Home buyers, sellers should keep more of their money, KC-built proptech startup says

Homezena is simplifying home buying and selling, said Philip Allen, describing a process that skips the agent — and having to pay the five-figure commission that comes with it.

The proptech startup — launched by Allen and Bob Faherty in late 2023 — is disrupting the industry by allowing residents to list or buy a house on their own, but with more support than simply popping an over-the-counter “For Sale By Owner” sign out front.

“We’re not anti-agent,” noted Allen, who led the H&R Block team that developed Rapid Refund, the first electronic tax filing system. “We’re anti-the abusive fees that go along with it.”

“Bob and I both are pretty passionate about the fact that it shouldn’t cost so much to buy and sell homes,” he added. “There needs to be a better way, and it needs to be not spending $20,000 in commissions on a $350,000 house. That’s six percent.”

To list a house on Kansas City-built Homezena, homeowners pay a flat $995 fee, Allen explained. They are then given tools to manage the photos, the price, the description, the seller’s disclosure, and the showing schedule. A yard sign with a QR code and a high-security lock box are also provided.

“All of our inventory is off-MLS (Multiple Listing Service), our own ecosystem if you will,” Allen continued. “The only extension that we have is that sellers can choose if they would like to have their home listed on Zillow. Then it’ll be both in the Homezena app as well as on Zillow, so other people can find it if they haven’t heard of Homezena yet.”

Buyers can view the inventory, schedule showings, and get pre-qualified for a loan — through a partnership with nbkc bank — on the app, he continued. If they decide to schedule a showing, they will not be met by an agent. Potential buyers will be guided by a Homezenist, an independent, vetted escort who specializes in accompanying prospective buyers on comprehensive home visits. There are about 60 in the Kansas City area who earn $40 for each showing.

“When the buyer requests the visit, we go out and ping all of them within a certain area,” Allen explained, “and say, ‘We’ve got a person who would like to go visit this home at 3 o’clock this afternoon. Would you be available to go allow entry for that?’ And they say, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes, yes.”

“Well, that list comes up,” he added, “and the buyer can see the Homezenist’s name, a photograph of them, their star rating. It’s almost like an Uber driver, except you get to pick it.”

Buyers can also take notes, ask the seller questions, and make an offer through the Homezena platform, Allen noted.

“Let’s say a buyer decides they like this house,” he continued, “then, similar to the chatting and the questions, you can go into negotiations. So you can say, ‘I’d like to make this offer.’ The       sellers can accept it, they can decline it, or they can counter. You can also set contingencies.”

When a deal is reached, Allen continued, Homezena has a partnership with Merriam-based Nations Companies for closing, or the sellers and buyers can get a referral to another title company to complete the process on their own.

“So depending on what you decide to do, it could end up costing a little more,” he added. “But if all in, you were at $2,000 or $3,000, you’re still tens of thousands of dollars ahead of the traditional way. And in a lot of ways, that whole process is just so much more modern and convenient and matches the way we work and live today.”

Built-in buyer’s remorse

Allen — formerly CTO for Faherty’s real estate startup Centralized Showing Service, which was sold to ShowingTime and then acquired by Zillow — was inspired to start Homezena after saving money by selling his own house on his own and after seeing the results of 2023 class action lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors.

“The allegations were — it was 500 and some plus plaintiffs against all the big brokers — that the way residential real estate worked — where the seller pays the entire commission and then it’s automatically split between the seller and the buyer’s agent — was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act,” he explained.

“As a result, buyers were paying inflated prices because it was being built into the home,” Allen added, “and they thought those services were free because buyers weren’t paying anything.”

The jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, overhauling the industry, he continued. Effective August 2024, sellers no longer have to pay the buyer’s commission fee, and before showing any houses, real estate agents must sign contracts with the buyer detailing commission compensation.

“It hit me, this is going to make a mess of everything,” he noted.

Allen said between December 2024 and January 2026, more buyers backed out of closings than ever before. He doesn’t know the exact reason, but he has a theory.

“I’m wondering if it’s buyers showing up at closing or near closing and going, ‘I have to pay that? I didn’t know I had to pay,’” he explained. “‘Yeah, so you signed the buyer’s agreement.’”

“Again, I don’t know if that’s the reason,” he added, “but the whole thing adds up to saying there’s got to be a more sensible way to do this.”

As for sellers, Allen continued, when they call an agent to sell their house, they agree to pay the three percent commission fee. But then they are asked for more.

“Then they’ll ask you this question, ‘Are you willing to pay another up to three percent for the buyer’s agent?’” he noted. “Today, you can say, ‘Nope, I don’t think so.’ What that agent will try to do is tell you, ‘Well, you know, you’re going to limit your pool of buyers if you don’t do that.’ So in effect, not that much has changed in the way they’re doing things.”

Selling sensability

Since launching, Allen shared, Homezena — which is currently raising early-stage funding — has been slower to gain traction than he thought.

“I probably underestimated the fear and uncertainty that people have,” he explained. “So they just go, ‘I’m just going to call an agent,’ accepting the fact that it’s gonna cost them $25,000. Making a major mind shift like that is a little more difficult than we thought.”

With this in mind, Allen said, they are now focused on seeking out sellers who are thinking about doing it on their own.

“Look, there’s a whole population of people out there who aren’t afraid to do it,” he added. “So we’re trying to focus on seeing if we can get to those people at about the time they’re deciding to do For Sale By Owner.”

Last fall, Allen noted, Homzena expanded into the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets because he’s familiar with those two cities and Oklahoma has a higher percentage of sellers trying to take their homes to market themselves.

Despite the slower-than-expect buildup of traction, Allen isn’t giving up, he said. Something he learned during his time with H&R Block — creating the first electronic filing system — stuck with him.

“It helped me tolerate the fear associated with doing something radically and completely different,” he explained.

Allen knows it’s just a matter of time before they gain more traction and others in the industry start to take notice, he said.

“Somebody like a Zillow is going to put a pile in front of us just so they can put it on the shelf,” he continued. “And we vowed that’s not what we’re going to do. Our objective is to create enough disruption in the industry and keep it until we have affected the level of change that makes it sensible.”