The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced in a court filing that it plans to ask to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that allowed the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to reopen an investigation into the trade organization that was resolved in a 2020 settlement.
In April, the US Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, ruled the DOJ could reopen its investigation into the trade group’s Participation Rule and Clear Cooperation Policy. In a 2-1 ruling, the court determined the four-year-old settlement did not prohibit the DOJ from reopening its probe into NAR’s policy. The appeals court overturned a district court ruling from January 2023 that determined the terms of an earlier settlement were still valid and allowing the investigation to resume would take away the benefits NAR had negotiated in the original settlement.
NAR plans to file a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court by Oct. 10. NAR’s filing notes also stated the DOJ agreed to “significantly narrow the documents it seeks in response” to its civil investigative demand.
The DOJ did not publicly comment on NAR’s plans.
Good. If the case was settled it should not be reopened. If the DOJ didn’t agree back then they should not have settled. I’m glad NAR is not taking this lying down.
Double Jeopardy applies.
WEE bit late there NAR lol
Just do away with the NAR. Period.
Even if the NAR is “done away with” Biden’s DOJ will still be coming after real estate agents. NAR is a good thing but they got lazy and complacent. Doesn’t help that this president and his DOJ seem to have a hard on for destroying the real estate industry.
Bingo Bo, hit the nail on the head!
DOJ: please stay out of our business! Your inept medaling will just cost the consumer more.
Idiot response. NAR was established to have rules and regulations to protect buyers, sellers, and real estate agents. People who don’t like rules and laws should just move to Trumpland where no one is protected except of cou4se Trump oops that’s the usa😂
You’ve got it backwards jb!
Agree
Well, I would hope the settlement agreement barred all future claims…
Leave it to the government to mess up something that has worked for decades, I very infrequently agreed with Ronald Reagan, but when he said the nine most terrifying words in the English language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, he hit the nail square on the head!!
Justia Opinion Summary
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated an investigation into potentially anti-competitive practices in the real estate industry by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In November 2020, the DOJ and NAR reached a settlement, and the DOJ sent a letter to NAR stating that it had closed its investigation and that NAR was not required to respond to two outstanding investigative subpoenas. However, in July 2021, the DOJ withdrew the proposed consent judgment, reopened its investigation, and issued a new investigative subpoena. NAR petitioned the district court to set aside the subpoena, arguing that its issuance violated a promise made by the DOJ in the 2020 closing letter. The district court granted NAR’s petition, concluding that the new subpoena was barred by a validly executed settlement agreement.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed with the district court’s decision. The court held that the plain language of the disputed 2020 letter permits the DOJ to reopen its investigation. The court noted that the closing of an investigation does not guarantee that the investigation would stay closed forever. The court also pointed out that NAR gained several benefits from the closing of the DOJ’s pending investigation in 2020, including relief from its obligation to respond to the two outstanding subpoenas. Therefore, the court reversed the judgment of the district court.
I don’t think Supreme court will allow DOJ to open the case
We can hope, but I don’t trust the DOJ under the current administration.
All Realtors should banned together and cancel membership with NAR! We don’t need them; they do absolutely nothing for us other than charge us an annual fee.
We need to have all MLS’s be a nonmember of NAR and then, we can start offering a seller agent co-op.
As As Trump would say: NAR you are fired!
How can you say NAR does nothing for us? The advocacy work alone is worth the price of admission. We are the only organization that protects private property rights, fights to allow you to be an independent contractor, and will continue to defend our profession. We are 1.5 million members strong and an organization that I am proud to be a member of.
If NAR was working for realtors, they would have countered the argument that agents collude to set commission prices by simply saying what that agent said was clearly an ethics violation and should have been punished severily by the Cali real estate commission. Commissions are and have always been negotiable. Listing agent lists for 6%, they can decide the split however they wanted. 4&2, 3&3, whatever.
The only thing NAR proved on this was that we have some terrible attorneys and the one time we really needed them to protect our industry, they cowered and blinked.
Listing agents always work for the seller. The seller and the listing agent then agree what the total commission will be and it is not always 6 percent.
Attorneys are always the winner. NAR attorneys have had too much power for far too long in the industry and are more focused on protecting the public than realtors.
Sue, I am with you. NAR does a lot for the Realtor industry. I looked into trying to get out of the trade organizations of both CAR and NAR just to save a little money but when I checked into what a subscription of Winforms would cost, it was nearly $900. That alone makes our paid membership worth it. Besides that, there are endless benefits offered through both. I think that NAR is the largest trade organization in the country, possibly the world and I too am glad to be a part of them. Like they say, there is safety in numbers.
NAR has always been worth the annual dues.
NAR sold us realtors under the bus. The change of mls not posting Buyer Agent commissions opened a can of worms. The Reason sellers paid commissions is because sellers have the money once the property closes. Buyers are scraping together a 20% downpayment plus closing costs & attorneys fees. The system worked for decades. Now realtors don’t see or have a contract with what they get paid or not get paid for working with a Buyer. NAR didn’t represent us.
100% AGREE ALICE. HAVE BEEN A REALTO FOR 20 + YEARS
I have yet to see what the $500 fee per year gets us realtors.
I don’t know where you are working where you don’t have a SIGNED agreement with a BUYER that lays out what you are going to get paid. That is LITERALLY what the newest settlement REQUIRES! if you really don’t see or have a contract that shows the percentage you are getting paid then you are doing it WRONG! This new settlement is not going to change ANYTHING from what we should have been doing all along! So, stop blaming the NAR and start working to present your value so you are worth what you want to get paid.
NAR has its issues, but over all they have done a lot for Realtors. Granted it was more noticeably tangible years ago, particularly before they sold realtor.com. However, in recent years NAR’s lobbying congress enabled Realtors, as independent contractors, to be eligible for the QBI tax deduction as well as for PPP forgivable loans. Those 2 items alone were huge benefits that almost certainly would not have happened if not for the strength of an established association able to immediately jump in on our behalf while the iron was hot. Not only did PPP literally save me from starving when virtually no one was selling their home, PPP alone has more than covered the sum total that I’ve paid in NAR dues over the past 20 years, and QBI is a “bonus” over & above that.
Perfectly put!
This is the final attempt by the current administration to finish off the NAR and accelerate their socialist ways…
🎯🎯🎯
Clearly NAR really has no idea of what the real estate profession is about. They make their 6 digit salaries possibly more not tending to the memberships needs.
Interesting how the shakeup at NAR while the case involving our paychecks was in the courts. Based on consumer protection filings of colusion and price fixing.
And it was about transparency before. Now we have NO transparency. Agreed. NAR is useless.
They need better attorneys and leadership who know ẅhat happens in the trenches.
Exactly. Now there is NO transparency!
I’m not too sure how the lawsuit began with the NAR and the settlement and now this DOJ potential investigation. I am a Realtor in the residential market and a real estate agent in the commercial market. In the commercial market, there’s no MLS/NAR. None. There’s a standard of practice that all commercial agents follow in which the seller offers to pay the commission and the listing agent offers an EVEN-SPLIT. Done. Simple. There’s nothing else.
If the commercial buyer’s agent is not happy with what the listing agent is offering from the seller, then the buyer’s agent proposes his commission in the Letter of Intent. Done. The seller can take it, negotiate it, or accept it. There’s a basic understanding that the seller pays the commission and the listing agent offers an even-split. Everyone is happy. Work moves forward. No discussion about commissions like the NAR is making us do now. I don’t like it.
And, added to the confusion and distrust, are the listing agents who are tipping the commission scale towards them more and giving the buyer’s agent a lot less of a commission. We are starting to see this more while it should be the responsibility of the brokers to guide their agents to understand how to be fair and equitable. The market will push these greedy agents out sooner or later.
Agree on most of your comments except. NAR was forced to make new rules.
Joining the NAR is voluntary. As an Independent Broker you do not have to follow NAR rules unless you belong to a MLS system that requires you to belong to NAR. These are rules not laws.
NAR needs to be shut down period!
I had read that the DOJ was going after the NAR on 4 different points, that there had been an agreed upon settlement and the the NAR did nothing to fulfill their part of the agreement. One of the items was more transparency on what Buyer Brokers get paid – guess what, that figure is disclosed in the closing documents. Personally I think Buyers being required to sign a Buyer Representation Agreement, like we have in Texas, would be a good thing as it should protect the Buyer. Another item of contention was how only Realtors have access to electronic keyboard. I’m not a lawyer and don’t even play one on TV, but I’ve been told by a lawyer that sort of exclusive arrangement between Realtor associations and a third party is known as a tying agreement and is in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the DOJ wanted any licensee to have access via those electronic keyboard. Of course the Realtor associations did nothing to resolve this either. If anyone can give me a good reason for this course of action I would love to hear it.
Well, Sue, I’m with everyone else on this subject. NAR is an embarrassment to all of us. I’d fire every attorney who ‘represented’ us. This new commission mandate – thanks again DOJ for working against honest folk – will lead to the downfall of our industry. Greedy buyers and sellers – that’s most of them – who are looking forward to negotiating commission in an entirely new way – yes, I said ‘new’ way since our commissions have always been negotiable! – will cause numerous REALTORS to leave the profession. Thank God I retired 2 years ago! The Biden administration really screwed this up and we are in line for more of the same if Harris wins.
The Realtors who leave over this probably shouldn’t be in the profession to begin with. Agents who can’t negotiate their own compensation shouldn’t be trusted to negotiate on behalf of home buyers & sellers.
DOJ Attny Garland is in contempt of congress…
He skirted his way out of it and as usual nothing has been done for his criminal acts…
So was it a set up? Sitzer now starting his own business helping buyers, no brokerage involved? Read this… https://www.realestatenews.com/2024/08/29/key-player-in-sitzer-burnett-launches-real-estate-startup