Following a $1.8 billion jury verdict against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several large brokerage firms, one analyst predicted the decision could lead to realtors facing huge cuts on commission fees that might drive them away from the industry altogether.
Now, as the NAR gets set to battle even more lawsuits across the country, a new trade association threatens to kick the highly influential real estate group while its down.
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On Oct. 31, a federal jury in Missouri ordered the NAR and fellow defendants to pay $1.8 billion in damages to the sellers of more than 260,000 homes for conspiring to artificially inflate home-sale commissions. Motions have since been filed by defendants in dispute of the verdict.
Ryan Tomasello, an analyst for investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, published a report in October prior to the landmark ruling, according to the Wall Street Journal. In it, he predicted the result of the lawsuit — and others like it taking place across the country — could lead to a 30% reduction in the $100 billion Americans pay in real-estate commissions each year.
He added this could also drive more than half of the nation’s 1.6 million realtors out of the industry.
“The writing is on the wall,” Tomasello told Yahoo! Finance in an interview following…
