NAR Settlement - Seller Side Explained

Have you heard of the National Association of Realtors Lawsuit? If you are buying or selling real estate stay tuned, you’ll want to hear this. It resulted in a class action suit and settlement that arose out of commission disclosure issues which resulted in accusations of anti-competitive behavior within the industry.  

The settlement mandates changes to the buy and sell side of each transaction. Historically, for a seller to have their home advertised in a multiple listing service the seller was required to offer compensation to a Buyer’s Agent. It could be as little as a single dollar but it HAD to be something. The new rule  does not require any compensation from the seller to help the buyer purchase. However, sellers may still offer compensation to assist the buyer’s purchase as traditionally done. Doing so lowers the barrier to entry and attracts more buyers.   

In an effort to further provide transparency, listing contracts have been revised to more clearly identify how the commission fees are being distributed. There is also a change on the buyer side as well that we will touch on next week.