The $418 million settlement by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) of the Sitzer/Burnett case received its final approval in federal court.
The New York Times reported Judge Stephen R. Bough of the Western District of Missouri gave his final sign-off on the settlement, which NAR agreed to on March 15. Today’s final approval was a legal formality, as Judge Bough gave his preliminary approval to the agreement on April 23 and the trade group enacted the settlement’s call for rule changes regarding commissions on Aug. 17.
“This is an important moment for NAR members, home buyers and sellers, and the real estate industry,” said NAR President Kevin Sears, broker-associate of Sears Real Estate/Lamacchia Realty in Springfield, Massachusetts. “As consumer champions, NAR’s members have been working tirelessly to implement the practice changes required by the settlement and shepherd consumers through this period of transition. The principles of transparency, competition and choice are core to the settlement agreement and empower real estate professionals and consumers to negotiate the services and compensation that work for them.”
On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a Statement of Interest on the settlement, declaring that it “does not address whether the proposed settlement prevents and restrains current antitrust violations, remedies past violations, or contains revised policies and practices that comply with the antitrust laws.” However, the DOJ stated that the settlement’s provision requiring written agreements between buyers and brokers prior to home tours “may harm buyers and limit how brokers compete for clients.”
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So the problem is that none of the members of the NAR, the actual real estate agents, realtors, had any input or got to vote on even doing this ridiculously bad settlement! This hurts buyers. This hurts their agents, and it doesn’t accomplish anything, other than perhaps in which a few listing agents. The members of NER feel totally slighted and upset, and are questioning, remaining in this organization of questionable nature.
No one is keeping you here. Go on and go it alone. When the next round of lawsuits come at you there will be no protection without being a member of NAR. If everyone quit the organization there would be no advocates for anything—flood insurance; tax breaks for selling your primary residence, fair housing, etc. If NAR goes away you will be working for a corporate entity selling real estate at an hourly wage—working like a dog for 1/10th of whatever you are making now. When you don’t produce your quota you’ll be fired. It’ll be a little late at that point to realize that “hey…we kinds need NAR to advocate for us”.
I’ve been a REALTOR in my office for 24 yrs….it has become so confusing for buyers/sellers on the paperwork required that I’m not going to stay much longer, many of us are a wealth of infirmation and have always disclosed to our clients all necessary information but these requirements and forms are beyond anything helpful to a buyer or seller and make it unnecessarily confusing….
NAR a worthless parasite. they’re just a drain on our pocketbook and should be disbanded. I have absolutely no use for them anymore… actually I’ve hadn’t had any use for him from the start. they proved once and for all they’re not looking out for the agents that support their lavish lifestyles in the executive department of NAR.
100%
Why is it that this was supposed to be appealed and gone to the Supreme Court. This is all because of two states and a few agents decided to make a mess out of this and in turn the 48 other states that did nothing wrong are being punished. The board of realtors is now automatically implementing fines on listing agents instead of siding the job that are being paid to do, to protect r us agents and advise us along with allowing us to correct er the issue. If you try to opt out of paying the fees to NAR you are not allowed. We should boycott them and tell them to fix it or we will all stop paying our dues.
The settlement hurts both buyers and sellers, not all buyers have the cash to make down payments, the lender’s high closing costs, the pre-payments required and now possibly paying a buyer’s agent commission because sellers are getting the message wrong from the media. It wasn’t about sellers not having options, the plaintiffs could have been FSBO’s or negotiated with competing Realtors for services or commissions. Now agents have to talk about commissions on 1st meetings with buyers before they even get a chance to show their worth. At least 1 part of the agreement that has been a pain for the past 3 months has been brought back and that’s seeing commissions posted again, no more blind conversations with buyers. CompensationQuest.com is building their database across the Country, it’s a membership for real estate professionals, it’s easy to use, quick, legal, only $4.99 a month and the first 3 months are free. The reason why commissions were taken down from MLS’s was because they were mandated to put them on by NAR or the MLS. CQ is a membership, an agent can join or not join, an agent can post commissions or not, it’s not mandated. Just an FYI
“Judge Stephen R. Bough of the Western District of Missouri gave his final sign-off on the settlement…”
Judge Bough is an Obama appointed Judge, and supported by then Sen.Harry Reid.
Know thy enemy—
Got the last time – the worst settlement in the history of real estate -the l p siding verdict is now in second place
NAR dropped the ball. They didn’t take the suit serious. And we are paying for it