23 March 2019

Re: Real Estate > Bombshell Buyer-Side Class ActionLawsuit

Whoa! This looks like a new lawsuit could really shake-up the residential real estate market according to an Opinion piece published by Robert Hahn on March 8, 2019
What the bombshell buyer-side lawsuit means for Realtors
If the court rules in favor of plaintiffs,
> Realtor associations evaporate
> The  Multiple Listing Service MLS  likely dies off
> The entire infrastructure of residential real estate has to be remade
A new era of absolute transparency in NAR listings
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The Metro Phoenix market in on the list of 20 cities - The basic claim is that the MLS rule of unilateral offer of compensation is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
From the Complaint: Defendants’ conspiracy has centered around NAR’s adoption and implementation of a rule that requires all brokers to make a blanket, non-negotiable offer of buyer broker compensation (the “Buyer Broker Commission Rule”) when listing a property on a Multiple Listing Service (“MLS”). 
Did you sell your home within the last five years?” . . . You likely overpaid by thousands of dollars in real-estate broker commission. You could be entitled to reimbursement for price-fixing.”
The lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are aiming at Realtors and their ...
MarketWatch-Mar 19, 2019
A new class-action lawsuit takes aim at real estate agents and the tools they use to do ... adding it to the MLS, marketing it, and showing it to prospective buyers. ... Both Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro have a ...
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Hahn fills in the details and goes on to say and warned this action is distinctive in that plaintiffs' attorneys are heavy-hitters with deep pockets, extensive experience and notable rulings on behalf of plaintiffs.
"What the plaintiffs want here is an end to cooperation and compensation," Hahn wrote. "That destroys the MLS, and if the MLS gets destroyed, it kills the Realtor Associations.
In case you missed it, a class action lawsuit was filed with the United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois (aka, Chicago) on Wednesday, March 6. I think it will likely end up being called Moehrl v. NAR, et. al. It alleges that cooperation and compensation is an anti-trust violation that results in consumer harm and seeks an injunction against forcing homesellers to pay the commissions of the buyer agent.
I know I’m accused of hyperbole by some, but I really don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this case could be a nuclear bomb on the industry . . ."
The six MLSs in the Southwest that cover the following metropolitan areas:
Four in Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio)
Las Vegas, Nevada;
Phoenix, Arizona
The three MLSs in the Mountain West that cover the following metropolitan areas:
Two in Colorado (Colorado Springs and Denver)
Salt Lake City, Utah
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These are some of the largest MLSs in the country with hundreds of thousands of agents and millions of consumers and transactions over the past four years.
The named Defendants thus far are the National Association of Realtors, Realogy, HomeServices of America, RE/MAX and Keller Williams.
The lawyers picked the top four largest real estate brokerages in their Complaint;
Robert Hahn:  "I assume that they will quickly realize that RE/MAX and Keller Williams are not brokerages, but franchise companies, and will either amend the Complaint to include some other large brokerages . . ."
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RELATED CONTENT:
On Forbes: [New York City Market] written by Frederick Peters in  Forbes.com
Paying Your Buyer's Agent: A New Class Action Lawsuit Might Not Bring That Much Change
“Potential damages are estimated at $54 billion,” Walsh said. “The plaintiffs allege collusion, hidden payments and anti-competitive practices designed to maintain real estate commissions at artificially high levels. . . "
 
On Deseret News: Salt Lake City Market written by Art Raymond on March 22,2019 that you can reader in Deseret News
New lawsuit claims Utah realtors part of 'conspiracy' to fleece thousands from clients
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois last week against numerous real estate brokers, including some operating in Utah, as well as the National Association of Realtors, claims the defendants have been "conspiring to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes, and to pay at an inflated amount, in violation of federal antitrust law."
The complaint is seeking to both recover damages, potentially in the tens of billions of dollars, as well as change Realtor rules that the suit says "requires all brokers to make a blanket, non-negotiable offer of buyer broker compensation … when listing a property on a Multiple Listing Service. . . "
The article prominently mentions one Utah-based business: Homie used by a home buyer
instead of selling through a traditional agent, to use Utah-based Homie, which uses a web-based service that charges a flat fee of $1,500 to help owners sell their homes.
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