Austin-based real estate groups react after National Association of Realtors axes commissions

[@bitcoinconstitutionalist9252]

This is a much-needed change. In more than 30 years of buying properties, I have NEVER had a single case where the agent made the process either smoother or cheaper. They have become the Used Car Dealers of the real estate world.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

There are definitely bad people in every profession; however, I know many professional real estate agents who constantly deliver extraordinary experiences for their customers. I for one have always said we need more rigid requirements to get a real estate license.

[@hoppingrabbit9849]

They didn’t decide to, they were forced to stop price fixing 😂

[@kevinmacomber1336]

This is EXACTLY the issue that KVUE does not even mention. The entire industry violated Anti-Trust laws.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

To be fair, they never price-fixed anything. Commissions are and have always been negotiable.

[@kevinmacomber1336]

@@kevinjohnsoncoaching except for the fact that agents would purposefully avoid showing a home with a lower commission and they tell that to customers nudging them to a higher commission. As well real estate schools taught new agents 'how' to say things so they wouldn't get hit with price fixing.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

@@kevinmacomber1336 while I am sure that happened, there is no evidence to support that it occurred in any statistically significant way. Every profession has its bad apples. As for the school teaching you how to circumvent price fixing, I hope you did the ethical thing and turned them into your state board.

[@joeb1219]

the evidence is they lost an anti-trust suit. and changed their rules to avoid cascading lawsuits@@kevinjohnsoncoaching

[@marykathrynclay7165]

It's videos like this that are SO misleading - Real Estate commissions have ALWAYS been negotiable. Nobody is saying6% is going away - it was NEVER a standard 5 or 6, etc as it's ALWAYS been negotiable. I wish the media could get their facts straight. The only thing changing is the commission % cannot be displayed in the MLS. If sellers don't offer a buyers agent commission more than likely it will take a long time to get house sold. Majority of buyers do NOT have extra $ to cover commission to Realtor - they already have their downpayment and closing costs they have to cover.

[@michaelp675]

"If sellers don't offer a buyers agent commission more than likely it will take a long time to get house sold" WHICH IS VIOLATION OF THE CODE OF ETHICS and a violation of a Buyer's Agreement. Lawyers are already sharpening their pencils for that. A buyer and her agent have to agree on the price the buyer will pay that agent prior to any showing and they cannot get more from the seller than what that agreement states.

[@tyrehester5550]

“ commissions have always been negotiable” … this is a total lie. 😮 I moved in 2016, every agent blamed their broker for the fee being set at 7% anything less and listing my home was out of the question. RE fees are fixed and not negotiable.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

As a real estate broker, I can tell you that they are absolutely negotiable. That said, an individual brokerage or agent can set the minimum fee they will charge for their services; there is nothing wrong with that. Like with any profession, there are varying degrees of competence and experience among the practitioners. The same is true in real estate. I'd also add that the only proposed change to the commission model in the settlement is that the cooperating compensation a listing broker offers to a buyer's agent will not be able to be listed in the MLS. If approved by the court, the settlement does not change the commission model.

[@Uwolz]

My agent said the exact same thing.

[@easylivingaustin512]

That is incorrect, no one is "doing away with 6%" commission. A listing agent can still charge whatever they want to charge, so they can still charge 6%. In fact, we can still offer to split our commission with a buyers agent, that is not banned either. As fas as this settlement goes, the only explicit change is that we can no longer list the cooperative split on the MLS... Ok? Well that's not exactly changing the nature of the transaction at all then. A listing agent can, and likely will, still negotiate a high enough listing commission to have room to pay a buyers agent and then you'll just have to do a broker to broker agreement thst details the split. I feel like the attorneys who "won" this are trying to pitch this to the media as some huge victory just long enough for the public to think they actually got something out of this while they sneak off with the absurd 40% commission they're making from the litigation.

[@michaelp675]

Perhaps. However, come August 17th, a seller can tell an agent that 3% is the fee and nothing goes to the buyer's agent. The buyer has to sign an agreement with THEIR agent and agree on what they will pay THEIR agent. And because of this, buyer's agents are going to call listing agents asking what compensation is offered and thats when you can throw the Code of Ethics out the window. This whole notion that a seller should pay an agent who is working against his best interest is absurd as is the notion that an agent's fee be based on a percentage. To think that an person's pay changes based on how much a house is sold for without any difference in work exists in no other indeustry.

[@brockjennings]

I'd like to see agents compensated on a flat hourly rate when they are specifically working on a client's sale or purchase of a property instead of a negotated percentage.

[@elric40]

Fees were not negotiable in the real world, only on paper.

[@seanm3226]

“...only on paper”? That paper is a legal document. Real estate agent commissions have ALWAYS been negotiable.

[@peterbedford2610]

I've negotiated agent commissions many time. Even used my own contract a few times.

[@Omikoshi78]

@@peterbedford2610it only worked on small fraction of properties before. Now it’ll be possible for all properties. Huge difference.

[@ellisback6519]

you are clueless

[@jkpeng]

​@@seanm3226not for the buyer agent for fear of losing buyers. Then it's only fair to also pay the listing agent the same. Result is only negotiable on paper.

[@timothyworkman1275]

This is a total sham. And will not save people money, the only people that made money on this is the lawyers

[@paranoidhumanoid]

There's a contingent of realtors on social media that are claiming the commission was "always" negotiable but we all know that was _never_ the case. No one needs a realtor to sell a house and if you choose to use one, the commission should be a flat fee of a few hundred dollars.

[@globalfamily8172]

An agent or a broker?

[@motorsport2k]

A few hundred dollars? For a buying agent that negotiates your closing cost 10%-15%...lol enjoy that illusionary saving of 3%...while you lose the other 10-15% you would have saved on closing cost. The seller agent has zero incentive to negotiate price...they want max money since now they get the full commision without a buyer agent to fight for you. People are so gullible thinking this helps home buyers. The government is not your friend. The only effect this is going to have is higher house prices because the selling agents have to fund buyers themselves without buying agents bringing clients. You are going to have houses sitting for sale for months rather than weeks and lose time and money while the govt buys up every single house and keeps America renting forever. You own nothing...this is how they keep the rich at the top, and the rest of us working forever

[@kevinmacomber1336]

This is solely about the real estate colluding and violating anti-trust laws for 'decades.' Hands down this will break the back of price fixing and it should all move online anyhow.

[@texasnative]

For all of you “buyers” who waste agent’s time looking at houses and never buying…get ready to pay $100 per showing or more. Nothing is free in this world.

[@angle5520]

No one will pay $100 to look at a house.

[@luisbosch3283]

Buyers Agents will go away eventually, since the buyers have not loyalty at all, also in France they not uses buyers agency, commissions will go down.

[@Uwolz]

People will just wait for an open house.

[@jackwilson3121]

It will make it harder for 1st time buyers to buy homes.

[@ebutuoy5088]

And finally fairness for home sellers

[@DianaPolo_Realtor]

@@Eileen49654 you could have hired a flat fee broker to put your house in MLS for a few hundred of dollars. You could have used Redfin that has a discount commission. No one forced anyone and you paid a buyer agent to bring you a buyer which the buyer agent did and handled the buyer side so the buyer could close on the house so you get it sold.

[@ericwebster4513]

I always negotiated commission with my sellers, usually only charging 2%.

[@Omikoshi78]

Only worked on small fraction of properties and sellers before. What you’re saying is akin to saying malignant brain cancer was always curable when only 1% survived.

[@MrWaterbugdesign]

Who will be the first buyer agents to us tech to reduce cost so they can just represent the buyer in places where needed so cost can be reduced and get more buyers?

[@Omikoshi78]

$50 per showing fixed fee is probably their sweet spot. Otherwise Redfin and Zillow will automate their job out of existence.

[@century21edge]

The reporting in this news story is factually incorrect. There has never been a standard commission set by NAR or any other organization. Sellers have ALWAYS been able to negotiate commissions. NAR only agreed to no longer allow buyer's agent compensation to be listed in the MLS.

[@seanm3226]

Absolutely correct. A non-story. Agents commissions have ALWAYS been negotiable.

[@edh2246]

Except most never knew that. Realtors have always told “clients” what the fee was.

[@Omikoshi78]

Stop freaking out then. 😂

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

@@edh2246 I can't speak for all agents; however, having brokered a few thousand deals, I can tell you that 100% of the time the seller has negotiated the fee the agent charged for their professional services.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

@@Omikoshi78 I am not freaking out by any stretch of the imagination. I do, however, take issue with a "professional" news outlet going to air with a story in which the anchor and reporter make factually incorrect statements that mislead viewers.

[@mikedennis8213]

Wow. So many people commenting have no idea what they're talking about

[@hologramhouse729]

❤😂.... goodbye pretentious realtors!

[@tedjones2171]

No where in the changes does it say anything about doing away with 6% commissions. It just makes it so the listing agent can’t use the mls system to communicate a commission split on the 6% meaning the listing agent gets the 6% and the buyer agent gets paid out of pocket by buyers.

[@easylivingaustin512]

Well, no, it means the listing agent gets the 6% and then does a broker to broker agreement contract offering to split it with the buyers agent since the settlement doesn't actually bar us from doing that. It literally only bars us from advertising it.

[@julienrockingham-ip4co]

I don't care they wouldn't sell me a house anyway

[@wolfthornhawkridge5705]

Always leaving the laundry detergent on the playground.

[@randrewp]

That's already how it is, at least in Massachusetts. There is no standard commission. I've negotiated commission structures that take into account how long it will take to sell, for example.

[@Uwolz]

Agents in the comment section keep deflecting the lawsuit stated the intentional lack of transparency of commissions being negotiable was the issue on top of the collusion between buyers and seller agents far as commission on listings.

[@ocampbell1954]

How will they pay for their Teslas? 😅

[@Dave-zl2ky]

Fees were always negotiable.

[@samrei6223]

They did such a poor job of explaining this.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

@@samrei6223@samrei6223 To be fair, it's in the listing contract. We've never had a seller not try to negotiate.

[@marktweet7395]

Buyers agents don’t do much. The internet destroyed them. This is BS. Get a lawyer to represent the buyer

[@noahc6246]

Commissions will just change to fees

[@DianaPolo_Realtor]

Guys, you are the news. You should have done the research and knew the commissions were always negotiable. What do you mean "now they can negotiate?" They were always negotiable. More than that, there are many options like discount brokerages and flat fee brokerages. It has nothing to do with lowering the commissions. It's about decoupling which means sellers will pay the listing agent and buyers will pay the buyer agent. This means we are going back to times when buyers were not represented. Only sellers were represented and because it caused lots of bad situations for buyers, a buyer agent role was introduced to protect the buyer's interest, the buying public. That's all.

[@User_91hsj]

Well said! I think what you said is exactly what will happen. Agents commissions were already negotiable. Now the buyer will have to go in unrepresented. Imagine all the fine details they will miss.

[@marymcgovern3462]

How will buyers not be represented? Not following

[@Omikoshi78]

Your job will be automated away or be ready to work for a fixed fee of $50 per showing.

[@houseoffolly]

Because they won't want to pay 3%, , $10-20K to have an agent spend a few hours to research and show them a few properties , then spend another few hours doing the paperwork and recommending property inspectors and lenders that they most likely get kickbacks from. I doubt they'll even want to pay 1% for that. @@marymcgovern3462

[@DianaPolo_Realtor]

@@marymcgovern3462 based on everything what is going on, sellers will be paying their agent professional fee and buyers will be paying their agent fee. Buyers might not have the money to pay an agent (buyers need to pay an option fee, earnest money, the downpayment, inspection, closing costs, etc) or might want to save the money and will go directly to the listing agent without anyone representing them as buyers.

[@vanceclark7275]

Real estate agents do nothing.

[@droolalot5795]

Agents are useless, we have internet

[@LeonBrown1973]

That is why I have my clients represent themselves and I charge them a consulting fee

[@globalfamily8172]

What does he mean by "elevate their service"?

[@Brian.Martin]

Abought time homes are 10x what they should be !! 7k enough to sell a home not 75k

[@gomerhanger2285]

They’ll be fine 😊

[@Omikoshi78]

Rice and beans will be their new favorite food

[@angle5520]

Hopefully this will slow down the frenzy and greed.

[@user-uo4rf4ez8c]

The Fed Reserve is doing this job!

[@droolalot5795]

Let the market decide

[@ImMeandYouAreYou6942]

It’s always been this way. Sellers have always had the opportunity to negotiate realtor fees.

[@anamorris485]

6 percent of 1M is $60,000 which could be someone's annual salary.

[@kevinjohnsoncoaching]

Only half of that would typically go to the listing agent. Take 1/3 away for taxes, then there are the expenses for staging, media, marketing materials, etc, which, for a $1M property, could easily top $2k. That's not to mention the other business expenses like business insurance, auto expenses, time, etc.

[@darrellmcever340]

Realtor fees have been negotiable for years

[@Omikoshi78]

Yet you’re here freaking out 😂

[@DakotaFord592]

❤❤

[@FkBdn]

A real estate attorney for flat fee $3-5k and both sides protected