Shocked by the news that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to pay any amount of money on the recent ridiculous judgment incites me to write this opinion.
Yes there are individual Realtors, and individual Brokerages that have defied the rules and ethics of our good Realtor organizations and might be guilty of “price fixing” a criminal offence. I have not seen this in Michigan in the last 25 years. We Realtors have all been educated by NAR, the Michigan Association of Realtors (MAR) and my local Boards of Realtors to absolutely avoid telling anyone that 6% or any other amount is a “Standard Fee”. Rather than pay any amount NAR ought to expel the offenders and to sue those real estate practitioners for any loss that we sustained due to their failure to conform to NAR rules and ethics.
I charge and have charged since at least the year 2000 by the hour, flat fee or a variety of percentage fees. Therefore I will not pay any portion of the fines or consent judgment caused by other Realtors. Don’t increase my dues.
Even more ridiculous is that lawyers who mostly price fix at 33% are suing Realtors who have a wide variety of fees that average between 4% and 7%! The accusation is that Realtors are causing buyers to pay more by such a fee. Well the lawyers are the cause of runaway insurance rates and inflation in that every service and product must price in legal defense fees. These cost are pumped by the standard 33% of win fees by law firms.
The MLS which is under attack in the recent law suit is a benefit to buyers and in many cases saves buyer’s money. This is because there are such a large number of houses on the MLS market that buyers can “shop” and pick the price they are willing to pay by comparison of properties on that MLS. My son is trying to buy a house in United Kingdom (U.K.) which does not have an MLS and the search is frustrated by not having the “marketplace” that our MLS systems supply here in North America.
We Realtors need to fight the judgement, appeal the decisions and find a law firm or civil rights organization which will file suit against the lawyers and judges (grown up lawyers in the same club) who are ruining our country with their 33% commissions. “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Tom Goebel, Realtor Emeritus
