If you look at social media at all, you would think the real estate world has come to an end. As usual, those who largely make a living generating clicks as opposed to clients are running crazy with their views on the NAR settlement with the DOJ. The problems come from the fact that many people actually believe what they have read and are panicking themselves and others over things that are NOT set in stone
What you need to focus on is current reality. NOTHING is done until a judge agrees to whatever settlement terms are placed on the table. That said, as of this writing, there isn’t even a firm time for a judge to issue any type of comment, much less approve a deal. The next part of this is that NOTHING about this deal prohibits anyone or anything outside of NAR from operating as they always have.
While I am not an attorney, there are many who are that are offering widely different interpretations of this agreement, and I am just sharing my thoughts from what I have read, and that leads me to say that we may have to add a few disclosures, share some information differently than we currently do; and the possibility does exist that some form of buyer’s agency agreement will need to be executed, the basic structure won’t change all that much.
One thing I want to address is that I disagree that this will lower the cost of housing. In much the same way FSBO deals have proven not to lower the cost of housing, any of these current changes won’t likely do so in any meaningful way, unless more homes are built and available for sale, I don’t see any downward pressure on home prices in the near future, and certainly not as a result of anything I have read in the agreement put forward.
There is much more to unpack here, but it is simple to say, just go out and list and sell homes, do loans for those that you can help, and wait until you see actual documents approved by a judge, the DOJ, and the state in which you work before making any choices. Besides, we can only go with what we know, and there is nothing that has been finalized yet so just keep working
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