I kind of grasp the concept that people aren’t forced to pay commissions, but that’s really it. I don’t understand how/why this is so great.
[Link](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/realestate/national-association-realtors-commission-settlement.html)
In: Economics
Realtors traditionally make their money on commission — a certain percent of the sale price gets taken off and, instead of going to the people selling the house, it goes to the realtor. That commission would then get sliced up in between the realtor representing the seller, the realtor representing the buyer, and their respective agencies/companies. The standard commission for many years was 6% — so, if I sell you a $100,000 house, then $6,000 of that money goes to our realtors.
There was recently a lawsuit over this based on antitrust laws. Basically, the antitrust laws here in the US say that very powerful players in the market cannot unfairly rig the prices using their dominant position in the market. In this case, the accusation was that the members of the National Association of Realtors were rigging prices by imposing this 6% commission on everyone. They’ve settled the lawsuit by agreeing to end the fixed 6% commission.
Exactly what that means for the future is uncertain. People will **still** pay for realtors in some form — you can be sure of that — but the 6% is no longer standard, so as a first step, it is likely that some companies will offer lower commission rates in hopes of getting more customers, and so the commission rate will come down below 6%.
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