Housing Wire

JANUARY 28, 2025

property rights are established under state rather than federal law, making the shift to a centralized, national land registration system unworkable without a significant rewrite of private property law. Anyone undertaking this title review must first establish that the seller has ownership of the property.

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Insurance Legal Government Real Estate 418

Housing Wire

APRIL 30, 2024

As the July deadline for the implementation of the business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement approaches, the trade organization is looking to iron out some details about buyer broker agreements.

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Housing Wire

APRIL 1, 2025

On Tuesday, at the preliminary approval hearing for defendant MLS Property Information Networks (MLS PIN) settlement, Judge Saris r efused to grant preliminary approval to the settlement as the plaintiffs and defendants were hoping to expand the class to include commercial property sellers and mobile home sellers.

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Sellers Real Estate Buyers Realtors 287

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.,

Sellers 448

Sellers Brokerage Real Estate Realtors 448

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

This data provides meaningful insight into the true impact of these crimes targeting American homebuyers and sellers, who are already under stress in what is the most challenging housing market in recent history. Many homebuyers and sellers simply dont know that wire fraud is a thing. But hold on, wait a minute.

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Sellers Agents 363

Housing Wire

JANUARY 21, 2025

In its original settlement, MLS PIN agreed to pay $3 million into a settlement fund, as well as business practice changes that include an end to the requirement for mandatory offers of buyer broker compensation in order to list a property on the MLS. Despite Judge Patti B.

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Sellers Buyers Realtors Law 370

Housing Wire

MAY 21, 2024

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs will soon release a circular that “bridges the gap” on an agency law that prohibits a VA buyer from paying their real estate agent compensation, a VA official announced on Tuesday. NAR has also advocated for the VA to change its rule around buyer broker compensation.

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Buyers Agents Real Estate Agent Real Estate 523

Housing Wire

MAY 6, 2024

and the Fair Housing Center of the Greater Palm Beaches , have filed a lawsuit that contends Florida Housing Law Senate Bill 264 violates the federal Fair Housing Act. We alleged that the law denies access to housing to people from China and these other countries. The suit was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami.

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Law Real Estate Real Property Contracts 431

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

As brokerages across the country have begun implementing buyer agency contracts into their business practices in the wake of the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit verdict, the Consumer Federation of America is warning consumers that they may be filled with “unfair provisions” that primarily protect agents and brokers.

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Buyers Contracts Agents Realtors 480

Housing Wire

MARCH 22, 2024

Based on NAR’s settlement, agents working with buyers will need a signed buyer representation agreement starting in mid-July, pending final court approval of the settlement. Bills Clarke said this is exactly how agents already work with sellers, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to implement buyer agreements into a business. “We

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Buyers Contracts Real Estate Agents 497

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The second week of the Sitzer/Burnett class-action buyer broker commission antitrust lawsuit kicked off with a bang. A judgment as a matter of law is permissible if there is no legally sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to find for the nonmoving party (in this instance, the plaintiffs) on the issue.

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Law Agents Realtors Contracts 459

Housing Wire

JULY 1, 2024

In its statement of interest, the DOJ claims that the changes MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) proposed for its commission rule “still gives sellers and their listing brokers a role in setting compensation for buyers’ brokers. … When sellers make such offers, buyer brokers need not compete on price to attract buyers.’”

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Buyers Law Sellers Advertising 431

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

These anti-discrimination statutes make it illegal to refuse to rent, sell or lease housing because of a lawful source of income being provided. An accessible checklist on the FHA website would give home sellers, buyers, housing counselors, real estate agents and others a reliable source of information, according to the report.

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Buyers Real Estate Agent Inspection Real Estate 476

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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Buyers Realtors Real Estate Agents 505

Housing Wire

AUGUST 30, 2024

As a salve, a vocal minority of activists say that “simply” allowing the financing of buyer-agent commissions into mortgages will resolve all concerns. For reasons both practical and legal, buyer-agent commissions are not today explicitly financeable with a mortgage. Under the settlement, sellers can still compensate the buyer’s agent.

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Finance Buyers Agents Insurance 448

Lamacchia Realty

JANUARY 10, 2025

New Massachusetts Law Addresses Home Inspection Waivers: What Buyers and Sellers Should Know A new law passed by the Massachusetts Legislature will soon regulate buyers and sellers options around conducting a home inspection when purchasing a home.

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Inspection Law Sellers Buyers 69

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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Law Agents Brokerage Buyers 435

Housing Wire

AUGUST 29, 2024

Many state Realtor associations’ new forms —such as buyer representation agreements—are largely incomprehensible to the average homebuyer or seller and have language that seeks to avoid the terms of the National Association of Realtors ‘ (NAR) nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement , according to a report released earlier this month.

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Buyers Realtors Agents Sellers 448

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 It won class-action status last year and could result in over $1 billion in damages.

Buyers 459

Buyers Brokerage Agents Sellers 459

Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2023

With real estate inventory at a near-record low, buyers seeking a place to call home are facing stiff competition as bidding wars continue to be commonplace. It is critical that title professionals and our industry partners spread awareness about this type of fraud and educate buyers about the steps they should take to protect themselves.

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Sellers Real Estate Agent Real Estate Insurance 370

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Lease-purchase arrangements are receiving renewed attention from legislators looking for ways to make homeownership more accessible, and theyre a great way to help buyers who cant qualify for a traditional mortgage or pony up the money needed for a down payment. But that doesnt mean there arent risks involved for potential purchasers.

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Landlords Tenants Contracts Law 221

Housing Wire

MARCH 18, 2025

In the article, Ketchmark said that Realtor organizations need to be aware of the fact that not only will our law firm and other attorneys be looking at [CCP], but the eyes of the world are upon them, and its time to do the right thing and let homeowners make decisions about their houses and not a bureaucratic organization.

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Legal Realtors Design Agents 312

Housing Wire

MARCH 31, 2025

“The Court correctly applied the law and properly denied the Gibson plaintiffs motion to intervene and/or transfer,” Bryan Knight, the plaintiffs’ attorney in the Hooper case, said in an email to HousingWire. The cases accuse NAR and brokerages of artificially inflating commissions for buyer agents.

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Brokerage Real Estate Realtors Law 343

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? and relied on salaried agents rather than commission-paid agents, who typically cost sellers 5-6%. One of the researchers, Will Fried, had a hunch.

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Clients Agents Buyers Sellers 459

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2024

A referral estate referral occurs when a licensed agent or broker passes along a prospective buyer or seller to another licensed agent to handle a transaction. The receiving agent becomes the buyer or seller’s primary point of contact and representative, and the referring agent receives a referral fee if a transaction closes.

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Real Estate Real Estate Agent Agents Clients 433

Housing Wire

MAY 26, 2023

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. million, according to NAR.

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Sellers Real Estate Realtors Real Estate Agent 397

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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Legal Law Sellers Real Estate 468

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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Law Real Estate Insurance Legal 435

Housing Wire

AUGUST 22, 2024

Wood, who is overseeing the Batton suits, ruled that the “plaintiff lacks antitrust standing to pursue this claim because he is not an efficient enforcer of the antitrust laws.” “Not home sellers) pursuing the same injunctive relief that Plaintiff seeks here,” the filing states.

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Law Real Estate Agent Real Estate Brokerage 434

Housing Wire

MARCH 19, 2025

At the time of issuing its second CID, the DOJ stated that it believed that the policy restricts home-seller choices and precludes competition from new listing services. Miller believes that agents who push sellers to use private listing networks are not doing their fiduciary duty.

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Realtors Legal Sellers Law 243

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

Buyers 418

Buyers Agents Loan Officers Real Estate 418

Housing Wire

AUGUST 19, 2024

Several real estate groups recently criticized the Consumer Federation of America’s support for uncoupled buyer and seller agent real estate commissions, writing in HousingWire that, “CFA has seemingly lost sight of its core purpose advocating for those most in need of consumer protection.”

Real Estate 459

Real Estate Sellers Buyers Agents 459

Appraisal Buzz

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

Home sellers are no longer liable for paying the realtor costs for both the buyer and the seller as a result of a federal case. Nine percent, or almost one in 10, were completely unaware of the commission laws. Nearly half (45%) are prepared to pay more than $20,000.

Marketing 286

Marketing Real Estate Investing Realtors 286

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Just hours after securing a victory for his home seller clients in the landmark Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, Michael Ketchmark, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, filed another class action antitrust lawsuit against some of the real estate industry’s biggest players, in U.S. District Court for Western Missouri.

Real Estate 448

Real Estate Brokerage Sellers Law 448

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 12, 2023

A home seller plaintiff in California filed an antitrust lawsuit on Friday in U.S. The lawsuit was filed by Christina Grace, who sold a house listed on Bay Area Real Estate Information Services MLS (BAREIS MLS) in April 2020 and paid a commission to the buyer’s agent. “In

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Realtors Sellers Real Estate Buyers 476

Housing Wire

AUGUST 8, 2024

The suit, which is named after its plaintiff Scott Davis, was filed in late May in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Davis by attorneys at Korein Tillery LLC , the same law firm representing the plaintiffs in the Batton suits. All other state law claims must therefore be dismissed.” Illinois, 431 U.S.

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Law Real Estate Realtors Buyers 446

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Thursday, alleging a series of violations of antitrust law, including commission arrangements and consumer disclosure requirements. Home buyers and sellers should be aware of all the broker fees they are paying.

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Real Estate Buyers Realtors Sellers 545