I wrote a purchase contract for a buyer this week. There were 41 pages. Let's add that to the list of hurdles for buyers in 2025. There are several search portals that display home listings publicly and free of charge. But it doesn't make it any easier to find a good...
Commission Lawsuit
Leaving the MLS
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the largest family-owned-and-operated real estate brokerage in the United States with 15,000+ agents and staff in 471 offices. (Compass has 33,000+ agents and 400+ offices). Their owner feels the same way about the Clear...
Buyer-Broker Agreements, 2025
J-Opp owns and runs a brokerage so he has to say buyer-broker agreements are mandatory, but the Coldwell Banker and two Compass agents aren't as committed. I think the buyers will prevail here and not be signing contracts with buyer-agents much until they find a house...
Single Agency
Buyers aren't crazy about signing a three-month contract just to see homes for sale - and neither are the buyer-agents. Every problem with home sales will get solved by cutting out the buyer-agent, even though it's bad for buyers....
NAR Settlement Results
The NAR settlement went into effect on August 17th of last year. How's it working? I heard this story from another agent - it didn't happen to me. A home has been on the market for a couple of weeks, listed for $1,200,000. An offer was received at $1,220,000, and it...
Different Not Negotiable
A reporter from the New York Times accuses realtors of doing work-arounds to the NAR Settlement and steering buyers away from for-sale-by-owners. The 30-minute podcast tells stories about a realtor who started her own website to display the commission rates she was...
Zillow Exclusions
Zillow released a statement over the weekend to clarify their ban on listings. As you can see above, the list of exclusions to their new policy is long and lengthy, and it makes you wonder what's left? Most importantly, what or who is so disruptive outside of this...
Home Seller Tip, 2025
The market is 'slowing' and pretty soon we will all just be standing around wondering what happened. The underlying reason is that the new rules discourage agents from wanting to work with buyers. I just had one where my buyers offered $175,000 over the list price....
Robert Reffkin in San Diego
Robert Reffkin was in San Diego yesterday to talk Compass. He will be visting all the Compass regional offices to assure agents that we are on the right track. We're on the right track. Private Exclusives are permitted in the Clear Cooperation Policy. Nobody disputes...
Sellers: “Full Price or Higher”
They're not going to give it away! Amid growing economic uncertainty, recession fears, and continuing tariff turmoil, there's a glimmer of hope among homeowners who say that they are still feeling very optimistic about getting top dollar for their properties—with many...