Could New Lawsuit Change How Much You Pay the Realtor?
By Jim Palmer Jr.

Who really has the best interest of consumers in mind? This is the question at the heart of a lawsuit filed against the National Association of Realtors® and several nationally prominent real estate franchises. Is it the group of class-action attorneys who are working for the plaintiffs? Or is it the Realtors® who are ingrained in neighborhoods across the country and whose work is to help people navigate the most complex purchase or sale they’ll likely ever make?

The flawed premise of the lawsuit is that the MLS’s (Multiple Listing Systems) across the country are in essence a monopoly on information and have rules that dictate levels of commission charged to consumers (which, if true would violate anti-trust laws). It further challenges how real estate brokers divide up the commission between buyer and seller, which is the first time the commission structure  has been questioned head-on. They say the split-commission-structure causes confusion when sellers and buyers try to negotiate how much they pay. Because other copycat lawsuits have been added to the list of plaintiffs, there has been a lot of speculation about what the lawsuit may mean for the industry.

But according to NAR, it’s not even a close call, and they plan to keep making that clear in the courts and in the court of public opinion. The facts contradict the premise of the lawsuit! The NAR has filed to dismiss the lawsuit, while countering the misleading and misinformed characterizations of the class action attorney’s. Instead of the MLS being a monopoly of information, they promote a pro-consumer, pro-competitive market for buyers and sellers which provides a more collected volume of available inventories and creates a highly efficient real estate market that fosters cooperation between brokers to the benefit of consumers. Instead of price fixing commission rates, the system promotes competition among brokers who have always negotiated commission rates to the benefit of consumers.

Over 100 years of courts have repeatedly validated this pro-competitive, pro-consumer system that offers the most options for both buyers and sellers and makes home ownership possible when it otherwise would not be for many people. The NAR will continue to defend the rights of home buyers and sellers to allow access to our highly efficient home buying system that allows brokers to serve as critical stewards of the real estate transaction.