In my post about the likely impact of the commission lawsuits against NAR and four corporations, I mentioned that I had a conflict of interest when it came to the issue of real estate auctions because I had been working on an auction-related initiative for a while. I had kept the initiative relatively quiet because … Read more
[NOTE: This is a VIP post, for subscribers only. However, given the importance of the topic, I’m going to make it open to all for a couple of weeks. Dumbass comments will be deleted since that’s one major benefit of VIP.] As promised, I thought I would recap and summarize my thoughts on what the … Read more
Judge Andrea Wood of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois just granted class certification to the plaintiffs in Moehrl v. NAR, the mega lawsuit dealing with real estate commissions. This apparently sent shockwaves throughout the real estate industry, which puzzles me a bit. But then again, I’ve been following this lawsuit … Read more
So last Friday, the Department of Justice formally filed an appeal of the trial court’s ruling in its fight against NAR with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. This was as obvious and as predictable as the sun rising in the East. I wrote about that in a special public VIP post … Read more
Since I posted my questions (really, more of a “I don’t get it”) about NAR’s victory in the NAR v. US lawsuit, I’ve gotten a few questions from brokerage CEOs and intelligent agents all over. More concerning are the victory laps being taken, and the idea that “The DOJ threat is now gone!” I beg … Read more
[This is a VIP post, but given its importance and the fact that I’d love to hear from antitrust experts outside of the industry, I am opening it up to the public for a while. But hey, if you dig this kind of thing, consider subscribing to VIP.] A while back, when this case was … Read more
About a week ago, the judge in the Burnett v. NAR case (formerly Sitzer v. NAR) handed down his ruling in the motion for summary judgment. It did not go well for the defendants. The Inman story by Andrea Brambila does a good job of covering the highlights, so read that in full. The result … Read more
Had a conversation recently with the CEO of a large MLS who desires anonymity. But who he is is unimportant since the topic is the point. We were talking about the big lawsuits (Sitzer, Moehrl, REX, PLS) and the worst case scenario that could come from them. Specifically, the commission lawsuits of Sitzer and Moehrl … Read more
As longtime readers know, I’ve been talking about the possibility of the 1099 exemption for real estate agents going away for quite a few years now. I first wrote about it in 2014, after raising the issue of real estate agents getting classified as employees at the 2013 T3 Summit, then again in 2015 in … Read more