A federal jury ruled on Tuesday that the powerful National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents, a decision that could radically alter the home-buying process in the United States.
The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. The verdict allows the court to issue treble damages, which means they could swell to more than $5 billion.
Will update with non-paywalled link when one becomes available.
Yup, my wife is a realtor. She works her ass off and in our tourism-driven town, it’s feast or famine. Locally the split is 3/3, though the majority of the houses around here are around half a mil. She is constantly keeping an eye out for properties to show her clients, following up on leads, cold calling, and processing escrows. It certainly isn’t work 2 hours a day and make 6 figures.
There are definitely plenty of agents out there that are dishonest and churners, but not every one is like that. Deals fall out of escrow all the time for trivial shit, be it things come up on home inspections, or finances fall apart. An agent can herd a deal almost to the close of escrow, only to have it fall out for something silly, and then they don’t get paid for any of it. It’s huge to note that agents do not get paid any form of salary, it’s all commission from sales that close. And any good agent will make sure that the house you’re buying is right for you and defend from shady buyers/sellers and their agents on the other side of the deal. Realtors definitely provide a valuable service, though there sure are dodgy ones.