The most important step that the industry can take across the board is to make buyer-broker agreements mandatory in every transaction. But more may need to be done depending on the case’s final disposition.
Not quite 48 hours after a Missouri jury awarded home-sellers nearly $1.8 billion in damages in an anti-trust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors over real estate agent commission practices, the association’s chief executive is stepping down.
A Missouri jury handed down a verdict Tuesday afternoon that could upend the residential real estate industry and slap its biggest trade group and several major brokerages with at least $1.8 billion in fines.
A new report by researchers at investment firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is warning that the real estate industry could be upended by a trio of lawsuits over agent commissions, including one involving Massachusetts’ main multiple listings service.
Two of the biggest brokerages in the country will no longer require their agents to be members of the National Association of Realtors following settlements they signed in a pair of lawsuits challenging broker commission and MLS access rules.
A federal judge has given her preliminary approval to a deal that would settle a lawsuit between three local home sellers and the state’s largest multiple listings service, MLS PIN.
