One year after the National Association of Realtors agreed, as part of a legal settlement, to change a key rule on real estate commissions — a rule that had long upheld a tradition of commissions between 5 and 6 percent, little has changed. What was hailed as a...
Hat tip to Carl Streicher, mortgage broker, for sending over this handy chart on allowable concessions, also known as seller contributions. This is how the buyer-agent commission can be included as a part buyer's mortgage package, even if the seller didn't sign the...
This business used to be civil. It was probably obvious that the contracts were drawn up by the realtor attorneys to protect realtors, but there were adequate protections for buyers and sellers too. This commission lawsuit has changed everything, and now they only...
There will be fewer agents, which is a good thing. There are 20,000+ realtors in San Diego County, and last month there were 2,113 sales of attached and detached homes. Hat tip to Greg for sending in this article! When real estate broker April Strickland looks at her...
The conspiring events - softer market, fewer and less-experienced agents, and lower commissions - are all leading us to the same place: The destruction of the traditional model of residential real estate sales will be triumphed by the unknowing, but it will be the...
Every realtor-related entity is scrambling right now to train agents how to get their buyers to agree to a contractual relationship where the buyer pays the buyer-agent commission. It would all be well and good - and be similar to the listing agreement we have with...
It's been obvious that the entire real-estate-selling business has been deteriorating towards single agency. I see it every day on the street, and I've posted evidence of the shift regularly. The trend is moving quickly now on multiple fronts. The DOJ is going to...
The commission lawsuits and action by the DOJ will cause buyers to wonder if they need to pay for representation, and what do they get if they do. It will also be a function of how much it costs. If the service was free, everyone would do it. It's been like that in...
These Palo Alto guys have been making national headlines since they rolled out their reduced-commission program last week. They are offering a $10,000 fee to buyer-agents, instead of a percentage, AND encouraging buyers to come directly to the listing agent to avoid...
Yesterday, we attended Gov's annual update on new laws and forms for 2024. He touched on many topics - including that landlords in California might be agreeing to tenants for life because it's so hard legally to get rid of them - but the most interesting was his...
