving clients money — his current record is more than $26,000 saved for a single client, and he's happy to tell you the story. Learn more at vanderpoollaw.com.

Notes

  1. "Rocket Companies to Acquire Redfin, Accelerating Purchase Mortgage Strategy," Rocket Companies, last modified March 10, 2025, https://ir.rocketcompanies.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Rocket-Companies-to-Acquire-Redfin-Accelerating-Purchase-Mortgage-Strategy/default.aspx.
  2. "Rocket Companies Completes Acquisition of Redfin," Rocket Companies, last modified July 1, 2025, https://ir.rocketcompanies.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Rocket-Companies-Completes-Acquisition-of-Redfin/default.aspx.
  3. "Compass and Anywhere Real Estate Begin a New Chapter as One Company Built for Real Estate Professionals," Compass, Inc., last modified January 9, 2026, https://investors.compass.com/news/news-details/2026/Compass-and-Anywhere-Real-Estate-Begin-a-New-Chapter-as-One-Company-Built-for-Real-Estate-Professionals/default.aspx.
  4. "Real to Acquire REMAX, Creating a Leading Technology-Enabled Global Real Estate Platform," The Real Brokerage Inc., last modified April 27, 2026, https://investors.onereal.com/news/news-details/2026/Real-to-Acquire-REMAX-Creating-a-Leading-Technology-Enabled-Global-Real-Estate-Platform/default.aspx.
  5. Jim R. Vanderpool, interview with ClosingClarity, May 1, 2026.
  6. "Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act FAQs," Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, accessed May 1, 2026, https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/compliance-resources/mortgage-resources/real-estate-settlement-procedures-act/.