An October jury ruling against the nation’s largest trade organization could have sweeping consequences for anyone looking to buy or sell a home.
The class-action lawsuit – Sitzer v. the National Association of Realtors – alleged that NAR, Keller Williams Realty, Anywhere Real Estate (formerly known as Realogy), RE/MAX and HomeServices of America (all major real estate brokerages), colluded to artificially inflate agent commissions.
“They ultimately agreed that there was a conspiracy among Realtors to keep their fees artificially high,” says Omar Ochoa, a class action attorney and founder of Omar Ochoa Law Firm in Texas.
It’s just the latest hit for the 1.5-million-member group of real estate agents, which has recently faced several lawsuits (including one from the Department of Justice) regarding harassment accusations, executive shuffles and a surge of pullouts from big-name brokerages, like RE/MAX, Century 21, Redfin and more. It also has the power to forever change what it costs to buy and sell real estate.
As Richard Kruse, an agent with Gryphon Realty in Columbus, Ohio, and former member of NAR, puts it, “The fight will go on and an appeal will be filed and drag this out, but eventually agent payments will change.”
