Quote from @Sam McCormack:
Out of curiosity, how many people are familiar with the NAR Lawsuit and what will come of it? What do you take of it?
This is all just curiosity, from a realtor in an area with a lot of investors. Let me know!
In my experience as a realtor, I haven't had a problem yet even though this has been circulating in the news for several months already. The lawsuit settlement does more to *try* to increase transparency than it does to changes what a seller can or can't pay to the buyer's broker. I say try because it also reduces transparency: After the changes, I won't be able to tell my buyer client if a given seller is going to pay the commission on their behalf just by looking at the MLS anymore. It introduces more steps and time to get that information, because you have to go directly from each listing agent, which is problematic is we're trying to work fast to submit an offer within a span of a few hours.
The bigger hurdle for most of the country is getting buyers to sign an exclusive representation agreement to work with a buyer's agent. That's not a problem in the DC area, as we've been using these for 20 years already and are very used to it. They basically state: "BUYER is responsible for making sure their broker gets paid X amount at closing. In most cases the seller pays on their behalf, but in the event they don't, the buyer is obligated to."
Since buyer representation was created in the '90s, the buyer side commissions have essentially been "rolled into" the sales price most of the time. Because of the change in public sentiment after the NAR settlement, this will probably be the case less often going forward. It will become another data point and expense buyers need to consider when planning their offer in each case.
