{"id":117156,"date":"2024-03-16T06:35:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T11:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=117156"},"modified":"2024-03-16T06:35:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T11:35:26","slug":"home-buying-costs-could-fall-in-big-us-real-estate-group-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2024\/03\/16\/home-buying-costs-could-fall-in-big-us-real-estate-group-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Buying Costs Could Fall in Big US Real Estate Group Settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"VOA \u2014 The National Association of Realtors agreed Friday to resolve antitrust litigation accusing brokerages of inflating sales commissions, a settlement likely to bring major changes and lower costs when Americans buy and sell homes.<\/p>\n

The $418 million settlement calls for the NAR to eliminate decades-old rules on commissions and make it easier for buyers to negotiate fees with their own agents or use no agents at all.<\/p>\n

These changes could spur more home sales by lowering typical commissions by thousands of dollars, a benefit to less-wealthy people and families struggling with inflationary pressures or being priced out of their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

But it may also reduce revenue for traditional real estate brokerages and make employment less lucrative and appealing to the more than 1 million agents the NAR represents.<\/p>\n

The settlement was announced 4\u00bd months after a federal jury in Kansas City, Missouri, ordered the NAR and several brokerages to pay $1.78 billion in an antitrust case covering agents in that state.<\/p>\n

A judge there is considering a request by plaintiffs to triple the damages.<\/p>\n

Several similar lawsuits have been filed around the country.<\/p>\n

Defendants in the litigation have included HomeServices of America, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.<\/p>\n

Anywhere Real Estate, Compass, Douglas Elliman, Keller Williams and Re\/Max are among other brokerages that have been sued.<\/p>\n

Share prices for several brokerages fell, including some by double-digit percentages, after the settlement was announced. Some homebuilders’ shares, including Lennar and Toll Brothers, gained on the news.<\/p>\n

The accord requires court approval. It resolves claims against NAR agents, state and local Realtor groups, and most smaller brokerages. HomeServices is not part of the settlement.<\/p>\n

Reforms ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sellers had objected to the longstanding practice of paying the combined 5% to 6% commissions for their own agents and for buyers’ agents, with their own agents setting fees for both.<\/p>\n

Critics believed sellers should be allowed to list homes on various databases without paying buyers’ agents, with both sides shopping around for the best price.<\/p>\n

They have also said the current setup encouraged agents to steer clients toward homes carrying higher commissions.<\/p>\n

Under the settlement, home listings on the NAR’s Multiple Listing Service would no longer tell buyers’ agents how much they could expect to be paid.<\/p>\n

Buyers’ agents would also have to enter into written agreements with their clients. The changes take effect in mid-July.<\/p>\n

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, which helped broker the settlement on behalf of opponents of the industry’s practices, said sellers using multiple listing services will no longer have to pay buyers’ agents.<\/p>\n

Confusion predicted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone welcomes the changes.<\/p>\n

“It will cause confusion for every buyer, seller, broker and agent,” said Judi Desiderio, chief executive of Town & Country Real Estate in East Hampton, New York, where homes routinely sell for millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Some buyers could end up paying more for homes, Desiderio said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 The National Association of Realtors agreed Friday to resolve antitrust litigation accusing brokerages of inflating sales commissions, a settlement likely to bring major changes and lower costs when Americans buy and sell homes. The $418 million settlement calls for the NAR to eliminate decades-old rules on commissions and make it easier for buyers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117159,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117156\/revisions\/117159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}