Company Snapshot: The Numbers That Don’t Match
Houlihan Lawrence’s own channels have reported different figures at different times: 1,300 agents across 30 offices in a 2024 LinkedIn post, and 1,450+ agents across 32 offices in a March 2026 company announcement reported by Patch. The company has also described itself as having both a “130-year” and a “135-year” history in separate posts on the same LinkedIn page.
Trust and Legitimacy Snapshot
| Metric | Value | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBB rating | A+ | BBB business profile | Accredited since 4/9/2019 |
| Glassdoor rating | 4.0/5, 38 reviews, 86% would recommend | Glassdoor | As of July 2026 |
| Class-action settlement | $9,000,000 fund; in-house bonus program eliminated | Court-approved settlement notice | Final approval 8/13/2025 |
| Incorporation date | 4/13/1984 | BBB filing | 1984 |
An A+ BBB rating and a court-approved settlement measure two different things: the first reflects complaint-resolution behavior, the second resolves a specific legal dispute over disclosure. Neither one substitutes for the other when deciding whether to sign with a specific agent.
Is Houlihan Lawrence a legitimate, licensed brokerage?
Yes. It has held BBB A+ accreditation since 2019 and has operated continuously since incorporating in 1984 (the firm traces its founding to 1888). Legitimacy in that sense is separate from service quality or from the dual-agency history covered below.
Coverage by County and Office
| Region | Representative offices | Notable focus |
|---|---|---|
| Westchester County | Scarsdale, Rye, Bronxville, White Plains, Chappaqua, Irvington, Yonkers | Highest office density; luxury and relocation |
| Putnam / Dutchess County | Lagrangeville and surrounding towns | Suburban and exurban resale |
| Columbia / Ulster / Orange County | Hudson, NY (opened as part of a Hudson Valley expansion) | Newest growth market |
| Fairfield County, CT | New Fairfield and nearby towns | Cross-border luxury buyers |
| The Bronx / lower Westchester | Yonkers office, more than 40 agents | Urban-to-suburban transition clients |
The Westchester cluster and the newer Hudson Valley/Columbia County offices are not interchangeable: an agent’s local relationships and comparable-sale knowledge are genuinely office-specific, which matters more here than in most single-city markets.
How Commission Actually Works
No public or trade source, including the ones checked for this page, publishes Houlihan Lawrence’s specific commission-split ranges by office or tenure. What is verifiable: agents work as independent contractors rather than employees, with reviewers on Indeed describing no company-paid health insurance alongside a split some called fair and competitive, without stating numbers. Since August 17, 2024, any buyer’s agent using an MLS, including OneKey MLS in Houlihan Lawrence’s territory, must sign a written agreement with the buyer before a home tour that states the commission rate plainly and confirms it is negotiable, per requirements a Long Island law firm summarized after the national settlement took effect.
What commission does Houlihan Lawrence charge?
There is no published fixed rate, and none can legally be fixed. Since August 2024, whatever rate an agent proposes must be stated in a signed written agreement before a buyer tours a home, and the amount is negotiable in every transaction.
The $9 Million Dual-Agency Settlement
A class action, Goldstein et al. v. Houlihan/Lawrence Inc., alleged the firm ran an undisclosed bonus program that pushed sales agents toward representing both the buyer and the seller in the same deal, covering an estimated 10,000 transactions in Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties between January 2011 and July 2018, according to Westfair’s court reporting. The New York Supreme Court, Westchester County, granted final settlement approval on August 13, 2025: the company agreed to pay $9,000,000 into a settlement fund and to eliminate the in-house bonus program going forward, without admitting wrongdoing.
Where Things Get Complicated
Named plaintiff Pamela Goldstein said in court filings that she was pressured to raise her offer by $40,000 over asking after learning, only after signing, that her buyer’s agent was related to the seller’s agent on the same deal, per Real Estate Weekly’s original reporting on the filing. A separate set of plaintiffs, the Berk family, alleged that a 2014 White Plains estate sale for their late mother was marketed only internally to Houlihan Lawrence agents, selling for $479,000, a figure a 2025 review of the case called well below comparable properties.
Neither example is representative of every transaction the firm handles, and the settlement resolved the underlying claims without a court ruling on liability. They are useful mainly as a reminder to ask, in writing, whether a given deal involves a single Houlihan Lawrence agent representing both sides.
Agent Side: Independent Contractors, Office by Office
Multiple reviewers on Indeed describe the arrangement plainly: no salary and no company health coverage, since agents are independent contractors, alongside on-site training and, in several cases, praise for commission fairness without stated figures. Culture also varies by office. A February 24, 2026 HousingWire report named three agents who joined the Yonkers branch that month, Mayka Suazo, Angel Colon, and Daniel Joyce, citing RealTrends-sourced 2024 sales volumes ranging from $3.21 million to $9.69 million among them, the kind of concrete, office-level detail that a company-wide culture rating cannot capture.
Do Houlihan Lawrence agents work as independent contractors?
Yes, across every office reviewed. That means no salary or employer-paid health insurance, and income tied directly to closed transactions.
The 2024 Buyer-Agreement Rule
Since August 17, 2024, the national settlement of separate broker-commission litigation requires any buyer’s agent using an MLS, OneKey MLS included, to get a signed written agreement before showing a home, stating the commission rate and confirming it is not set by law.
Does my buyer’s agent need a signed agreement to show me homes now?
Yes, since August 17, 2024, for any in-person or live virtual tour arranged through an MLS-using agent. Open-house visits without a scheduled tour don’t require it first.
How It Compares to Nearby Brokerages
| Brokerage | Westchester-area agents | Model |
|---|---|---|
| Houlihan Lawrence | ~1,450 regionwide (2026) | Traditional independent, designated dual agency |
| Compass | 474 (current) | Tech-forward national brand |
| Coldwell Banker Realty | 336 (2022 count) | National franchise |
| William Pitt / Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s | 328 (2022 count) | Luxury network affiliate |
The Coldwell Banker and Sotheby’s figures are four years old, so treat the gap to Houlihan Lawrence’s regionwide count as directional rather than exact; Compass’s 474 is the only other current, verifiable figure in the set.
Is It Right for You
- As a buyer or seller: ask directly whether your assigned agent also represents the other side of your specific deal, get the commission rate in writing before any tour, and treat the firm’s own agent-count claims as a range, not a fixed number.
- As a prospective agent: confirm office-level culture and lead-support directly with that branch manager rather than relying on a company-wide rating, budget for no salary or health coverage as an independent contractor, and ask what changed locally after the 2025 settlement.
Leave a Reply