DOJ vs NAR Lawsuit Update 2023 - What REALTORS Must Know to Stay Ahead 

Thanks for the info and insight! Being a Realtor is a dog eat dog world, kill or be killed business....it's amazing how the average person throws agents under the bus saying they make too much money and control prices, etc. Couldn't be farther from the truth. I would love to see the average person make an honest and successful living being a Realtor. Do the math, 4M-5M properties close each year in the U.S. and 1.6M agents. That's right, average of 3-4 sales/year for an agent. For starters, only 13% of Realtors make it to their 5th year statistically. Yep, you heard me right! The BS on HGTV and all the Realtor shows is a pipe dream. Not to mention the long hours on evenings, weekends, holidays, no pension, no benefits, no healthcare, no 401K, no paid days off, no paid vacations, no paid sick days, no paid personal days, lots of expenses, tons of rejection, tons of disappointment, tons of stress, tons of anxiety, lots of unreasonable customers, people swearing at you, cut throat backstabbing agents, incompetent agents, annual continuing education, 60-80 hour work weeks, recessions, high interest rates, etc., to name a few of the challenges. Sure, it's a fairly easy license to obtain, but actually making a living is brutal. Just ask the 87% of the agents that quit within 5 years. And, 20% of the agents sell 80% of the properties. So, I bet against anyone to become a Realtor and make a living as the SOLE income provider for the next 40 years as I have since 1983 with over 1,200 transactions, good luck and you can pay me when you quit within 5 years or less.

Thank you for all the value you offer!

If you are a dues paying member, means if you're a realtor. Realtor's are the only ones that can look at the sales data. They've monopolized sales data.

The issue where I am is that Brokers require minimum percentages and will not allow their agents to accept less. This is the problem. The realtors, often by way of the brokers do NOT show homes with less than 3% buyer agent commission. They intentionally won’t show or mention listings that offer less. They don’t have the buyers best interest in mind, they have their pockets in mind. That’s the problem.

I would love for them to try this business and see how competitive it truly is!

Hey Leigh, I enjoyed your video. I think the point the DOJ has a problem with is the lack of viable options for sellers other than paying 5-6 percent commission and being locked in for three to six months. For example, flat fee business models such as the one I operate, are still very rare. In Florida we make up less than 1% of the market.

Leigh, this was absolutely fabulous! Super easy to understand the issues with NAR & DOJ. Thank you thank you thank you!!

The issue is choice. Currently, if the seller wants full exposure on the MLS, the seller is REQUIRED to offer cooperating compensation. This should be a CHOICE! Let's embrace choice. The rest can be negotiated!

Excellent video.Thank you from Boston, MA

Great information Leigh. We are a very competitive industry. I have had to backspace and retype my thoughts probably 10 times. This whole situation gets me all fired up.

Amazing video with great information for the consumer. Thank you for putting this together.

My close friend Gary Rossinal has recommended I listen to your material. Gosh I'm glad I did! Great stuff Leigh!!

All these people think realtors don’t do much are fooling themselves. There’s a reason 95% fail after 5 years. Go ahead and give it a try i guarantee you won’t sell a single house in an entire year 😂 all in all this lawsuit seems like one big money grab.

Love this!!

Quick question: Is your MLS blocking Realtors from seeing commission data? Our MLS’s here in Florida have recently removed the commission fields from the single-line displays and from the search options. The only way to see the commission amount is one listing at a time. Apparently, Realtors can never see commission amounts in a list format (single-line display) ever again. I’m in a back and forth with NAR and the boards trying to understand the censorship. I think the vast majority of Realtors are not aware commission data has been removed from the MLS. Please try adding a commission column in your MLS and let me know if they are missing.

You are amazing! As a current student, you have calmed me down through all of this. You broke it down in a very educated and classy way. Thank you so much!👌🏾(subscribing now!)😁

So I think that certain sellers are trying to avoid responsibility for disclosures and inspections by reducing the likelihood of buyers having representation. The fees are already often included in the asking price. Sellers inflate the price to cover the cost of the fees, pushing them onto the buyer anyway. What oversight and recourse would there be for that kind of thing? My guess is NONE.

Okay, So I am a Realtor. Sold a house or a few. Full time, do this as a career. I think you explain a lot a good points about buyers agents saying they work for free when they don’t BUT you are blurring that with the MLS and a competitive market. The MLS is not by default good and competitive, because each one is administered by a local association. That local association may be good may be bad. You can’t say that are all good. Where I live to have access to the MLS you must be a member of the local association which requires NAR membership. I imagine a lot of associations are that way. Furthermore part of the litigation out there has to do with compensation on commissions being described as non-negotiable. In short the Buyer Co-Op might be 3% but does a buyer have the right to negotiate that down 2.5% or maybe 1.5%. You say this will all end at some point, I do agree. It is going the way of $0.00 and buyers having to pay their agent or having to go directly to the listing agent, which can be a disaster. Not trying to pick a fight or anything I promise.😊

how ridiculous

Realtors gone greedy and turned into evil. Here is my part two story ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FLPldiOJvAo.html

came here for information, not opinions. Realestate sales are scummy like car sales. we are virtually forced to jump through hoops and big businesses like zillow and red fin are consolidating and making less options for buyers, sellers, and agents. The chances or selling without using a big company like zillow, at market value, is low, that or you have to be willing to wait a really long time and get lucky. I havent looked too deeply into it yet, but im assuming thats what this issue is about, not individual realtors... obviously.

It will be a nation of wholesalers 😂

Cur-fluffier 😂😂😂

NAR time has come and gone. NAR has been totally irrelevant in my 20 years of real estate.

The fact is that NAR lost this case, a very very easy case to win, they let Realtors down, we all need to Quit NAR , and being a "Realtor'' means nothing, and designation that you pay a fee to get, is garbage! that is another topic, however we all need to quit NAR

Sorry but this case will not be decided in the court of public opinion. And, rightfully so.

Delusion on display here, totally missing the whole point of litigation. You, as a buyer, are required to pay your opposing counsel by being required to pay a buyers agent who doesnt represent you. MLS has data yes, but she is obscuring the issue maybe based on panic of the lack of real competition . Real competition is where the commission is negotiated. Thats competition where the consumer has the ability to negotiate a price ( commission) and choose an agent by cost. MLS requiires a 2% offer to the buyers agent otherwise you cant get listed on MLS, Thats specifically uncompetitive. Realize a buyers agent does not really represent a buyer UNLESS the buyer pays in advance and has a contract with the agent, thats a true buyers agent.,Otherwise , realistically a buyers agent only represents themselves, and def does not have the real best interest of the seller in the real sense. Look how she says the system needs to be explained. It doesnt need to be, by explaining, in my opinion, she is saying it needs to be spinned in the agents favor.

This commission fixer is probably on the way to jail right now hilarious

Realtor commissions are too high. The barrier to entry is lower than a fast food worker, yet they earn 10x of an MD.

The DOJ stated that they pulled out of the agreement they made on November 19, 2020 "Because the settlement resolved only some of the department’s concerns with NAR’s rules, this step ensures that the department can continue to enforce the antitrust laws in this important market,” They pulled out on July 1, 2021. I think they are waiting to see what happens with Pending Civil Class-Action anti-trust lawsuits: Moehri - March 2019, certified as a class action April 2023. The trial not set. and Sitzer/Burnett - May 2019, certified as a class action in 2022. Trial Date set for October 16, 2023 (backup date in February 2024). Many accusations exist in these cases, but The Five Basic Claims are... * Inflated Compensation* - Including Broker & Agent Inflates Home Prices
Steering to Listings Offering Higher Commissions - of which Clear Cooperation is claimed to be an enabling factor - if everything must be on MLS, then allegedly agents could filter out those with lower compensation, and not show them to the buyer. * Hampered Buyer Agent Compensation Negotiation - prevents the consumer from negotiating the lowest cost for their transaction & and allows sub-par agents to remain in business. * Unilateral Offers of Compensation Inhibit Competition - Guaranteed shared compensation policies hamper competition as all agents get paid the same regardless of quality or service level. * Clear Cooperation forces properties to be part of the MLS, whether they want to be or not, thereby guaranteeing shared compensation. Those named in the Moehri case with damages that could exceed 40 Billion dollars are : National Association of Realtors, Anywhere Real Estate (Realogy), Compass, Rodeo Realty (Beverly Hills), HomeServices of America (BHHS), Keller Williams Realty, RE/MAX plus many more named as CO-CONSPIRATORS. Many of these organizations will start to settle out of court but the numbers are so big that those who do not settle early will probably still go bankrupt. The NAR is in a particular pickle because of their current counter-suit with the DOJ. Like it or not, our industry is about to change. You may not think that it is fair and the accusations have no merit, but if we do not start talking about what the future looks like for the traditional brokerage model not, we might as well had the keys over to big tech. I suspect Big Tech will have an army of W2 employee agents ready to fill the void.

This is a very bias take on this lawsuit.

PROPERTY SALES THEMSELVES NOT REALTORS, REALTORS CONSPIRING TO CORNER MARKET FIX COMMISSIONS THATS A FACT . CODE OF ETHICS IS CRIMES .

The only thing I can say is to look at the Government pattern. A VA Loan doc describing what a vet Can and Cannot pay for, says "Fees or commissions charged by a real estate agent or broker in connection with a VA loan may not be charged to or paid by the veteran-purchaser. While use of “buyer” brokers is not precluded, veteran-purchasers may not, under any circumstances, be charged a brokerage fee or commission in connection with the services of such individuals. Since information on property available for purchase and financing options is widely available to the public from a variety of sources, VA does not believe that preventing the veteran from paying buyer-broker fees will harm the veteran. " I think the buyers agent is needed. Badly. I think too many REALTORS take advantage of the public, and pushing us back to the days of Agency/Subagency would be tragic. But still, when the VA makes statements like this, I think the govt is misinforming people. Par. c., page 8-10, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/docs/admin26/m26-07/Chapter_8_Borrower_Fees_and_Charges_and_the_VA_Funding_Fee.pdf