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Opinion: No benefit to home sellers is worth sacrificing first-time homebuyers

Housing Wire

The recent settlement involving the National Association of Realtors and major real estate firms revolves around the practice of “broker cooperation,” where agents representing sellers share commissions with agents representing buyers. Last year, mortgage rates increased from 3% to 8% and home prices still increased in most markets.

Sellers 466
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The mortgage rate lock-in didn’t start in 2022

Housing Wire

This is an excerpt of a HousingWire Research report titled: What Everyone Needs to Know about Mortgage Rate Lock-in, by Altos President Mike Simonsen. housing market saw dramatic changes in affordability as mortgage rates skyrocketed 500 basis points. That’s a swing of 17% fewer sellers in just a matter of days.

Mortgage 404
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GSEs will not count buyer agent commissions as IPCs

Housing Wire

The GSEs noted that this guidance was not an update to their selling guides but a clarification on the treatment of seller-paid real estate agent fees. Moving forward, the GSEs say that if these fees continue to be “customarily paid by the property seller according to local convention, they will not be subject to financing concessions limits.”

Buyers 529
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Chuck E. Cheese, MLS listing books and the correct pronunciation of ‘Realtor’ were on the table during HousingWire’s commission lawsuit debate

Housing Wire

“I was sitting on my couch and I saw Michael on CNBC calling us a cartel, saying that we take money that doesn’t belong to us, and I was infuriated at that rhetoric and I was infuriated at what that infers about Realtors,” Lamacchia said. “It It dehumanizes Realtors and turns us into money-making machines.”

Realtors 432
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The title industry’s latest cat-and-mouse game: seller impersonation fraud

Housing Wire

Secret Service , notified the title industry of a rise in what is known as vacant lot fraud, or seller impersonation fraud. “We We started to hear a lot about seller impersonation fraud early on in the year,” Tyler Adams, the CEO of CertifID, said. “We Oftentimes this leads to the discovery of vacant lots.

Sellers 380
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‘Find buyers before agents!’ Mortgage industry reacts to the NAR settlement

Housing Wire

Mortgage pros have closely monitored the commission lawsuit developments since a Kansas City, Missouri jury determined that NAR, HomeServices of America , and Keller Williams conspired to inflate or maintain high commission rates through NAR’s so-called Participation Rule.

Buyers 501
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Opinion: Here’s the latest data on what Realtors are witnessing in the housing market

Housing Wire

Mortgage interest rates have risen quickly in the past few months further eroding affordability. The monthly Realtors Confidence Index helps to dispel many of the myths and cut through the noise of what is currently happening in the market. In 2008, 49% of Realtors had a client with a distressed sale, today it is only 1%.

Realtors 394