03/18/2024

The Way Americans Buy and Sell Homes is About to Change Significantly

This relates to a recent NAR settlement

The way Americans buy and sell homes is about to get turned on its head.

An earth-shattering, multibillion-dollar antitrust ruling against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) late last year led to a settlement on Friday that will loosen the powerful trade group’s stranglehold on America’s housing market. The $418 million settlement with a group of homebuyers is expected to take effect sometime around July, pending a judge’s approval. It would transform a number of rules and guidelines set by the NAR that critics say have kept housing prices artificially inflated.

The TL;DR: 6 percent commissions, split between the buyer's and seller's brokers, will no longer be the norm. Agent commissions are expected to fall — in some cases, dramatically — because they will be competitive and negotiable, and sellers will be able to shop around for better rates. And other broker tactics that critics say are anticompetitive, such as a rule that made sellers’ agents set compensation for buyers’ agents, will be prohibited.

Please select this link to read the complete article from CNN.