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.
Aren’t they usually around 6% total commission, split between the selling and purchasing agent? Unless you bought a house that’s north of a million, that’s a bit much.
In many places of the US, the average selling price is $1M+.
It sure is here.
I'll say that the real estate agent business isn't exactly like a normal job. You work for hours, then the client can pull out etc, and you get nothing. Particularly on the buying side when potential buyers can just give up.
But in today's market, those standards percentages are fucking massive because of housing inflation.
So, it's definitely broken right now. But it's also a volatile profession that is subject to high highs and low lows.
Sounds like the solution to me is that we should stop commodifying housing
I live in the SF Bay area, most houses are easily $1.5m