Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2024

Filed last Wednesday in the Western District of Missouri, the Umpa suit, named after its lead and only plaintiff Daniel Umpa, accuses the real estate industry of allegedly colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions. Because this blanket offer must be made available to every buyer-broker using the MLS (i.e.,

Sellers 421

Sellers Brokerage Real Estate Realtors 421

Housing Wire

MARCH 22, 2024

Based on NAR’s settlement, agents working with buyers will need a signed buyer representation agreement starting in mid-July, pending final court approval of the settlement. Bills Clarke said this is exactly how agents already work with sellers, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to implement buyer agreements into a business.

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Buyers Contracts Real Estate Agents 479

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

For most real estate agents, working with a reliable lending partner is essential to a smooth and successful transaction. That partnership is everything,” Amy Breach, a Seattle-based Keller Williams agent, told HousingWire in late 2022. The lender and LO can make or break the transaction.”

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Buyers Agents Loan Officers Real Estate 397

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 6, 2023

million settlement with plaintiffs in two bombshell buyer commission lawsuits have been made public, and they stipulate that the brokerage conglomerate make significant changes to its practices. The terms of Anywhere Real Estate ‘s $83.5

Buyers 432

Buyers Brokerage Agents Sellers 432

Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2024

“While there are a lot of factors currently affecting the real estate market, one thing remains constant: RE/MAX agents leverage their skills, experience and competitive advantages to serve as many customers as they can,” said Erik Carlson , who was appointed as the firm’s CEO in November. He noted that the average RE/MAX agent closed 11.8

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Agents Real Estate Training Buyers 418

Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2024

17, 2024, according to a letter sent to members on Friday by NAR chief legal officer Katie Johnson. The changes also prohibit the use of MLS data or data feeds to directly or indirectly establish or maintain a platform of compensation offers from multiple brokers or other buyer representatives.

Sellers 458

Sellers Legal Buyers Realtors 458

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

According to Kasper, while the plaintiffs are portraying this outcome as a win for consumers, getting rid of cooperative compensation will only harm homebuyers and sellers. As she has stated previously, NAR plans to appeal the verdict and that Sitzer/Burnett saga is far from over.

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Agents Legal Sellers Clients 432

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

According to court documents filed on Tuesday, Anywhere Real Estate and the home sellers suing the firm in both the Moehrl and Sitzer/Burnett cases, which both deal with buyer brokers’ commissions, have reached a preliminary settlement agreement, settling all claims in both suits.

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Real Estate Buyers Legal Realtors 421

Housing Wire

MARCH 8, 2024

The mailers are titled “Notice of Proposed Settlements” and they began hitting the mailboxes of home sellers in mid-February. If you sold a home and paid a commission to a real estate agent, you may be part of class action settlements,” the postcards read. What do the postcards say?

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Agents Legal Realtors Clients 432

Housing Wire

MAY 8, 2024

Robert Reffkin is confident that Compass and its agents have what it takes to continue growing and succeeding in the changing real estate environment. “In We are a company of top agents.” annual increase in the number of transactions closed by Compass agents, which came in at 38,449 sides for a volume of $40.1 in 2003. “We

Agents 436

Agents Brokerage Real Estate Clients 436

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 16, 2023

At the crux of the case is the allegation that commission rates are too high, it’s unfair that the seller pays the buyer’s agent’s commission, and that the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Code of Conduct and MLS Handbook lead to set pricing.

Buyers 458

Buyers Brokerage Agents Realtors 458

Housing Wire

APRIL 15, 2024

Although more agents are fielding questions about the commission lawsuits than they were a quarter ago , they also remain optimistic about where the housing market is headed in the second quarter of 2024, according to the RealTrends Q2 2024 AgentPulse survey. In a similar vein, “getting listings” was the third-largest hurdle cited by agents.

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Inventory Agents Real Estate Sellers 421

Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2023

On Friday afternoon, my real estate agent called with good news. The agent wished me well and said that she would appreciate a review on her website. I wanted to close before May 1, so I selected a buyer who was already in underwriting. Relatedly, discount brokerages have promised big savings to sellers for decades.

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Agents Real Estate Agent Brokerage Real Estate 410

Housing Wire

MARCH 13, 2024

In their motion, the parties wrote that they “dispute the factual and legal arguments made in the DOJ’s Statement of Interest.” Preventing sellers and listing agents from setting buyer-broker commissions would promote greater price competition and innovation in the market for brokers’ services,” the DOJ argued.

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Legal Contracts Sellers Buyers 441

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

In the filing, the parties wrote that they “dispute the factual and legal arguments made in the DOJ’s Statement of Interest.” Preventing sellers and listing agents from setting buyer-broker commissions would promote greater price competition and innovation in the market for brokers’ services,” the DOJ argued.

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Legal Contracts Sellers Buyers 421

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

When the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed last week the changes it would like to see in how real estate agents and brokers are compensated through its statement of interest filed in the MLS Property Information Network commission lawsuit , few in the real estate industry were surprised by the agency’s desire to decouple commissions.

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Sellers Buyers Real Estate Agents 421

Empire Appraisal Group

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

Lusky, DigitalVision, Getty Images Source: [link] FSBO Sellers Regret Not Having an Agent By Melissa Dittmann Tracey Survey: Sellers who go-it alone are twice as likely to be unsatisfied with the experience – and more likely to say their earlier opinion, “agents are overpaid,” was wrong.

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Sellers Agents Real Estate Agent Real Estate 78

Housing Wire

JULY 28, 2023

Real estate agents and business leaders play a pivotal role in improving the cities in which they operate, making community service an essential value to their professions. Demonstrate your values to customers Buyers and sellers want more than just transactional relationships with their agents.

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Real Estate Agent Real Estate Agents Clients 370

Housing Wire

MARCH 28, 2024

At the moment, IPCs “include concessions from the seller to the buyer for items that are traditionally paid by the buyer such as loan closing costs or rate buy-downs,” but as buyer agents are customarily paid by the listing agent, their fees are excluded from caps on the IPCs.

Real Estate Agent 450

Real Estate Agent Sellers Buyers Agents 450

Housing Wire

MAY 1, 2024

Less than a week after HomeServices of America settled the home seller commission lawsuits for $250 million , the firm again finds itself in the crosshairs of antitrust litigation. Lutz, a resident of Colorado, purchased a home in Key Colony, Florida, in 2021 with the help of a buyer’s agent employed by a HomeServices of America franchise.

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Sellers Realtors Real Estate Agent Real Estate 441

Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2024

So, while I make no claim as to the specific deep legal issues, I have some familiarity of antitrust actions and more in the conduct of legal actions in a courtroom. They also testified to the importance and value of the MLS as a core service that agents provide to sellers and buyers. That is how they got to $1.8

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Agents Law Sellers Legal 419

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

The trade group’s legal woes have brought it back to California, where is already facing other commission lawsuits. At the center of the lawsuit is NAR’s Participation Rule, which requires listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyer’s brokers in order to list a property on a Realtor association affiliated MLS.

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Realtors Legal Agents Brokerage 431

Housing Wire

APRIL 26, 2024

HomeServices of America , the last remaining brokerage defendant in the landmark Sitzer/Burnett antitrust commission case , has agreed to pay $250 million in damages to settle lawsuits that will change agent compensation across America. The DOJ may also file charges separately to prevent any display of buyer agent commissions on any platform.

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Brokerage Agents Real Estate Buyers 466

Housing Wire

MARCH 18, 2024

In the 24 hours after news broke of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) settlement agreement in the commission lawsuits , Doug Danzey, the leader of the eXp Realty -brokered teamerage The Cobalt Group , said the most pervasive emotion among his agents has been panic. “I They are going to be going a lot for negotiation,” Edgerton said.

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Brokerage Real Estate Agents Sellers 421

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

I actually started out as a buyer’s agent myself… and I see buyer’s agency as being a very valuable tool for buyers,” Sanford said during the Q&A session. I’m concerned, quite frankly, about what this might mean to buyers who may not be able to afford representation if things change up too much.”

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Buyers Realty Real Estate Realtors 409

Housing Wire

APRIL 4, 2024

She is also filing the suit as both a home seller and a homebuyer. Jutla notes that while Redfin no longer requires its agents to be members of NAR or local Realtor associations, all of the agents she worked with during her transactions were NAR members. She used Redfin agents for both listing and buying purposes.

Realtors 435

Realtors Agents Sellers Real Estate 435

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2023

A typical commission dispute arises when, after signing a listing agreement or buyer-broker agreement: A seller-client “cancels” a valid purchase contract. A seller-client cancels a listing. A seller-client permits the property to be foreclosed upon. Confirm that your brokerage documents (e.g.,

Real Estate 368

Real Estate Legal Brokerage Clients 368

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Another day and another class-action antitrust commission lawsuit accusing the real estate industry of colluding to inflate real estate agent commissions has been filed. But this latest one comes with a twist — it was filed by homebuyers, unlike the others filed by home sellers.

Real Estate 432

Real Estate Realtors Sellers Agents 432

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

The modified rule still gives sellers and their listing brokers a role in setting compensation for buyers’ brokers,” the filing states. “The modified rule still gives sellers and their listing brokers a role in setting compensation for buyers’ brokers,” the filing states.

Sellers 432

Sellers Buyers Real Estate Contracts 432

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

So, the fact that we are now seeing things further in the process come down to agents and brokers — I was not entirely surprised by that.” In addition to the DOJ, real estate agent commissions may have caught the eye of yet another government agency. Solicitor General Paul Clement to its legal team. “I

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Legal Real Estate Real Estate Agent Law 429

Housing Wire

JANUARY 11, 2024

District Court in New York by Robert Friedman, a resident of Brooklyn who sold a property in Park Slope in May 2021 with the help of a Douglas Elliman agent. Instead, if a seller wishes to compensate the buyer’s agent, they must pay the agent themselves. The suit was filed in late December in U.S.

Real Estate 431

Real Estate Sellers Real Estate Agent Agents 431

Housing Wire

MARCH 29, 2024

In its proposed brief, CMLS writes that in its statement of interest, the DOJ is looking for “an injunction that prohibits offers of buyer broker compensation by MLS PIN participants.” Second, the trade group points out that the practice of sellers and listing brokers paying buyer brokers is lawful throughout MLS PIN’s service area.

Sellers 432

Sellers Real Estate Buyers Contracts 432

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

District Court in South Carolina, alleging that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Keller Williams colluded to artificially inflate agent commission rates, increasing costs for home sellers. The policy requires agents to provide a blanket offer of compensation to the buyer’s broker in order to list a property on the MLS.

Sellers 432

Sellers Realtors Buyers Agents 432

Housing Wire

APRIL 24, 2024

While she believes this transparency was a good thing for the seller, it harmed the buyer as many agents began to claim that they would represent buyers for free — which has certainly played a role in the commission lawsuits that are currently plaguing the industry. “We So, it is a mind shift.”

Brokerage 421

Brokerage Legal Fees Real Estate Agents 421

Housing Wire

MAY 1, 2024

According to Barton, the “substance of the settlement” is a “very reasonable middle path forward for the industry, where commissions are communicated between sellers and buyers and both parties are better educated.” These are not our Premier Agent partners,” Barton said. Of the approximately 1.5

Agents 436

Agents Real Estate Contracts Real Estate Agent 436

Housing Wire

MARCH 15, 2024

In addition to the $418 million settlement amount, which will be paid into a court-controlled trust over a four-year period, NAR has also agreed to abolish all rules allowing seller’s agents to set compensation for buyer’s agents. It also agreed to prohibit broker compensation appearing in the MLS fields.

Agents 450

Agents Brokerage Advertising Real Estate 450

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 26, 2023

During plaintiff lead attorney Michael Ketchmark’s cross examination of Warner, he presented her with some statistics showing that HomeServices affiliated agents in four Missouri markets paid buyer broker commissions of roughly 3% in at least 88% of the transactions completed between 2015 and 2022. It is human nature,” Frazier said.

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Law Agents Brokerage Buyers 409