The National Association of Realtors has reached a nationwide settlement of claims that the industry conspired to keep agent commissions high, it said Friday, a deal set to usher in the biggest changes to how Americans buy and sell homes in decades.
The $418 million agreement will make it easier for home buyers to negotiate fees with their own agents and could lead more buyers to forgo using agents altogether, which has the potential to drive down commission rates and force hundreds of thousands of agents out of the industry.
NAR agreed to abandon longstanding industry rules that have required most home-sale listings to include an upfront offer telling buyers’ agents how much they will get paid. Under a system in place for a generation, sellers have typically set buyers’ agents fees. Consumer advocates say the arrangement has prevented buyers from negotiating to save money and kept commissions in the U.S. higher than in most of the world.
The changes also require many real-estate agents that work with buyers to sign agreements with their clients about what services they will provide and how much they will be paid.
If fewer buyers use their own agents, that could push some agents out of the industry and lead to a decline in NAR’s membership.
Going forward, sellers can still offer to compensate buyers’ agents, but in most markets they won’t be able to put those offers in the home listing. If buyers don’t want to pay for their agents out of pocket, they could ask for the seller to cover the cost of the buyer’s agent.
Sellers are less likely to agree to that in a hot housing market, however.
.Here are the top political news stories for today.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Do you think the end of mandatory 6% commissions is beneficial for the housing market, or could it negatively impact the quality of services provided by real estate agents?
@9KWVTMV2yrs2Y
in all honesty im not reading that
@9KX2T2H2yrs2Y
Realtors getting six percent was always ludicrous, this should lower housing prices.
@9KX4HM7Republican2yrs2Y
I think that the accuracy shold increase in the housing markets so I would agree for what it says.
@9KX4BTM2yrs2Y
I think real estate is an important market and should be protected
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Considering sellers may no longer pay for the buyer's agent fees, do you believe this shift will ultimately make the home buying process more or less accessible for the average person?
We need to find a way to make it easier for Americans to buy houses because only some can barely afford to rent.
@9KWWFH9Republican2yrs2Y
I feel like this will make it more acessible for the average person because that's more money they can put towards their house.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
What are your thoughts on the potential decrease in real estate agents due to lower commission rates—do you see it as a necessary change or a loss of professional support for buyers and sellers?
@9KWZBN72yrs2Y
This is probably a necessary change, too many people doing the same thing lead to lower success for everyone.
I think that since there is less real estate agents, it may be harder to buy a house, but prices may stay the same because, I know that there is no shortage of homes. So, the process may be harder, but that's about it.
@9KWWJSN2yrs2Y
They should have more commissions for what they do for their job.
Good. Realtors are pretty much useless. Just make digital access to the mls and informational videos available on a website so home owners can educate and do the work themselves.
I completely agree, it would be cheaper to hire an attorney to handle my paperwork than to pay my realtor 30 grand commission for sending me a few docusign papers and recommending me a home inspector, lmao52461.3K
A 25-30 yr old buying their first home doesn't know how to navigate this. You can easily get screwed over. I bought a house, the seller claimed the roof was only 2 years old. Got hail damage 2 years after buying. Thankfully a family member was a roofer and looked at it and said this is at minimum a 15 year old roof. So I went back to my realtor and said they lied about the roof. So the realtor went to bat for me and forced seller to replace the roof or report them lying on the documents.
This has nothing to do with a realtor, a person buying a home should do their due diligence. Same as if you were buying a used car. Get a third party inspection instead.
an inspector only tells you what needs to be replaced or repaired. they aren't looking at the seller disclosure and making sure its truthful.
A home inspector inspects a home. If the seller told you the roof is 2 years old, a home inspector can tell you whether or not that seems to be true. You might have to connect the dots yourself, but the info is there
Oh man this is gonna cause a riot
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Ok sure. But they also negotiate on your behalf and ensure parts of the sale that most people wouldn’t. Not using one is like saying you’ll beat the stock market without any experience. A good one is worth the money.
Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion
Loading data...
Join in on more popular conversations.
