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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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

According to court documents filed on Monday, RE/MAX 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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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

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Three researchers believe a first-of-its-kind dataset has enabled them to definitively answer a long-debated question: why have buyer agent commission rates been so stable historically? So how is the uniformity and permanence of buyer agents’ 2-3% rate possible in a free market? One of the researchers, Will Fried, had a hunch.

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Clients Agents Buyers Sellers 432

Housing Wire

MAY 3, 2024

Earlier this week, Zillow launched a new “touring agreement,” a nonexclusive contract for buyers and agents to use for home tours. This agreement must be signed prior to an agent taking a buyer to tour a home. This agreement must be signed prior to an agent taking a buyer to tour a home.

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Inman

APRIL 15, 2024

A provision in NAR's settlement barring listing agents from offering buyer agents compensation is "largely symbolic," USC professor Jordan Barry said Friday at a University of Minnesota conference.

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Will Springer Realtor

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Our state is at the forefront of improving a document that each buyer and seller receives near the start of the purchase and sale process, and for the first time, our industry will be required to have a contract with buyers. The agency term of 12 months will be the standard but buyers can agree to any length in writing.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

But three multibillion-dollar class action antitrust lawsuits looming over the real estate industry may soon reshape how buyers interact with agents. You’ve got current economic conditions that are not opportunistic for a homebuyer right now, inflation is still out there and it’s all constraining buyers’ ability to spend. “You’ve

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Moving past cooperative compensation In early August, Bright MLS , the nation’s second largest MLS, began allowing listing agents to use a $0 blanket offer of compensation for buyer brokers and still list a property on the MLS. This change does allow for listing agents to no longer offer any monetary compensation to buyers’ brokers.

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Many of these laws target specific types of real estate deemed crucial to national security, such as farmland or property near military installations, while other laws apply more broadly to all types of land. Laws should also be clear on the role title insurance professionals play in facilitating transactions with foreign owners.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In May 2022, the Florida Legislature introduced a new condominium safety law, which mandates more rigorous inspections and stronger financial reserves for HOAs. Before the new law was enforced, many condo associations were investing their reserves in government-insured instruments, sacrificing their liquidity to generate a return.

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Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

While mortgage rates have been trending lower, rates are still higher than 12 months ago, but some experts anticipate that the downward pressure on rates will provide opportunities for buyers. For the buyer of a median-priced home, these lower prices translate into a $9,800 savings on a 20% down payment.

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Inman

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

For real estate professionals specializing in the luxury segment, working with buyers overseas is an important part of our business — but it can also be challenging. Real estate practices can vary vastly between countries, and differences in customs, culture, language, and law can complicate the process even more.

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Inman

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

The court dismissed a federal antitrust claim in the case known as Batton 1, but allowed state-law claims to proceed, partially due to the argument that commissions are baked into home prices.

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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. Sellers or buyers can pay the buyer’s agent’s fees.

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Appraiserblogs

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Newsom This law requires a purchase agreement in a real estate transaction to inform a seller and buyer of the opportunity to report, through the Department of Consumer Affairs’ internet website or telephone number, any suspicion of a discriminatory appraisal by the holder of a real estate appraiser license.

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Housing Wire

MAY 1, 2024

Lutz’s attorneys wrote that this has “led to higher home prices paid by buyers.” While only HomeServices is listed as a defendant, Anywhere , Keller Williams , RE/MAX , Compass , eXp World Holdings , Redfin , Weichert Realtors, United Real Estate , Howard Hanna and Douglas Elliman are listed as co-conspirators. “

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

using a listing agent or broker affiliated with one of the seven brokerage defendants and paid a buyer broker commission from Oct. The filing claims that the defendants “conspired to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.” How big could this case be?

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Real Estate Brokerage Sellers Law 421

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

District Court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that Real Estate Board of New York rules governing the multiple listing service in Manhattan kept commissions high and violated state and federal antitrust laws. Instead, if a seller wishes to compensate the buyer’s agent, they must pay the agent themselves.

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Housing Wire

MAY 8, 2024

After 2010, qualified mortgage laws were in place, meaning everyone getting a mortgage has to be able to repay the loan. Since most sellers are buyers, inventory should be stable if demand is stable. On top of more legitimate buyers, we fixed the credit markets, meaning housing credit looks fantastic.

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Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Current legislative proposals would require states to “mandate a real estate-related disclosure form with specific flood-related questions,” which would require 49 states to “make significant amendments to its laws and regulations” leading to an administrative and enforcement burden, NAR said. 17 unless Congress acts.

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Lamacchia Realty

DECEMBER 13, 2023

A REMINDER ABOUT SNOW REMOVAL LAWS Winter is fast approaching, which means the snow is soon to arrive! Here is a reminder of the crucial snow removal laws if you’re a property owner in Massachusetts , New Hampshire , or Connecticut! Some Massachusetts property owners are still unaware of this law that went into effect in July 2010.

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Housing Wire

DECEMBER 12, 2023

“In a competitive market, the seller would pay nothing to the buyer broker, who would instead be paid by the buyer (their client), and the total commission paid by the seller would be set at a level to compensate only the seller’s broker,” the complaint states.

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Realtors Sellers Buyers Real Estate 450

Housing Wire

APRIL 3, 2024

The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) this week submitted a letter to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that urges the agency to “provide comparable down payment treatment for FHA borrowers, regardless of whether or not the seller is willing to pay the home buyer broker commission,” according to an announcement by the organization.

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Housing Wire

MARCH 29, 2024

Wang claims that he found the properties on his own via searches on Zillow and StreetEasy , but when he expressed interest in submitting offers, listing agents refused to engage because he was an unrepresented buyer. Wang is demanding damages and a jury trial.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2024

Umpa sold his Ohio home with Redfin and his Maryland home with Compass , and the suit states that he “paid a substantial buyer-broker compensation,” in both transactions. Because this blanket offer must be made available to every buyer-broker using the MLS (i.e.,

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Inman

DECEMBER 12, 2023

is appealing to state legislators to amend Governor DeSantis' new, restrictive foreign investment law. Lobbying group the Real Estate Roundtable, which represents the interests of investors like Citigroup Inc., Blackstone, Related, Starwood and Wells Fargo & Co.,

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2024

The first was a motion for judgement as a matter of law and the second was a motion for a new trial. They also testified to the importance and value of the MLS as a core service that agents provide to sellers and buyers. These actions by the three firms are all a matter of public record. This court ignored all those precedents.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 26, 2024

Lamacchia also stressed that it is impossible to claim that the system is rigged because sellers can choose how much compensation they offer the buyers’ broker, or whether they even want to offer cooperative compensation. First-time buyers barely have enough money to put down to buy a home. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) loans.

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Realtors Law Agents Real Estate 441

Housing Wire

MARCH 12, 2024

The program is now available to Redfin clients across the country, except in states such as Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon and Tennessee, where commission refunds are prohibited by law. The buyer will receive the refund at closing. of the purchase price of the house. of the purchase price of the house.

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Real Estate Brokerage Agents Clients 445

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Campbell’s office claims that EasyKnock “engaged in an unfair and deceptive equity-skimming scheme that involved purchasing the homes of cash-strapped consumers at bargain-basement prices and then renting them back to the consumers, at times for unfair rents,” in violation of the state’s consumer protection law.

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Birmingham Appraisal

JULY 12, 2023

How Agents Can Use The Law of Diminishing Return When Pricing a Listing As a real estate appraiser with over 30 years of experience, I have witnessed firsthand the critical role that accurate pricing plays in the success of real estate transactions.

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Housing Wire

JANUARY 18, 2024

In the complaint, the plaintiffs take aim at NAR’s Participation Rule, which requires listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyers brokers in order to list a property on a NAR-affiliated MLS. 17, 2020, and the present. The plaintiffs are also demanding a jury trial, damages, and injunctive relief.

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Realtors Brokerage Realty Real Estate 531

Housing Wire

APRIL 11, 2024

“They could certainly intervene in the settlement negotiations, but they are not a party — they are just a party of interest,” said Paul Rogers, a professor of law who specializes in antitrust at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. “It

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 3, 2023

This is a dramatic and peculiar stance, given that same company a couple of years ago launched a $1 million annual advertising campaign touting a 1% listing fee, but only if the seller turned into a buyer for them. Meaning, they were counting on buyer agent compensation to pay their bills. How, then, will a buyer agent get paid?

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Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Kathy Hochul (D) last week signed a bill into law that establishes a flood risk “right to know” for homebuyers. Previously, sellers could opt that the buyer gets a $500 credit at closing and the disclosure requirement was waived,” Hochul’s office explained. New York Gov.

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Lamacchia Realty

APRIL 5, 2023

Last week, the state of Florida finalized a new comprehensive affordable housing law which will infuse over $700 million into housing and make it easier to build new housing with zoning changes and tax breaks. Removes a provision in current law that would allow local government to impose rent control in certain circumstances.

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