How the National Association of Realtors keeps fees high by keeping buyers ignorant.
In this video, I take a closer look at an integral form in a real estate transaction that is also the only form that isn’t required to be signed by the buyer. I believe this is by design and intended to keep buyers in the dark regarding their Realtor’s commission, so as to prevent any suspicion that the deal didn’t work out due to a seller offering a ‘less-than-standard’ offer of compensation.
It is an anti-trust issue that buyer-agents hold their buyer hostage for a fee they deem fit and impose said fee onto sellers who feel they have no choice but to pay it knowing fully well the buyer will not be told the truth, has no idea what’s going on, and will just assume the deal didn’t work out due to the selling price, not the commission. So long as sellers pay the buyer-agent’s commission, buyer-agents price fix, preventing our ability to arrive at the true, free market value of the buyer-agent. This will continue to be the case until buyer-agent fees are paid solely by their buyer client.
Enter Cohen Milstein, the law firm who filed a class action suite against the National Association of Realtors. They are seeking an injunctive relief per Section 16 of the Clayton Act that would ban sellers from compensating the buyer agent.
