How much you pay to a real estate agent to buy or sell a home is likely to go down after a victory for consumers in a federal trial in Missouri earlier this week.
A jury in a case against the National Association of Realtors and several large brokerage firms found the parties conspired to keep costs artificially high and awarded $1.8 billion in damages, which could rise to more than $5 billion under antitrust rules.
The industry has long worked under a model of a 5% to 6% commission paid by the seller and split between the seller’s agent and buyer’s agent.
Major change could be in the works in real-estate sales commissions
But this case and another federal lawsuit coming up for trial next year in Illinois could change all of that, eliminating the practice of the seller paying both fees, said Stephen Brobek, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America.
“This jury decision represents a watershed event that’s likely to precipitate changes that increase price competition in the residential real estate markets,” Brobek told USA TODAY.
The changes could eventually save consumers $20 billion to $30 billion in real-estate commissions each year, he said. The Consumer Federation of America has predicted commission rates could decline from 5% to 6% to 3% to 4%.
The jury came back with its verdict in three hours. The National Association of Realtors has said it plans to appeal the decision.
“This is the first time that people have spoken about how they…
