“What Realtors® did was an outrage to our morals and our ideals. It was a betrayal of our commitment to fairness and equality. I’m here today, as the President of the National Association of Realtors®, to say that we were wrong,” Oppler said. “We can’t go back to fix the mistakes of the past, but we can look at this problem squarely in the eye. And, on behalf of our industry, we can say that what Realtors® did was shameful, and we are sorry.”
A symbolic, but an inspiring move by the National Association of REALTORS.
Simply put; Without recognition, there can be no reconciliation.
“These NAR rules, policies, and practices have been widely adopted and enforced by NAR-affiliated MLSs, and are, therefore, agreements among competing real estate brokers each of which reduce price competition among brokers and lead to lower quality service for American home buyers and sellers,” the complaint says.
The complaint alleges these “agreements” have a cumulative anticompetitive effect and individually and collectively “unreasonably restrain trade” in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and should therefore be prohibited by an injunction.
The DOJ said that, if approved by the court, its proposed settlement will improve competition in the real estate market, providing consumers with more choices and better service.
Andrea does a great job in the article breaking down the DOJ’s complaints and the settlement provisions. From a high level, I think these are good changes, the more transparency the better. And unlike some of the commenters, I think that this will not push commissions down but force buyer’s agents to step up their game, and start offering a better buying experience with their customers.
Also, bravo for NAR being on top of this. I’m sure that was no small task to arrange these settlements in such a timely manner. People often don’t give credit when credit is due. NAR’s job is to be in the room where it happens and clearly that was the case here.
And like a lot of other vendors I’m pondering how we can make our products and services better serve this new environment.
As an aside, is anyone else wondering why this isn’t more of a national news story? Here’s a screenshot of the real estate section of the New York Times. Nothing.
I had the same thought when the Newsday story broke about the housing discrimination in Long Island. Hell, I thought that was “60 minutes” material.
I guess it’s hard to compete with the chaos surrounding the white house right now. ????♂️
